Alcoholics Anonymous Reviews

Abbey sits on a bench and rests her head on her knees at 2 a.m. after a Saturday night downing shots of whisky in Manchester, northwest England.

"I love that I can go out and get as hammered as I want," the 23-year-old slurs.

Across the road, some of the 50,000 revelers who flock to Manchester's bars every Saturday spill into the streets of what medical researchers say is Britain's capital of excessive drinking. A man spits at the police, who pin him down and drag him off. Two girls console a friend vomiting on the pavement.

Young people like Abbey have the U.K. government concerned. Health authorities say drinkers are getting younger and that British women are abusing alcohol in record numbers. The partying habit transcends wealth and class. Tabloid newspapers have featured pictures of Princes Harry and William rolling out of London nightclubs in the early hours.

The country's love affair with booze costs the National Health Service about 1.7 billion pounds ($3.5 billion) a year, and drinking-related crimes add 12 billion pounds to the bill for the party, according to a government report. As the Christmas party season begins, Prime Minister Gordon Brown is considering restricting late-night alcohol sales and rolling back licensing changes that allow 24-hour pubs.

24-Hour Licenses

Two years ago, former Prime Minister Tony Blair extended liquor sales hours to introduce a relaxed, cafe-style drinking culture and curb closing-time binging. Instead, critics say it has encouraged longer drinking sessions.

There are about 5,100 premises with 24-hour licenses in England and Wales, government figures show.

"Unless we turn the tide to alter drinking we are going to have enormous damages to the health of the nation," says Ian Gilmore, president of the London-based Royal College of Physicians, which is dedicated to improving medical standards.

Manchester is England's binge-drinking hotspot, with 8.8 percent of residents over 16 drinking more than double government- advised amounts, according to the Liverpool-based North West Public Health Observatory. There are an estimated 6 million adult binge-drinkers in the U.K.

The NHS defines binge drinking as eight or more units of alcohol in one session for a man and more than six units for a woman. A unit is about half a pint of beer, a shot of spirits or a small glass of wine.

'Madchester'

In the 1980's, Manchester's music scene produced bands such as New Order, The Happy Mondays and The Smiths, with the Hacienda Club serving as its unofficial headquarters. By the 1990's, the city's reputation led to the nickname "Madchester," and the period was portrayed in the 2002 film "24 Hour Party People."

Nationwide, 70 percent of hospital admissions between midnight and 5 a.m. are alcohol-related, and drinking plays a role in as many as 17 million lost working days each year, according to the government's most recent statistics on the costs of alcohol abuse.

Earlier this year, the first U.K. survey of children's alcohol use found that one in 20 youngsters aged 10-11, and more than a third of teenagers aged 14-15, said they had been drunk more than once in the previous month. The poll of 111,000 children was conducted from April through June by the government Office for Standards in Education, known as Ofsted.

Winehouse, Moss

Rising incomes and stable taxes on drinks have made alcohol 65 percent more affordable than it was 20 years ago, Alcohol Concern, a London-based charity said in a November report.

"Alcohol's cheap, and getting drunk is being publicly lauded as something which celebrities like Amy Winehouse and Kate Moss do," says Don Shenker, the group's policy director.

In November, the British Medical Journal said three women had been hospitalized in recent months with ruptured bladders, a condition previously seen only in alcohol-abusing men.

"Women have now caught up with men in their alcohol consumption, with 86 percent of women compared with 91 percent of men consuming alcohol regularly," the journal reported.

The Alcohol Health Alliance U.K., made up of 24 medical institutions, is pressing for higher taxes on alcohol. The government has also stepped up public service announcements on the dangers of drinking in time for the holidays.

"Alcohol education's a complete and utter waste of time and money," says Martin Plant, professor of addiction studies at the University of the West of England in Bristol.

Tax Debate

While higher taxes may cut consumption, the lobbying power of the alcohol industry makes it difficult for the government to increase levies, Plant says. Alcohol taxes raise about 7 billion pounds a year.

"There is problem drinking in the U.K.," Jeremy Beadles, chief executive of the Wine & Spirit Trade Association, said at a briefing with journalists and politicians in London yesterday. "We don't think tax is the right way of solving it." His group represents 321 drink makers and sellers, from distiller Diageo Plc to retailer Marks & Spencer Group Plc.

For now, the U.K. treasury is noncommittal.

"It's not clear increasing tax on its own would have the targeted impact," says Treasury spokesman John Battersby.

As the bars in Manchester empty on a Saturday night, a handful of "hen party" attendees hit the street. The bachelorettes -- sporting the nametags Miss Precious, Miss Dynamite, and Miss Flirtatious -- zigzag along, dressed in hot pants and pink bunny ears.

"It's escapism," Abbey says from her roadside bench.

Bloomberg