'One in five' teens drink-drives

One in five teenagers has driven while under the influence of alcohol while one in 14 has driven after taking drugs, a survey suggests.

And nearly a third of the 3,118 17 to 18-year-olds asked had been in a car when the driver was drunk or on drugs.

Charity Brake, which carried out the research with Co-operative Insurance (CIS), said ministers needed to act.

It says the results add weight to calls for licences to be passed in stages and a zero alcohol limit for new drivers.

'Deadly combination'

The road safety charity has urged young drivers to "never drink or take drugs and drive".

It also wants to see lower drink drive limit for all drivers, from the current 80mg per 100ml of blood to 50mg per 100ml of blood - in line with EU recommendations - or even to 20mg per 100ml of blood, with a zero alcohol limit for novice drivers.

Jools Townsend, head of education at Brake, said: "Every day young drivers kill and seriously injure themselves and others through a deadly combination of inexperience and taking risks like drink and drug driving."

She added: "Decisive government action to tackle young driver crashes is long overdue.

"We are demanding that the government moves forward with an overhaul of driver training and testing, and introduces graduated driver licensing, which has been highly effective in cutting casualties in other countries.

"We also need compulsory road safety education in schools and much greater investment in traffic policing, to show that driving that threatens lives will not be tolerated."

David Neave, CIS director of general insurance, said too many young drivers were "risking their lives and the lives of others" by driving under the influence of drink or drugs.

Alcohol ban

Last month the Commons transport committee recommended raising the minimum driving age from 17 to 18 to stop young people "killing themselves and others",

The MPs also wanted learner drivers to spread lessons over a year before taking their test and a complete alcohol ban for new drivers.

Novice drivers should be banned from carrying passengers aged between 10 and 20 late at night, their report added.

Government figures show that on average more than three people aged 17 or 18 are killed or badly injured in car crashes every day.

BBC News

Late-night bars face police costs

Additional charges on late-opening bars and clubs are being considered by the Scottish Executive.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said the charges would help pay for additional policing in areas where late drinking causes anti-social behaviour.

The proposals have been criticised by licensed trade industry leaders.

The forthcoming Licensing Bill aims to tackle Scotland's alcohol problems and Mr MacAskill has said effective enforcement is key to its success.

Speaking at an Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (Acpos) seminar on licensing, Mr MacAskill said he would outline the ways the government plans to achieve effective enforcement.

He stressed the important role the police will play, saying they would be working with licensing officers and boards to make the act work, help to clamp down on underage sales, irresponsible promotions and third-party purchasing of alcohol for young people.

Mr MacAskill said: "Alcohol misuse is causing too much harm to Scottish people and communities.

"It's destroying health, fuelling anti-social behaviour and causing crime - that's why we need to take action to make our communities safer today and make our nation healthier in the future. The Licensing Act is a big step in the right direction."

The justice secretary suggested to senior police officers the idea of charging an additional fee to late-licensed premises to help pay for additional policing, and asked for their views.

'Polluter pays'

This would be applied in areas where alcohol-fuelled anti-social behaviour is a problem, such as city centres.

Mr MacAskill said the charge would operate on the principle that the "polluter pays".

He said: "The effects of alcohol on our city and town centres is not cost free and those who profit from it must contribute to addressing it.

"It's not right that taxpayers pick up the whole of the bill, licensees should pay their way too."

Mr MacAskill added that the proposal raised several practical questions, such as the level of charges.

He said: "I want to hear views on this and that's why I've included it in the consultation on fee levels. I will be discussing the proposal further with senior police officers and carefully considering responses to the consultation before announcing our plan on fees later in the autumn."

Colin Wilkinson, secretary of the Scottish Licensed Traders Association, said pub and club owners were already paying for policing through alcohol duty and commercial rates.

He added: "Again it seems to be the pubs and clubs that are being targeted. It would appear that we are to be responsible for what happens on the streets.

"In our view we are already paying for this service."

A spokesman for Scottish Labour said they welcomed Mr MacAskill's announcement, which they said had been their idea in the first place.

The move was attacked by the Lib Dem MSP Robert Brown, who said it was "unfair if not unworkable in practice."

Mr Brown added: "Bad licensees should be closed down if they take an irresponsible attitude and allow drunken behaviour stemming from their premises.

"Binge drinking and drunken behaviour is a problem whether it is 3am in the morning or at some other time."

The Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 received royal assent in December 2005 and is aimed at simplifying and reforming current legislation which dates back to the 1970s.

The Scottish government is in the process of implementing the act through various regulations and its current consultation on fees ends on 17 September.

Further measures to deal with the problem of underage drinking are likely to be announced next week.

BBC News

Drinking Often Spurs Move to Poorer Neighborhoods

While alcoholism and living in a downscale neighborhood often go together, a new study finds that it is the problem drinking that usually comes first.

"The more alcohol problems a man has, the more likely he is going to remain in, or migrate into, a disadvantaged neighborhood," according to a team of University of Michigan researchers. They report their findings in the September issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

"It can be kind of bleak when you look at it, but we know that alcoholics are prone to a whole range of negative consequences," added Ryan Trim, a research psychologist at the VA San Diego Health Care System who's familiar with the findings.

Experts have looked at the connections between neighborhoods and alcohol use in the past, but they've tended to focus on how bad neighborhoods might help produce alcoholism, Trim said.

He said the new study is unusual, because it looks at the link from the other direction: whether alcohol use makes people more likely to migrate to worse areas.

In the study, the University of Michigan team looked at a sample of 206 white men -- average age 33 -- from a four-county area. The region was not disclosed.

Some of the participants were recruited through court records about drunk-driving arrests, and researchers considered them to be either "probable" or "definite" alcoholics. For comparison purposes, the other men in the study were not alcoholics. All the men lived with their children.

The researchers followed the men for 12 years, checking in with them every three years.

After adjusting their figures to account for factors such as poverty level and antisocial behavior, the researchers found that the more trouble a man had with alcohol, the more likely he was to move to, or reside in, a poorer neighborhood.

It's not clear if alcoholism has the same impact on women. However, "the effects may be even stronger on women, because alcoholic women have a high tendency to marry alcoholic men," study co-author Anne Buu, a research investigator of psychiatry at the University of Michigan, noted in a statement. The involvement of both partners with alcohol abuse could speed up any downward social drift, she said.

Recovering alcoholics, however, weren't any more likely than non-alcoholics to live in disadvantaged neighborhoods. That suggests that "if you do have problems, and you're able to stick with [recovery], you won't be at any greater risk for this downward drift into bad neighborhoods," Trim said.

The findings weren't a big surprise, said Aaron White, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Duke University who studies alcohol use.

"Every now and then, a study will come out that confirms something that most of us know intuitively," said White. There's "no question that alcoholism affects quality of life. The data in this study point to one of the ways that alcohol affects quality of life -- by influencing the type of neighborhood a person lives in."

The study is also useful "from the standpoint that the data confirm what most of us would have suspected anyway," he said. It's "not groundbreaking by any stretch of the imagination but a worthwhile contribution to the knowledge base."

And there's good news: The study provides "additional evidence that sobering up is good for people with alcohol problems," White said.

Forbes

Youth losing themselves in alcohol

Recent findings by State agencies indicate that alcohol abuse is rapidly becoming a national problem, not only among adults but also among the youth -- thousands of students both in primary and secondary school are hooked to alcohol.

It is against this background that the National Alcohol Beverages Association of Kenya recently launched a campaign that seeks to ensure that all outlets make it their business to establish that their clients are above the age of 18.

They are expected to demand identity cards as proof of age whenever they are in doubt.

But, as we report elsewhere in this newspaper, more challenges continue to spring up on the route towards reduction of alcohol consumption and responsible drinking.

For instance, the Nairobi Provincial Administration reveals that there are about 18,000 bars in the city. Of these, 40 per cent are either not licensed or have false licences.

Most of the mushrooming illegal outlets are located in middle and low income estates but also right in the centre of the city.

Two things here: In those areas, there are government officers ranging from assistant chiefs, chiefs to districts officers. In addition, regular police are known to religiously patrol the estates.

That such establishments continue to thrive under the very nose of law enforcement agents gives credence to claims that they are part of corruption networks that fuel illegal activities.

And when none other than Nairobi deputy provincial commissioner says that illegal pubs in some floors of buildings in the city are difficult to identify, his sentiments are astonishing and symptomatic of a lackadaisical attitude approach to a serious social problem.

As more attention is turned to underage drinking and even as bar operators with a sense of responsibility join hands to curb the menace, illegal operators are less likely to play by the rules.

A person who breaks the first law will think nothing of breaking the second one. They are more likely to be driven by making a quick buck. In some areas, particularly Nairobi’s Eastlands, some illegal pubs are known to be hangouts for students and underage estate youth.

It is also likely that as some pubs throw their doors shut to people under the age of 18, the youths will find solace in the illegal joints and the upward spiral in underage drinking will continue.

Experts are in agreement that there is a huge cost to be paid by the society when the youth lose themselves in alcohol.

Among school going youth who consume alcohol, absence from school and the resultant failing grades have been recorded.

Fighting and violence in schools have also been linked to alcohol consumption in addition to risky sexual behaviour. In these days of HIV and Aids, this exposes the young people to more danger.

However, when all is said and done, alcohol consumption by the youth is a manifestation of a breakdown of social order in a society where drinking is the preoccupation of a huge section of the adult population, both in urban and rural areas.

In urban areas, particularly over weekends, it is now considered trendy to cart the entire family -- from the toddler to the teenager -- to one of those makuti entertainment spots where parents will spend the entire afternoon tucking in copious amounts of alcohol.

The children will either amuse themselves at the swings or will sit with the parents and sip soft drinks.

The problem here is that while parents are supposed to guide children on how to responsibly relate to alcohol later in life, exposing them to situations where alcohol is consumed liberally, compromises their role as moral custodians.

It then follows that these children will grow up under the notion that there is nothing wrong in taking alcohol. It is less likely that they will steer clear of alcohol or drink in moderation in adulthood.

Indeed, studies have shown that children whose parents abuse alcohol are susceptible to abusing alcohol in adulthood.

At another level, due to the pressures of modern living, many parents have little time for their children and are hardly in a position to know what is happening in their children’s lives.

Again, as the society embraces modernity, strong traditions that were strictly observed in relation to alcohol have been lost. Alcohol was taken only on special occasions such as weddings, funerals and during rite of passage.

And, even then, it was never served to children and young adults. It was the preserve of members of the community who were well advanced in age.

This was so because the traditional society recognised the fact that the youth represented continuity.

They understood that the future of the community was in the hands of the youth and, therefore, any activity that could put their development as responsible members of the society in jeopardy was simply outlawed.

As the nation grapples with the emerging trend of underage drinking, it might be a good idea to open dialogue with the youth and candidly examine alcohol and what it portends for their future.

Daily Nation

Rome's young catch British boozing disease

The art of consuming a solitary glass of chianti with dinner has long been hailed as a paradigm of Italian restraint. While Britons have acquired notoriety for their binge drinking, their Latin cousins have always prided themselves on a more civilised approach to alcohol.

All that appears to be changing, however, after a series of Italian government studies exposed a new culture of binge drinking among the nation's youngsters.

One in five teenagers under the age of 18 now claims to be drunk regularly. And in a further snub to Continental drinking etiquette, they are shunning wine in favour of alcopops, cocktails, shots and beer.

Such is the concern of the authorities that a campaign has been launched in Rome aimed at curbing the soaring drinking rates among Italian youths.

Enrico Gasbarra, the president of the province of Rome, blames the demise of the traditional Italian family and its renowned get-togethers for meals, at which children were introduced to the restrained consumption of the grape via a glass of diluted wine. "In the past it was common for youngsters to have a glass of wine mixed with a little water at meals with their parents, but now that has changed," he said.

"You are more likely to find young people out knocking down six or seven bottles of beer or cocktails and losing complete control of their senses. The relationship with drinking has become very different to what it was even just 10 years ago. I think some of the problem may be that the stable family structure is changing. Now young people find it better to drink themselves into a stupor with friends than being with their family.''

In one study conducted around Rome's piazzas, bars and discos, more than 50,000 people aged between 15 and 40 were questioned over their drinking habits. Researchers found that nearly half were intoxicated, with about one in eight described as "paralytic" and a potential danger to themselves and others.

Further concern has been raised by the fact that more than 120 people have been killed in car crashes since June, most of which were caused by drink-driving.

The findings are at odds with Italy's reputation for a civilised café culture. The fact that it managed looser licensing hours with an absence of binge drinking formed a key argument for the introduction of more relaxed drink laws in Britain.

The increase in happy hours at pubs and clubs - as well as the change in family rituals - is believed to be increasing alcohol consumption. "The problem in Italy is that alcohol can be very easily bought by youngsters and there are no proper controls," said Mr Gasbarra. "Young people are also being influenced by the media, with excessive drinking being seen as a normal thing to do."

Italians under the age of 16 in particular are consuming excessive amounts of alcohol, said Manuele Scafato, of the Italian Institute for Health.

"According to our research, close to a million youngsters under 16 are drinking regularly and at the weekends this number rises as they take part in binge drinking and happy hours," he said.

"We regularly see drunken youngsters in the casualty departments of hospitals after they are admitted because they have lost complete control of their senses. It's not unusual to see both men and women drinking six or seven glasses of beer or cocktails, and they are just unable to cope.''

Sunday Telegraph

The vodka diaries

Going under cover, Alice Vulliamy, 15, found it laughably easy to buy spirits at supermarkets and off-licences. How can we control underage drinking, asks her shocked mother Celia Dodd

When I agreed to my 15-year-old daughter Alice taking part an experiment to see how much vodka she could buy in 48 hours, I thought she’d come home looking sheepish with a couple of small bottles in her bag. I also assumed that shops would have tightened up their act after the recent furore caused by the Chief Constable of Cheshire’s call to clamp down on underage drinking.

So I expected her at least to get a ticking-off or even a fine: under English law both she and the retailer could be fined £80. I was horrified when she came back laden down with more clinking carrier bags than she could carry, and enough vodka to land her and several mates in A&E. She was pretty shocked, too.

In two days Alice bought a total of 287 units of alcohol: eight 70cl bottles, three half bottles (35cl), two 20cl bottles and a couple of miniatures. She was served in a leading supermarket and off-licences as well as small independent food and wine shops in West London. Only seven shops out oftwenty even asked for ID; she doesn’t have one, unlike a lot of kids her age, so they automatically refused her.

She also bought two vodka-and-Cokes from a pub. After the first evening she had accumulated so much vodka that I decided to abort the pub part of the experiment. Although Alice had promised not to drink the vodka, it seemed irresponsible to tempt her friends. In any case, most teenagers seem to prefer drinking cut-price booze at home, when the parents are out.

Vodka is shockingly cheap: £6.23 was Alice’s cheapest purchase for a standard 70cl bottle, although I’ve seen a bottle on special offer in supermarkets for as little as £4.99. With prices this low, Alice’s income from her Saturday job coaching tennis would set her up with four big bottles every weekend. It’s no wonder that vodka has become a favourite for today’s teenagers.

A harmless rite of passage?

Like most parents I used to dismiss underage drinking as a fairly harmless rite of passage, but now it worries me just as much as drug-taking. I’ve got good reason: by the time Alice’s older brother was her age he had been admitted to hospital with alcohol poisoning after downing a mix of vodka and cider in a park. He says that he and his friends trekked for miles to the shops that could be relied on to turn a blind eye to their age. I reckon it was easier for Alice to get served because she’s a girl.

Her experience is not a one-off. It echoes Home Office research, to be published in the autumn, which indicates that one premises in five sells alcohol to under18s. Alcohol Concern figures suggest that while the proportion of 11 to 15-year-olds that drinks has dropped in the past couple of years, to 54 per cent, but the amount that this group drinks has doubled from five to ten units a week. Nearly a quarter of 15-year-olds say they’ve been drunk ten times in the past year.

No wonder the Chief Constable’s call for stringent measures to tackle the problem has struck a chord. He wants to see the legal drinking age raised to 21, the price of strong alcohol increased and parents encouraged to keep a tighter rein on their children. Alcohol is a lot cheaper than it was ten years ago and tax on alcohol has dropped in real terms. The Government recently promised a review of pricing structures.

Campaigners such as Frank Soodeen of Alcohol Concern hope that the Government will include taxation as part of its price review; he points out that it’s one of the few levers the Government has available to it.

Should the drinking age be 21?

There has also been much discussion about raising the drinking age to 21, but surely all that’s required is tighter regulation of existing laws? In England both buyer and seller can be fined for underage purchases, but as Kate Coleman ,of the Wine and Spirit Trade Association, points out: “In practice, it is usually the retailer that gets penalised. If more was done to deter underage buyers, they might not try so often. We don’t want to criminalise children, but it would help if more was done to deter the underage buyer.”

It doesn’t help that perfectly plausible fake IDs are easy to get hold of on the internet for little more than a tenner. Training retailers to be better at spotting fakes is one solution, but surely it would be better to stop them being sold in the first place? Parents could come down harder on fake IDs, too; they’re all too often indulged as a bit of a joke.

Yet Soodeen believes that fake IDs are a red herring, since 17 per cent of underage drinkers get their booze from consenting adults. On the other hand, Coleman insists that retailers have made huge strides in combating underage sales. She says: “It doesn’t matter how hard we clamp down because if teenagers want to get hold of alcohol, they will, whether through proxy sales or parents’ drinks cabinets. We hope the recent coverage will shift the balance and make people realise there’s a lot of work to be done with kids themselves, to work out why they want to buy alcohol in such quantities.”

Alcohol is a way of self-medicating

This is the bottom line: why do our teenagers want to drink so much? There are all sorts of explanations: alcohol has long been a marker of adulthood; there’s nowhere to go apart from the pub; getting lashed is glamorised by DJs and celebs. Added to this there are psychological reasons for alcohol’s particular appeal for teenagers. Dr Terri Apter, a social psychologist at Cambridge University, says: “Alcohol is a way of self-medicating and a way of bonding with your peer group. It offers a way of managing bad feelings and stress, and the sense that everyone is better and more sorted than you, and that the life you want seems very far away.

“And of course there is a lot of interest in risky behaviours in teens. Teens aren’t worse at assessing risk than anyone else, but the parts of the brain that deal with forward planning and impulse control are not mature. And while there is some evidence that the gap is closing between boys and girls drinking, boys are more likely to absolutely drown their feelings, whereas girls can get comfort from other things, such as talking, films and shopping.”

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is about to publish guidelines on alcohol education in schools that recommend a greater focus on informed choice and equipping teenagers to better interpret alcohol advertising and resist peer pressure. It also recommends that schools offer education to parents on alcohol awareness.

This might be a step forward. Alice, like a lot of teenagers, is keen to know about alcohol: she’s already got the number of units in different bottles off by heart, for example. So maybe it’s time to tackle the problem at its roots, with some straight talking about the damage that alcohol can do to immature teenage brains.

The Times

Bar staff most at risk of drink-related death

Bar staff and female office juniors are around twice as likely to die from alcohol-related problems as people in the general population, figures out yesterday showed.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) released data showing that bar staff were the most likely workers in England and Wales to suffer an alcohol-related death.

Male bar staff were 2.23 times as likely to die that way as members of the general population, while female bar staff were 2.03 times as likely.

Seafarers, including merchant navy workers, were the second highest-risk group among male workers - being 2.16 times more likely to die that way.

Among women, publicans and bar managers were 1.93 times more likely to die from an alcohol-related problem, while female junior office workers were 1.92 times more likely. Female actors and entertainers were 1.85 times more likely to die that way.

The figures cover people aged 20 to 64 and are for the period 2001 to 2005.

ONS figures published in November showed that alcohol-related death rates in the UK have almost doubled since 1991, from 4,144 to 8,386 in 2005.

Today's figures on female officer workers relate to the "classic office junior", according to the ONS. These staff carry out tasks such as photocopying, delivering the mail around the office and data entry.

A spokeswoman for the ONS said these workers tended to be younger.

Frank Soodeen, from Alcohol Concern, said: "Women who work can often afford to drink more and, particularly for those working in male-dominated occupations, an existing heavy drinking culture can be an additional risk factor."

The ONS data further revealed other workers at higher risk of an alcohol-related death. Male middle-ranking civil servants were 1.89 times more likely to die that way than average, male musicians were 1.56 times more likely, male floorers and wall tilers were 1.59 times more likely and men working in security such as bouncers and bailiffs were 1.67 times more likely.

Among women, hairdressers were 1.46 times more likely to die from an alcohol-related problem than average while waitresses were 1.59 times more likely and chefs and cooks 1.24 times more likely.

However, male farmers were less than half as likely to die that way as average members of the population, while members of the clergy were half as likely. Other low-risk groups for men included driving instructors and taxi drivers. For women, educational assistants, primary and nursery teachers and childminders were among the groups at lowest risk.

Ester Romeri, who presented the data on behalf of the ONS, said possible reasons for the higher figures for bar staff were social pressure to drink at work, low levels of supervision, separation from family members and the recruitment of people who were already heavy drinkers.

Professor Martin Plant, an alcohol addiction expert from the University of the West of England, said: "There are often common characteristics related to the likelihood of drinking and therefore alcohol-related deaths. What is important is whether the occupation has a drinking culture, the availability of alcohol and the toleration of drinking at work."

Between 2001 and 2005 there were almost 23,000 alcohol-related deaths among people aged 20 to 64 in England and Wales, the study said.

There were more than twice as many deaths among men (15,436) as women (7,477) over the period.

The Guardian

University of Kentucky seeks answers to student drinking

In the past three years, the University of Kentucky's fall semester has started just days after a student died while drunk. In the past six years, alcohol has played a role in the deaths of at least seven college students on UK's campus.

The deaths have refocused the attention school officials give to alcohol and how to handle student drinkers -- to better educate them.

Tasks forces have been created. Campus patrols have been increased. And amendments have been made to policies.

But deaths have continued.

As a new school year starts, the university will have to assess how it handles alcohol, said interim UK police chief Joe Monroe.

"If we're doing the education, if we're doing the enforcement, there's got to be a problem and a breakdown somewhere," Monroe said recently. "We're throwing all this stuff out there hoping that this is the answer. ... We may never find the answer."

Monroe said UK police have beefed up patrols in recent years to crack down on parties at the beginning of the school year, and are working on getting expanded jurisdiction over neighborhoods near campus with heavy student populations. Also, instead of being arrested by Lexington police, students caught violating drinking laws receive a referral to an alcohol education class.

"A lot of times enforcement can only do so much," Monroe said. "You have to have education. Anytime you have education, you can never have too much. We can always increase it and benefit from it."

Monroe thinks the education could go further, using the deaths of the past students as examples to show students that no one is untouchable.

In 2002, two students and one visitor died while drunk on or near UK's campus. There weren't any deaths the following year, but in August 2004, Brian Muth was killed the day before classes began. It would have been his first year at UK, after a freshman year at St. Louis University.

The 19-year-old had been arrested by Lexington police for alcohol intoxication at an off-campus party. A friend bailed him out of jail later that night; Muth walked out alone after being released and was struck by a tractor-trailer on New Circle Road.

Muth's death was the first of a series of student deaths each year before the start of classes. Four students have died while legally drunk since then, including three last year.

"I think each case may have been just viewed as an isolated incident until here in the last year, where we realized that you've got students that are being killed off campus from drinking," Monroe said.

"Those are all excellent opportunities to get into a students' mind and open them up to see, instead of somebody up there preaching to them, 'Don't drink, don't drink, don't drink, drinking's bad.' Because it's not that," Monroe said. "You've got to give them an example of what could happen."

Bereaved father reaches out

Nearly three years to the date since his son's death, Michael Muth, a native of Louisville, is still searching for answers. He says he's still looking for a solution to a problem that has hung a heavy cloud over UK.

After a blurred week of grief ending with his son's funeral, Muth decided to try to make some positive impact in his son's name, to try to give his son a purpose he didn't have a chance to realize.

Muth held meetings between UK, Lexington police and the city to try to find solutions to dangerous parties. His top suggestions for making a safer environment was to move fraternity and sorority rush to the spring, have UK buy properties adjacent to the school to bring them under its authority, level heavy fines against landlords for parties so they would police tenants, and start a volunteer system that would monitor party areas, acting as a substitute to police.

None of the suggestions went further than the meetings, and Muth didn't think anyone bought into developing new methods. He said he felt "patronized" and that UK and the city waited for him to go away.

"It seemed like there was more emphasis on why something didn't work instead of let's make this work," Muth said. "It didn't seem like there was a lot of sincerity."

UK students will be in their third day of classes Friday, the third anniversary of Brian Muth's death.

Last summer, Michael Muth filed a lawsuit in Fayette Circuit Court on behalf of his son's estate. The suit named several defendants including the city, the governing authority over the jail; Ann C. Slone, the driver who struck Brian Muth; and Ron Bishop, the director of the jail. The lawsuit says that while in jail custody, Brian Muth expressed "suicidal ideations" and the jail failed to handle the situation properly. The lawsuit is still pending.

Muth said UK is exploiting personal accountability to shake off its own responsibility for its students, he said, particularly those who live off- campus.

Pat Terrell, vice president of student affairs, said Muth is, "a very, very fine man" but said his suggestions simply were not feasible. UK is trying to teach students more personal accountability, she said.

Still, Muth thinks the university could and should do more.

"Have we tried everything we can do to see that this type of thing has less chance of happening?" Muth asked. "Not that it's going to be foolproof, but have they done everything? If they can honestly say 'Yes, we've done everything,' then I would question their honesty."

Little education required

The only required alcohol education for incoming freshmen is during summer orientation.

UK police hold demonstration sessions during K Week, the school's welcome week, at the beginning of the year to interact with students and promote safety, like providing "beer goggles" for them to wear, which distorts someone's vision to an approximate blood-alcohol level.

A class called UK 101, designed to orient freshman with campus and college, has one session on alcohol safety, but UK 101 is not a required course.

Choices, an alcohol education class, is given only to students who have violated the alcohol policy in some way.

Genesis Project, a program aimed at reducing alcohol abuse and one Muth has been involved with, holds non-alcoholic functions on campus. Its events are going on longer this K Week to try to keep students on campus, said Terrell.

Even with a number of alcohol-related programs, some students say their impact is questionable.

"Just because you hear it a lot doesn't mean you're not going to do it," said Alex Williams, 18, a Lexington incoming freshman who said she doesn't drink but knows many who do. "There's so many other environmental influences.

"They've been hearing stuff like this in high school. If it didn't work then, it won't work now," she said.

Neither the session at freshman orientation for students or a similar one for parents mentions the past deaths of students.

Patrick Williams and Joe Wisniewski, 18-year-old incoming freshmen and friends from Spencer County who said they drink about twice a month, said they didn't know about the deaths of past students but thought every student should be made aware.

"That's pretty rough," Wisniewski said. "You think about that and you're like, 'Wow, that stuff really does happen.'"

Terrell said there has been some discussion about having a mandatory online class for alcohol education, but that "there's been a mixed assessment if that's the best way."

Rather than focusing on underage drinking, UK's programming has shifted to focus on dangerous drinking habits, what Terrell described as more than three drinks an hour for women and more than five drinks an hour for men. "We've changed the message because students' eyes glaze over when we talk about the dangers of alcohol," she said.

"If all we had to do was sign up to a three-hour course on alcohol, we would have done it a long time ago," she said. "Regardless of what the message is to students, no class is going to force students to accept personal accountability."

While he's not completely satisfied with the university's role, Michael Muth says he's also disappointed by the lack of parent involvement in his efforts. He's hurt by those who disregard his son -- and others who have died -- as people who were simply irresponsible.

"Brian was the only death that year in 25,000 students," he said. "Odds are pretty good that nothing's going to happen to you, and that's kind of the way you look at it. You look at your kids and you say they're very responsible -- and they are, but they're still kids."

Lexington Herald-Leader

Baltic neighbours face alcohol crisis

The Estonian government plans to raise taxes on alcohol by 30% next year as the small Baltic nation of 1.3 million is struggling with a drink problem.

The BBC's Baltic correspondent Laura Sheeter examines the effects of heavy drinking in Estonia and neighbouring Finland, where Baltic booze cruises remain popular.

Grey-faced patients barely respond to the doctors and nurses treating them in intensive care at the North Estonian regional hospital.

Dr Katrin Sikk, a neurologist, says many of her patients are here because of alcohol.

"They have seizures or are suffering severe withdrawal symptoms, or they've suffered a trauma," she says.

The long-term problems include paralysis and brain damage, people injured in drunken accidents and car crashes, or those who have simply drunk themselves into a coma.

Heavy drinking is widespread in Estonia, which comes near the top of European Union rankings for alcohol consumption. Consumers are now free to choose from a huge variety of brands - a dramatic change since Soviet times.

On average each Estonian drinks 12 litres of pure alcohol each year - and every year they are drinking more. Experts say alcohol kills between 1,500 and 2,000 people a year - in one of the EU's smallest member states.

Some warn that if the trend continues, alcohol will contribute to an irreversible population decline.

Targeting youths

The tax hike may sound like good news, but anti-alcohol campaigners say it is unlikely to help.

The government, they say, has kept taxes low for years to boost economic growth, despite rising alcohol consumption. They argue that it is only raising taxes now because it is not planning to join the eurozone soon, so it is no longer worried about a tax rise pushing up inflation.

Alcohol, say the campaigners, has in fact got cheaper in recent years, so the rise will not stop people drinking.

A leading anti-alcohol activist, Lauri Beekmann, runs the Estonian Temperance Union. He showed me round a brightly painted cellar cafe in central Tallinn - one of the union's newest projects.

It is an alcohol-free cafe for young people - an attempt to persuade them that they can have a good time without drinking.

Lauri says Estonian youths are not only dying in drink-driving accidents, but when drunk they're putting themselves at risk of HIV/Aids by having unprotected sex. HIV is spreading faster in Estonia than in almost any other European country.

Big business

Despite some local bans on night-time alcohol sales, Mr Beekmann is damning about the government's reaction to the alcohol problem.

"It is ignored," he tells me. "Sometimes politicians talk about it, but almost nothing is done. There is no ban on advertising or sponsorship by drinks manufacturers, and while I welcome the tax rise, alcohol is so much cheaper now that I don't think it's significant."

At the ministry of social affairs, they are barely more optimistic.

Chief public health officer Andrus Lipand says the government asked for a national alcohol strategy, but his proposals to limit sales and advertising are simply being ignored. Shops are keen to continue their profitable late-night alcohol sales.

"Our government supports a so-called liberal alcohol policy. It's a conflict between health and business, and at the moment business is winning," says Mr Lipand.

Booze cruises

Yet the Estonian tax hike has been welcomed on the other side of the Baltic Sea, by the Finnish government.

When Estonia joined the EU in 2004, the Finns, worried that people would travel to Tallinn to buy cheap liquor, cut their own alcohol tax by more than 30%. But the plan did not work. Finns just started drinking more. Hundreds of thousands of them catch the ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn and return home with crates of cheap booze.

In the last three years there has been a sharp rise in alcohol-related diseases and crime in Finland, and drink has become the country's number one cause of death among adults.

Now, encouraged by the Estonian tax rise, the Finnish government has announced that taxes will go up there too - by 10% on beer and 15% on spirits.

Shoppers on one weekend ferry had mixed feelings about the rise. Some wanted to see an altogether more liberal alcohol policy in Finland, while others said they were worried about heavy drinking in Finland - but none of them thought it would stop them shopping in Estonia. One told me that if the price got too high, he would just go to nearby Latvia instead.

Frustrated Finns

Finland has traditionally had very strict controls on alcohol. Strong drinks can only be bought in the state-controlled Alko shops - rather uninviting buildings which have few signs outside advertising their wares.

At the Finnish health ministry Ismo Tuominen, in charge of devising new alcohol legislation, says the 2004 tax cut was a mistake - but that Finland is helpless to tackle its growing alcohol consumption.

"EU legislation is at the root of our problems," he says. "They treat alcohol like an ordinary product, like tomato ketchup or milk. They have to allow us to develop a health-based policy on alcohol - so we can limit the now limitless possibilities to bring alcohol in from other EU member states."

He accepts that that seems unlikely, as many EU countries are seeing a decline in alcohol consumption, and many others, Estonia included, profit from the international trade.

For now, it seems Estonia and Finland are going to have to try to discourage their people from drinking at home - and hope that the measures don't simply encourage more shopping trips abroad.

BBC News

Booze leading to more hospital admissions

The number of people from Wrexham admitted to hospital for drink-related conditions is well above the national average, according to a recent study.

Leading doctors in Wales are now calling for more measures to be put in place after the survey by the British Medical Association Wales (BMA).

Wrexham was among a number of places in Wales where the emerging drink problem is of particular concern.

Staff at Wrexham Maelor hospital have agreed there has been an increase in the number of people admitted to hospital as a direct or indirect result of alcohol consumption.

A spokesman for the hospital said: "The trust does not routinely collate data on the number of patients presenting at A&E or admitted with conditions or injuries caused or exacerbated by alcohol.

"However, anecdotally, staff within the A&E department have confirmed that the number of such cases is felt to have been increasing gradually over the previous five years, and that an increasing number of younger people are suffering from the effects of excessive drinking.

"This seems to be a pattern that is common across much of the UK, although without access to comparable information it is not possible for us to judge how Wrexham and North East Wales compares with other locations.

"As well as casualties suffering severe intoxication, patients also present at the department with injuries sustained in accidents whilst under the influence of alcohol or caused by acts of aggression where alcohol is a contributing factor, even if the victims themselves have not been drinking.

"Excess alcohol can also affect other underlying medical conditions as well as causing longer term damage.

"As always the advice from the trust is for people to enjoy sensible drinking within recommended guidelines.

"As well as helping reduce the risk of immediate injury this will protect from potentially serious and debilitating conditions later in life."

The BMA in Wales is calling on the Welsh Assembly Government and the UK Government to take action to stem the increasing flow of alcohol-related conditions.

Dr Richard Lewis, Welsh secretary of the BMA, said: "The BMA remains focused on offering practical solutions to Wales' growing drink problem. This comprehensive set of measures is designed to cover a variety of problem areas.

"It's now up to the Assembly Government, in partnership with the UK Government, to ensure these policies are taken
forward.

"After smoking, alcohol is the next big public health issue. The Government needs to get to grips with the problem."

The association wants more local schemes to outlaw the consumption of alcohol in public streets and an increase in funding of services designed to treat alcoholism and alcohol-related illnesses and doctors to take a lead by helping to change attitudes and behaviour with respect to the misuse of alcohol.

They also want an increase in taxation on alcoholic drinks, with taxation proportionate to the amount of alcohol in the product.
In June the BMA also revealed a four point plan that included a measure to stop discounted alcohol being sold in shops and off-licences and a call for legislature for alcohol labelling.

Evening Leader

Doctors want action over alcohol

A range of proposals to tackle Wales' "growing drink problem" have been put forward by doctors' leaders.

The British Medical Association (BMA) in Wales wants an increase in taxation on alcoholic drinks, proportionate to the strength of the product.

It also wants to see local schemes rolled out nationwide to outlaw the drinking of alcohol on the streets.

The BMA said politicians in Westminster and Cardiff Bay needed to co-operate on a new set of policies.

A spokesperson for the Welsh Assembly Government said there was no single solution to this "complex issue".

Dr Richard Lewis, secretary of BMA Wales said: "After smoking, alcohol is the next big public health issue.

"The government needs to get to grips with the problem."

Dr Lewis said the BMA wanted to offer "practical solutions to Wales' growing drink problem".

He said it wanted an increase in funding of services designed to treat alcoholism and related illnesses.

Doctors themselves needed to take a lead by helping to change both attitudes and behaviour with regards to alcohol, said Dr Lewis.

The proposals build on the publication of BMA Wales' four point plan to tackle alcohol-related issues, which was unveiled in June.

BMA FOUR-POINT PLAN

An end to deep discounting of alcohol sold in off licences and supermarkets.

Research into how pricing mechanisms can be used in Wales to discourage heavy consumption of high alcohol products

Legislate for alcohol labelling rather than relying on voluntary agreements with the drinks industry

Reduce the drink-drive limit from 80mg to 50mg and introduce random breath testing in Wales

The scheme called for an end to discounting of alcohol by off licences and supermarkets, laws on alcohol labelling and reducing the drink-drive limit.

According to BMA Wales, the number of people admitted to hospital for alcohol-related conditions increased from 252 per 100,000 in 1999 to 309 per 100,000 in 2005.

It said admission rates were significantly higher than the overall Welsh average in Neath Port Talbot, Pembrokeshire, Gwynedd, Newport, Wrexham, Swansea, Ynys Môn, Denbighshire, Conwy and Blaenau Gwent.

A number of cities and towns across Wales have already set up alcohol bans on their streets, including Aberystwyth, Rhyl, Cwmbran and Swansea. Caerphilly Council was one of the first authorities to prohibit drinking in specified public places.

It has also introduced a number of measures to curb underage drinking.

The BMA also referred to a survey by the Health Behaviour in School Aged Children which showed Wales had the highest proportion of 15-year-olds that reported drinking on a weekly basis.

Dr Lewis said the "comprehensive set of measures" was designed to cover a variety problem areas.

"It's now up to the assembly government in partnership with the UK government to ensure that these policies are taken forward," he added.

In a statement, an assembly government spokesperson said it agreed that a change in attitude was necessary and that education was "key".

"The Welsh Assembly Government welcomes and supports all measures that make people think about their alcohol consumption, encourages them to drink sensibly and discourages excessive drinking," added the spokesperson.

BBC News

South Africa: Govt Kicks Off Anti-Alcohol Abuse Drive

Alcohol abuse costs the state more than R9 billion per year, and this has prompted government to build on a massive awareness campaign, warning liquor consumers and traders about the risks of drinking alcohol.

Launching the national anti-alcohol abuse campaign on Monday, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Elizabeth Thabethe, said issues relating to alcohol abuse were costing the country too much money.

Government should be using the R9 billion per year on other programmes which will improve the lives of people for the better, said Ms Thabethe.

For this reason her department and the National Liquor Authority have embarked on the campaign to ensure the liquor industry promotes the ethos of social responsibility.

According to the deputy minister, the liquor industry records an annual turnover of over R30 billion.

"Excise duties collected on alcoholic beverages were estimated at R4.2 billion. However, the social costs of alcohol-related trauma and accidents far exceed the revenue collected."

The deputy minister stated that it was in the public's interest that government intervene to ensure liquor consumers make informed choices, through liquor regulators.

The campaign will kick-off in De Aar in the Northern Cape on 27 August.

Independent research has revealed that De Aar has highest incidents of Foetal Alcohol Syndrome in the world.

According to the research, about 500 000 South Africans are suffering from Foetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorders at any given time.

This is a medical condition or disorder that manifests in a child whose mother drank alcohol during pregnancy.

Ms Thabethe said the campaign was launched during Women's Month to create awareness about the effects of alcohol in specifically pregnant women.

The campaign is also aimed at reducing easy access to liquor for vulnerable groups such as minors and pregnant women.

The deputy minister said the campaign would alert liquor outlets about the legal implications of selling liquor to minors while also telling consumers about the risks of excessive drinking.

The department is to work with the liquor industry in the various provinces to ensure that the message reaches all affected parties, including tavern owners.

Ms Thabethe also warned liquor traders who did not comply with the National Liquor Act, which outlines the age restrictions in the selling of liquor.

"People sell [liquor] to make a profit but they can't make money by contravening the law. They must comply with the law and make money on good and moral values," she said.

Alcohol abuse by workers affects performance and productivity at the workplace.

"Major elements of the cost incurred by alcohol abusing workers include the reduction in productivity, earnings of workers and death in the workplace that negatively impact on individuals, families, companies and the economy in general," said deputy minister Thabethe.

She said addicted alcohol drinkers needed to accept that they had a problem and then seek help. The Department of Social Development would assist such people with rehabilitation, she said.

The Head of National Liquor Authority Jeremiah Mela, said the campaign would teach traders about responsible selling of liquor while calling on consumers to drink responsibly.

He said the campaign would be rolled-out across the country within eight months.

All provinces will host conferences, workshops and seminars to educate all stakeholders in line with the objectives of this campaign, he added.

BuaNews

Peers press friends into drinking, experts say Teens overlook alcohol dangers

Teenagers say they turn to drinking to relax, have fun

To understand the scope of the problem of teen drinking and alcohol abuse in our area, one needs only talk to a teen that has experienced it.

"(I started drinking) at about 15," said a 17-year-old senior at Northwest High School. "I first started drinking just to get away from the pressure, and it was a way I could relax ... (alcohol) is easy to get a hold of here and it's pretty relaxing, and I have fun."

The teen, who spoke to The Leaf-Chronicle under conditions of anonymity, said there are a lot of teens who drink, and not just from his school.

"There's definitely a lot who drink, for sure," he said.

The teen, who says he drinks about once a week, says he tries to keep his school life and partying separate, but "I have come to school messed up before," and at last year's prom he was "a little tipsy."

The best time he has ever had drinking, the teen said, was followed by the worst hangover he ever had.

"(My friend's) mom got us alcohol and dropped us off (at my house)," the teen said, mentioning he had $60 worth of alcohol plus unknown prescription medicine to party with.

"It was awesome — we drank some on the way to my house, and then when we got back there we took the pills, and after like 20 minutes we were messed up ... the room started spinning ... before we knew it the sun was coming up ... we drank and puked then ate, drank and puked some more.

"I remember waking up and immediately puking in a nearby trash can beside my bed," the teen said. "I was sick for the rest of the day. ... Besides that, I've never had another hangover."

The teen said drinking binges, for him, also led to sexual promiscuity and three instances of drunken driving.

Does his mother know about his drinking habits?

"I don't know," the teen said. "What she doesn't know won't hurt her."

As far as quitting goes, the teen said no amount of education will make him quit — nor will getting caught.

"Right now, I don't think I'll get caught," the teen said. "If I want to quit, I will."
A common problem

Vonda St. Amant, development director of the YMCA said stories such as this teen's are not uncommon.

"As we talk with youth who are part of YMCA programs and ask them what are pressing issues that they face and pressures they deal with in school ... what we are hearing most often is the pressure to drink," said St. Amant, noting that while some kids may feel pressured to drink, others simply do it because "it's fun and it provides a spontaneous outcome."

"We knew that in trying to grasp the issue, that underage drinking also leads to other risky behavior," St. Amant said. "It leads to violence, it leads to fighting and it leads to premarital sex."

St. Amant surveyed a group of teens last year about teen drinking and said with most of the responses, "the reason they do it is stress to do well in school and excel in sports and to meet people."
A startling call

One local parent knows all too well how prevalent teen drinking is in the area — her son was recently cited by the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office for underage drinking.

It all started with a 3 a.m. phone call.

"He needed a ride to be picked up from his friend's house, and I asked him why," said the mother, who spoke under the condition of anonymity. "He said some kids were drinking and the party got loud, and somebody called the deputies, and they came out and started busting kids. ... They wouldn't let him leave in his car.

"It made me think it is a little more serious than I thought and made me want to find out where this is coming from," she said.

Her son, an 18-year-old who graduated from Montgomery County High School last May, said he started drinking at 17 because "it's a great way to meet people and be social."

The teen's mother took immediate action, grounding him.

"I put him on restriction," she said. "I took away his car and only let him use it for work."

The woman said her son is a good student and had not been rebellious in the past, but her frustration is that "all you can do as a parent is teach your kids what's right and hope your kids make the right decisions.

"It's pretty hard (to stop them from drinking) unless you ostracize them from their friends, and you can't really do that," she said.

"As a parent, we just have to instruct (kids) that what they decide can negatively affect the rest of their lives," she said. "You have to help them see the future beyond the next party."

The woman said her son is now headed in the right direction — he's going to college this fall.
Troubled 13-year-old

The Rev. Marvin Barner, founder and chairman of The Ripple, counsels many troubled teens through the faith-based organization, and during the school year he said he may deal with nine or 10 teens a week who have problems with drinking.

"You'd really be surprised," Barner said.

And the problem tends to be caused mostly by peer pressure.

"No child is going to wake up and while mom is fixing breakfast ... wonder, 'Hey, I wonder what Jim Beam tastes like,'" Barner said.

Of those he's counseled, the story of one 13-year-old girl sticks out in his mind.

Barner said he worked with a girl who had been kicked out of school for fighting, and she had turned to drinking for one reason — she felt she couldn't live up to her parents' expectations because of her super-student older sister.

"She catches weight from her parents who ask, 'Why can't you be like your older sister?" Barner said. "Her first form of relaxation was weed, but she didn't like it, and because of peer pressure she was introduced to drinking."

Barner said many children fall to alcohol because they're busy living up to the standards of their parents, who think things should still be done like they were when they were kids.

"These are different fears that kids are dealing with these days," Barner said.

The girl, whom Barner said has been clean for about four months, is now pregnant.
A religious view

The Rev. Michael Bane, director of family ministry at Grace Community Church, said he knows from conversations he's had with kids at church that teen drinking is common.

"I do think there's a lot of underage drinking that happens," Bane said. "Is it any more than any other community? I'm not sure, but we do know it's an issue."

Bane said it's not just the bad kids who struggle with drinking — good kids deal with it as well.

"Teens in this generation are curious — they see the commercials and how (drinking) is portrayed," Bane said.

"We try to kind of help them see there are other people out there and that not everybody is drinking," Bane said.
'Cultural piece'

Gavic Chandler, coordinator of Preferred Options child services of Centerstone in Clarksville, said it's obvious there are problems with teen drinking in the area.

"We've had children recently who have gotten into automobile accidents and lost schoolmates to accidents," Chandler said. "There's also kids who have been arrested for other charges and one of the catalysts was consumption of alcohol, access (to things they shouldn't have access to) and boredom."

Chandler also said blanket statements shouldn't be made for all teen drinkers — there are "cultural pieces" involved sometimes.

"It may be a religious piece in which children join at the meal and either wine is served or beer is served and watered down for them until they reach a particular age," Chandler said. "We don't want to make blanket statements because it also has to be made within the context of family dynamics — the family values, the culture and the religion of the family.

"What's not acceptable is inappropriate behavior that draws attention to the experimentation (with alcohol) or use, abuse or addiction," Chandler said.

The Leaf Chronicle

Alcohol restrictions backed by public

An exclusive poll for Channel 4 News tonight reveals there is public support to increase the legal age to buy alcohol from 18 to 21.

The findings back the call of Cheshire's Chief Constable Peter Fahy, who earlier this week told Channel 4 News that the change was needed to tackle the anti-social behaviour caused by underage drinking.

However, the survey also reveals opposition to forcing up the price of alcohol with higher taxes.

Every night, wardens patrol the streets of Mansfield in Nottinghamshire, looking for children drinking in the streets. They are not hard to find.

The UK has one of the highest rates of teenage drinkers in Europe. Like many other local authorities, Mansfield is having to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds dealing with the consequences.

Irene Middleton has only just turned 17, but already admits to having a drink problem. She proudly says she hasn't had a drink since Saturday - expect for yesterday, when she drank four cans.

National debate

The problem has been linked to truancy, anti-social behaviour and even murder. Gary Newlove was killed after confronting a group of children outside his home. Speaking out on Channel 4 News, the chief constable of Cheshire provoked a national debate.

And a specially commissioned poll for Channel 4 News suggests he has public support: 52 per cent of those asked said yes, the drinking age should be raised to 21 while 45 per cent said no.

Drinking more

Research shows that young people are consuming increasing amounts of alcohol. Alcohol now costs over 50% less in real terms than it did in 1980. But, when we asked whether the government should increase the level of tax on booze, 55 per cent said no while 42 per cent said yes.

The government knows any increase in alcohol duty will be unpopular, but it is looking at reviewing cheap promotions.

When we asked whether raising the price of alcohol would reduce anti-social behaviour, 72 per cent of people thought it would not and only 25 per cent thought it would.

The licensing laws

This week, a government minister has said it is not the age range, but the the problem of a society that encourages getting drunk as glamourous that is the problem. In the centre of Nottingham the clubs and pubs are full of students celebrating their exam results.

Gordon Brown has ordered a review of the 24-hour licensing laws. We asked whether the licensing laws have led to an increase in anti-social behaviour. 48 per cent said it has remained the same, making no difference, 43 per cent said it has increased and 4 per cent said the new laws have led to a decrease.

And when we asked whether the 24-hour licensing laws should be abolished, the answer was very close. 53 per cent aid they should continue while 42 per cent said they should be abolished.

Channel 4 News

Homelessness charity urges: Raise cost of super strength beers

A leading UK homelessness charity is urging the Government to heed calls from police chief Peter Fahey to raise the price of super strength beers.

Thames Reach Director James Francis stepped into the debate today to highlight the serious damage to health, premature deaths and social devastation caused by super strength lagers among marginalised and homeless people.

Speaking from his East London office, he noted that a single 500ml can of nine per cent super strength lager contains four and a half units of alcohol, thus exceeding the Government’s daily recommended safe alcohol limit of between three and four units for men and two to three units for women.

He called on the breweries and Government to tackle this discrepancy and ensure that the availability of nine per cent super strength lagers is drastically reduced.

He recommended an increase in tax on these products to make it economically unviable to produce them for mass consumption, as is the case in many other countries.

He also expressed concern at the prospect of a new generation of youngsters falling into the same trap as the 800 vulnerable homeless people that Thames Reach currently supports for whom super strength lager is the main cause of their alcohol-related health problems.

He said: “Our campaign is not a moralistic one. Our intention is simply to highlight the impact of the super strength lager phenomenon that has developed over the past 20 years across the UK and the entirely unacceptable cull of people whose deaths are hastened through consuming these products.

“We need support and help from the breweries and Government to end the easy availability of nine per cent lagers and to accept that the cost of cheap, super strength lager is, in human terms, simply too high.”

Thames Reach has launched a campaign to highlight the shocking problems faced by vulnerable, middle aged, former rough sleepers who have debilitating health problems more commonly associated with pensioners – often due to the consumption of super strength lagers and ciders.

It has coined the term ‘young olds’ in response to its work with this growing number of individuals aged between forty and their mid-fifties who are typically suffering from heart and liver disease, brain damage, poor mobility, loss of memory and incontinence.

Many ‘young olds’ are currently stuck in unsuitable temporary housing such as hostels, rather than the smaller units of accommodation with specialist support that they require. They are unable to gain access to the services available for older people and therefore occupy beds intended for people sleeping rough in the capital.

Thames Reach is

Drinking is a real medical problem for the young

Drunken bingeing by young people is a medical, as well as a social problem. Raising the age at which alcohol may be legally bought, rather than increasing the available deterrents to buying it, is unlikely to help. The Chief Constable of Cheshire rightly suggests that parents should have more influence. Unfortunately, the evidence is that even in happily functioning households, parents now have less influence, and peer groups a great deal more.

This week there has been talk of children as young as 11 binge drinking. Although the commentator was doubtless talking from his own experience, this is not yet the rule. When children binge drink, it is medically extremely dangerous and even an older adolescent may develop difficulties. Alcohol is rapidly absorbed in the young, raising blood sugar so sharply that the pancreas releases insulin. Unfortunately, it often releases too much so that the blood sugar falls to dangerously low levels. It is not uncommon in A&E departments to see 11 and 12-year-olds who are in hypoglycaemic comas.

Becoming accustomed to alcohol needs a mature metabolism and some graduated training. The real disasters in students are likely to occur in their first term. Even in the fully mature, alcohol is metabolised between a quarter and a third faster in regular steady drinkers. Excessive drinkers, who have already damaged their livers, have an ever lower ability to drink safely than young people.

Women are able to deal with alcohol less well than men. They become drunk more readily and sober up more slowly. Small quantities improve life expectancy but some will not be able to drink safely until after the menopause. It is not known why some young women, who may not even be getting drunk regularly, are now developing cirrhosis.

Times

Police chief calls for alcohol ban in public places

One of the UK's most senior police officers stepped up his campaign against alcohol-related youth crime today by calling for a nationwide ban on drinking in public.

Peter Fahy, the Chief Constable of Cheshire, said that licensed establishments such as pubs should be the only public places where alcohol could be legally consumed. He blamed parents, drinks companies and the advertising industry for failing to tackle the problem of alcohol-fuelled disorder.

Mr Fahy, who is police chief in the area where father-of-three Garry Newlove was murdered by a gang of youths, said that the present presumption should be changed so that drinking was automatically banned on the street.

This would be a reversal of the current situation, where drinking is allowed unless a local authority specifically declares an area to be alcohol-free.

"At the moment you can drink anywhere you like in Great Britain in public unless the local authority have designated that you can’t drink in that area," Mr Fahy said, speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"I would actually like to see the emphasis changed the other way: that we actually say drinking in public is not permitted apart from in those areas where a local community, local authority say ’yes, in this particular park, this particular location, people can drink’.

"It’s that sort of thing which starts changing the popular culture, which starts getting the message across."

Yesterday, in a statement released only hours after three teenagers appeared in court charged with Mr Newlove's murder, Mr Fahy had said that too many parents were abdicating responsibility for their children by allowing them to go out on the street, drink alcohol, and cause mayhem for local communities.

He added that traders were continuing to sell high-strength alcohol at low prices and advertisers were guilty of promoting alcohol as glamorous to young people.

In an interview later in the evening with Channel 4 News, he also called for the legal drinking age to be raised to 21.

"To see the issue of antisocial behaviour by teenagers as a problem for the police to resolve is naive," he said.

"As a nation, I believe we need those who sell the alcohol to young people, those who price alcohol so cheaply, those promote alcohol as glamorous, those parents who turn a blind eye to where their children are, those teenagers who ignore the rights of others to live without intimidation or abuse - we need all these elements to our society to rack their conscience and consider what duty they have to beat the scourge of antisocial behaviour by young people."

Both the Government and the Conservatives welcomed Mr Fahy's comments, but dismissed the idea of raising the drinking age today.

Meg Hillier, a Home Office Minister, said: "If we raise the age to 21, it’s not going to stop people. It would demonise or prevent a lot of adults who are drinking quite responsibly."

She also said there were "no great plans" for a blanket ban on drinking in public, and that it was up to local councils to decide what was appropriate in their areas.

Asked about the availability of cheap alcohol, however, she said a review of licensing laws, due to be published in 2008 "may lead to some changes, who knows".

James Brokenshire, a Conservative spokesman, also said that raising the minimum age for buying alcohol from 18 to 21 would not tackle the problem.

"Just having a 21-year limit will not deal with the 11 and 12-year-olds who are binge drinking on a monthly basis and the 15 and 16-year-olds who are getting alcohol very freely," he said.

Mr Brokenshire added that highly-visible community policing and far greater involvement of communities in deciding the operation of local licensing was the solution.

Times

Shocking toll of alcohol

Shock figures over the extent of alcohol misuse in East Anglia can be revealed for the first time today.

One in four men and one in seven women in the region drink at hazardous and harmful levels, according to a new national report.

And every year, 65,000 people are admitted to hospitals in East Anglia after consuming too much alcohol.

Alcohol misuse also contributes towards 42,000 crimes in the region and 2,300 claims of incapacity benefit each year.

The figures were revealed in a report published by the National Association of Public Health Observatories.

It found 16 per cent of men in East Anglia and six per cent of women binge drink, while 5.4pc of men and 3.7pc of women in the region die from a condition linked to alcohol consumption.

Although the East of England is the best-performing region in terms of alcohol indicators, the report highlighted large variations between richer and poorer areas.

Men living in deprived areas of the East of England, for example, lose 17 months of their life due to alcohol while women lose seven months, compared to five months for men and three months for women in more affluent areas.

Chip Somers, project manager of Bury St Edmunds-based drug and alcohol charity Focus12, said the figures backed up new local data that showed the scale of the problem in Suffolk.

He said 10,670 people in the county were known as “severely or moderately dependent” on alcohol while an alarming 72,072 were known to be “harmful and hazardous drinkers”.

He said: “Many, many people are drinking way over the suggested limits of alcohol consumption, which is currently for a woman no more than two glasses of wine a day and, for a man, something in the region of four units of alcohol a day - the equivalent of a couple of pints of bitter. Of the people presenting to us, they are drinking way in excess of that.”

Dr Amanda Jones, the Suffolk PCT's assistant director of public health, said: “Suffolk PCT is aware of the issues surrounding alcohol and its effects on individuals and the community and is already working in partnership with a number of agencies to address the issues outlined in this report.

Evening Star

Police chief calls drinks industry to account for yob culture

Communities are under siege from a hardcore of antisocial, under-age drinkers while parents, drinks companies and the advertising industry ignore their duty to tackle the problem, a senior police chief said yesterday.

In an unprecedented statement released just hours after three teenagers appeared in court charged with the murder of the father of three Garry Newlove, the Chief Constable of Cheshire said that society was failing to address the scourge of alcohol-fuelled violence among the young.

Peter Fahy said that parents were abdicating responsibility for their children while traders continued to sell high-strength alcohol at low prices. “To see the issue of antisocial behaviour by teenagers as a problem for the police to resolve is naive. As a nation I believe we need those who sell the alcohol to young people, those who price strong alcohol so cheaply, those who promote alcohol as glamorous, those parents who turn a blind eye to where their children are, those teenagers who ignore the rights of others to live without intimidation or abuse — we need all these elements of our society to rack their conscience and consider what duty they have to beat the scourge of antisocial behaviour by young people.”

Mr Fahy told Channel 4 News last night that the legal drinking age should be raised to 21.

Last night, the Home Office said that it agreed “with the substance” of what the chief constable said.

The UK has one of the highest incidences of youth drunkenness in the European Union, according to the Government’s review of the anti-alcohol strategy. It also found that nearly half of under-age drinkers say that they get their alcohol from their parents.

Among 35 European countries, the UK has the third-highest proportion of 15-year-olds — 24 per cent — who have been drunk ten times or more in the past year.

Alcohol also now costs 54 per cent less in real terms than it did in 1980. Doctors and campaigners have called on the Government to drive up prices, while voicing growing concern at the increase in the strength of beer and wine.

However, The Times has learnt that ministers have ruled out including the question of higher taxation in a review about to start into the impact of price and promotion on both consumption and harms caused by alcohol.

Mr Fahy, who was on patrol near to where Mr Newlove, 47, was attacked in Warrington on Friday night, said that local forces were “engaged in a constant battle against antisocial behaviour and alcohol-induced violence”. He said: “Most of the bad behaviour is fuelled by alcohol — much of it supplied by adults, including some parents. Parents should be the key to tackling this problem. They are responsible for their children — and that responsibility is not abdicated when they become teenagers. The police cannot do it alone.”

His comments came on the day that relatives of Mr Newlove attended the hearing at Runcorn Youth Court, where three boys — two aged 15 and a third aged 16 — appeared on charges of murder. The teenagers, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were remanded into local authority secure accommodation to appear at Warrington Magistrates’ Court on August 20.

Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer, has called for the tax on alcohol to be increased to reduce the damage being caused to people’s health and to deter excessive drinking.

The criticisms by Mr Fahy will also renew the controversy over the Government’s decision to relax the licensing laws. Figures released by police in Devon and Cornwall yesterday disclosed that serious violent crimes in pubs and nightclubs had jumped by 50 per cent since the reform of the licensing laws.

A total of 67 serious violent crimes such as murder, attempted murder, manslaughter or wounding were recorded at licensed premises in the 12 months after November 2005 compared with 43 in the previous year.

Gordon Brown has promised a review of the effects of the laws after the latest crime figures showed that 1, 087,000 people were attacked by drunken thugs in the year after round-the-clock drinking was allowed in November 2005 — up 64,000 on the previous year.

Times

Sobriety activists push for alcohol law changes

According to many who deal with the problems of illegal drinking and alcohol abuse, Mississippi has a decent set of laws.

It recognizes the national standard of 0.08 percent blood alcohol content as the definition of drunk, it, it revokes driver licenses for driving under the influence, and makes a felony of drunk driving on the third offense, sooner than any of its neighboring states.

"I really think the laws that are in place are adequate," said James Moore, Lee County's prosecuting attorney. "There can be very stiff penalties, but there's also room to work with someone who has made a one-time stupid mistake."

In Oxford, though, increased law enforcement and even alcohol education hasn't gone far enough. The penchant of college students to violate alcohol laws - a nationwide problem - has prompted community leaders from the city, Lafayette County and the University of Mississippi to issue a joint resolution asking local legislators to sponsor laws that would allow stiffer penalties for underage drinking and driving under the influence.

One of the requests is jail time of 48 hours to two weeks for first-time DUI offenders.

"There are many states that require automatic jail sentences of two days, 10 days, two weeks or whatever," Mayor Richard Howorth said. "There are many misdemeanors in this state that require jail time for offenses that are far less dangerous than first-offense DUI."

Discussions about changes continue as the new school year looms. Last year, a campus police officer died after being dragged by a student accused of being under the influence of alcohol and drugs.

Another proposed change is a required driver's license suspension of six months to one year for first-time DUI, up from the current minimum of 90 days.

The local resolution also calls for stiffer penalties for the use of false identification.

"Anybody who deals with this issue can tell you how incredibly problematic the widespread use of false ID's is," Howorth said. The current $200 fine should be increased to $500, he said, with unspecified suspension of an offender's driver license.

The same penalty should apply to anyone who lends an ID to someone else, he said.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving, which lobbies for stiffer penalties for drunk drivers, has a longer wish list of legislative changes for Mississippi. Among them are enhanced DUI penalties if a child is in the vehicle, special penalties for habitual traffic offenders and bans on "happy hours" or drink specials that encourage heavy drinking. MADD also calls for statewide mandatory server training and registration of beer kegs, measures Oxford has enacted on a local basis.

MADD advocates that blood-alcohol contents of 0.15 percent or higher would apply extra restrictions on drivers, that hospitals be required to report the blood alcohol content of drivers involved in crashes and that legal BAC levels be lowered for repeat DUI offenders. It also calls for Mississippi to revoke current license plates for vehicles used in DUI offenses, enabling the offender's family members to use the vehicle with a new license plate. In repeat cases, the organization advocates seizure and sale of the offender's vehicle.

Joe Marshall Davis, Union County's prosecuting attorney, sees value in the measures being urged by Lafayette-Oxford-University officials.

"We don't see false IDs here," he said, noting that alcohol is illegal for people of any age in Union County. "But in a college town, I can see where they would have a problem, and I wouldn't have a problem with raising that penalty."

Given his preferences, though, Davis would emphasize community service for juvenile alcohol offenders. Such sanctions are allowable now but could be made mandatory, he said.

"The parents are paying the penalties," he said. "To me, the way you get through to a teenager is to embarrass them - to put them out there picking up trash on the side of the highway where they are seen by the community, and it's going to sink in a lot more with them than charging them a fine or spending eight hours in jail."

Oxford intends to follow that direction, too. It will increase its alcohol enforcement yet again this fall, along with a hope that community service will be a larger part of sentencing.

"We're going to have more officers, and they won't just be looking for drunk drivers," Howorth said. "They'll also be supervising the community service program, doing the server training and doing alcohol education in the schools."

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal

Alcohol abuse is costing the town millions

The shocking toll of alcohol abuse in Bolton has been spelled out in a report.

It says the NHS is spending a total of £7.75 million a year treating injuries caused as a result of drunkenness and treating long-term alcoholism.

The report, jointly produced by Bolton's Primary Care Trust and Bolton Council, also says that in the borough: l Every year £9 million is spent on policing alcohol-related crime, associated court appearances, solicitors' fees and replacing stolen or damaged property.

* Workers in Bolton take 157,000 sick days as a direct result of their drinking.

* Alcohol accounts for 95 sex assaults every year.

* 4,700 children are affected by parents who drink.

Children are becoming increasingly drawn into alcohol abuse. In June, The Bolton News revealed the number of youngsters admitted to the Royal Bolton Hospital because of alcohol problems had rocketed by more than 400 per cent over the last decade.

In the year to April, 2006, 96 children ended up in hospital - along with 638 adults.

Alcohol is now the biggest early cause of death for women in Bolton and causes as many premature deaths in men as coronary heart disease.

Jan Hutchinson, director of public health for Bolton Primary Care Trust, said: "This isn't a problem unique to Bolton, it's a national issue. Alcohol is easily available in supermarkets and off licences, as well as in pubs.

"The biggest increase is in people drinking at home."

Health chiefs at Bolton Primary Care Trust have vowed to do all they can to tackle the problem, starting with reforming treatment services.

The report highlights four key ways to reduce the amount people drink - better education and awareness of the hazards of drink, stronger enforcement of licensing laws, addressing alcohol issues in communities and workplaces and improving treatment services.

An extra £120,000 per year is to be spent on improving available services Patients can be referred to alcohol treatment services through the courts, their GP or a hospital, or people can seek help themselves.

In future, patients will be assessed before being sent to the community alcohol team in order to give priority to those who want to change their ways.

But health and council chiefs are urging people to drink responsibly.

Cllr Andy Morgan, who is a magistrate and chairman of Bolton Council's health scrutiny committee, said: "This is a cultural problem that some believe has been exacerbated by 24-hour licensing laws.

"As a magistrate, I've seen assaults on members of the public and the police rise and anti-social behaviour increase.

"People have to be responsible drinkers."

This Is Lancashire

Adult binge drinkers prefer beer; teens hard liquor

Binge-drinking is an increasing problem across a spectrum of age groups but two sobering analyses reveal that adults have a preference for beer binges while teens tend to swill the harder spirits.

Training a spotlight on alcoholic drinking habits is vital, experts said Tuesday, because bingeing has become a national public health problem.

"If Joe Six-Pack would drink just one or two beers we'd all be a lot better off," said Dr. Timothy Naimi, lead author of one of the studies. Instead, binge drinkers tend to imbibe at least 5 or more drinks one drink after another, which leads to a host of calamities -- some of them deadly -- such as auto accidents as well as aberrant sexual behavior, Naimi said.

Naimi's research of 14,000 adult binge drinkers, which was funded by the federal Centers for Disease Control, appears in the current issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. A second CDC-sponsored study released Tuesday said teenage binge drinkers prefer distilled spirits over beer.

"Beer accounted for more than three times as many drinks as the next most common beverage types," said Naimi, who found in his national, random telephone survey that nearly 75 percent of adult men and women who binge exclusively prefer beer, 17 percent drank the harder stuff and 9 percent drank wine. "Beer is king when it comes to binge drinking and this may be at odds with the public perception of beer as the everyman drink."

Also at odds with the public perception is the age of the average binge drinker. Not all are chug-a-lugging frat boys. "People of college age 18 to 25 account for only 30 percent of all binge drinking episodes. So college binge drinking is only the tip of the iceberg," Naimi said.

Beer is probably the choice of many drinkers, Naimi continued, because it is so easily accessible. It can be purchased in grocery and convenience stores, at gas stations and even at some pharmacies. Very early morning purchases and those late at night usually are not for "noble purposes," he said.

Naimi called on state and federal lawmakers to reconsider lopsided sales policies, especially the variety of venues in which the brew is sold. Beer is as inebriating as other forms of alcohol, Naimi said.

The National Beer Wholesalers Association, which represents distributors, did not address Naimi's proposal to control beer sales. In a prepared statement Tuesday the association said "society loses when alcohol beverages are abused."

The second CDC study found that teens prefer hard liquor over beer. The report showed hard liquor to be the of choice of youths in 9th through 12th grade.

Locally, binge-drinking - teenage and otherwise - is a major problem, said Eileen Wolf, clinical director of the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence. The council, which has offices in Hauppauge, Williston Park and Riverhead, serves as an intervention point for people who have problems with addiction.

Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi recently signed into law a measure that holds adults accountable for underage drinking occurring in their homes. The measure carries fines up to $1,000 and possible jail time. The bill grew out of all-night binge parties.

"Binge drinking is playing Russian Roulette with your brain," Wolf said.

Newsday

Six drinks a day will bring the brain plenty of pain

The health system is about to be swamped by hundreds of thousands of Australians with alcohol-related brain injury, most of them unaware they have a problem.

Research, done for the arbias (Acquired Brain Injury Assessment and Consulting) group by Roy Morgan, says the drinking habits of as many as two million people place them at risk of permanent brain damage.

It says men who have six drinks a day for eight-to-10 years and women who have three drinks a day over the same period are at risk of alcohol-related brain injury.

Arbias CEO Sonia Berton is calling on the Federal Government and the alcohol industry to fund a A$20 million ($22.6 million) education campaign to raise awareness and provide treatment for the problem.

"It's time people were told," Berton said. "Alcohol-related brain injury affects as many as one in eight."

One of the reasons the problem was so pervasive was a binge-drinking culture. "Many people are unaware they are living with alcohol-related brain impairment until the damage is severe," Berton said.

"Because Australia has moved to a binge-drinking culture, something has to be done. In the next 10 years, treatment providers will be swamped with alcohol-related issues."

Arbias, whose work is supported by the Australian Drug Foundation, the Mental Health Council of Australia and the Alcohol Education Research Foundation, yesterday launched its Hangover For Life campaign to draw attention to the extent of the problem.

The arbias research shows few people are aware of how much they can drink before they become permanently affected.

Clinical psychologist and arbias board member Martin Jackson said the community suffered from an "incredible lack of knowledge" on the issue.

"People often get brain damage long before they actually get sick," Dr Jackson said.

"By the time these people show up in the health system, unfortunately they have often lost jobs, families and their thinking abilities.

"People don't realise how easy it is to drink at hazardous levels - a bottle of wine with dinner every night is potentially hazardous."

NZ Herald

Dying for a drink

Graeme Alford took his first IQ test while attending the distinguished Trinity Grammar school in Melbourne in the 1960s. His second intelligence test taken two decades later gave the game away.

Alford was 35 at the time but had already lived too many lifetimes. From private schoolboy to carousing law student, criminal barrister for Melbourne's notorious underworld, husband to college sweetheart, father to two boys, problem gambler, embezzler, and finally bank robber.

There was one constant, however: alcohol. His dad, a big drinker, died when Alford was six. His mother buried her husband then bought a pub. He lived upstairs in hotels in Collingwood until the age of 12.

"Everything about my upbringing centred on alcohol. You associated it with good times and bad times. It was an integral ingredient to living," Alford says. "I had my first real drink at 13. At 16 on a school footy camp I drank a whole bottle of Rio Vista sweet sherry. I vomited all night and the coach dropped me. But still I was only a social drinker, parties or dances."

The blackouts started at Melbourne University. A counter lunch with law school mates would result in him being the last back to the library, if at all. Bar jobs inevitably ended with beers after a shift. He played footy on weekends with Trinity Old Boys where they "really got stuck into it" after the game.

Alford did articles at a law firm with a drinker for a senior partner, and found companions in other lawyers who drank during and after lunch. They were in their 50s, he in his 20s. "It escalates without you noticing," he says. "You just find people who drink like you do and you don't feel abnormal."

Alford's downward spiral quickened. As a criminal barrister he drank with clients: painters and dockers and underworld figures. He gambled: two-up and the horses. The $100,000 in his trust account proved too tempting.

"I was drinking 30 beers a day six days a week. Gambling is easier, the light changes from red to green when you're full of juice."

Caught and sentenced to five years' jail for plundering the trust fund, he was out in 16 months, heading straight to the nearest hotel for a drink.

But it was the botched armed bank job in Chapel Street, Prahran, in 1982 while drunk that finally led to his redemption. Ever cunning, he sought to use his drinking as a mitigating factor in his sentencing. Renowned criminal psychologist Ian Joblin tested his IQ and compared it to the test done at Trinity Grammar.

"I'd lost more than 40 points off my IQ in the areas of memory and concentration," Alford says. "I'd gone from 133, in the top two per cent, to below 90, the bottom 10 per cent. That was the jolt I needed."

Alford knows he has alcohol-related brain injury, and continues to deal with it, 25 years after taking his last drink.

In his recognition of the problem he is lucky. Alcohol-related brain injury treatment service ARBIAS suggests that more than 200,000 Australians suffer undiagnosed alcohol-related brain damage, and two million others are at risk due to the volume of alcohol they consume.

The number of those who drink too much is on the rise, according to National Health Survey figures. In 1995, 8.2 per cent of Australian adults were drinking at risky levels (six or more standard drinks a day for males, three or more for females), increasing to 13.4 per cent in 2004-05.

A standard drink is less than you think, 100ml of wine which is around half the average serve, or 285ml of beer, less than a can (375ml). Risky drinking is consuming 300ml of wine or just under half a bottle a day for women and 600ml of wine or 4 1/2 cans of beer for men.

That grim news is exacerbated by Australia's lack of recognition of the problem, with a new Roy Morgan survey released today showing that 70 per cent of men and 60 per cent of women have no clue about how much alcohol puts them at risk of brain damage.

The survey shows that 20 per cent of women believe they can drink four standard drinks (400ml of wine or just over half a bottle) a day over a period of eight to 10 years and not put themselves at risk of brain damage. It does. One in five young men think it takes more than 20 standard drinks a day before they are at risk. It's six.

The lack of public awareness, and the apparent lack of political impetus to address the issue has ARBIAS chief executive Sonia Berton worried "a whole generation of brain damaged Australians will emerge". "It's absolutely horrific and it's time people were told. Where are the ads and messages warning people? Why aren't we being told?" she says. "Alcohol-related brain injury affects as many as one in eight Australians. It's slow, progressive, and ultimately this damage affects a person's thinking, emotions, communication and ability to care for themselves.

"Many people are unaware they are living with alcohol-related brain impairment until the damage is severe. Because Australia has moved to becoming a binge-drinking culture, something has to be done. In the next 10 years treatment providers will be swamped with alcohol-related issues," Berton says.

Australian National Council on Drugs chairman John Herron agrees. "Alcohol-related brain damage is a very under-reported issue for this country," Herron says.

"It is unfortunately true that too many people drink to excess and that translates into many problems for the community and massive health costs. We as a community must start to confront the simple reality that alcohol-related brain damage is a real risk for many people and a growing problem for our nation."

Alcohol-related brain injuries, in the early stages, are difficult to diagnose. Usually sufferers go to their GP with other health problems, and by this time it will almost inevitably have gone beyond the mild stage. The most common brain disorder associated with alcohol consumption is frontal lobe damage. This can result in changes to thinking and emotions. The ability to plan, organise, control behaviour and adapt to change is affected. Some people lose the ability to learn or acquire new information.

Recovery is difficult and limited to those under 40 years old who give up drinking completely and adopt a healthy lifestyle. Mostly people are forced to do what they can to manage a permanent injury.

"I'll give you a profile of the ARBI sufferer," says Berton. "Twenty-five per cent have been through the criminal justice system. Fifty-five per cent are also diagnosed with a psychiatric condition such as schizophrenia or depression, although we are still not sure whether it's the alcohol dependence or the mental illness that comes first. Seventy per cent are still drinking or taking drugs. One hundred per cent are unemployed. Virtually none have any support from friends or family, who have long ago given up on them."

Berton says despite the focus on alcohol problems faced by indigenous communities, the issue is widespread throughout the community. Her organisation is swamped with people referred by GPs. The waiting list to obtain help is years long.

"The whole stereotype of the homeless person with the brown paper bag couldn't be further from the truth. It cuts across age, gender, colour. We see solicitors, we see pilots, we see people who had very promising and well-earning careers before they came to us. Alcohol-related brain damage doesn't discriminate."

Former draftsman Kevin Clarke's upbringing wasn't centred on alcohol. Now 49, Clarke and his brothers grew up in a strict, teetotal, Catholic household in Melbourne. He first drank with his brothers. Later, as a draftsman, he would drink with the builders after work.

"By 28 I had a wife, four children, a house, a business, my life was made," Clarke says, his slurring voice and slow delivery a product of his brain damage. "I was social, at the kids' netball, Auskick. I gravitated to those who drank. I found the drinkers and it made me feel more normal. But I thought of myself as a social drinker, sometimes heavy but always social. In my 20s I'd go camping with my boys, but there'd always be (a cooler) of beer in the car, and a pub to pull into."

At his worst, he would drink litres of port every night, along with vodka and beer. He became angry with his family. His business disintegrated, as did his marriage.

For anyone else, a life-threatening motorcycle accident while riding under the influence might have a wake-up call. But that's a sober man's logic. Clarke drank harder.

"When I was assessed they said I had a traumatic brain injury from the accident, exacerbated by alcohol abuse. They said it was likely I had a brain injury even before the accident," Clarke says.

Wh