Alcoholics Anonymous Reviews

Binge drinking is "spiraling out of control" in Grey-Bruce, with a third of residents who drink alcohol reporting engaging in it during the past year, a figure 12 per cent higher than both the provincial and national averages.

The percentage of local drinkers over the age of 12 binge drinking nearly doubled to 34 per cent in 2007 from 18 per cent in 2001, according to the Canadian Community Health Survey, which monitors a range of health indicators including alcohol and tobacco use.

"For the most part, most places in Canada have not doubled. These numbers are just really high," said Matthew Myatt, associate epidemiologist for the Grey Bruce Health Unit.

"I wouldn't say we expected to see the jump in the numbers because this is really high, 12 per cent (higher than the average) is huge."

The provincial average for binge drinking by those who drink alcohol was 21.2 per cent in 2007, the national average was 21.8 per cent. Binge drinking is considered to be having five or more drinks on one occasion at least once per month in the past 12 months.

"Alcohol abuse through binge drinking is spiraling out of control in Grey Bruce," the health unit said in a news release. "Alcohol is the most popular drug in Grey Bruce and its abuse is on the rise."

Research has proven that adverse health effects due to drinking begin at the "binge drinking" level of consumption, Myatt added.

According to Dr. Geoffrey Fong, a psychologist at the University of Waterloo, binge drinking is heavily affected by social context and peer pressure.

"If you start drinking at a young age it becomes a problem that quickly becomes a social epidemic because it's highly visible and spreads throughout a social group," said Fong, an expert in global health issues and the effects of alcohol on social behaviour.

"What initially may seem like a small increase in drinking will blossom fairly quickly because of social effects."

The local co-ordinator of the FOCUS Community Program says the goal of program is to prevent problems, including injuries and chronic diseases, associated with drinking and drug use.

"If adults that drink alcohol can begin to assess the amount and their patterns of drinking, we hope there will be a change in the culture of drinking in Grey Bruce and also a reduction in the burden of disease," Marie Barclay, a public health nurse, said in a news release.

Owen Sound Sun Times

David Cameron thinks so, championing the idea that children should try alcohol at home. Is it really that simple, asks Alice Wyllie
When it comes to alcohol, there's one thing with which it can be very dangerous to mix: teenagers. It's up there with drugs, cigarettes and "the wrong crowd" on the list of things that keep parents awake at night, often with good reason. A recent study by the University of Edinburgh in partnership with the World Health Organisation found that 13-year-olds in the UK are getting drunk more frequently than any of their peers in the Western world.

A sobering statistic, but sadly one that's not particularly surprising. We're constantly bombarded with statistics about how much alcohol British teenagers drink, their attitudes to drinking and even the resulting health problems that arise from binge drinking as a teenager. However, it's not often that we hear a solution offered.

Yesterday, the Tory leader David Cameron threw his suggestion into the ring while speaking to a group of young Radio 1 Newsbeat listeners. He suggested that children should be introduced to the idea "that drinking is something you can do socially, and something you can do with a meal, and something that is part of life".

He added: "Some of the friends I had, the ones who had the biggest problems, were the ones who actually were never allowed to drink anything at home – whereas the ones who drink responsibly were the ones who were given a glass of wine or a small glass of beer or a shandy or something. That's the right way to do it in the home."

It's not the first time that it's been suggested that parents in Britain try to follow the Italian or French model, where children are allowed to drink with a meal and are less likely to binge drink or drink in the streets. Last year, new research was published that suggested teenagers who drink alcohol with their parents, in moderation, are less likely to binge drink. The study, by Liverpool John Moores University, of more than 10,000 15 and 16-year-olds found that almost 90 per cent admitted to drinking alcohol, of whom 38 per cent binged. Those who were introduced to alcohol at home were less likely to fall into the second category.

It also found that teenagers who bought their own alcohol were six times more likely to drink in public, and twice as likely to binge than those who had alcohol bought for them. However, the report contrasted with a call last year by the charity Alcohol Concern to prosecute parents who give alcohol to under-15s, and not all parents agree with Cameron's views.

"I don't believe that introducing your children to alcohol is an approach that works at all," says Frances Byatt-Smith of The Parent Centre in Edinburgh. "It's not necessarily harmful, but it's simply not going to outweigh peer pressure. Children copy what their parents do, so drinking in front of them isn't a good idea, full stop. Even if you're sharing a bottle of wine over a meal, it's likely that they'll notice it making you more relaxed and chatty. It's not a great message to send."

Linda Russell of the Parent Coaching Studio in Edinburgh largely agrees. "By introducing children to alcohol as part of a family meal, you demystify it and it's not portrayed as something rebellious," she says. "However, the problem with this approach for me is that more and more families aren't sitting down to eat together, so children's experiences of their parents and alcohol tend to relate more to watching them drink at parties or social gatherings. This can send out a dangerous message, because children can then see alcohol as more of a social lubricant."

Anne Coates of parentingwithouttears.com approves of David Cameron's views: "It's the approach I took with my own daughter. She was offered wine with her meal as a teenager and it wasn't until she was 18 that she began drinking with friends. Offering it to her took away curiosity; it was no longer exotic or rebellious, because it was something her mother allowed. Sometimes she'd turn it down – it wasn't a situation where there was any peer pressure, so she felt free to say 'no'. As an adult, she now views alcohol as something to be enjoyed with a meal."

But concerned parents want something to be done about out-of-control teenage drinkers. Research last year found that the number of under-18s in alcohol treatment programmes had soared by 40 per cent, from 4,781 in 2006 to 6,707 in 2007, with the highest increase among 12 to 14-year-olds.

The continental approach is not infallible, though: evidence suggests it is beginning to crumble, with an increasing number of teenagers reported to be binge drinking in countries such as France and Italy, where their alcohol intake has traditionally been more reserved.

According to Italian health ministry figures published last year, 17 per cent of the population are binge drinking at least once a month and one in five teenagers admits to being drunk regularly. Experts have blamed the problem on the breakdown of the traditional family unit.

One wonders, then, if the first step to solving the problem is not allowing children to enjoy a glass of wine at a family meal, but simply to get them to sit down for a family meal full stop?

The Scotsman newspaper

When I interviewed four Katine villagers ahead of International Women's Day in March about the challenges they faced as women, I noticed a common thread running through their tales – Katine's men, it seemed, were married more to alcohol than to their wives.

Women, I was told, did a lot of the gardening, finding food, clothing children, providing the family with medical care. What then, I asked, do the men do?

Drink.

This of course, was an extreme reaction, but a telling one. It is normally women who make ajon, the local brew made mainly from millet flour and water. And it is normally women who sell alcohol, mostly to men. But it is also usually women who suffer the consequences of alcohol abuse.

All over Katine, there are numerous drinking joints selling either ajon or waragi – a colourless, distilled drink. But perhaps the boozing capital is Atirir, the main trading centre in the sub-county. As early as 10am, the members of various clubs meet around their pots and suck away at a few straws.

Each time I wander into the centre, I am almost sure to run into Joseph Opuna, an eloquent and perpetually thirsty politician who represents Ojama Parish on the sub-county local council. Opuna runs his own bar which sells bottled beer and soft drinks but I first met Opuna in February, outside the popular ajon bar grandly called 'parliament', owned by Sarah Adeka.

A father of eight and husband of two, Opuna told me he first tasted ajon at 10. He is now 34. He said his father taught him how to make the brew and he grew up to know that, as an Ateso man, he is expected to drink. As he talks, the words "our culture" keep cropping up, suggesting it is a cultural thing to drink ajon.

This week, I ran into Opuna in another bar at the back of the trading centre. With half a dozen men, they were taking turns on a 300ml bottle of waragi. When a baby is born, Opuna tells me, elders place a drop of ajon on the infant's tongue and another on the mother's. Perhaps this explains why his father used to tell him while giving him ajon that, "this is where I come from".

On a normal day, Opuna wakes up at 6am and works in the garden until 9am, after which he goes to his bar. He joins his friends to drink ajon or waragi at 5pm. He admits that while drinking is the cultural norm, some men have become a nuisance because of alcohol abuse. They don't help their wives with farm work and they do not even buy essential household items such as soap or food.

Unfortunately, even as a councillor, Opuna cannot do more than advise his thirsty friends: "If someone does not buy food in his house, you cannot force him."

One of Opuna's friends is known to start drinking by lunchtime, return home in the night and then demand food. But when he is in that state, he does not want peas or beans; he wants chicken. And since he did not buy the chicken and his wife wouldn't have it, he often ends up beating her.

Interestingly, every drinker there agreed that alcoholism is a problem – only it is not a problem for him.

The following day at 11am, I met Opuna's friend again in another backyard bar. Staggering in a yellow and green, flowered shirt, he said he is 60 and has fathered 11 children. In his trembling left hand, he is holding a 150ml bottle of packed yellow orange juice – apparently to neutralise some of the alcohol that he reeks of. Yes, he says, alcohol is a problem, but not for him or his wife Lucy.

I wonder how old his wife might be. "Itomon akany iarei," he replies meaning, "seventeen". My interpreter tells him that this can't be true and, embarrassed, he retorts that only his wife can know her real age.

"When you quarrel with your wife, where do you go for mediation?" I asked.
"I no longer quarrel. I am too old," he replied.
"But you used to quarrel when you were younger?"
"Yes," he smiles.
"What used to make you quarrel?"
"Drinking," he smiles, embarrassed, "drinking."

Guardian

A new screening test identifies twice as many heavy drinkers as the commonly used liver enzyme test, a new report shows.

The Early Detection of Alcohol Consumption (EDAC) test determines the likelihood of heavy drinking in the previous four to six weeks and could help physicians spot and treat problem drinkers sooner. It uses an algorithm of 20 blood chemistry levels and compares the subject's test results to data from more than 1,700 heavy and light drinkers in a database.

The database classifies heavy drinkers as men reporting more than five drinks a day or women having more than four drinks a day.

A presentation about the test and its effectiveness was to be made Wednesday at the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) annual meeting, in Washington, D.C.

"Physicians can use the test as part of an early intervention," James Harasymiw, director of Alcohol Detection Services in Big Bend, Wisc., said in a news release issued by the AACC. "When patients are confronted with test results, they may be more likely to change their behavior."

Alcohol abuse claims about 100,000 lives in the United States annually, including almost 17,000 people who die in alcohol-related traffic accidents.

"Physicians can show patients the test results to help convince them that their drinking is causing serious damage to their organs and other biologic systems," Harasymiw said.

Washington Post

I've always detested the effect that too much alcohol has on people and I've never really understood the joy some people experience from throwing up on the pavement or waking up with a blinding headache the next day. Yet, in much of Britain, being inebriated to the extent of falling down in the gutter or blacking out is almost a badge of honour.

When the government changed the licensing laws to allow 24-hour drinking in 2005, it was hoped binging would decrease and a sophisticated Continental-style cafe society would emerge over time. That hasn't happened. Instead, according to the Local Government Association representing councils across the country the relaxing of restrictions has turned the centres of British towns into late evening crime-ridden no-go areas.

While it's true that enjoying a tipple has always been part of British culture, when I was a youngster growing up in Wales, pubs and bars were still the province of males although some had what was called a "ladies" lounge - reserved for couples. Few women went to pubs alone.

Children were strictly banned from entering establishments that served alcohol and could often be seen sitting on benches outside with a bag of crisps and a bottle of pop. I still recall my terribly prim and proper grandmother hiding the sherry bottle when she knew the vicar was coming to call. How things have changed!

Almost half-a-century later and the World Health Organisation says there are more underage drunks in England than anywhere else in the world.

In May, the British police reported a 50 per cent increase in women being arrested for being drunk and disorderly over the past five years. A 2006 survey of 17,000 people in 21 countries found that women in England and Ireland are the world's biggest binge drinkers, while the Department of Health says that one out of every six women in England and Wales are either alcoholics or suffer from drink-related health problems.

Fact sheet

These increases in consumption are on record. The Institute of Alcoholic Studies (IAS) has put out a fact sheet showing that the estimated annual alcoholic consumption for persons over 14-year-old in the UK was 5.07 litres. In 2004, this estimate had jumped to 11.59 litres. It further states that "UK consumers spend more of their disposable income on alcohol than on, for example, personal goods and services, fuel and power or tobacco".

Britons spend some £17 billion in pubs each year, which is more than double spent on other activities, such as cinema, theatre, museums etc. The total value of the UK alcoholic drinks market exceeds £30 billion equivalent to the entire annual GDP of many small countries.

The IAS says that up to 35 per cent of all accident and emergency attendances and ambulance costs are alcohol related while between the hours of 12 midnight and 5am 70 per cent of hospital emergencies are caused by drinking.

These statistics are shocking, yet a government that had no compunction in cracking down on smoking for its effects on the health of the nation has done virtually nothing to change the prevalent alcohol-fuelled culture, responsible for violent crime, rape, spousal abuse and fatalities on the roads. Could this be because drinking has become a social bedrock that is so ingrained in the British psyche it is practically unassailable, or is the government protective of the tax and VAT on alcohol that greatly swells its coffers?

This post on the Daily Telegraph website from someone who visited Britain during the New Year perfectly sums up this quintessentially British phenomenon:

"I was shocked to hear just about every presenter on TV on January 1 joking about the viewers' hangovers as if everyone watching on that day must have got drunk the night before. I think that is the problem in Britain when it comes to alcohol. Most people seem to feel it's not worth drinking if you're not going to get drunk. Not simply merry, but completely smashed out of your brain."

Now that it's the holiday season, resort towns all over Europe and further afield are bracing for the influx of young boozing Brits, whose morality or lack of it embarrasses locals. Last Sunday, the Observer quoted a police officer on Crete as asking, "What is wrong with the British? Why can't you have fun calmly? We try to be tolerant, after all, these are only kids, but we find ourselves asking why?

Reports of two drunken British women who attacked cabin crew and tried to open an emergency door during a flight from Greece to the UK, the British passenger flying from Manchester who fought with a stewardess while threatening to explode a bomb, and the liquor sodden British couple arrested on a beach in Dubai for indecent behaviour make me cringe.

I'm a vehement critic of the nanny state in the belief that individuals are responsible for their choices and should be free to do as they like as long as their actions do not negatively impinge on others. But in a country like Britain that is riddled with rules, regulations and restrictions in the name of health, safety and security, why isn't anything being done to prevent the terrible toll that alcohol is exacting on a people that were once known abroad for their stiff upper lips rather than their pickled livers?

Gulf News

With summer in full swing, there are countless parties to attend, including the upcoming ATI/RTI weekend. And there are very few party fliers that don't scream 'drinks inclusive', 'all inclusive' or 'super inclusive'.

These terms all share one common meaning - alcohol will be served freely. These parties are geared towards Teenagers, and their advertisements are plastered all over our social networking sites, their fliers are being given out at all our favourite hang-out spots; making it almost impossible to be unaware of them, as well as not want to attend.

Don't get us wrong, TEENs need to go out and enjoy themselves over summer, de-stress from the hectic school year that ended recently, and parties are a good way to do this, whether or not they serve alcohol freely. What we as Teenagers need to realise is that we do not need to drink excessively or any at all to enjoy ourselves when we go out.
Yes, this may be a hard idea to accept, since most of us had our first sip of alcohol from a relative's bottle before we even entered primary school. When we are constantly being bombarded with advertisements of young people partying and having a great time with a drink in their hand, it is hard to think that a good time can be achieved otherwise.

However, according to the report Patterns of Alcohol Use Among Adolescents and Associations with Emotional and Behavioural Problems by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), there is a strong relationship between alcohol use among youth and many emotional and behavioural problems, including fighting, stealing, driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs, skipping school, feeling depressed, and deliberately trying to hurt or kill themselves. The study further revealed that adolescent alcohol users - regardless of whether they are heavy, binge, or light drinkers - report they are more likely to use illicit drugs (like weed, which a great Teen majority feels is harmful, and also necessary to achieve a good time) than non-drinkers.

Adolescents who were current heavy drinkers were 16 times more likely than non-drinkers to have used an illicit drug in the past month. Light drinkers were eight times more likely to have used an illicit drug in the past month than non-drinking adolescents.

Not only does the use of alcohol affect your behaviour, and judgement, but it also affects your body as well. During your Teen years your bodies are still developing, and alcohol can greatly affect you, especially your brain, and major organs such as your liver. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, Teen drinking may cause more neurological damage than was previously thought. Contrary to the notion that the brain is fully developed by age 16 or 17, the new studies have found that significant development happens until the age of 21 and heavy drinking by Teenagers may inhibit that development. These studies indicate that Teen binge drinking can lead to poor performance in school, difficulty in simple math or the inability to read a map.

According to BBC News, Teens under the influence of alcohol also are more likely to have casual, unprotected sex, leading to the continuous spreading of sexually transmitted diseases such as herpes, gonorrhoea and HIV/AIDS, as well as greater occurrences of teenage pregnancy.

With all these negative effects, it is easier to rethink if the 'good time' Teens get from downing drink after drink, whether out at a party or chilling with friends or even at home alone is worth it. The blame cannot be placed on Teens alone, as party promoters all know that the legal drinking age in Jamaica is 18. Yet, even if their flyers say 'must be 18 or older', many do not check identification at the gate, and let in all the Teeny-boppers, seeing them merely as added profit.

It is therefore up to us to take control of not only our current but also our future health, by not drinking if you are underaged, and not drinking excessively, if you are legally allowed.

Jamaica Observer

Drinkers in Plymouth are boozing themselves into an early grave, startling figures have revealed.

Men and women are wiping months off their lives through alcohol, say the statistics.

Data compiled by the Department of Health reveals a stark picture of the toll that drink is taking on the health of Plymouth residents.

Government experts say that on average men in the city are losing around nine months off their life expectancy, and women about four months. This is broadly in line with the national average.

In the Devon Primary Care Trust area, which covers the South Hams, the figures suggest boozing is shortening the average life of men by around eight months, and women by about three months.

Figures also show nearly 5,000 people were admitted to hospital in Plymouth for alcohol-related harm last year, equal to 1,785 admissions for every 100,000 people in the area. The national rate is 1,400 per 100,000. In Devon there were more than 12,000 hospital admissions for the same reason, a rate of 1,247 per 100,000 people.

The Government has promised tougher action against the alcohol industry unless it steps up efforts to encourage sensible drinking. Ministers are considering banning happy hours, forcing pubs and clubs to serve drinks in smaller glasses as well as larger ones, and stopping off-licences and other retailers from displaying alcohol at checkouts.

Devon and Cornwall's Chief Constable Stephen Otter has told MPs he wants to call time on boozing hotspots in towns and cities, and expressed concern that alcohol is as readily available as "a glass of cola".

He backed the idea of health warnings on bottles of booze, similar to those found on cigarettes, and raised concerns over the significant increase in booze-fuelled violent crime.

The promise of a government crackdown followed figures showing injury and illness caused by drinking cost the NHS pounds2.7billion a year - up by around pounds1billion since 2003.

Figures for the Plymouth Primary Care Trust area show 129 people aged under 18 were admitted to hospital for alcohol-specific conditions in 2006-07. For Devon as a whole, the figure was 314.

In the same year, booze was blamed for the deaths of 118 people in the city and 379 throughout Devon. There were also more than 3,000 crimes recorded in Plymouth where alcohol was found to be the cause, a rate of 12 offences for every 1,000 people in the city compared to an average of 8.5 per thousand across the South West.

Nearly 2,300 booze-fuelled violent assaults were reported last year in the city, while in addition 40 sex crimes were recorded which were attributed to alcohol. It is estimated that around 17 per cent of people aged 16 and over in Plymouth go out binge-drinking.

Labour MP for Plymouth Devonport Alison Seabeck said: "It's a very serious concern."

Plymouth Evening Herald

Absent in the conversation about the University of Iowa and the football players gone wild is any serious discussion of alcohol's role in campus crime.

By any measure, it's considerable.

The university police department filed 535 charges against students in 2007. Four hundred sixty-seven -- 87 percent -- were alcohol- or drug-related.

Let's break it down: 236 were for public intoxication, 86 were liquor-law violations, 38 were for drunken driving.

When you're talking about alcohol-related "incidents" on campus, the number topped 1,000 for the fifth year in a row in 2007. While that might not seem like an epidemic at a school with 30,000 students, these are the incidents we know about.

If you look at the 18 football players arrested since April 2007, nine of the 23 charges were directly related to alcohol. How many others were indirectly related?

How many across campus? How many disorderly conducts? How many interferences with official acts, assaults, thefts?

Going by campus police interviews, it now looks as if alcohol played a part in the high-profile alleged sexual assault of a female student last fall.

The alleged victim told the campus officer she was an inexperienced drinker, a "lightweight," according to the report, who drank too much coconut rum too quickly on the night in question.

I know, I know. It's college. Students drink, many to excess. I did, you did. OK, maybe you didn't, which could be why I didn't know you.

But still, there is such a thing as the culture of alcohol getting out of hand, harming lives and damaging the reputation of the university.

On Monday, the Princeton Review came out with a survey of college students that ranked Iowa the No. 12 party school in the country, No. 3 in "Lots of Hard Liquor" and No. 11 in "Lots of Beer."

Remember, this isn't a scientific study and should be used for recreational purposes only. How did Iowa State, for instance, end up 17th in "Professors Get Low Marks?"

It could be worse. They could be Illinois, which topped off its No. 16 party-school ranking with an appearance in the "Students Study the Least" category.

But back up. I said it's time for a serious discussion. Let's look at some findings from the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study, which says binge drinking varies widely from college to college and that campus environment can affect student behavior.

Is it easy to get alcohol? Is it a "wet" environment with many stores offering low prices and special promotions?

If so, the Harvard study project director says, the conditions are ripe for heavy drinking: "If colleges can change those conditions, they can reduce binge drinking among their students."

Is Iowa doing anything to change the culture? Three years ago, the university implemented a mandatory interactive online "AlcoholEdu" course for incoming freshmen.

Iowa (and Luther College in Decorah) is one of 900 or so institutions that use the program. Iowa is the first Big Ten Conference school to adopt the course. Students must complete the course before they're allowed to register for spring classes.

Independent studies indicate the program has a positive effect on behavior, especially among first-year students.

That said, one such study concluded that "AlcoholEdu" is more effective as one of many tools to reduce the damage associated with heavy alcohol use.

What else should be done? Suggestions: Crack down. Change the rules. After the first alcohol-related offense, notify the parents and require the student to pass an alcohol education course.

Second offense, mandatory suspension. Third offense, expulsion.

Get together with the county attorney, the campus and city police chiefs. Go to every bar in town and remind the owners about the Dram Shop Act in the Iowa Code, which holds owners responsible for damage done by alcohol-impaired patrons.

Tell the bar owners you'll do everything in your power to make sure the law is enforced.

Return Friday to the workweek. Schedule the most popular courses and the required classes on Friday to keep the weekend from starting Thursday night.

Do this to show the students you mean business. Unless, of course, you don't.

Des Moines Register

Binge drinking is reducing the lives of men in the region by nine-and-a-half months, a study has shown.

Figures released by the Department of Health (DoH) show booze abuse shaves 9.4 months off the life of the average man, and 4.4 months off the average woman in North Lincolnshire.

This is roughly in line with the national average but the report also said alcohol caused a number of extra problems, including hospital admissions for under 18s, crime, sexual offences, and even fatalities.

In March last year, North Lincolnshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) revealed there were around 15,000 binge drinkers in North Lincolnshire and top public health expert Cynthia Manson-Siddle said: "It's an important issue and it's a burden on society.

"Alcohol is a toxic substance and can end in overdose."

Binge drinking means drinking eight or more units of alcohol in one day for men and six or more for women. It can also refer to heavy drinking over an evening.

The latest information was released as part of a DoH project to create a national 'alcohol map' revealing the harm done in each region by excessive boozing.

The map showed alcohol-related problems in the region were worse than the national average in a number of key areas.

These included the number of under-18s hospitalised due to drinking, hospital admission for alcohol-related harm, alcohol-related crime and binge drinking.

The PCT, which supplied the new information to the DoH, was unavailable for comment, but Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo called for tighter restrictions.

She said: "The evidence makes it clear this is the right time to consult on a tougher approach to the alcohol industry.

"Individuals have to take responsibility for their drinking, but others, including the industry, also have a role to play."

She said there was no evidence 24-hour licensing laws had any impact on the issue.

The alcohol map also showed there were 24 direct alcohol-related deaths among men and 15 among women between 2006 and 2007, and a further 43 male deaths and 28 female deaths attributed to alcohol.

In the same period, there were 84 alcohol-related hospital admissions for under-18s, and 3,423 hospital admissions for alcohol-related harm.

Related crimes numbered 1,934, of which 1,418 were violent crimes and 30 were sexual crimes.

A spokesman for Scunthorpe General Hospital said: "We are aware a number of different admissions which occur are alcohol related, they could be alcohol overdose, falls under the influence, or people who get into a fight and are assaulted.

"It does put a strain on accident and emergency, and we know people admitted who have been drinking are more a likely group to either verbally or physically abuse A &E staff.

"We would hope, and urge people to drink in moderation and remember the recommended maximum limits."

This is Scunthorpe

By Any account the Federal Government's controversial alcopops tax appears to have neglected to do what the Government claimed it was all about.

Tackling the culture of binge drinking.

Data released by the Liquor Merchants Association of Australia has shown that the alcopops tax has pushed sales of standard alcohol drinks up by a staggering 21 million.

It confirms what Family First thought would happen all along - that taxing alcopops would simply push people to buy the cheaper spirits and mix them with a soft drink themselves.

What this means is that people are using a spirit high in alcohol content and probably generously adding it to their soft drink.

And that means they're pouring more grog down their throats, not less.

So how does that address binge drinking?

The Government's using the blunt instrument of tax and saying that's how to tackle binge drinking and stop the ensuing violence that we see on our streets - but clearly that blunt instrument is not working.

You only have to walk the streets of Melbourne any given night to see what alcohol abuse is doing to our young people. And at what cost?

Australia is forking out $15.3 billion per year mopping up after alcohol and combating the violence and mayhem that unleashes on to our streets once the grog hits.

Our police force doesn't have the numbers to deal with it, staff at our hospitals spend their night patching up the drunks and the wounded that have assaulted each other after drinking to excess.

Then the binge drinkers wake up the next morning bruised and battered but all ready to go out and drink themselves silly at the next opportunity they get.

It's time to get serious about the scourge of binge drinking and the fallout it causes.

We've tackled our road toll, drug toll and tobacco toll.

Now it's time to tackle Australia's alcohol toll. Here's how to do it.

Put warning labels on alcohol. Tell young people what the effects of binge drinking can do to them.

Give them information to ensure they think before they drink.

Back it up with a solid advertising campaign that encourages a culture of responsible drinking.

There's nothing wrong with enjoying a drink, but it's the difference between drinking responsibly and drinking to excess that we need to address.

Look at advertising of alcohol during sports programs when young people are watching.

Cut it out until after 9pm.

Break the link between boozing and sport.

In a recent survey, 71 per cent of the population agreed that advertising of alcohol products shouldn't be on television until 9.30pm.

Alcohol ads are already restricted from running on TV until after 8.30pm.

But there is a crazy "loophole" that exempts live sport, so alcohol ads can run during the day on weekends and public holidays during sporting programs when young people watch.

There's been lots of talk and debate about this tax but surely now the time has come for it to be put to the Parliament and decisions made.

When the Senate resumes on August 26, Family First will be pressuring the Rudd Government to introduce legislation on the alcopops tax and to explain how it's going to help stop binge drinking.

I'll be meeting Mr Rudd to see what he has to say about our three-point plan to stop the violence, stop the excessive drinking and stop our young people seeking to harm themselves and others by binge drinking.

The Government now faces a challenge in the Senate.

It needs my vote and that of the two other parties who hold balance of power in the Senate.

Whether it gets my vote depends on how committed it is to really tackling this issue, to really addressing Australia's alcohol toll.

If the Rudd Government is fair dinkum about breaking the back of binge drinking, it will implement these key points not just focus on tax dollars.

Steve Fielding is a senator for Family First

Herald Sun

MP Anne Snelgrove is hoping Swindon will ban the sale of booze to under-21s on weekend nights.

West Lothian has implemented a trial of the scheme where off-licenses and shops stopped selling alcohol to under-21s from 5pm to 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays.

They were referred to the licensing board if they broke the agreement, which was in place between March and May.

Mrs Snelgrove believes a similar system could help tackle anti-social behaviour and youth alcohol abuse here.

“Swindon needs leadership and fresh thinking on antisocial behaviour and I will be talking this idea through with young people, councillors and police,” she said.

“I think off-licences have a lot to benefit from in signing up to this scheme. Even if police back it, it’s down to off-licences whether it happens and whether it works.”

But Bill Carlton, the director of Swindon and Wiltshire Alcohol and Drug Advisory Service said young people might go elsewhere where restrictions are not in place.

“I think there is a controversial issue about this happening in one area and not nationally,” he said.

“There is an issue regarding people’s rights.”

He said the cheap price of alcohol in supermarkets means many youths are getting drunk before heading to pubs and clubs.

He praised the Swindon Community Safety Partnership’s Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy introduced earlier this year.

Mrs Snelgrove is now seeking feedback on the idea of restricting the sale of alcohol to under-21s. The said the measure was well received in the Armadale, Westfield and Blackridge areas of West Lothian.

Police reported a 50 per cent drop in calls from the public about youths, vandalism and assault during its six-week period of operation.

“I’m floating this as an idea because it’s worked elsewhere,” said Mrs Snelgrove.

“We’ve got problems with binge drinking and underage drinking in the centre of Swindon, licensees and police are grappling with it but it’s clear we need to look at the options. The problems are a great concern for both young people, and the residents on the route into town who suffer from the behaviour of a small section of young people who have too much to drink.”

Chief Inspector Paul Howlett said: “There is a link between young people, alcohol and anti-social behaviour including criminal damage.

“Anything we can do to remedy this will be welcome.

“We rely on the cooperation of licensees to achieve this and there is an agreement already in place with some licensees to put in place an under-21 scheme.

“Clearly licensees who do sell alcohol to persons under 18 years of age commit an offence and we will work with Swindon Borough Council and the Community Safety Partnership to prevent this from happening.”

Swindon Advertiser

Binge drinking, teen drinking. Perhaps our biggest social stigma is not drinking at all. Annie Lawson talks to those who don't imbibe.

Nick Johnson can sympathise with Marge Simpson. When the Simpson family matriarch once asked an Aussie bartender for a coffee, he replied, "beer it is". The 28-year-old Melbourne magician also struggles to convince waiters, and friends, that he doesn't drink booze.

Bart Simpson was summoned down under in a cliche-filled episode that caused much uproar when it screened in 1995. Crammed with beer jokes, Australians were portrayed as carefree, alcohol-guzzling (but likeable) louts.

There may be some cultural truth in the way we were perceived. Drinking is the glue that binds many of our social interactions and after sinking a few beers, well, it's easy to not take anything too seriously.

"Somebody at a party offered to get me a scotch or a glass of wine," says Johnson. "When I told him that I don't drink, he said 'OK, I'll just get you a beer'.

"At weddings, I'm always given a glass of champagne and when I explain I don't drink, people are always very insulted if you don't take it. I take it and pretend to drink it."

For some people, alcohol tastes like the devil's poison. Others don't drink on moral or religious grounds. People who regard it as a heavenly elixir are sometimes forced to give up later in life for health or addiction reasons.

For Johnson, the thought of a beer after school became too tempting (when combined with weekend binge sessions) so he gave up at 18.

"I think it was easier for me to give up drinking because I can get up in front of an audience and talk, and am good at meeting new people, so I don't need the courage of alcohol," Johnson says.

"When I go out I'm very gregarious, silly and over-the-top, and always keen to make people laugh. I wonder if that's me over-compensating for the fact that I don't drink."

Clinical psychologist Grant Brecht says drinking is an intrinsic part of Aussie culture, "an offshoot of larrikinism in the Australian psyche".

"It's so readily available and so readily acceptable," he says. "There is social pressure for young people to drink. It's much easier to decide not to smoke because of all the risks we know so much about but we don't talk as much about the risks of alcohol."

Around 7% of the population are ex-drinkers, down from 12% in 1991, according to a Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy survey of 30,000 Australians. The 2007 figures show the proportion of people who have never had a full serve of alcohol - that is, not classified as drinkers - has risen to 10% from 6.5% in 1991.

Abstinence, or at least drinking moderately, tends to be a sign of status, says Professor Ian Webster, chairman of the Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Foundation. Wealthy people spend more on alcohol but then again, they can afford an expensive drop.

"It impoverishes families if the breadwinner is heavily drinking," he says. "If you look at the communities where alcohol is a big problem, they tend to be lower socio-economic areas where there's not much employment."

These trends are being examined by Webster's foundation as part of a study on the social meaning of alcohol, with the findings expected next year.

Drinking is a great social lubricant but over-indulging incites anti-social behaviour. Non-drinkers often endure immense pressure to have a tipple, perhaps stemming from a belief that drinking strengthens a sense of belonging and fun, and helps people relax.

"People will come under immense pressure because it makes people who drink feel more normal," says Brecht.

"Social support is the greatest buffer that we have against depression and not feeling good. Young people, as they start to draw away from parents, are in a phase of discovering who they are so it makes them feel they are part of a group."

Margery King, 69, is a life-long teetotaller - except for a brief lapse at 22 when she travelled on a ship to Britain. "Everybody else was drinking and I didn't think it would be the end of the world if I had the odd Pimms," she says.

She met her husband on the boat but he didn't drink at all. Brought up in a moderate drinking household, he decided at 14 to abstain after seeing on his way home from school an inebriated man kick a dog.

King's flirtation with Pimms ended before the pair married 44 years ago and had three children.

"We deliberately didn't tell our children to be teetotallers because at one stage the research was showing the people most likely to be alcoholics were the ones either with alcoholic parents or teetotaller parents," she says. "Our three children drink on an occasion but not every day."

At weddings, the Kings were "lucky to get a mineral water for the toast" and felt pressured in restaurants to order wine.

"Quite a few of our friends who stayed drinking heavily are getting health effects in their late 60s and early 70s such as weight problems and diabetes," says King. "We've both been healthy."

The temperance movement, which began in the United States 135 years ago, had great success in its prohibition crusade. Forty years ago, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Victoria had 20,000 members who signed a pledge of abstinence. This has dwindled to 500 because of the difficulty recruiting young people, says national director Anne Bergen.

Bergen and a team of volunteers hold drug information programs for 2000 primary and secondary school children across the nation. With drinking embedded in our culture, the union was forced to dilute its stance and accept moderate drinking.

"We talk about the importance of deciding what you want to do in life and not allowing friends to push them into something they don't want to do," she says. "We see alcohol as something that has caused tremendous problems."

Bergen supports the controversial new guidelines in a National Health and Medical Research Council report that suggest it is unsafe for either sex to drink more than two standard drinks a day.

At 69, Bergen has never had alcohol. Her mother signed a pledge of abstinence when Bergen was a baby and brought up her daughter in an alcohol-free household. Bergen's husband and three of their four sons don't drink either. "I've never felt the need to have alcohol," the former secondary school teacher says. "I like to keep control of my brain and what I do and I know the health risks."

The Age

One of the toughest steps for an alcoholic is to shake off the denial. It can fester for years until one day he realizes he's lost — or is on the verge of losing — his family, his job, even his life.

So he takes the plunge and starts to seek a path to recovery. But there are roadblocks. He can't access or can't afford the treatment programs, especially the in-patient ones.

It's a terrible catch-22 for many Wisconsinites who recognize they need real help.

Wisconsin ranks fifth in the country for people over age 12 needing treatment but not receiving it, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Dr. Richard Brown, clinical director of the Wisconsin Initiative to Promote Healthy Lifestyles, estimates that only 10 percent to 20 percent of Wisconsinites who need help actually get it.

This is criminal, considering we live in a state that leads the country in risky drinking.

Prohibitive costs and lack of insurance parity for substance abuse treatment are the main culprits. Under Wisconsin law, group health insurers can cap coverage at $7,000 per year for mental health and substance abuse treatment, which includes inpatient and outpatient services.

That might have worked in 1985 when the mandate was established, but today, $7,000 only pays about a quarter to a half of what many monthlong inpatient programs run.

Two proposals to the Legislature, in 2003 and 2005, to raise the annual coverage for substance abuse and mental health coverage to $16,800 died.

If lawmakers really want to address the drinking problem inherent in the Wisconsin culture — and its attendant societal woes — it has to deal with the treatment aspect of it.

We need to get treatment decisions out of the hands of insurance companies and into those of providers and patients. We need insurance parity for alcohol treatment. We need insurance companies to recognize that inpatient treatment is the best option for some.

While it may take more than one run through a treatment program to stay sober, people who get treatment fare far better than those who don't.

In a state stymied by treatment options, we quickly need to consider the most cost-efficient and effective options for all our residents who recognize they can't overcome their addictions alone.

Appleton Post Crescent

In a survey given just last fall, one in five eighth graders in Gage County, or 20 percent, said they had used alcohol within the past 30 days.

“Unfortunately, Gage County is a lot higher -- almost twice as high -- as the state average, which is a little over 10 percent,” said Tara Kuipers, director of the Gage County Multiple Agencies Partnering for Success coalition, during a presentation at a meeting of the Beatrice Area Retired School Persons on Wednesday.

She said the high number in Gage County is of concern because starting to use alcohol at an early age can lead to various problems, including issues with learning.

“When you start to use alcohol early, you’re four to five times more likely to become alcoholic,” Kuipers said.

But how do statistics like this impact Nebraskans in general?

Kuipers said underage alcohol use costs Nebraskans $447 million per year for things like traffic crashes, pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, injury and treatment for alcoholism.

Drinking and driving in particular costs Nebraskans $130.6 million per year in wages and productivity lost, medical expenses, motor vehicle damage and other expenses, she said.

“It really impacts everything, and it’s all 100 percent preventable,” Kuipers said.

The survey information Kuipers presented comes from the Nebraska Risk and Protective Factor Survey done every two years by the Nebraska Department of Education. The survey asks children in grades six, eight, 10 and 12 what their behaviors are and their attitudes regarding alcohol and drug use.

The fall 2007 survey also found that 20 percent of 10th graders in Gage County reported that they had tried marijuana, she said.

There tends to be a perception that it’s just marijuana, it’s natural and at least it isn’t harder drugs, Kuipers said.

“But what we see from law enforcement is that the potency of the drug is 200-300 times more that what it was 15 years ago,” she said.

Marijuana also is viewed as a gateway drug, she said, as the majority of people who have used harder drugs started their experimentation with marijuana.

In comparing the surveys from 2003 and 2007, she said the number of Gage County eighth graders who reported having smoked cigarettes went up from 8 percent in 2003 to 11 percent in 2007.

“It’s not up drastically, but that’s still about one in 10 eighth graders who’ve tried cigarettes,” Kuipers said.

It’s the reverse of the trend seen nationally, as cigarette use has generally gone down, she said.

Another statistic of concern, Kuipers said, is that 51 percent of Gage County’s 12th graders reported having been the passenger in a car with a driver who had been drinking alcohol.

“Alcohol-related accidents are the No. 1 cause of death among youth,” she said.

Kuipers said the perception at times is that the message of don’t drink and drive is overdone, but when over half of 12th graders still do it there’s more work to be done on the issue.

On a positive note, binge drinking, defined as having five or more alcoholic drinks in a row, decreased in Gage County from 2003-2007, she said.

“I’m glad to say that number has decreased,” Kuipers said.

In 2003, 43 percent of 12th graders in the county reported binge drinking, while 30 percent reported doing so in the 2007 survey.

“That’s still a significant number of kids, and it’s still quite a bit higher than the state average of 20-22 percent,” she said.

Also on a positive note, Kuipers said the 2007 survey showed that 40 percent of the county’s 12th graders have used cigarettes, lower than the state average of about 45 percent.

In response to a question about what makes this area a hot spot, she said that is not known for sure.

She said these are issues that everyone in the community can help with, whether it’s with their own children or grandchildren or the child that lives next door.

“You all can still play a role,” Kuipers said, as the influence of adults is an important factor in keeping children from using alcohol and drugs.

She said underage alcohol use goes back to adults because 100 percent of the alcohol youths get their hands on comes from adults at some point since it is not legal for youths to purchase it themselves.

“This is a community problem,” Kuipers said.

And that’s where a coalition like MAPS helps.

MAPS is a coalition of individuals from across Gage County representing many areas including human service, health care, mental health, education, law enforcement, churches, youth, and community volunteers. Their goal is to create better communication between the agencies so they can find ways to collaborate, she said.

The point, Kuipers said, is to look at what’s going on in the community and figure out ways they can better support the health of youth.

Beatrice Daily Sun

The Federal Government plans to unify laws across all states and territories to control the supply of alcohol to minors but has ruled out banning young people aged 18 to 21 from buying alcohol from bottle shops.

Health Minister Nicola Roxon said there were no plans to introduce a British-style ban on under-21s buying alcohol from liquor stores and supermarkets, a move about to be introduced in parts of England and Scotland.

The Government's taskforce on binge drinking, the Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy, wants to wipe out the numerous inconsistencies across Australian jurisdictions affecting minors and alcohol.

In some states, Victoria for example, it is deemed acceptable to serve alcohol to a minor in a private home if they are supervised by an adult - who does not have to be a parent. Restrictions on supplying alcohol to minors relate only to licensed premises, or to public venues. State penalties vary from $550 to $20,000.

A spokeswoman for the Minister for Gaming and Racing, Graham West, said in NSW adults can give under-18s alcohol as long as the minor's parent has given permission.

Yesterday Mr West also ruled out a ban on takeaway alcohol for 18- to 21-year-olds.

Australian National Council on Drugs executive director Gino Vumbaca said while the UK scheme limiting 18- to 21-year-olds to drinking in pubs, clubs and restaurants had merit, teenagers under 18 already got alcohol outside licensed venues, so raising the legal age to 21 would be similarly ineffective.

He said evidence showed the most effective way to curb binge drinking was by increasing alcohol tax.

Ms Roxon has dismissed calls to raise the legal drinking age despite extensive American research showing that increasing it to 21 reduced road crashes and violence and cut the amount drunk by young people.

Paul Dillon, director of Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia, said cheap alcohol meant teenagers could get dangerously intoxicated cheaply.

"I go out to private schools and the girls tell me they will drink a whole bottle of $30 vodka between three of them, which is just $10 each, while in the poorer areas, kids can get two litres of cask wine for $12," he said.

On July 1, fines in NSW for supplying alcohol to minors rose to $11,000 and/or 12 months in jail, while penalties for minors caught inside licensed venues or buying alcohol doubled to $2200.

Sydney Morning Herald

Getting past denial, public stigma just the first battle in alcohol abuse recovery

Kirby Krueger’s hard-working, hard-drinking Wisconsin roots are entwined with a history of alcoholism on both sides of his German-Polish family.

Krueger’s mother, Janet, 72, remembers as a child running to the corner tavern in Milwaukee with a metal lunch pail to pick up beer for her grandfather.

“I didn’t think anything of it,” she said. “That’s just how I grew up.”

So while Janet Krueger didn’t ignore her son’s underage drinking when he was developing into one of Appleton’s premier teenage athletes 35 years ago, she thought he would grow out of it.

“I was raised in a family where you knew who drank too much and who didn’t, but no one got treatment,” she said. “If you had a problem, you pulled yourself up by your bootstraps. I thought he would figure it out.”

But for a long time, Krueger didn't figure it out or seek treatment. Denial cost him his dreams of playing big-league baseball, a marriage and his health, causing him decades of misery.

“In Wisconsin, if you make it to work every day, even with a hangover, and pay your bills and show up for family gatherings with a smiling face, you’re not (perceived as) an alcoholic,” said Krueger, now 50.

His story speaks to Wisconsin’s alcohol-ingrained culture, which not only can engender problem drinking but also can obscure the need for treatment. A toxic brew of drinker’s denial, limited access to services, costly co-pays and public stigma keeps many Wisconsinites who battle the bottle from getting treatment they require.

Those who do recognize they have an addiction often find treatment prohibitively expensive.

Only 10 percent to 12 percent of those Wisconsinites who need help actually get it, said Dr. Richard Brown of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“We lead the nation in risky drinking and, for the most part, people don’t get treatment,” Brown said.

Over the past five years, Wisconsin has averaged the fifth-highest rate of alcohol dependence or abuse in the nation. Nearly 10 percent of the state’s population has an alcohol problem, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Additionally, the state averages the fifth-highest rate of people needing but not receiving treatment for an alcohol problem, the same survey shows.

Brown is clinical director of the Wisconsin Initiative to Promote Healthy Lifestyles, a $12.6-million project to improve alcohol and drug screening, intervention, referral and treatment in the state’s primary care clinics, including early participant UW Health-Fox Valley Family Medicine in Appleton.

“People with alcohol problems don’t realize they have a problem and earnestly don’t believe they need help,” he said, “and then once they realize it and try to get help very often they can’t.”
Badger tradition

Krueger guzzled Boone’s Farm wine when he was 16. His addiction deepened while he was in college.

“You believe alcohol goes with everything,” he said. “You go to a ballgame, you drink. You go out with the guys, you drink. You go to a family reunion, and you’ve got a kegger tapped.”

For his addictions, Krueger has required nearly a dozen treatments since age 16. Drinking led to out-of-control boozing and then to hard drugs and then, finally, to prison.

He has been convicted of drunken driving five times and has been arrested more than once for using crack cocaine.

In some ways, running afoul of the law was a blessing.

“I would never had gotten help if I hadn’t been forced to, to appease the courts,” he said.

In a state where drinking is an inextricable part of the fabric of life, recognizing alcohol abuse, especially in yourself, is difficult.

“People believe it’s no problem,” Krueger said. “Like me, they say I can handle this. I’ll just stop tomorrow.”

But denial isn’t the only barrier to treatment. An even bigger obstacle, Brown believes, is a lack of insurance parity. Treatment costs often go under-funded because addiction is not covered on the same level as other illnesses.

“You’d never tell a diabetic: ‘Your blood sugar is too high but sorry, we won’t treat you anymore because you’ve exceeded your treatment cap,’” Brown said. “But that’s what we tell people here about alcohol all the time.”

Wisconsin is one of fewer than a dozen states that do not provide for some form of insurance parity for substance abuse and mental illness, which often overlap. Under Wisconsin law, group health insurers can cap coverage at $7,000 per year for mental health and substance abuse treatment, including inpatient, outpatient and transition services.

That amount has not increased since it was set 23 years ago, said Sarah Bowen, executive director of the Wisconsin Psychological Association and co-chairwoman of the Coalition for Fairness in Mental Health and Substance Abuse Insurance.

“In 1985, when the state mandate was established at $7,000, you could purchase about 30 days of inpatient care with that,” Bowen said.

That’s no longer true.
Caught up in politics

The renowned Hazelden treatment facility in Center City, Minn., costs about $26,000 for a 28-day stay. Rogers Memorial Hospital in Oconomowoc runs $16,000.

NOVA, one of the state’s few inpatient rehab centers, charges $4,000 for a 28-day stay. Most clients pay out of their own pockets, said executive director Marcia Larson.

“I couldn’t have afforded that,” Krueger said.

Without adequate insurance coverage, cost is a big deterrent for many of those who might seek treatment.

“It is difficult to afford treatment if they have health insurance and almost impossible if they don’t have health insurance,” said Kristene Stacker, executive director of Fox Cities Community Health Center, which serves the uninsured and underinsured in Calumet, Outagamie and Winnebago counties.

“About the only way they can get in for treatment for detox is if it becomes a legal situation and they go in on a 72-hour hold.”

Bowen’s coalition, which wants mental health and substance abuse treatment covered under the same conditions and terms as any other medical problem, is trying to educate employers about how they could save money if Wisconsin had parity. Savings would come from reductions in absenteeism, turnover, on-the-job mistakes and overall medical expenses.

The group repeatedly has run into a buzz saw in Madison, however, and Bowen isn’t optimistic.

“We have been caught up in politics and the fact that key people in the state Assembly don’t believe in government enacting laws telling employers what benefits to give employees,” she said.

Rep. Steve Wieckert, R-Appleton, who serves on the state assembly’s health committee, said parity comes up periodically. But, while there is bipartisan support for measures to get tougher with drunken drivers, treatment is a harder sell.

Some legislators cite questionable success rates as a waste of taxpayer money.

Legislator Gregg Underheim, (R-Oshkosh), who chaired the Assembly’s Health Committee, said: “Efficacy (of treatment) is a big issue but there is also the question of how do you properly allocate the costs for treatment. This is clearly a social policy decision. Why hide the cost in private insurance?”
Treatment costs

The cost of treatment has been a major obstacle for families of students with alcohol and drug issues who would like to get help, said Deb Larson, a recently retired social worker with Appleton Central High School. Larson worked with students at risk of not graduating, often because of underlying substance abuse issues.

“It’s very frustrating for us, knowing the sooner we can intervene the better,” she said. “Often, it doesn’t get addressed until they land in the county system and request intervention at some point or the county steps in and requires it.”

Options Treatment Programs in Grand Chute specializes in adolescent and adult outpatient treatment and relies on client co-pays, insurance reimbursement, county funding and Medicaid.

Executive Director Jim Webb said depression and substance-abuse counseling cost as little as $300 for six weeks of individual sessions. The cost of 14 weeks of day treatment is $3,000 or less.

There are no waiting lists, however.

“We do our very best,” he said, “but it can be a challenge with some insurance companies, and we spend a lot of time on the phone.”

Options is one of few outpatient agencies that accept low-income clients on Medical Assistance. The government reimbursement rate is poor, Webb said.

“Where an insurance company might pay $30 for an hour of group therapy, Medical Assistance pays $8,” he said.

Those who cannot afford treatment at a private facility have options in the public sector, accessing providers and services through their county government, said Tom Swenson, behavioral health manager for Calumet County.

“But I’m not sure we can continue without more federal and state dollars,” he said. “We’re finding ourselves with less money for support and more people needing it. That is certain to get worse in the current economy.”

As an alcohol and other drug abuse counselor with the Health Center and Fox Valley Psychiatric Associates, Kerrie Jo Larsen has a foot in public and private sectors.

“Most people I see have no insurance coverage,” she said. “They’ve often been through the whole gamut with their disease, progressing from leading a stable professional life with health insurance coverage to no insurance and homeless or living in a shelter — all directly related to their alcoholism.”

Some treatment providers doubt insurance firms have the client’s best interest in mind when monitoring costs.

NOVA’s Marcia Larson said that even though her 50-bed program, one of Wisconsin’s few inpatient rehabilitation centers, is relatively inexpensive, health care management companies prefer less costly outpatient care.

“The biggest single paradox in the insurance industry is that employers purchase policies and have what they believe is a reasonable benefit for their employees,” she said, “and what is not said in these policies typically is that said benefit will be managed in such a way you can’t access it.”
Insurance challenges

Parity may not be the answer if it means even more layers of management, she said.

“Clients practically have to be poised on the edge of a building preparing to leap before the insurance companies say they need to be served in anything other than an outpatient setting,” Larson said.

“We need a more enlightened insurance industry. There are people doing case management who don’t know anything about chemical dependency. They try to cut costs. We try to save lives. Sometimes those agendas are at odds.”

Karrie Jo Larsen, the alcohol and drug abuse counselor, said she thinks it has become tougher to get treatment in Wisconsin.

“It’s very frustrating that insurance companies really dictate treatment,” she said. “Our hands are often tied by how often, how many times and the level of care insurance will pay. An incredible amount of work goes into justifying how much care is needed.”

Insurance companies are not the bad guys, said Greg Thousand, manager of behavioral health for Network Health Plan, Menasha.

He said his role is part gatekeeper with employers’ interests in mind and “part trying to make the best match so people aren’t out in the cold looking for resources in the Yellow Pages.”

Such determinations are based on “medical necessity,” he said, “so people don’t go into more costly residential programs when there might be a more effective treatment match based on their symptoms, such as outpatient treatment or group therapy.”

Thousand is glad to see efforts to bring about insurance parity in Wisconsin, but he said: “I wish they would look more incrementally without shooting for the moon. We’re all trying to keep costs down.”

Webb said the Fox Valley enjoys better treatment options and greater access than other parts of the state, largely because local county boards support alternatives to license revocation and jail that hold people accountable yet help them get well.

Insurance companies and families need to understand it may take more than one stab at treatment to succeed, Brown said.

“The vast majority who get treatment will drink again, just like people who get treated for high blood pressure, diabetes will see their blood pressure or blood sugar get out of control at times,” he said.

“So, often we conclude (treatment is) not effective when we say he got treatment and is drinking again. The better question to ask is do people who get treatment do better than people who don’t? … The answer is yes.”
‘Finally figured it out’

Krueger has gone through 10 treatments, most of which were court ordered. They range from drunken driving education programs and counseling to outpatient treatment and group home rehabilitation.

“I’ve been in so many treatments they all run together,” he said.

“You don’t know which treatment will stick, but you don’t stop getting it, and you hope nobody gives up on you.”

Treatment gave him the foundation he needed to overcome his addictions, he said; it was up to him to build on that.

“They showed me everything I needed to know. It was up to me to use it to my advantage.”

I had to realize I can't stay sober for anybody but me.”

Some court-ordered treatment he didn’t have to pay for, some he did.

His longest treatment was 90 days in a Mooring House and 60 days in a three-quarter house following prison.

He attends Narcotics Anonymous meetings once a week and checks in at Mooring, a halfway house for men in recovery from substance abuse, every weekday — to “stay connected,” he said.

“I do that just for me.”

Krueger said he has been sober for 19 years and has managed to stay away from cocaine for the past three years. “It took me (a lifetime), but I think I have finally figured it out.”

Life isn’t easy. Unemployed and uninsured, he lives with his mother. His health is shaky; he has diabetes, severe osteoarthritis and arthritis.

But before all is said and done, there might be something like an element of redemption in his story.

He has enrolled to start taking classes at Fox Valley Technical College to become an alcohol and drug counselor.

Appleton Post-Crescent

News reports state that about a third of learners in the Western Cape alone are binge drinkers with some as young as 10 classified as heavy drinkers.

The death of 11-year-old Roseline Majola in March this year highlighted the alarming rise of alcohol abuse in children and teens. Majola was stoned to death by her friends who were allegedly drunk at the time.

Her friends aged nine to 15 were charged with murder and four were convicted in May and will be sentenced in June.

The most recent statistics available in South Africa is a survey conducted in 2002. Nearly half of all South African learners had used alcohol according to the South African National Youth Risk Behaviour Survey.

Alcohol usage amongst boys was found to be 56.1% and amongst girls an alarming 43.5%. A further 31.8% said they had used alcohol within the past month and 23% said they had engaged in binge drinking in the month before the survey.

More shocking is that 15.8% boys and 9% girls had their first drink before the age of 13 years.

Izabelle Little, author and co-ordinator of Life Talk, an online forum for teens and parents, says we are facing an alcohol abuse crisis.

"Binge drinking is a huge issue. Every day I get hundreds of e-mails telling heartbreaking stories. Alcohol abuse is leading to tragedies that are avoidable", says Little.

Worldwide problem

Alcohol abuse in children and teens is a worldwide problem.

According to Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the US, 90% of all underage drinking is in the form of binge drinking.

A National Health Service (NHS) report released in the UK earlier this year showed that hospital admissions linked to alcohol have increased by 50% since 1995 and prescriptions for treating alcohol addiction jumped to 20% in the past four years.

An Australian study released in February this year found that ten percent of 12-17 year olds engage in binge drinking in any given week. In 16 – 17-year- olds one in five binge drink on a weekly basis.

In March this year the Australian government embarked on a 53 million dollar campaign against binge drinking.

What is binge drinking?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines binge drinking as the consumption of five or more drinks in one sitting or on one occasion.

Doctor Fourie, regional director of SANCA explains further, "Binge drinking is a pattern of using alcohol in which people intoxicate themselves during weekends or on special occasions."

Why do teens binge drink?

Little says, "We have a culture of drinking in South Africa and teens are a product of the society in which they live."

According to Little teens drink for a number of reasons: alcohol is freely available at parties and clubs; peer pressure – it appears to be the cool thing to do; alcohol advertising is targeted at teens; many teens are bored and alcohol provides a diversion; and some drink to escape from a broken home, poverty or abuse.

The dangers of binge drinking

"Alcohol lowers inhibitions and teens end up doing things they wouldn't normally do. Teens engage in sexual activities, increasing their chances of becoming infected with sexually transmitted infections, such as HIV. Alcohol abuse increases the chances of getting mugged or sexually abused. The abuse of alcohol can also be a gateway to other drug abuse. It can leave life-long scars", says Little.

Dr Fourie explains that binge drinking is extremely unhealthy. "If your blood alcohol level is too high, it affects the brain and could lead to a coma. It also slows down your heartbeat and could be fatal if your blood alcohol level is too high."

Fourie says what makes it even more dangerous for teens are that they tend to drink mixtures of ciders, beers, spirits and wine.

"It is a high-risk drinking pattern that can lead to serious addiction and result in social problems and high-risk behaviour such as engaging in unsafe sex and drunken driving. People can't act and think rationally when they are intoxicated," says Fourie.

The silent scourge

"Parents don't know what's happening. They drop their teens at parties and even night clubs where there is no adult supervision and alcohol is free and flowing. They believe that it won't happen to their child and only find out when they are contacted by a school counsellor, or if something tragic happens," says Little.

Fourie stresses that parents should be cautious about the freedom they give their children.

Little says that society had failed teens by not giving a strong message about the dangers binge drinking holds.

"Teens don't realise how dangerous drinking is. They have the – it-won't-happen-to-me attitude. Children start drinking as young as the age of 10 and by the time they are 14, they are alcoholics.

They think they can cope with their drinking habits, but most of them are in denial of how serious it is," according to Little.

She emphasises that it is a serious issue that needs to be addressed. "The government is aware of the problem and some initiatives have been set in place; however more can be done. Alcohol abuse and underage drinking are only the symptoms of underlying issues. We should start addressing the causes. Parents, schools and communities all have a role to play."

Know the signs

Little advises to look out for the following signs:

* Personality and behavioural changes

* The smell of alcohol

* Signs of a hangover: headaches, red eyes, shivers, throwing up

* Excessive and sudden use of mouthwash and breath mints

* Alcohol is disappearing from your liquor cabinet

* Your liquor has been watered down

* Wild parties, late nights and sleepovers

* The hiding of bottles in bedroom cupboards

"If you suspect your teen has a drinking problem, get help. Seek professional help. Don't try to handle it yourself," says Little.

Health 24

Drinking habits of young people in Dorset are to come under scrutiny in a major review into alcohol abuse.

A panel of councillors has been tasked with heading the review, which will seek help from youngsters themselves to get to the root of the problem.

The panel is aiming to gauge the full extent of alcohol misuse among youngsters in the county and then work with expert groups and youths to get a better understanding of the causes.

It will then attempt to come up with a set of measures to tackle the principal issues, which will be presented to the Dorset Health Scrutiny Committee in May next year.

The review is a county-wide initiative with the panel made up of councillors from Dorset's county, borough and district councils and involvement also coming from the Dorset Primary Care Trust, Dorset Police and Dorset County Council's children's services department.

Dorset County Council's health partnerships officer Lucy Johns said: "The government has identified tackling alcohol misuse as a public health priority.

"As a nation we are drinking more and more and there is concern that use by people under 18 exposes them to all sorts of risks.

"The Health Scrutiny Committee is very concerned about what extent this is happening in Dorset."

The panel will be working with the Dorset Youth Council to get the views of the younger generation and is also hoping to get other teenagers involved.

Miss Johns said: "We will be wanting to hear the experiences and talk to young people more widely.

"The key thing the panel want to focus on is how to make a difference. Their role is to find out where they can make a real impact and effect real change."

Health Scrutiny Committee chairman Ronald Coatsworth added: "Alcohol misuse by young people is both a national and a local problem.

"At every level we must do all we can to equip young people with the facts they need so that they can make the right choices.

"This review will hopefully give us the information we need to guide our future generations."

This is Dorset

Officials and advocates throughout the county are teaming up to fight underage drinking.

An “intense wave” of compliance checks will take place in August and September throughout the city and county to prevent minors from obtaining alcohol, according to officials.
Alcohol remains the number one drug of choice among young people, said Anne McGee, director of the Cabell County Substance Abuse Prevention Partnership.

McGee said 43.6 percent of Cabell County sixth through 12th-graders reported using alcohol in the past year during a recent survey. More than 59 percent of Marshall University students reported drinking before the legal age.

The partnership announced Friday it was joining with the Governor’s Highway Safety office, Marshall University, the Alcohol Beverage Control Administration, and local law enforcement agencies to reduce underage drinking.

The added partners and funding will help to continue ongoing efforts and have a great impact, said Larry Kendall, traffic safety director in the West Virginia Governor’s Highway Safety Program.

“We’re really thrilled to be able to continue the program ... and save a few lives in the process,” Kendall said.

Efforts over the past year have reduced the times minors were able to purchase alcohol from 43 to 17 percent, according to ABCA statistics.

Officials will target underage drinking on campus and throughout the county, according to Cabell County Chief Deputy Jim Scheidler.

Scheidler said efforts to check bars and convenience stores will occur during summer and continue as the fall college session returns.

“Drinking is associated with so many problems on campus,” said Amy Saunders, coordinator of student health education programs at Marshall.

Violent crimes, sexual assault and failing grades often involve alcohol, she said.

Scheidler said the majority of police reports involving juveniles during the summer are also related to alcohol consumption.

Herald Dispatch

Mount Gambier police Superintendent Trevor Twilley has expressed his concern about youth drinking in Mount Gambier.

“Whilst underage drinking is not unique to just the South East, it is a concern to the police and should be a concern to the community,” Supt Twilley said.

“Also of concern are those who choose to drink excessively and disrupt the peace and comfort of community members, something that the community should not tolerate and something the police will not tolerate.”

Supt Twilley said South East police had an “extremely good working relationship” with stakeholders including pub and club licensees, council and security.

“(We are) employing a number of strategies to reduce and or minimise the impact on the community from these quality-of-life crimes,” he said.

Supt Twilley said he was disappointed with the willingness of some parents to allow their children to drink in excess.

According to the Australian Drug Foundation (ADF) alcohol can cause permanent brain damage as different parts of the brain develop at different rates as we grow.

The pre-frontal cortex, which houses the part of the brain that controls rational thinking, does not begin to mature until the age of 19 and only fully matures by around the age of 21 in women and the age of 28 in men.

Damage to the pre-frontal cortex during its development can have lifelong consequences for the young person’s memory, personality and behaviour, according to the ADF.

Border Watch

The Sale of cheap alcohol in Swindon centre is fuelling binge boozing, as the hospital is having to deal with teenagers having their stomachs pumped.

Swindon has one of the highest rates of under-18s being admitted to A&E for binge drinking in the country, according to a Government-sponsored report from KPMG.

And the figures are backed up by statistics obtained by the Adver showing 80 teenagers were admitted to the Great Western Hospital for alcohol misuse from August 2006 to August 2007.

Service delivery manager Steven Arnold at Swindon Ambulance station said: “The number of alcohol related incidents we attend in the town is a concern and the problem is worse at the weekend.”

He said that paramedics mostly had to deal with people being incapacitated or injured through drink-fuelled violence.

Consultants KPMG visited Swindon and other towns on behalf of the Home Office to find out if clubs and bars were meeting their social responsibility of discouraging binge drinking.

Researchers visited 88 pubs, clubs and off-licences in Swindon over a five-day period in February.

In the town centre, the researchers found 23 per cent of premises promoted alcohol with the use of sexual images and eight per cent offered free drinks to certain customers.

They saw alcohol being sold to three drunk people and what appeared to be four youngsters.

Their report of the inspection, released yesterday, said finding cheap drinks was a major motivation for punters in the town.

“Purchases and custom appeared to be largely down to the price of alcohol rather than entertainment or atmosphere,” said the report.

It said chain pubs offering cheap drinks were the only busy bars in town.

Richard Palusinski, head of community safety for the Community Safety Partnership said changes have been put in place since KPMG’s visit including the launch of an Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy.

He said: “We have a credible document that says we will help people stop harming themselves from the misuse of alcohol.

“We are reviewing the licensing of premises that are acting in a way that is unhelpful to the people of Swindon.

“There is a dual responsibility. Yes the licensees are responsible for making sure they sell appropriately-priced alcohol to the right people but I don’t think we can escape the fact that there is a responsibility with the individual.”

Jane Leaman, Joint Director of Public Health for Swindon PCT and Swindon Council said the trust was working with the police and council through the Community Safety Partnership to raise “awareness of excess drinking and the potential impacts on people’s health.”

The KPMG report –titled Review of the Social Responsibility Standards for the Production and Sale of Alcoholic Drinks – said traders were failing to put drinkers’ safety first.

Home Office Minister Tony McNulty said: “At best the standards are being applied in a fragmented way, at worst in many places alcohol is being sold and marketed irresponsibly.”

Researchers from KPMG visited North Norfolk, Coventry, Hackney, Harrogate, Manchester, Tyneside and Newquay as well as Swindon.

Swindon Advertiser

Binge alcohol drinking is on the rise in the region -- in fact, the Grey Bruce Health Unit says it's spiraling out of control.

The latest figures from the Canadian Community Health Survey show 34 per cent of people in Grey Bruce engage in binge alcohol drinking.

That is 12 per cent higher than both the Canada and Ontario averages.

And the 34 per cent registered in 2007 is almost double the number found in the 2001 survey at 18 per cent.

The survey monitors people who the age of 12 who drink alcohol -- and it shows alcohol is the most popular drug in Grey Bruce.

Medical Officer of Health Doctor Hazel Lynn says binge drinking is an increasing problem and it's costly to our society.

She wants to reverse the trend.

The Grey Bruce Health Unit is now issuing warnings about excessive alcohol use.

Officials say alcohol is the third leading risk factor contributing to illness -- such as heart disease, high blood pressure and cancer.

But it also has negative social effects -- including strained relationships with employers, friends and family.

The Health Unit also notes young people are especially at risk and parents should try to set an example by watching their alcohol consumption.

The Low Risk Drinking Guidelines recommends no more than two standard drinks on any one day.

Bayshore Broadcasting Corporation

Alcoholism means you are addicted to alcohol and cannot function without it. If you crave alcohol as soon as you wake, if you tremble, shake and feel sick without it, then you could be an alcoholic. Alcoholism is a very serious disease which affects around 2 in 100 women in the UK and can kill. The best treatment is to stop drinking altogether, have therapy and occasionally medication too.

Alcoholism is a word which many people use to mean 'alcohol dependence' (alcohol addiction). Some people are 'problem drinkers' without being dependent on alcohol. If you are alcohol dependent then detoxification ('detox') can help you to stop drinking.
Problems with drinking alcohol

There are roughly four 'levels' of alcohol drinking - social, heavy, problem and dependent. As a rule, each level increases the risk to your health and safety.

Social drinking: Most people drink some alcohol. However, even a small amount of alcohol can be dangerous if you drive, operate machinery, or take some types of medication.

Heavy drinking: This is drinking above the recommended 'safe' limits which are:

* Men should drink no more than 21 units of alcohol per week (and no more than four units in any one day).
* Women should drink no more than 14 units of alcohol per week (and no more than three units in any one day).

One unit of alcohol is in about half a pint of beer, or two thirds of a small glass of wine, or one small pub measure of spirits. See leaflet called 'Alcohol and Sensible Drinking' for details.

Drinking above the recommended safe limit increases your risk of developing diseases such as cirrhosis (liver damage), damage to the pancreas, certain cancers, heart problems, sexual problems, and other conditions. About 1 in 4 men, and about 1 in 7 women, drink more than the safe limit. In general, the more you drink, the greater the risk.

For example, if a man drinks five units each day (not greatly over the recommended limit) then, on average, he doubles his risk of developing liver disease, raised blood pressure, some cancers, and of having a violent death.

Problem (harmful) drinking: This is where you continue to drink heavily even though you have caused harm, or are causing harm or problems to yourself, family, or society. For example, you may:

* Have cirrhosis or another alcohol related condition.
* Binge drink and get drunk quite often. This may cause you to lose time off work, or behave in an antisocial way when you drink. But note: not everybody with problem drinking binges or gets drunk. Many people with an alcohol related condition such as cirrhosis drink small amounts frequently, but do not get drunk.
* Spend more money on alcohol than you can afford.
* Have problems with your relationships or at work because of your drinking.

Many problem drinkers are not dependent on alcohol. They could stop drinking without withdrawal symptoms if they wanted to. But, for one reason or another, they continue to drink heavily.

Alcohol dependence, addiction

This is a serious situation where you drink every day, and need to drink to prevent unpleasant withdrawal symptoms (see below). In the UK about 2 in 100 women, and about 7 in 100 men, are alcohol dependent.

What are the symptoms of alcohol dependence?

If you are alcohol dependent you have a strong desire for alcohol. Sometimes the desire is overwhelming. You have great difficulty in controlling your drinking. In addition, your body is so used to lots of alcohol that you start to develop 'withdrawal' symptoms 3-8 hours after your last drink, as the effect of the alcohol wears off. So, even if you want to stop drinking, it is difficult because of the withdrawal symptoms.

The withdrawal symptoms include: feeling sick, trembling, sweating, craving for alcohol, and just feeling awful. Convulsions occur in a small number of cases.

As a result, you drink alcohol regularly and 'depend' on it to prevent these symptoms. If you do not have any more alcohol the withdrawal symptoms usually last 5-7 days, but a craving for alcohol may persist longer. The severity of dependence can vary. It can develop gradually and become more severe. You may be developing alcohol dependence if you:

* need a drink every day.
* drink alone often.
* need a drink to stop trembling (the shakes).
* drink early, or first thing in the morning (to avoid withdrawal symptoms).
* often have a strong desire to drink alcohol.
* spend a lot of you time in activities where alcohol is available. For example, if you spend a lot of time at the social club or pub.
* neglect other interests or pleasures because of alcohol drinking.

If you are alcohol dependent you are usually 'tolerant' to the effect of alcohol. This means that you need more alcohol to notice any effects and to become drunk. This can make things worse as it tends to make you drink even more.

If you are alcohol dependent you may get drunk regularly. However, you may not get drunk. You may drink small amounts regularly to keep the withdrawal symptoms away. You may then be able to 'hide' your problem from others. However, you are still at serious risk of developing conditions due to heavy drinking (liver damage, cancers, etc).

Delirium tremens ('DTs')

This is a more severe withdrawal reaction after stopping alcohol. It occurs in about 1 in 20 people who have alcohol withdrawal symptoms about 2-3 days after their last drink. Symptoms include: marked tremor (the shakes) and delirium (agitation, confusion, and seeing and hearing things that are not there). Some people have convulsions. Complications can develop such as dehydration and other serious physical problems. It is fatal in some cases.

Should I cut back, or should I stop alcohol completely?

If you are, or have been, alcohol dependent, or if you have a condition due to alcohol such as liver damage, then stopping alcohol completely is usually best. Otherwise, reducing to a safe level of drinking is an option.
If you are trying to cut down, some tips which may help include:

* Consider drinking low alcohol beers, or at least do not drink 'strong' beers or lagers.
* Try pacing the rate of drinking. Perhaps alternate soft drinks with alcoholic drinks.
* If you eat when you drink, you may drink less.
* It may be worth reviewing your entire social routine. For example, consider:
* Cutting back on types of social activity which involve drinking.
* Trying different social activities where drinking is not a part.
* Reduce the number of days in the week where you go out to drink.
* Going out to the pub or club later in the evening.
* Try to resist pressure from people who encourage you to drink more than you want to.

What can help me to reduce or stop drinking alcohol?

Alcoholism and problem drinking treatments

No-one can make you stop or cut down drinking. You have to be committed and determined to do this yourself. However, it can be difficult, and one or more of the following may help.
Accepting the problem

Some people deny to themselves that they have a problem. The sort of thoughts that people deceive themselves with include: "I can cope", "I'm only drinking what all my mates drink", "I can stop anytime". Accepting that you may have a problem, and seeking help where necessary, are often the biggest steps to cutting back on alcohol, or cutting it out completely.
Self help

Some people are helped by books, websites, leaflets and their own determination. It is thought that about 1 in 3 people who have a problem with alcohol return to sensible drinking, or stop drinking, without any professional help. See the end of this leaflet for a list of resources.

Talking treatments

Some people are helped by counselling and advice from a practice nurse or doctor. Sometimes a referral to a specially trained counsellor may be advised. They can help you to talk through the issues in more detail and help you to plan how to manage your drinking. In some cases, more intensive talking treatments such as cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT) may be appropriate. CBT helps you to change certain ways that you think, feel and behave, and may help some people with alcohol related problems.

Treatment and detoxification

Treating other illnesses

Alcohol may seem to be a 'quick' answer to the relief of stress, anxiety, depression, or other mental health problems. However, the effect is short-lived and drinking a lot of alcohol often makes these conditions worse. If you feel that these conditions are the underlying problem then see your doctor. Medication and talking treatments such as CBT often work well for these conditions, and are a much better long-term option than heavy drinking.
Detoxification ('detox')

This is an option if you are alcohol dependent.

What is detoxification?

Detoxification or 'detox' involves taking a short course of a medicine which helps to prevent withdrawal symptoms when you stop drinking alcohol. Benzodiazepine medicines such as chlordiazepoxide are used for detox.

Many GPs are happy to prescribe for detox from alcohol. A common plan is to prescribe a high dose of medication for the first day that you stop drinking alcohol. You then gradually reduce the dose over the next 5-7 days. This usually prevents, or greatly reduces, the unpleasant withdrawal symptoms. You must agree not to drink any alcohol when you are taking the detox medication. Your GP or practice nurse will usually see you quite often during the time of detox. Also during this time, support from family or friends can be of great help.

Some people are referred to a specialist drug and alcohol unit for detox. This is usually better for those with little home or social support, those with a history of severe withdrawal symptoms, those with physical illness caused by alcohol, and those where previous attempts to stop alcohol have failed. The medicines used to detox in specialist units are much the same as GPs prescribe. However, these units have more staff and expertise for giving support and counselling. Some people with serious alcohol related problems are admitted to hospital to detox.

The medication does not make you stop drinking. You need determination to stop. The medication simply helps you to feel better whilst your body readjusts to not having alcohol. Even after the period of detox you may still have some craving for alcohol. So you will still need willpower and coping strategies for when you feel tempted to drink.

Other medication sometimes used for alcohol problems

* Vitamins, particularly vitamin B1 (thiamine), are often prescribed if you are alcohol dependent. Especially during detox. This is because many people who are dependent on alcohol do not eat properly and can lack certain vitamins. A lack of vitamin B1 is the most common. A lack of this vitamin can cause serious brain conditions called Wernickes encephalopathy and Korsakoff's psychosis.
* Acamprosate is a medicine which can help to ease alcohol craving. This may be prescribed to some people after a successful detox to help them stay off alcohol.
* Disulfiram is another medicine which is sometimes used following a successful detox. When you take disulfiram you get very unpleasant symptoms if you drink any alcohol (such as flushing, vomiting, palpitations and headache). So, in effect, the medicine acts as a deterrent for when you are tempted to drink. It can help some people to stay off alcohol.

After detoxification and staying off alcohol

Many people who successfully detox go back to drinking heavily again at some point. There are various reasons why this may occur. It is thought that you are less likely to go back to drinking heavily if you have counselling, or other support to help you to stay off alcohol. Your doctor, practice nurse, or local drug and alcohol unit may provide ongoing support when you are trying to stay off alcohol. Self-help groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous have also helped many people to stay off alcohol.
If you do go back to heavy drinking, you can always try again to stop or cut down. Some people take several attempts before they stop drinking, or keep within the safe limits, for good.

good to know

Pubs and clubs have been ordered to help stop binge drinking, amid claims that alcohol abuse costs the country £25billion a year.

Licensees were told yesterday that they would face new legislation outlawing happy hours and large measures unless they cleaned up their acts.

The warning came as an official report showed alcohol abuse cost the equivalent of £415 a year for every man, woman and child in Britain.

Health minister Dawn Primarolo said: 'Around a quarter of the population drink to a harmful level.

'These people could be drinking themselves into an early grave – we need the drinks industry to give them the help and information needed to drink at a safer level.'

The £25billion bill is made up of NHS costs of £2.7billion, crime costs of up to £15billion and loss of productivity of up to £7.3billion, the Department of Health report said.

It is much higher than previous estimates, which looked only at the cost of alcohol-related illness.

There are more than 800,000 alcohol-related hospital admissions a year, the report said.

It recommended pubs, bars and clubs do more to tell people how much alcohol is in drinks and proposed banning promotions such as 'women drink for free' nights.

The report suggested pubs should be forced to sell wine in smaller measures and off-licences be prevented from displaying alcohol near check-outs.

Brewers have been given until the end of the year to put health warnings and unit values on bottles and cans.

Alcohol Concern spokesman Frank Sooden said: 'The figures show the problem faced by frontline staff in the NHS and the police services is much greater than many people realise.'

But the drinks industry claimed it was being made a scapegoat. The British Beer and Pub Association said: 'This is punishing the majority of responsible drinkers for the misuse by the minority.'

Metro

Nova Scotia still has a drinking problem. People in the province still drive drunk, still go on benders at bars, still drink underage and some drink while pregnant.

To combat this, last August the provincial Department of Health Promotion and Protection launched a strategy called Changing the Culture of Alcohol Use in Nova Scotia.

Almost a year later that plan is leading to some tangible efforts, but there’s been a lot of legwork to do, a provincial official says.

“We know a fair amount around what the issues are,” Carolyn Davison, director for addictions services for the Department of Health Promotion and Protection, said Wednesday. “We also know the broad things that we’d like to do to target them. It’s just helping the public and government get prepared and ready and willing to do it.”

The strategy indicates the health, social and economic costs of alcohol use in Nova Scotia are enormous: $419 million a year.

Last year was the deadliest on Nova Scotia roads in more than a decade and almost a third of 79 fatal collisions involved alcohol. The year wound up with a Christmas Eve brawl outside Halifax’s Liquor Dome that saw 38 people arrested after a cheap-drink night.

“We know there are some (policies) we should be doing around the pricing of alcohol, it’s just whether or not we can help government understand what is the best approach there,” Ms. Davison said.

A group including chief public health officer Dr. Robert Strang formed after that melee to consider things like drink prices and bar advertising, hours of operation and the training of bar and security staff.

The group has made its report to government.

In the meantime, the department is working with the Tourism Industry Association of Nova Scotia to update rules on training for servers. The province is also looking at introducing a program called Safer Bars that aims to help staff recognize and avoid potentially violent situations.

There are plans to roll out a new ad campaign on the hazardous drinking in September when masses of students return to the province. High-risk drinking is common among people aged 19 to 29. While the risks of drinking and driving ought to be no brainer, there is confusion about when and how much a person can drink safely, Ms. Davison said.

“Some people think they should drink because there are some health benefits to it,” she said. “There are some mixed messages there, but people don’t necessarily understand what the limits are. They don’t necessarily understand how in Nova Scotia we have a particular culture that seems to promote a culture of intoxication.”

Updated guidelines are expected to be released by Health Canada this summer. The strategy has provided funding to hire alcohol coordinators in five district health authorities. That’s helped districts set up programs to meet local needs, like the Making Alcohol Related Changes group in the Capital district health authority. It aims to help people control their alcohol use before it becomes an addiction and causes serious problems.

Capital Health is also the setting for another pilot project that’s meant to determine when alcohol has played a role in Nova Scotians’ traumatic injuries and help those suffering alcohol-related trauma make lifestyle changes. The provincial trauma team based at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre is summoned more than 500 times a year to care for people injured in car or ATV crashes or serious falls.

Under the pilot project those people will be tested for blood alcohol content. Those testing positive will be assessed for their willingness to accept alcohol counselling, said Paul Helwig, a clinical program manager at Capital Health.

“Sometimes when there’s such events such as this, people are more willing to look at their behaviour and take the changes necessary,” he said. “When the iron’s hot, we need to strike sometimes.”

He said this has been done on an ad hoc basis before but will be done consistently now. Patients will be able to access social workers and addictions counselling and be referred to programs in the home districts if they’re from outside Capital Health. If the program proves effective it might be used for less critical emergency department visits, many of which also involve alcohol.

“We’re not out to tell people they can’t drink,” Mr. helwig said. “We just want them to see the realization of maybe they ended up in this accident because they had too much to drink.”

All told just under $800,000 has been spent so far on projects related to the alcohol strategy.

Nova Scotia News

They are a familiar sight at pubs and clubs in South Tyneside enticing drinkers in. But the government could be calling time on happy hours and drinks promotions over the latest fears about binge drinking.

The latest proposals, set to be unveiled by Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo, could see tighter regulation of the drinks industry, including a ban on happy hours and cut-price promotions in licensed premises.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "The Government has made it clear that alcohol must be sold and marketed responsibly and that new legislation will be introduced if existing voluntary standards are not being met."

Drinks promotions and happy hours are currently regulated by individual pub companies.

A report by Alcohol Concern, published this week, showed current industry self-regulation was ineffective, and cut-price drinks deals were commonplace.

Liver specialist Dr Colin Rees said there was a direct link between binge drinking and the cost of alcohol.

The consultant gastroenterologist at South Tyneside District Hospital said: "We currently have more younger people being treated with liver disease, because of drinking, than ever before.

"England is the only country in Europe where alcohol consumption is on the increase.

"One of the main reasons is that, compared to average income, alcohol is so cheap here. There is no doubt that making alcohol more expensive will bring binge drinking down.

"However, the real problem, in my view, is the price of alcohol in supermarkets. That's where people go to get cheap alcohol."

In March, a Gazette reporter bought 48 cans of cheap lager for just £10 from the borough's four major supermarket chains.

And at just 22p per can, own-brand lager from Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Tesco costs less than half the price of a can of Coke.
Simon Charlton, neighbourhood inspector for Riverside and West Shields, said South Shields town centre saw a 25 per cent reduction in late night violent crime between April 2007 and March 2008, compared to the same period last year.

But he warned drinks promotions can cause trouble to flare.

He said: "Happy hours can potentially lead to an increase in violence.

"However, we rely on the common sense of customers and the vast majority who take part in this do not cause a problem."

John Shaw, marketing manager at Dusk, thinks scrapping happy hours is a "stupid idea".

He said: "It's absolutely ridiculous. How can the Government charge people more for a drink with the credit crunch going on?

"Most people who go out just want a few drinks at good value.

"All the staff at Dusk are trained to spot drunk people, and the bar staff will be fined if they serve a drunk person, because by doing that we may lose our license.

"Believe me, even if the regulations come in, pubs and clubs will just find another way around it."

Meanwhile, it was revealed yesterday that six per cent of all NHS admissions are in some way drink related, with more than 800,000 people a year admitted to hospital with alcohol-related injuries and illness – more than four times the previously acknowledged figure.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson said that the new figures would for the first time provide an indicator of the true impact of alcohol on the NHS, and show the brutal truth of the numbers of cases of cancer, heart disease and stroke caused by drink.

Shields Gazette

Restrictions on takeaway alcohol, a greater emphasis on community education and the creation of alcohol-free homes were just some of the ideas raised at a community forum to tackle alcohol misuse in the north-western NSW town of Bourke this week.

The two-day Bourke Alcohol Forum, initiated by the recently formed Bourke Alcohol Working Group and facilitated by Paul van Reyk, saw about 80 representatives from government agencies, non-government organisations, health professions, the community, police and local businesses come together to formulate workable strategies to address issues surrounding alcohol in the town.

Those issues include Bourke being ranked number one in NSW for alcohol-related assaults (including domestic and family violence), malicious damage and hospitalisation for health issues associated with alcohol. Other issues include sexual assault, self-harm, underage drinking and mental health admissions as a result of intoxication or withdrawal.

One of the forum's main findings was that alcohol misuse was not an individual�s problem, but something that impacted on the whole community. This was compounded by a cultural acceptance of alcohol and its misuse � not just in Bourke, but across Australia.

It also found that while the creation of alcohol-free zones in the Bourke township had resolved a lot of the issues within public areas, the problems had largely moved into private homes where the biggest impact was upon families.

Forum participants generally agreed that banning alcohol in Bourke was not a solution, and it was more about the responsible management of alcohol.

Speakers at the forum included Dr Maggie Brady, an anthropologist who has extensively researched the impact of alcohol on indigenous communities and wrote The Grog Book; health consultant Kristine Battye; and the Director of Liquor and Gaming, Albert Gardner.

Goals identified included reducing the demand and supply of alcohol and reducing alcohol-related harm upon individuals and the greater community.

The ideas raised by forum participants to meet those goals will now be collated and some of them developed into a five-year Alcohol Management Plan to be jointly overseen by the Bourke Shire Council and Bourke Aboriginal Community Working Party.

Some of those ideas included:

· Placing restrictions on takeaway alcohol, including restrictions on takeaway hours, limits upon quantity and restricting some types of alcohol, such as full-strength beer, casks and flagons.

· Creating initiatives to encourage people to have their homes or all homes in a street zoned alcohol-free and backing this up with policing and support.

· Providing education and promotion about the effects of alcohol, harm minimisation and lifestyle choices to the community, including school students. This would include Responsible Service of Alcohol courses for senior students and the placement of alcohol education into the school curriculum.

· Restricting the supply of glassware, including bottles, throughout Bourke to reduce injury and damage from broken glass.

· Restricting the availability of hampers and other mail-order alcohol purchases in Bourke.

· Creating alcohol-free events, such as sporting games and family fun days, as well as having ongoing targeted social and sporting activities for youth.

· Creating incentives to address a high turnover of staff in service agencies / creating regular cultural awareness education to assist new staff in recognising Bourke�s unique needs.

· Promoting local hotels to encourage people to drink in a controlled environment rather than in private residences where there are no controls.

· Greater participation in the Bourke Liquor Accord, including by bottle shop staff and members of the community.

· Providing more local support and services for those coming through the justice system, particularly those who have been released from correctional facilities.

· Reintroducing a proclaimed place or sober centre for those affected by alcohol.

· Creating SMART recovery support groups and training local community members to facilitate these. Compulsory discharge planning between agencies for people leaving detoxification centres.

· Making alcohol issues a core business of each agency in Bourke.

· Creating appropriate signage within Bourke relating to alcohol-free zones.

· Redesigning some community housing assets for general community use.

· Creating innovative employment and training opportunities to provide alternatives to drinking.

· Creation of service arrangements and memorandums of understanding to ensure service plans and programs remain in place when staff turnover.

Bourke Alcohol Working Group Chairman, Alistair Ferguson, acknowledged that addressing alcohol misuse issues in the town was no easy task, but commended forum participants for making the first step towards that goal.

These issues aren�t going to go away overnight, but by recognising the problems as a starting point we can start making the changes to better the Bourke community for generations to come,� Mr Ferguson said.

There have been many good ideas raised at the forum and our next challenge is to use them to create the five-year management plan and begin making changes for the better.

This is long overdue and there is no easy solution, but with an ongoing commitment from government agencies, non-government organisations and the community, we can not only improve the reputation of Bourke, but also ensure the safety of all our community members.�

The Bourke Alcohol Forum is an all-of-community initiative made up of NSW Police, NSW Health, the Department of Liquor and Gaming, the Department of Community Services, housing groups, the Aboriginal Medical Service, Bourke Community Drug Action Team, Bourke Aboriginal Community Working Party, the Bourke Shire Council, the Bourke Liquor Accord, the Bourke & Enngonia Aboriginal Community Justice Group and members of the community, including Aboriginal elders.

NSW Police Force

A quarter of UK adults are damaging their health through excessive drinking, it was revealed yesterday.

Some ten million regularly flout advice on how much to drink, egged on by a licensing industry ignoring its own voluntary code on social responsibility.

There is also clear evidence that cheaper booze is to blame for a massive rise in alcohol consumption, as drink prices have halved in 30 years, relative to earnings.

A blizzard of new figures included:

* The harm caused by excess drinking is costing the UK £25billion a year in healthcare, crime and lost productivity.
* Aound 800,000 hospital admissions a year are due to alcohol-related conditions, 70 per cent more than in 2002-2003.
* Heavy drinking is killing 15,000 people a year - including a quarter of all deaths among young men aged 16 to 24.

Ministers were accused of 'dithering' as they hinted they may bring in laws to replace the failed voluntary code and outlaw aggressive discounting, but said they
would wait for more evidence before making any decision.

Professor Ian Gilmore of the Royal College of Physicians warned: 'The Government are understandably anxious about being seen as a nanny state, but unless they take action their own figures suggest we are moving towards a tsunami of health-related harm.'

Alcohol industry leaders hit back, questioning the findings and accusing the Government of failing to enforce existing laws.

The Home Office commissioned consultants KPMG to assess the voluntary code, which was agreed three years ago and is supposed to stop drinks companies, pubs and bars cashing in on binge drinking.

In particular it is meant to stop the trade glamorising heavy drinking, marketing products to youngsters or encouraging rapid boozing through cutprice promotions in bars.

Another code is meant to ensure drinks containers are clearly labelled with the units of alcohol they contain.

The codes were at the heart of the Government's strategy as it brought in 24-hour drinking.

But researchers uncovered a catalogue of blatant abuses, describing scantily-clad women selling shots of spirits to drunken men in clubs by flirting with them, club DJs urging punters to drink more so they can 'get laid' and bar staff selling alcopops to young customers too drunk to count their change.

In 726 visits they saw only three cases where staff refused to serve a drunken customer. The worst excesses were in 'vertical drinking' venues - the large town centre pubs with no seats where young customers are crammed in.

Researchers also voiced concern over cheap supermarket alcohol.

KPMG concludes that the voluntary code has failed totally. It blames 'overriding commercial interests' to sell more alcohol, and the lack of enforcement. A separate study at Sheffield University highlighted close links between alcohol prices and consumption levels, while Department of Health figures detailed the level of harm.

The British Beer and Pub Association called for 'a renewed focus on individual responsibility and accountability, not just pointing the finger at business'.

A spokesman said: 'The Government should address the underlying culture. Legislation is a sledgehammer that will not crack the nut.'

The lost labelling

The drinks industry first agreed to include alcohol unit information on all bottles and cans ten years ago.

Labels should display the number of units inside and remind drinkers of the Government's 'safe' guidelines.

These are three to four units a day for men and two to three for women.

But a decade later, independent monitoring say they found that only just over half of all packaging - 57 per cent - contains such labelling.

Just 3 per cent carried all the information ministers want, including a warning to pregnant women to avoid alcohol.

The Department of Health admitted: 'There is now real doubt as to whether the agreement can be implemented to the extent that was originally expected'.

The 24-hour impact

The introduction of round-the-clock drinking almost three years ago was one of Labour's most controversial moves.

The Licensing Act swept away longstanding laws on closing times, letting thousands of pubs and clubs stay open into the early hours.

Police and hospitals have since complained of dramatic increases in their workload late into the night.

In the worst-affected areas, alcohol-related cases in hospital have more than doubled.

Public Health minister Dawn Primarolo played down the impact of the changes yesterday, insisting the upward trends in alcohol consumption and harm were already well established and there is no evidence they have become worse.

But hopes of creating a 'Mediterranean-style' cafe culture appear to have come to nothing.

Mail Online

The alcohol industry faces tough new laws unless it does more to encourage sensible drinking, the Government said.

A ban on happy hours, cheap promotions and the sale of alcohol at checkouts are all being considered by ministers keen to tackle Britain's binge drink culture.

Pubs and clubs could also be forced to offer smaller glasses of booze as well as larger ones, under new proposals being examined.

Research from KPMG, commissioned by ministers, showed the drinks trade is flouting its own voluntary code on providing alcohol unit information to consumers.

More than 10 years after industry and the Government agreed on clearer labelling, only 57% of products contain details of the alcohol units in a drink. Meanwhile, just 3% of products contain all the information ministers want to see, including a warning to pregnant women to avoid alcohol.

The promise of a crackdown unless the industry improves comes after figures showed the annual cost to the NHS of drinking now tops £2.7 billion a year. This includes more than £1 billion spent on treating people in hospital due to alcohol, £372 million on ambulance journeys and £646 million on A&E visits.

The total cost has jumped around £1 billion since figures were last compiled in 2003.

Other data also showed that more than 2.6 million men and women regularly drink at least the equivalent of 20 pints of bitter a week.

In England, almost 1.6 million men are considered "high risk" drinkers, downing more than 50 units of alcohol a week, and so are more than a million women, who are drinking more than 35 units a week.

Around 10 million people in England drink more than the Government's recommended limits, which are no more than two to three units a day for women and three to four for men.

Press Association

Ministers have told the drinks industry to act more responsibly or face new laws governing alcohol sales.

A review of retailers showed many were not following a voluntary code calling on them to display details on units and to encourage sensible drinking.

Ministers have responded by launching a consultation on proposed laws covering happy hours, promotion and labelling.

It comes as figures for England suggest the scale of alcohol-related hospital admissions is much higher than thought.

NHS Information Centre data had suggested the figure for hospital admissions was just over 200,000 last year.

But this only covered illness caused directly by alcohol such as liver disease.

Department of Health figures for England showed that when deaths from cancer, heart disease and strokes were taken into account the total topped 800,000 last year.

The figure represents a doubling of the numbers in the past four years, leaving the cost to the NHS standing at £2.7bn.

Doctors said drinking levels were now a major health concern.

But public health minister for England Dawn Primarolo preferred to focus on the role of industry, saying the response to the voluntary code - parts of which were introduced in 1998 - was "disappointing".

"The evidence clearly makes this the right time to consult on a far tougher approach to the alcohol industry.

"Obviously individuals have to take responsibility for their drinking, but others, including the industry, also have a role to play."

Happy hours

But she dismissed suggestions that the relaxation in licensing laws had made the situation worse.

The consultation, which will run until October, covers a range of initiatives which would be applied UK-wide. These include:

• Curbs possibly being introduced on happy hours

• Checkout displays in shops

• Labelling to show how many units each drink contains and what the recommended drinking levels are

On labelling, the industry was first asked to display the number of units in each drink back in 1998, but a recent survey by consultants KPMG showed 43% of products did not display the information.

The review also revealed that just 3% were displaying the labelling scheme in its entirety.

However, the deadline for the recommended limits is not until the end of the year.

Another review is planned to coincide with that, by which time the government's review of the impact of pricing on alcohol consumption will have been fully completed by Sheffield University.

Interim findings published to coincide with the consultation suggested cheap prices encouraged increased consumption in the young and heavy drinkers.

This report is seen as a key piece of evidence as experts have claimed that the rise in consumption seen since the 1970s is intrinsically linked to falling prices.

Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians and chairman of the UK Alcohol Health Alliance, pointed out one in four adults is drinking more than the recommended daily amount.

Alcohol 'too cheap'

"This is not just something affecting a small minority, it is not about the binge-drinking culture, it is affecting a large part of society.

"If we don't get to grips with it, it will have serious health repercussions.

"The key to tackling this is price. Alcohol is too cheap and that has driven up consumption."

But industry representatives said new laws were unnecessary.

Jeremy Beadles, chief executive of the Wine and Spirit Trade Association, said the proposals would just increase the price for responsible drinkers.

Instead, he said ministers should concentrate on using the current framework to promote moderation.

"Culture change will take time, but we should start by enforcing the numerous laws we have and build on the education and information programmes."

BBC News

More than 800,000 people are admitted to hospital each year with alcohol-related illnesses and injuries — four times the official figure — ministers will admit today.

Figures will show that six per cent of all NHS admissions are in some way caused by drink, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. And the rate of visits to hospital over alcohol-related problems is rising by 10 per cent every year.

The figures indicate the true impact alcohol has on the NHS from accidents, violence and disease. They include for the first time estimates of the number of cancers caused by alcohol consumption as well as heart disease and strokes.

Alcohol is thought to cause about 17,000 cases of cancer a year and £2billion of NHS money is spent every year treating patients with alcohol-related diseases. Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, believes “lifestyle” illnesses will put an increasing strain on the NHS unless people behave more responsibly.

Ministers fear that resources needed to tackle other diseases will have to be diverted if there is no change in behaviour.

A Department of Health source said: “It is important that we get the real figures so no one is in doubt about how widespread and potentially damaging alcohol-related illnesses are. The action can only be taken when the full scale of the problem is known.”

Labour has faced intense criticism over the introduction of 24-hour drinking in 2005.

Amid growing concerns about the level of alcohol-fuelled violence, pubs and nightclubs have been accused of flouting the laws on underage drinking. Last week figures showed that more than 600,000 children admit to drinking on a regular basis.

Supermarkets have faced repeated calls to ban discount alcohol, in particular deals in in which beer is cheaper than bottled water. And ministers are considering plans to tackle the problem, including cigarette-style health warnings on bottles and cans, a ban on “happy hours” where bars sell cut-price drinks and rules outlawing supermarket discounts.

Today’s announcement will strengthen calls for action.

Office for National Statistics figures showed last month that in 2005/6, hospitals admitted 208,000 people with diseases caused by drink. That was double the figure 10 years before.

But the cases recorded mostly dealt with illnesses directly caused by alcohol consumption such as cirrhosis and other liver diseases.

Today ministers will say that the way the figures are compiled — using admission notes hospital staff fill in for each patient — is too narrow as it excludes hundreds of thousands of cases where patients were made ill by alcohol indirectly, such as breast cancer.

Injuries caused by drink-fuelled violence or road accidents are also not fully recorded, they will say.

Officials estimate that the true figure for alcohol-induced admissions last year was 811,000.

The figures underline the seriousness of the problem and the strain it places on the NHS. They will show that admission rates are more than twice as high for men as for women.

There is concern that alcohol-related illnesses are occurring in increasingly younger people and liver disease often strikes those in their 20s and 30s. NHS data show that in the 12 years to 2006-7 cases of alcoholic-related liver disease trebled.

A new alcohol strategy, “Changing our Drinking Culture” will be unveiled today by Dawn Primarolo, the public health minister.

Labour has been attacked for trying to emulate the European “cafe culture”. A report this month showed that the introduction of 24-hour drinking has failed to reduce alcohol-fuelled violence and has left council taxpayers with a £100 million bill.

The survey, commissioned by the Local Government Association, found that seven out of 10 councils, hospitals and police authorities reported an increase or no change in alcohol-related incidents.

Since Gordon Brown took over as Prime Minister he has looked again at whether all-day opening can still be tolerated, but has stopped short of reviewing the law.

Daily Telegraph

If ear-splitting music and busy bars seem to go hand in hand, a new research suggests that might be because loud music helps to fuel binge-drinking.

Nicolas Gueguen, a professor of behavioural sciences at the University of Southern Brittany in France, who led the study, said deafening music did not just drown out conversation, encouraging people to drink more, but it also aroused the brain, speeding up drinking.

"High sound levels may have caused higher arousal, which led the subjects to drink faster," he said.

"Second, loud music may have had a negative effect on social interaction, so that patrons drank more because they talked less," Gueguen stressed.

The finding is published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, and is drawn from research led by Gueguen, who observed 40 men between the ages of 18 and 25 while they visited one of two bars located in the western region of France.

Louder music spurred more consumption, with the average number of drinks ordered by patrons rising to 3.4 drinks from 2.6 drinks, Gueguen found. The time taken to drink a beer fell to an average 11.45 minutes from 14.51 minutes.

Finding that higher volumes appeared to egg the men on to drink more and faster, Gueguen said: "We need to encourage bar owners to play music at more of a moderate level and make consumers aware that loud music can influence their alcohol consumption.

Hindustan Times

Drink is one of the pleasures of life. It is also one of the greatest curses in Britain today.

While most people are able to enjoy a beer or glass of wine as part of everyday living, a minority booze to wild excess with catastrophic results. Alcohol is responsible for most violent crime and a huge proportion of anti-social behaviour. Police waste countless hours dealing with the consequences of booze while hospital emergency units are pushed to the limit by drunks, many of whom attack nurses and doctors in their booze-fuelled mania. The cost to the nation runs into billions.

The Government clearly needs to take a tougher line and has patently failed to do so.

While it wages a war on drugs, it allows the misuse of alcohol to continue with little more than the occasional tut-tut of concern. Now the Sunday Mirror has learnt it is thinking of ordering drinks firms to put warning notices on cans and bottles.
Advertisement

Considering the scale of the problem, that is a mild measure but at least it shows the Government is beginning to take the alcohol crisis seriously. The real villains are the drinks firms and supermarkets who peddle super-strength alcohol to young people.

Today we reveal how one firm has created a beer which is so strong that a single half-litre can contains five units of alcohol.

Although it is now withdrawing it from sale in this country, other high-strength lagers continue to be available in every supermarket and off-licence, while special offers, making drink available for ever-lower prices, carry on flourishing.

If the drinks industry and supermarkets continue to flout their responsibilities, particularly to youngsters, the Government must crack down on them hard.

Sunday Mirror

Summer passes all too quickly, and before you know, it will be time for this area's young people to head off to college. Along with all the ''stuff'' they take, we'd like them to take a clear appreciation of the deadly risks of binge drinking.

The Associated Press recently reported on a study it did, showing that 157 college age people drank fatal doses of alcohol between 1999 and 2005, with the annual number of deaths trending upward.

The biggest risk falls on freshmen students out in the world on their own for the first time and eager for new experiences. Out of 18 freshman drinking deaths, 11 occurred in the first semester, an AP analysis of news stories showed.

College students don't drink much more than other adults, but they tend to pack all their drinking into a shorter time span, with weekends and the after-final exam days in December prime examples. Binge drinking is more prevalent among college students than others in the 18 to 22 age range.

A young person's 21st birthday has proven to be a highly risky time for drinking. One birthday practice is to drink 21 shots for a 21st birthday, which proved fatal for 11 young adults, including eight college students, the AP noted.

Some colleges have taken steps to promote awareness of the dangers associated with heavy drinking, and that is commendable. More intensive efforts would likely be useful. The toll of alcohol deaths studied by the AP even included one young woman who had been involved in high school alcohol-awareness programs.

The more reminders to be responsible about drinking, the more likely a young person will absorb the advice and make it part of their own behavior, even when the drinks are flowing freely around them

Morning Journal

Labor risks falling off the wagon of its national binge drinking strategy after missing by three months its own deadline for tabling options to tackle alcohol abuse.

In May, a meeting of federal and state ministers with responsibility for drug strategy pledged to fast-track an interim report on binge drinking in recognition of the "urgency'' of the issue.

The document was to go before the Council of Australian Governments in July.
Last week, the ministers met again, with the July 3 COAG event behind them but no report at hand.
A spokeswoman for Parliamentary Secretary Jan McLucas, representing the federal Government on drug strategy, attributed the delay to "extensive'' consultations with the alcohol industry and health groups.

"These consultations, and the work required to gather the necessary information, means that the Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy will now make an interim report to COAG in October,'' Ms McLucas said.

Five months ago, Kevin Rudd unveiled his own $53.5 million plan to combat the binge drinking ``epidemic'', promising a hard-hitting TV campaign as well as grant and pilot project funding.

But he needs the states on board if he is to achieve consistency in local laws restricting parents' ability to supply alcohol to their children and ensuring pubs, clubs and restaurants serve alcohol responsibly.

The report was to cover both those issues, together with the tougher areas of possible controls on alcohol advertising and lower-alcohol products for young people, as well as health warnings on alcohol.

Paul Dillon, director of Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia, applauded the report's ambitious agenda and said he could only speculate on the reasons why it had been delayed.

The backlash from related policies - such as the Government's multi-billion-dollar alcopops tax, which it had tied to its binge drinking agenda - may have contributed to the delay.

The alcohol industry had already made inroads in portraying the Rudd Government as wowserish, which could force a more softly-softly approach from Canberra, Mr Dillon said.

"As soon as people think the Government is going to limit what they drink, how they drink, and the cost of what they drink, you run into problems,'' he said.

A spokesman for Health Minister Nicola Roxon denied she was stepping back in any way from the campaign to curb excessive drinking.

"The Government is working very hard and will have more to say on binge drinking,'' she said.

The Australian

Lying in a hospital bed, 24-year-old Stacey Rhymes cuddles a childhood toy before putting out an arm to her mother.

'Hold my hand, Mum,' she whispers, then slips into a coma. A few hours later, on a spring afternoon earlier this year, the girl with a whole life ahead of her was dead.

The once radiantly pretty Stacey had drunk herself to death on cut-price bottles of wine bought from corner shops, supermarkets and local pubs. She had started drinking at 17 and seven years later her body simply gave up under the constant assault from alcohol.

Her mother, Louise, says: 'I now want the world to know exactly what happened to Stacey and why. It was a terrible way to go.

'Her stomach was like a balloon, as if she was nine months pregnant. Her long hair was falling out, her urine was coloured black and she could not eat. She was scared to look in the mirror because her eyes were canary yellow. The only way to stop the pain at the end was morphine.'

The story of Stacey Rhymes is a salutary one. She is one of the youngest people in modern Britain to die of alcohol abuse. And her mother, speaking for the first time, is determined that the loss of her daughter will not be in vain.

She has set up a Facebook website in memory of Stacey to highlight the dangers of alcohol - and particularly its increased availability following New Labour's 24-hour drinking laws - which now kills more young women than cervical cancer, and more people, generally, than hard drugs.

A film clip about Stacey on YouTube, put there by her mother, has been watched by 16,000 people in a fortnight. It is now one of the most viewed in Britain by children and teenagers.

At the family's terrace home, in Bramcote, on the outskirts of Nottingham, where Stacey grew up with her brother, Jay, now 19, sister Katie, 21, and stepfather, Terry, her mother says: 'Alcohol is as treacherous as a Class A drug.

Yet it's available at all hours and at rock-bottom prices.

'This morning, I saw a pack of four cans of lager at the supermarket for 92p. You can't get four cans of children's pop for that! Young children should be warned about alcohol in the way they are warned about drugs.

'I want them to be shown a photograph of Stacey's face when she was dying. She was killed by alcohol - a drug that is as easy and cheap to buy as a packet of sweets.'

Since the relaxation of licensing laws in November 2005 - which allowed round-the-clock sales of drink in pubs,

clubs, shops and supermarkets - the cost to the nation both socially and financially has been huge. Coupled with low prices for alcohol, there is now an orgy of drunkenness that rivals the gin epidemic of early Victorian times.

The facts are stark. The numbers dying from alcohol-related health problems is rising. In 1999, there were 4,000 deaths. Today, the figure has doubled, with the age of the victims going down, too. Hospitals admit for emergency treatment more than 9,000 drunken teenagers every year.

According to Alcohol Concern, 800,000 children below the age of 15 drink regularly in Britain. Nearly two-thirds of them will have had alcohol in the past month - with one in seven consuming enough to make them sick. One in three think, it is acceptable to get drunk once a week.

Campaigners say that one in ten eight-year-old boys (double the figure ten years ago) and a quarter of 11-year-old girls (ten per cent more than in 1995) have also experimented with alcohol.

Staff at the casualty department of Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool will not be surprised by these statistics. A survey by the hospital - which admits only under-17s - showed that more than half the children treated after binge-drinking had bought their alcohol from a pub or a shop.

Nearly three-quarters of patients are girls, and the favourite tipple is vodka. Every week, seven or eight drunken youngsters are treated at the hospital - a quarter so ill that they have to be put on a ward or go into intensive care.

According to Pat McLaren, an Alder Hey spokeswoman: 'They come in on a Friday and Saturday night in particular. Some are found unconscious on the street or even beaten up. We get them sober and contact their parents. We try to get them to change their ways.'

Alder Hey and Liverpool are not alone. Cases of liver cirrhosis in 20 to 30-year-olds - who often started drinking as children - have doubled in less than a decade.

Eight women in Britain die each day from liver disease - often at ages younger than men with the same condition because their bodies are more sensitive to alcohol poisoning.

As Professor Ian Gilmore, President of the Royal College of Physicians,
warns: 'The damage to society from alcohol is greater than from drugs.'

Dr Gray Smith-Laing, a gastroenterologist at Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham, Kent, says: 'The young of all social backgrounds think it is cool to get completely legless, yet nothing could be more uncool. This is a classless and sexless phenomenon. We have not seen the peak yet.'

Young women such as Stacey Rhymes make up half his caseload. Some have irreversible liver damage from drinking. One woman of 26 he treated recently died of liver cirrhosis.

Dr Smith-Laing says: 'We need a dramatic rise in the price of alcohol so it is no longer affordable for the young.'

It is against this frightening background that Stacey's mother has bravely decided to speak out.

She reaches for a pile of treasured childhood photographs. They show Stacey on her first birthday; at eight in a white hat at a family wedding. There is one of her with bright, clear eyes and long thick hair smiling at the camera - she is just 17, and it is a few months before she began to drink.

Louise, 43, says: 'Stacey had a wonderful childhood and we were a close family. There wasn't a lot of money, but we did old-fashioned things. We went to the park for picnics and walks around Nottingham.

'She had lots of friends and when she left school at 16, she got a job in a local pub as a waitress. She met a boy, and there was even talk of an engagement.'

But things were soon to change. 'For no apparent reason, Stacey began to drink. She had arguments with the boyfriend about it. She lost the job she loved and her boyfriend, too. She was just drinking all the time. She became foul-mouthed. She stole money from us, her family, to buy the alcohol,' says Louise. 'Stacey would go out drinking at night then lie in bed all day. I couldn't get her up, even though I tried before I left for work.

'In the end, we found her a housing association flat in Nottingham, where she moved. We thought it would be a fresh start.' Nothing could be further from the truth.

'Stacey then got in with a bad crowd. Her friends were all drinkers, too. She would lie in bed with a bottle. A few times, she burned the bedclothes with her cigarettes. She got involved in a serious brawl, and was sent to prison for eight weeks.

'We were horrified, but she came out looking far better. She had not been able to drink while inside. We took her back to her flat where there were eight weeks - £800-worth - of giro cheques from the benefits' office. Stacey spent every penny on drink. She was evicted from her flat due to debts on the rent.'

Stacey wouldn't move back home because her mother and stepfather, a self-employed builder, refused to allow her to drink. Revolted by what alcohol had done to their daughter, they are now teetotal.

Instead, Stacey found a place at a hostel in Derby, five miles from Nottingham. 'That lasted five days before she was thrown out for drinking,' recalls her mother.

By now, her life was out of control. For a time, Stacey lost contact with her family. She lived rough in Derby. In desperation, Louise tried to get her daughter sectioned under the mental health laws so she would be taken into hospital. 'But the authorities said she was quite normal, just an alcoholic.' she recalls today.

Stacey was now drinking five litres of wine a day and some cider, too. She no longer dressed fashionably, put on weight and didn't eat properly. 'Her stomach was huge and she was very ill,' her mother says.

On March 28 this year, Stacey was admitted to Derby Hospital - to Ward 308 which deals with alcohol-induced liver problems.

She had been to her GP because her face had gone yellow and she was having trouble walking because her limbs were swollen. The doctor told her to go to hospital immediately - it took her a week to do so.

Dr Jan Freeman, a consultant in whose care she was put, says: 'Stacey was at the end of the road. She could have been saved only by a liver transplant. Like lots of young people, she never thought it would happen to her. Well, Stacey's death shows it can happen to some.'

There is no doubt that Stacey was well looked after in the hospital but, during the next seven weeks, until her death on May 22, she managed to discharge herself three times and return to drinking.

Once, she walked out in her pyjamas, hailed a taxi then disappeared. Derby police put out appeals for the public to look for her. Her parents searched, too.

He mother recalls: 'We got her back to the hospital on each occasion. The last time was on May 17. She had been staying with a drinking buddy. She rang up saying she was being sick and it was streaked with blood. Her skin was itching, a symptom of alcohol poisoning.

'I knew that we would lose her, because of her colour. I thought she wouldn't make it over the weekend. But three days later, she had picked up and told us she was scared of dying. I told her that if she stopped drinking, she would live.'

It was, of course, a white lie. The next day, the hospital rang Louise to say Stacey had a hole in her stomach, caused by acid from a ruptured peptic ulcer. There was nothing more the doctors could do.

Within 24 hours, the family were called to the hospital for the final time. Stacey died in her mother's arms of abdominal bleeding and alcohol-related liver disease.

As confirmation of Stacey's tragic story, Nick Sheron, a liver specialist at Southampton General Hospital and secretary of campaign group, Alcohol Health Alliance, says drink-induced liver disease - once the preserve of middle-aged men - is affecting all ages and both sexes.

He explains: 'If they are alive, it is never too late to stop drinking. But, often the symptoms show up so late that half the patients die before they have a chance to change their ways.

'In the Sixties and Seventies, wine used to be nine percent proof, now it is 13 percent. Beer was 3.2 percent, now a lager is five percent. The size of a wine glass is bigger, too - from 125ml to 175ml, and in some cases 250ml. That is a third of a bottle.'

Dr Sheron warns that alcohol is being used as a drug, instead of a part of a social event or accompaniment to a meal. 'The young drink to get wasted as quickly as possible. They think if they can remember the night before it is not a good night out, and 24-hour licensing is one of the problems,' he cautions.

With prices so low, Professor Mark Bellis, director of the Department of Public Health at John Moores University in Liverpool, adds: 'A young person with £10-a-week to spend can get drunk three times a week.'

The scale of the crisis cannot be over-stated. Alcohol abuse, leading to either injury or disease, now costs the NHS £1billion annually with 40 per cent of casualty departments' admissions being drink-related.

Significantly, the London Ambulance Service says that alcohol-related emergency calls have increased by 12 per cent since 24-hour drinking laws were introduced.

As spokeswoman Anna Lowman says: 'One of the aims of the new laws was to eradicate the 11pm to 2am disorder flashpoint when the pubs and off-licences used to close. But this is still our busiest period. Fourteen per cent of all calls during these hours are linked to drinking.'

Yet this is not the only catastrophic side-effect. The Cabinet Office admits the real cost of drinking is £20billion a year if you include suicides, alcohol-fuelled crime, anti-social behaviour, depressive illness, family breakdown and domestic violence.

Only this month, the Local Government Association - representing councils - warned the 24-hour drinking plan to emulate a European style cafe-culture in Britain had failed miserably.

It costs £100 million a year to oversee the late licensing system, provide staff to clean town centres of vomit or urine (often both) and help for the 'walking wounded' at the end of a night's hard drinking.

At Stacey Rhymes' funeral in Bramcote, held near the park where the family used to picnic, there were 150 mourners - some were her old school friends.

As her mother says: 'Stacey chose her way - and they theirs. They have got married, have children and careers. They are enjoying life. My daughter drank herself to death.

'She never had any problems getting her hands on another bottle. In many ways, she was a victim of our times.'

Mail Online

State Rep. John Fernandes and state Sen. Richard Moore, late last month helped secure a $300,000 grant to help combat underage drinking in Milford, Bellingham and Hopedale.

Wayside Youth and Family Support Network will put together programs for local teens about the dangers and consequences of underage drinking.

"We will focus on how teens are getting alcohol and the social aspects of drinking," said Amy Leone, chairwoman of the Juvenile Advocacy Group at Wayside Youth and Family Support Network. "We really wanted to do a community collaboration around substance abuse."

"Underage drinking has always been a problem and needs to be addressed," said Fernandes, D-Milford. "There are always fluctuations in what behaviors kids engage in, and drinking alcohol is a serious one."

Fernandes said that it was important for him to support the grant for a few different reasons.

"I've seen underage drinking in court as an attorney as well as on the School Committee and as a parent myself," he said. "It's a problem from each perspective."

Social marketing campaigns and prevention programs, such as guest speakers, T-shirt and flier-making, and public service announcements are in the works, Leone said.

"Underage drinking is a problem across the state and local officials are prepared to take action and be proactive," said Moore, D-Uxbridge. "We want to address it before it gets out of hand."

According to Leone, in a 2006 survey done by the Wayside Youth and Family Support Network, 66 percent of Milford High School students reported having drunk alcohol in their lifetime. Forty-four percent reported drinking in the past 30 days, and 19 percent reported drinking before the age of 13.

"The results of the survey were comparable with the other 18 communities we surveyed," said Leone. "Next March, we will do another survey and look at trend data. Hopefully we will see a reduction in binge drinking as well as incidences of drinking and driving."

"I'm not saying we will change kids, but we need to raise awareness of the risks of underage drinking, whether it be alcohol poisoning, addiction, or getting behind the wheel of a car," Fernandes said. "Even if it helps one or two kids, it is important."

A youth group at the Milford Public Library and the Milford Youth Center will also be involved in the underage drinking prevention programs, according to Leone.

"Students will also work with the Students Against Destructive Decisions programs at their schools," she said.

Leone thinks that the programs will be successful in increasing social disapproval of underage drinking and will decrease underage access to alcohol.

"Getting this grant will make Milford a healthier place to live. There is positive energy in this collaboration," she said. "There are so many people working together to bring resources to these kids so that they do not do drugs and drink alcohol."

Moore said that he is optimistic the programs will make an impact due to the community's collaboration.

"Schools, the police department, and the board of health are all involved," said Moore. "All the ingredients are there and this strategy has worked in other communities."

Added Fernandes, "I am hopeful that programs like these become a staple against destructive behaviors."

Milford Daily News

As many as one in four Britons have a much-reduced risk of developing alcohol-related cancer thanks to their genetic make-up, scientists have discovered. Researchers have identified two genes that quickly flush alcohol out of the system, thus reducing its carcinogenic effect. People carrying one or both of the genes may have only half the chance of developing mouth, throat and oesophageal cancers that are strongly associated with drinking.

The genes involved are rare versions of ADH7 and ADH1B. The ADH range of genes help the body to process alcohol. Everyone carries two versions of each of these genes, one inherited from each parent, but only 15 to 20 per cent of the UK population have ADH7, while around another 5 per cent have ADH1B.

A study of 9,000 people has shown for the first time that people carrying one or both of these rare gene variants have a much lower risk of getting head or neck cancer than those who have the common versions. For example, those with ADH1B have only half the chance of developing such cancers and people with ADH7 are at a 32 per cent reduced risk.

Researchers say the findings are significant because it is the first time they have pinned down genes that have a protective effect against alcohol. 'We don't know how the protection occurs, but we do now know that these genes have that effect, and that could be hugely useful in giving us a much broader understanding of cancer processes in general,' said Professor Martin Wiseman, medical and scientific adviser to the World Cancer Research Fund, which helped to fund the study.

Alcohol is one of the major causes of cancer, along with smoking and diet. It is estimated to be responsible for about 5 per cent of the 285,000 new cases of cancer diagnosed every year. Experts say convincing evidence shows that it is linked to cancers of the mouth, breast, bowel, liver, pharynx, larynx and oesophagus.

Health experts welcomed the findings, but warned that they should not be interpreted as a green light to drink heavily. 'This shouldn't have any direct effect on people's drinking behaviour. Those people with one or both of these rare gene variants are lucky in that they are at lesser risk of developing these cancers. Having up to half the risk is significant,' said Wiseman. 'But they still face some risk. So the advice to them wouldn't be, "Go away and drink". It would be, "For cancer prevention, avoid alcohol entirely if you can and, if you do drink, limit it to one drink a day for a woman and two drinks a day for a man".'

Those who carry such genes would not know it, as a family doctor cannot tell and there is no reliable test to tell someone their genetic make-up that can be easily accessed, Wiseman added.

Dr Paul Brennan, the researcher who led the study at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in France, said: 'Every human being has the seven [ADH] genes that, when you drink a beer or whisky, start to break down the ethanol in the alcohol which many believe is the cancer-causing agent. But those 20 to 25 per cent of people who have one or both are gene variants - if they drink alcohol, their risk of getting these head and neck cancers is reduced by about half.'

The discovery made by Brennan and his team is outlined in a paper published in the journal Nature Genetics. They found that 20.5 per cent of people in Manchester, 16 per cent in Edinburgh and 15 per cent in Newcastle carry the rare variant of ADH7, while 6 per cent of people in the Scottish capital and 4 per cent of those in both English cities have the uncommon form of ADH1B.

Now that the two genes have been identified, scientists will start to examine how the proteins they produce assist the body by aiding the natural process of cleansing toxins. This has long-term potential to help in the development of drugs that might mitigate the damaging effects of alcohol consumption.

While the study is good news for up to a quarter of the population, it also provides further evidence of how drinking even moderate amounts of alcohol can increase the risk of getting cancer.

Dr Julie Sharp, science information manager at Cancer Research UK, said: 'This adds to existing evidence that alcohol increases the risk of these types of cancer. It also highlights that both our genes and our lifestyle influence cancer risk and will help scientists understand more about the disease.'

However, Sharp added: 'It's important to stress that these results don't mean that people can drink too much and hope they won't be at risk. These genetic variants are rare and still don't protect people totally from the damage caused by alcohol.'

The Observer

Young Tasmanians are drinking harder, going to school drunk and getting hospitalised for alcohol-related problems in greater numbers, a forum has heard.
Police, health, government and hotel industry members met in Hobart yesterday to tackle alcohol-related crime and anti-social behaviour.

National Drug Research Institute director Steve Allsop told the forum the numbers of young people consuming alcohol had dropped but they were drinking at riskier levels.

He said 50 Australians under the age of 18 died from alcohol-related problems each year.

Professor Allsop said while parents had a big role to play, a range of responses were needed to address the problem.

Tasmania's Alcohol and Drug Service clinical director Adrian Reynolds agreed the levels of drinking and harmful health effects were too high.

"Young people are drinking to intoxication in higher levels," he said.

He said there was a mixed response from hotels as to the responsible serving of alcohol.

"We need to be more consistent about not serving people who are intoxicated," Dr Reynolds said.

The Royal Hobart Hospital has also seen an increase in the number of patients being admitted with alcohol-related problems since 2000.

Department of Emergency Medicine director Tony Lawler said the lineal increase suggested the trend would continue over the next few years.

He said there was also an increase in the number of children aged 13 to 16 being admitted for alcohol-related problems.

"These patients require a significant amount of time because they require regular observation," he said.

Australian Hotels Association executive director Steve Old said his members were often targeted as the "bad guys" but they fully endorsed responsible drinking.

He said education programs in schools were needed to break an ingrained culture of drinking.

Mr Old retold one anecdote from a teacher whose Year 8 student drank alcohol before coming to school.

"Education is the key and it needs to include teachers at school and parents at home."

Police Commissioner Jack Johnston said he had no doubt drinking patterns of young people had changed.

"Police officers are sick and tired of being used as punching bags," he said.

"We would like to see steps being taken to change and modify their behaviour."

He said the outcomes of the forum would help the development of an alcohol action plan.

The Mercury

As always, I had a great time at Courtenay's Island Music Fest this past weekend, and I don't want what I'm about to say to be taken as criticism of what is a summer highlight for my family.

But holy moly, there was some out-of-control drinking going on up there.

There were kids drinking so hard that I suspect some of them were putting their lives at risk. They were falling-down, glassy-eyed, fumble-footed drunks. I can't imagine the drunken coupling that went on in the teens' sprawling, bottle-strewn campsites that would have failed the legal test of consent.

I like young people and saw a whole lot of them at the festival who were there for all the right reasons and not just to drink themselves blotto in the campground. I definitely wouldn't want anyone thinking that I'm pointing the finger at young people in general -- or even underage drinking.

What disturbed me was not that some teens were drinking, but that they were drinking so heavily.

I saw one girl, maybe 15 or 16 , staggering around between the tents absolutely blasted, wearing an itsy, bitsy bikini and carrying a beer. It was 10 a.m. I couldn't help but wonder about all the bad things that might have happened to her already.

One worried camper started bringing water to the drunken teens camped near his site, trying to help them stay hydrated as they sat drinking fearlessly for hour after hour in the hot sun.

The studies call it "binge drinking." It's defined as any single drinking session where you consume four or more alcoholic drinks (four for females, six for males). Not surprisingly, it's the riskiest way to drink and the most likely to lead to something bad happening.

Binge drinkers are five times more likely to have unprotected sex. They're more likely to drive drunk and to cause accidents that kill. They're at significantly higher risk of getting in trouble with police and much more likely to get in fights. Gender matters: Men are three to six times more likely than women to binge drink.

Should a binge drinker develop habits that last -- another known risk -- he or she is looking at higher risk of more than 60 health conditions: Heart disease, brain damage, liver failure, cancer. Hard drinkers also risk chronic problems with sexual performance and fertility.

In other words, nothing good comes from binge drinking. But the health stats still don't really get at the issue that scares me most when I see kids drinking hard, which is how completely vulnerable they are to unforeseen events that could change their lives forever.

I drank to get drunk myself as a young teen, although I can't recall ever being quite as blasted as some of the girls I saw last weekend. Those drinking hardest seemed to be between 14 and their early 20s, but there were a number of older festival-goers hammering it back as well.

Drinking is more or less sanctioned at the festival, what with a beer garden on site and a relaxed alcohol policy in the campsite. Perhaps that's something organizers will want to reflect on.

But just because you can doesn't mean you have to, and it's that point that requires the most thought.

More than a fifth of British Columbians are occasional binge drinkers. In terms of consumption -- which is rising -- Vancouver Island is second only to the Interior as the B.C. region that drinks the most. In Europe, where binge-drinking is a growing concern, a 2006 study found that 80 million Europeans were drinking at harmful levels once a week or more.

Hopefully we all know the drill on alcohol: That it slows the functions of the central nervous system; affects parts of the brain that control emotion, movement, balance, judgment and impulse; lowers people's pain thresholds; fogs all five senses. If you're pregnant, it wreaks havoc on the developing fetus.

Too much of it and you're dead, as a group of California teens were reminded in March when a 16-year-old pal drank herself to death at their party.

The message: Don't binge drink, both for your sake and for the sake of whatever young kid is noticing how you knock them back and concluding that's the way it's done.

And one for the parents: What the heck are you doing blithely dropping off young teens at the festival campground for three days as if somebody's looking out for them? Teens need their parents to help them learn when to draw the line.

Times Colonist

Young adults will be banned from buying alcohol in shops under a scheme being backed by Mayor Boris Johnson.

Off-licence owners are to be asked to stop selling drink to under-21s, even though they are legally entitled to buy it at 18.

The voluntary scheme will start in Croydon and is likely to be rolled out across London.

Mr Johnson said that it was the type of solution that Londoners would welcome to the "huge problem" of binge-drinking by the young.

However, the Mayor added that it should be up to individual boroughs to decide on such restrictions rather than enforcing a city-wide blanket ban.

"I do think that we have got a huge problem with binge drinking, underage drinking and general abuse of alcohol in this city, and I certainly think that this idea is a very interesting one," he said.

"Where we have got particular problems in particular areas, off-licences and supermarkets should stop the sale of alcohol to the under-21s. That is the kind of solution that I think Londoners are looking to us to provide. I do think this is something where the boroughs can take a lead and banish the scourge of binge drinking."

The scheme, which mirrors proposals in Scotland, has been prompted by fears that cheap alcohol at corner shops and supermarkets is contributing to anti-social behaviour and violence.

There is particular concern that offlicences and shops are not part of a drive to encourage pubs and bars to introduce a more responsible approach to alcohol sales.

Announcing the plan for a ban on sales to under-21s, Croydon councillor Steve O'Connell, who is also a member of the Greater London Assembly, said he believed it could help to significantly reduce disorder.

"What we want to tackle the corner shops that are selling eight cans of Stella for a fiver because it can lead to young people then getting involved in anti-social behaviour," he said.

"It will require a cultural shift and it would affect their profit margins, but it would stop some violent incidents taking place and, after Croydon, I would like to see this applied across London."

Croydon will now seek to win agreement from licensees, although it expects that it will be several months before the full curbs are in place.

Frank Sodeen, of the charity Alcohol Concern, expressed reservations about the idea saying that it might detract from efforts to combat illegal under-age drinking.

"It is certainly true that the 16 to 24-year-old age group drink the most and that they are more likely to be both the victims and perpetrators of alcoholrelated violence," he said.

"But there is a risk that this would alienate people and it is also difficult to see how it would work unless every shop agreed to take part because otherwise 20-year-olds will find it pretty easy to find the places where they can still buy alcohol."

Under plans announced last month by the Scottish Executive, a legal change to prohibit the sale of alcohol to under-21s is being proposed in a bid to curb excessive drinking.

Such a change would bring the situation in Scotland closer to that in the US, although unlike America, Scottish pubs and bars would still be free to sell drink to those aged 18 and above.

Evening Standard

Individuals who experience the physical, mental and social symptoms associated with alcohol dependence are offered hope through the results of two recent studies by researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). In separate investigations, researchers found favorable results for a medication to help heavy drinkers who are trying to modify their consumption, as well as a medication to reduce alcohol withdrawal symptoms and prevent relapse.

Individuals who experience the physical, mental and social symptoms associated with alcohol dependence are offered hope through the results of two recent studies by researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). In separate investigations, researchers found favorable results for a medication to help heavy drinkers who are trying to modify their consumption, as well as a medication to reduce alcohol withdrawal symptoms and prevent relapse.

In a landmark study, MUSC researchers working with investigators at the University of Virginia Health System and elsewhere have found that topiramate, an effective therapeutic medication, not only decreases heavy drinking, but it also lowers all liver enzymes, plasma cholesterol, body mass index (BMI), and systolic and diastolic blood pressure — all of which tend to increase with heavy drinking and pose such serious health risks as heart disease and cirrhosis. Notably, these combined effects suggest that topiramate may decrease the risk of heart disease in alcohol dependent individuals.

"These findings add growing data indicating that heavy drinkers who modify their drinking with the help of medication and supportive counseling may see an improvement in health and well-being, as well as a potential reduction of risk for the development of heart and liver diseases. This shows that treatment of alcoholism has potential health benefits beyond the immediate behavioral and emotional improvement caused by a reduction in drinking” said Raymond Anton, M.D., distinguished university professor.

By decreasing liver enzymes and cholesterol levels, topiramate also may reduce the risk of fatty liver disease, which leads to cirrhosis - a common consequence to end-stage liver disease leading to death in some alcoholics.

Additionally, topiramate significantly contributed to a decline in obsessive thoughts and compulsions, components of alcohol craving, and also had a greater improvement in their “overall quality of life,” and specifically an improvement in general and leisure activities and household duties, as well as a reduction in sleep disturbances.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved topiramate for seizures and migraine headaches, but it is not currently approved for treating alcohol dependence. Ortho-McNeil Neurologics, Inc., manufactures topiramate and provided study funding.

Results from the nationwide 14-week trial involving 371 male and female diagnosed alcoholics was published in the June 9 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

In addition, Anton presented initial results from a separate investigation of a 14-week double-blind, placebo-controlled study utilizing the PROMETA ® alcoholism treatment program, developed by Hythiam, inc., at the 2008 Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA) conference in Washington D.C.

Anton suggested that alcohol dependence programs are few in number and not exceptionally effective, which is particularly true for individuals who experience alcohol withdrawal symptoms. PROMETA ®, a combination of generic medications, reduced cravings and alcohol withdrawal symptoms, promoted abstinence, and improved mood and sleep only in those who had symptoms of alcohol withdrawal. Although the PROMETA ® Protocol has been marketed nationally, this was the first scientific study examining its utility in individuals with alcohol dependence.

At the time of the RSA presentation, the data presented covered the initial six-week active treatment phase of the 14-week study. While these are initial findings, additional evaluation of the full 14-week study data is ongoing, and Anton plans to release these specifics in a peer-reviewed publication.

MUSC has an ongoing clinical trial program studying new medications for the treatment of alcohol use disorders. For more information call 843-792-2727.

Newswise Medical News

Young adults could be banned from buying alcohol in shops in a bid to tackle alcohol-fuelled anti-social behaviour.

The pioneering scheme would see off-licence owners and supermarket bosses asked to stop selling drink to under-21s.

The scheme would be voluntary, but those behind it hope it could be key to fighting the scourge of anti-social behaviour in towns and cities around the country.

The scheme has been proposed in the London Borough of Croydon and if successful could be adopted by a string of other councils.

London Mayor Boris Johnson, who has already given his backing to the scheme, said: 'I do think that we have got a huge problem with binge-drinking, under-age drinking and general abuse of alcohol in this city, and I certainly think that this idea is a very interesting one.

'Where we have got particular problems in particular areas, off-licences and supermarkets should stop the sale of alcohol to the under-21s.'

He said that rather than imposing a blanket ban across the capital, boroughs should look at the proposal individually.

'I do think this is something where the boroughs can take a lead and banish the scourge of binge drinking,' he added.

The proposal, that will be put to consultation with traders in Croydon, follows a similar idea in Scotland.

A pilot project in the West Lothian town of Armadale, where sales to teenagers were stopped at weekends, resulted in a drop in incidents of assault and vandalism.

Selling drink to under-21s has been banned in America for more than 20 years, and is said to have cut fatalities involving drivers by 13 per cent.

Croydon council Steve O'Connell said he had suggested the scheme after the successful introduction of a similar voluntary under-21 limit in bars and clubs in the town.

'Yes, it will effect the bottom line for traders - but hopefully it will create an environment of recognition for them as well as social responsibility and a better environment on the street,' he said.

'Over time we may see a better quality of life.'

Croydon will now seek to put together a strategy it can propose to licensees, although it expects it will be several months before measures will be in place.

However, there are already reservations about such a project.

In Scotland traders have warned of the risk of mixed messages being sent out to young people by a two-tier limit.

Meanwhile, Frank Sodeen, of the charity Alcohol Concern, said it might detract from efforts to combat illegal under-age drinking.

He added: 'There is a risk that this would alienate people, and it is also difficult to see how it would work unless every shop agreed to take part. Otherwise 20-year-olds will find it pretty easy to find the places where they can still buy alcohol.'

Mail Online

In decrying the excessive alcohol consumption of their compatriots, American and British health experts have long pointed to France with special admiration. Here, they said, was a society that masters moderate drinking. In wine-sipping France, the argument went, libation is just a small part of the broad festival of life, not the mind-altering prerequisite for a good time. The French don't wink like the English do at double-fisted drinking; they scorn people who lose control and get drunk in public. It's a neat argument. But it sounds a little Pollyannish now that France itself is grappling with widespread binge-drinking among its youth.

Recent data indicates that while alcohol consumption has generally dropped in France across all age categories over the past decade, it has begun to skyrocket among those minors who say they drink. The most recent official figures show that 12% of people under the age of 18 qualify as regular drinkers, compared with 22% among adults. However, 26% of those frequently consuming French minors admit to having been repeatedly drunk within the previous year, compared with just 5.5% among their adult counterparts. Worse still, fully half of 17-year-olds reported having been drunk at least once during the previous month.

The government has made ambitious plans to tackle the problem head-on. French Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot announced that she would scrap France's relatively permissive rules on sales of alcohol to youths. She told the Sunday paper Journal du Dimanche that she would impose a "total prohibition of alcohol sale to minors" by early 2009, and would also ban open bars during celebrations. Open-bar bashes — where participants can drink unlimited quantities of alcohol in exchange for a flat fee — have become, Bachelot says, a "classic element of student parties that encourages binge-drinking." All that underage chugging, Bachelot says, explains the 50% increase in the number of 15-to-24-year-olds hospitalized for excessive alcohol consumption between 2004 and 2007. It's also why alcohol is now the leading factor in deaths among young French people.

That increasingly deadly role of booze among French youths has generated a lot of grim headlines in recent months. In response to a spate of fatal car accidents caused by young drunk drivers, French authorities announced in May that bars, discos and other late-night spots serving alcohol must provide Breathalyzers to clients preparing to take to the road. (It's still unclear who is legally responsible if inebriated drivers take the wheel anyway.)

Her legislation aims to combat the spread of France's variant of the "drinking to get drunk" behavior that has long been a problem in the U.K. and on American college campuses. But it is bound to discourage alcohol consumption among adults, too. Its measures include prohibiting alcohol sales in gas stations; absent, however, is the banning of happy hour in bars and cafés, as health experts have urged.

Binge-drinking has increasingly come under the media spotlight. Multiple cases of teenage students turning up to school blind drunk have been reported, as have incidents of young people suffering temporary alcohol-induced comas. Just last month, an 18-year-old student in central France drank himself to death while celebrating his passage of the baccalaureate exam.

So what's behind this upsurge in binge-drinking among France's youth? Etienne Apaire, president of France's Interministerial Mission Against Drugs and Addiction, says alcohol is now being used both with and like banned substances — cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy — "to attain an immediate state of intoxication." Apaire says a rising number of young people begin abusing booze immediately and never learn how to drink responsibly. "It's part of the globalization of behavior that, as far as drug and alcohol abuse is concerned, at the European Union level is evidenced in all 27 states," he says. In other words, if France hopes to maintain its cultural exception as a country that consumes alcohol responsibly, it will need to work alongside the rest of Europe to find a solution to youth binge-drinking.

Time

One in five 11 to 15-year-olds in England - 640,000 school pupils - had drunk alcohol in the past week, figures published by the NHS Information Centre show.

The study found that the average amount consumed by teenagers who had drunk recently was 12.7 units a week, equivalent to six pints of beer or almost a bottle and a half of wine.

It also disclosed that a quarter of children have taken drugs at least once, and that one in three have smoked cigarettes.

The figures come despite concerted efforts by the Government to tackle substance abuse by schoolchildren, with £30 million spent on the drugs advice service Frank in the past five years and new laws being developed to stop teenagers binge-drinking in public.

Amid rising concern about the damage done by teenage drinking, the chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, this week said young motorists should be banned from drinking any alcohol before they get behind the wheel.

And Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, has paved the way for a ban on anyone under 21 buying alcohol in some parts of the city to tackle the crime and antisocial behaviour linked to binge-drinking.

He said: "Where we have got particular problems in particular areas, off-licences and supermarkets should stop the sale of alcohol to the under-21s."

Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrats' Shadow Health Secretary, added: "These are shocking figures, reflecting a culture where binge-drinking is truly out of control.

"A child drinking an average of six pints a week is likely to suffer dreadful health consequences later in life."

The Shadow Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley, said: “It is worrying to see that so many young people are engaged in harmful activities at a vulnerable stage in their development. We must hope that the influence of the majority will prevail over their peers.

“We must also ask what kind of a future we are setting our children up for, when it is so easy for them to get hold of drugs, cigarettes and alcohol. Despite Government rhetoric, too many young people have access to illegal substances - we will use the full scope of the law to punish those who supply minors.”

Researchers from the NHS Information Centre questioned almost 8,000 pupils in schools throughout England last autumn.

They found that more than half those surveyed had drunk alcohol in their lifetimes, rising from a fifth of 11-year-olds to four out of five 15-year-olds.

Three per cent of 11-year-olds said they had consumed alcohol in the past week compared with 41 per cent of 15-year-olds.

The study linked drinking with other "risky behaviours", finding that those who smoke or take drugs are more likely to drink alcohol as well. In addition, pupils who have been expelled from school or who play truant are more likely to drink alcohol.

A third of pupils said they had drunk, smoked or taken drugs recently, including 4 per cent who had done all three.

One in four children said they had taken illegal drugs, down from 29 per cent in 2001.

Cannabis was the most popular drug with 9 per cent saying they had taken it, followed by sniffing glue or aerosols and sniffing "poppers" (amyl nitrate).

Overall, 4 per cent of pupils said they had taken Class A drugs such as cocaine, heroin or ecstasy.

However the number of children who smoke has fallen to its lowest ever level, with 6 per cent saying they had smoked a cigarette in the past week compared with 9 per cent the previous year.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "The number of pupils who smoke is at its lowest level since records began in 1982. Drinking and drug use is also down since 2001."

Telegraph

For a community that tends to drink and drug at higher rates, what exactly is the LGBT community's relationship to alcohol, and is it a healthy one?

Several small studies over the years indicate that LGBT people have higher rates of alcohol dependence than their straight counterparts.

A 2001 Urban Men's Health Study, which surveyed MSM ( men who have sex with men ) from four cities, including Chicago, found a prevalence of heavy and problematic alcohol and drug use. A majority of men—85 percent—reported recreational drinking. Roughly 12 percent reported three or more alcohol-related problems and 8 percent reported alcohol abuse, which is slightly higher than the national average for men, according to 2001-2002 National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism data.

Findings from a 2000 National Alcohol Survey of all 50 states suggest that alcohol dependence differs by sexual orientation, especially among women.

The Chicago Health and Life Experiences of Women Study, also known as CHLEW, is an ongoing study of lesbian health. Although the study is not completed, preliminary findings show higher rates of drinking among lesbian and other sexual minority women than the national average. Popular settings for heavy drinking include lesbian and gay bars and LGBT events. Lesbians reported more alcohol-related problems and tend to show less age-related decline in their alcohol consumption than their straight counterparts, preliminary findings also indicate

“We, as a community, in general, tend to drink more and abuse drugs more,” said Simone Koehlinger, director of the Chicago Public Health Department's Office of LGBT Health. Koehlinger said that alcohol is “one of the biggest problems” in terms of substance use in the LGBT community.

According to Lisa Rivitz and Kurt Mohning of Howard Brown Health Center's Recovering with Pride program, they see an increasing number of individuals—many of which are older males—coming in for alcohol abuse, though the increases could be a result of new marketing techniques. Many of the clients they see use a number of substances in addition to alcohol.

According to Center on Halsted's Director of Mental Health Services Jason McVicker, in 2007, only 11 percent of 500 clients reported substance abuse as a problem.

“However, we know the numbers are higher,” McVicker said, adding that 14 percent reported substance abuse as a problem during the first half of 2008.

Part of the reason for underreporting, McVicker said, is that individuals come in for services, but their alcohol or substance use is not why they first step through the door. As they get more comfortable, they may open up about their use.

From what he has seen, female clients at the Center tend to have more issues with alcohol alone, and gay men tend to report a multitude of addiction problems, such as sexual compulsion, drugs and alcohol.

Chicago Lakeshore Hospital Valeo Director Joe Camper said that the vast majority of those who seek Valeo's services—nearly three-quarters—are gay men, but the figures are always changing. A small subgroup of people report alcohol as the only issue. Some are dealing with several addictions, including alcohol, meth, crack, prescription drugs and other substances. Valeo provides psychiatric and addiction-related treatment for LGBT people, and has the only impatient program dedicated to LGBT people in Illinois and the surrounding states.

Why we drink

Many people—gay and straight—drink recreationally. They might have a glass with dinner to unwind, or grab a drink with friends after work.

Many people, representing various communities, view alcohol as a “social lubricant,” McVicker said.

Gay bars and clubs have played a large role in the LGBT community's socialization.

“Gay socializing is linked with drinking,” Rivitz said.

For many coming out for the first time or new to a city, the first places they gravitate towards are the gay bars and clubs. Going to the local gay bar is often the first idea that comes to mind when someone wants to meet other LGBT people.

“We gravitate towards people with whom we have bonds,” said Sidetrack co-owner Art Johnston, who met his longtime partner in a bar.

For some, alcohol is not an issue if done in moderation, following guidelines for healthy alcohol consumption. However, for others, drinking may become problematic, excessive and unhealthy. It can become an addiction.

Although many of the reasons why LGBT people may abuse alcohol mirror heterosexuals, such as anxiety, insecurities, family history of alcohol dependence, etc., there are problems unique to the LGBT community.

Some of those underlying issues include discrimination, social rejection, internalized homophobia and others.

“That can have a corrosive and toxic effect on people,” McVicker said. “We're a perfect set up for alcohol dependence issues.”

According to Rivitz, sex is often an issue Recovering with Pride clients note as to why they turn to substances. “It's not just socializing tied into it, but sexual activity,” she said.

The role of the gay bar

Historically, gay bars and clubs have played a very important role in the LGBT community. They were, and continue to be, places for queers to socialize, organize and a means of funding events and initiatives.

“For a long time, it was the only institution we had,” said activist and bar owner Johnston.

“The bars were, in many ways, the origins of the community,” McVicker said.

Back in the day, a gay neighborhood was defined by the presence of a gay bar. Today, gay bars and clubs still make up a large portion of the gay-owned and gay-specific businesses in these neighborhoods. They dot Halsted Street in Boystown and line Clark Street in Andersonville.

For some, the presence of so many gay bars and clubs doesn't mean the community revolves around alcohol, though. “I think that's a misperception about the community,” Rivitz said.

Before there were alternative LGBT-friendly spaces, much of the community's activism began in the local gay bars. There, AIDS organizations started up and voter registrations were held. Even political work and fundraising took place in local gay bars.

“People tend to forget the first community center we had was raised by money paid for by the bars,” Johnston noted.

“Long before there was ever a black tie dinner, there were the bars,” he added.

In fact, gay bars and clubs have historically funded a number of local efforts, from gay rights organizations to political work. Local bars and prominent members of the community associated with the beverage and hospitality industry continue to put money back into the community and sponsor a number of LGBT events and efforts.

“The bars are a very valuable resource to the community,” Camper said.

However, the extent to which alcohol is present in the local LGBT community can be of concern.

“We aren't naïve,” Mohning said. “There's a lot out there, for example, during Pride,” he added, noting the number of alcohol-related floats during the Pride Parade and the amount of heavy drinking that takes place in that particular setting.

The alcoholic beverage and hospitality industry has historically spent a lot of money on the LGBT community—it's what Johnston calls “an excellent working relationship.” Several large beverage companies have poured money and support into the local LGBT community, a brand-loyal segment of consumers. They were often there when others refused to be. This ongoing support has meant money and clout for the LGBT community in Springfield and beyond.

“They have always been there for us and they should—we spend a lot of money,” Johnston said. “Finally, it's not just them [ that support us ] now, but the role of them in our community is enormous,” he added.

A healthy relationship?

Although LGBTs tend to drink at higher rates, whether alcohol has a negative or positive influence on someone's life ultimately differs from person to person.

“We do drink at higher rates, but that's not to say drinking is bad,” Koehlinger said. “Some can enjoy it, and for them, it's not a problem.”

“There can be a place for it in our culture,” Camper said.

There is a wide spectrum of acceptable and non-acceptable use when it comes to alcohol. It's important to note that for some people, having a healthy relationship with alcohol means abstaining from it. For others, moderation is key.

Johnston feels that it is entirely possible for the community to have a healthy relationship with alcohol. “All of us need to try to find the right balance, whatever that might be,” he said.

The reality is that gay and lesbian bars are an important part of the community, and they aren't going away any time soon.

“Can we have a health relationship with alcohol?” McVicker asked. “It's not a question of can we, be we must. These are things that are part of our world.”

For some, a healthy relationship with alcohol means abstaining from drinking. For those in recovery, sometimes the healthiest thing to do is to stay away from bars and clubs, and other situations that involve alcohol.

However, if the abuse hasn't progressed to dependence, some people can learn about low-risk drinking behaviors and harm reduction techniques.

“People can moderate and have a healthy relationship with alcohol,” Rivitz said.

For those addicted, treatment includes replacing old habits with new behaviors that are healthier for the individual. Individuals need to find new ways to cope with triggers such as anxiety with alternatives like exercise.

Fortunately, there are a number of resources for LGBT people when it comes alcohol and substance abuse treatment and recovery.

How to identify problem drinking

Both Rivitz and Mohning said that, at Howard Brown, they often see individuals who are questioning their alcohol consumption. Some who walk through the doors are at an earlier, contemplative stage. Maybe a friend has noted their drinking patterns and they are starting to question their use.

However, some have already suffered negative consequences of drinking, such as problems at work, with the law or with their relationships.

“We would be empty if people didn't have negative consequences because often, people don't know they have a problem,” Mohning said.

Many people don't realize that their relationship with alcohol is unhealthy.

“People might not recognize that they have an issue,” McVicker said. “We get to people when they are in crisis, and then we are putting out fires,” McVicker said.

Besides suffering a negative consequence of drinking—what some might refer to as a “wake up call”—there are a number of standard questions people can ask themselves to evaluate whether or not their drinking has become an issue.

Both McVicker and Camper offered questions individuals can ask themselves that might raise a red flag: Has anyone, such as a friend or family member, expressed concern about your alcohol use? Do you find yourself constantly thinking about the next time you will drink? Are you defensive when people talk about your alcohol use? Has your drinking affected your work performance, or maybe your academic performance? Is your drinking impacting your relationships or interfering with your parental responsibilities? Do you find yourself struggling with drinking responsibly? Do you try to rationalize your drinking? When you promise yourself that you will only have one or two drinks, do you end up having six or seven?

Camper encourages individuals to not only ask themselves such questions, but discuss their drinking patterns and family history of substance abuse with their health care provider.

Barriers to recovery

For many in recovery, it is difficult to return to old hangouts and not use alcohol, or seek out new places and spaces that are alcohol-free.

“Often, there is a feeling of loss of lifestyle,” Mohning said.

Although there are many more alternatives to going to a gay bar than there used to be, many in recovery struggle to find those new spaces.

Some say that the LGBT community still lacks an adequate amount of options. “I don't think there are enough,” Rivitz said.

Mohning feels that the alternatives are out there, but aren't marketed, making it difficult for individuals to seek out. “It's often hard to find them,” he said. “Nobody ever talks about a sober party.”

There are certainly more options then there used to be, especially now that the Center on Halsted has moved to Boystown. Instead of bar hopping, individuals can join an intramural league, catch a play or join a book club.

Camper, who has worked in the field for 30 years, said that a lack of alternatives used to be one of the biggest complaints from clients.

“I feel that's not really the case any more,” Camper said. In addition to numerous alternative spaces and events, Camper said that Chicago prides itself with having a very large LGBTQ recovery community.

Camper does fear for youth, however, who might not be aware that they have options. He feels work needs to be done in this area.

“They might not know about available resources and will probably start out in the bar culture,” Camper said.

“I would love to see many, many more places that are not centered around alcohol,” Koehlinger said.

Johnston, who owns Sidetrack, said that a number of his clientele don't drink alcohol, but for some, they need to stay away from the bars and thankfully, Halsted Street has options.

“I think that's a change for the better,” Johnston said.

Center on Halsted is located right in the heart of Boystown, surrounded by LGBT bars and clubs. McVicker sees the Center's location as a double-edged sword. “It's an opportunity and a challenge,” he said. “There is alcohol and drugs all around us. But I like to also think of the Center as being a haven. There is refuge within these walls.”

Let's talk about it

Many feel it will take a concerted effort from all aspects of the LGBT community in order to create any solutions to problem drinking in the community.

However, many agree that the first step is actually discussion the role alcohol plays in the community—a topic rarely talked about openly.

“I don't think it's talked about at all,” Mohning said, adding that he thinks alcohol's role in our lives as LGBT people has been “very much accepted,” and even become a stereotype of gay men.

The Chicago LGBT Task Force on Substance Use and Abuse ( formerly the Chicago Crystal Meth Task Force ) recently broadened its scope, hence the change in name. Alcohol use is one of the many issues now addressed by the partnership of service providers, community leaders, businesses and law enforcement.

“I feel like we are moving in the right direction,” said Rivitz, a member of the Task Force.

Rivitz added that there is not enough discussion about the role alcohol plays in lesbians' lives. “There is a lot of alcohol use in the lesbian community,” she said.

Holding the upcoming event at a popular gay bar, Sidetrack, has caused a controversy, with some saying the venue choice is a tad ironic, considering the topic.

Sidetrack owner Johnston was hesitant at first, but left the decision up to the event's organizers. He believes the venue will spark further discussion.

“I think it will make people think even more,” he said.

Although Camper agrees that the LGBT community needs to discuss the issue, his one concern regarding the location of the event is that not all voices will be heard. Generally, those in recovery are encouraged to steer clear of situations where alcohol is present. “You might not get the full participation of people in recovery because being in a bar is a trigger for them,” he said.

The purpose of the upcoming forum is for individuals in the LGBT community to examine their own alcohol use, discussion alternatives to drinking, and address a number of issues. Among questions addressed with be what purpose drinking serves? What does it mean when LGBT events are sponsored by alcoholic beverage companies or local bars? What does it mean to have beverage and bar floats in the annual Pride Parade? Can we have a healthy relationship with alcohol?

“We want a healthy conversation with a healthy outcome,” Koehlinger added. “Does having alcohol-related floats in the Pride Parade mean being gay and alcohol go hand in hand? No, but we never talk about it.”

“Our freedom to choose is so important to us,” Koehlinger said. “We have so many people telling us what we can't do—can't hold hands, can't marry—that we shy away from these conversations.”

Windy City Times

Boozy Brits are ditching the traditional weekend booze-up to hit pubs and bars every single night of the week.

The result is we are now knocking back more than anywhere else in Europe.

One reason is that pubs are pulling in a new range of customers since the smoking ban made them more inviting, says a survey.

“A switch to more midweek drinking is a key driver behind the increase,” said Matthew Taylor, who produced the report for market analysts Datamonitor.

He said that Brits sink 7.4billion pints of alcohol a year, with the Spanish second on 4.2bn pints.

Although more people are heading to the bar, the survey shows that Britain still has the largest proportion of non-pub drinkers as well.

The reason is cheap booze at supermarkets and off-licences which has changed the way many people drink, said the charity Alcohol Concern.

“Alcohol was once almost entirely centred on the corner pub and involved friendship and talk,” said a spokesman.

“Now many more people are able to afford to unwind with a drink every evening at home.

“But they need to be wary about regularly drinking large amounts over the long term as it can seriously affect their health.”

Daily Star

Many in Kerala, which has one of the highest rates of per capita alcohol consumption in India, say they would never have got over their addiction to liquor but for Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). As the name suggests, its presence is inconspicuous except for occasional announcements in newspapers about its meetings.

“There are around 2,000 people who work for AA in Kerala now,” says Soman, who was addicted to hard drinks 13 years ago. He now works actively for AA.

AA has about 850 groups in India and 110 of them are in Kerala, according to its General Service Office (GSO) or headquarters in Mumbai.

It is a fellowship of men and women who share their experiences, strengths and hopes with each other to solve common problems and help others recover from alcoholism.

The members of AA say they don’t keep a count of those who stopped drinking after joining this fellowship. The only requirement to become a member is a sincere desire to quit drinking.

“Not all who join AA may come out of alcoholism. Some of them do go back to drinking. Therefore, it is difficult to say how many have benefited from us,” says Soman, who requested that his full name be not published.

Members of AA maintain the tradition of anonymity. AA believes that those who are reluctant to seek help may overcome their fear if they are confident that their anonymity will be respected.

Only A-class trustees, who are non-alcoholic members, are identified in public or in the media in this organisation. At the national level, AA has seven such trustees.

C.K. Gopalan, a doctor by profession who is based here, is one such trustee. He has been associated with AA for the last eight years.

“There are around 4.8 million people in Kerala who consume alcohol. Around one-third of these are alcoholics. Alcoholism is a disease, from the clutches of which it is difficult to come out. The general environment in Kerala is also not helpful to come out of alcoholism,” Gopalan told IANS.

“When one joins AA, it helps him realise that alcoholism is a disease and not a moral failure. The closed sessions where members of AA share their experience help others realise that these problems are common to all and have drinking as the basic problem.”

According to AA tradition, anonymity makes members place principles before personalities. The organisation maintains no record of its members, nor does it accept any membership fee.

“AA members maintain anonymity because they believe individuals are not important in the organisation. One should not seek membership of AA solely because of a role model - because the role model stands the risk of relapsing into the drinking habit again,” Ashok, the general manager for AA in Mumbai, says on phone.

The AA here celebrated its 50th year of presence in India May 5, 2007. Says Soman: “On that day, we received 286 phone calls seeking our help. Around 100 of those who approached us that day became sober within a year.”

According to the state planning board’s 2005 data, while the per capita consumption of alcohol for India is four litres, Kerala’s per capita consumption stands at 8.3 litres, followed by Punjab with 7.9 litres.

The report also said that over the years the age at which youngsters begin to consume alcohol has come down in Kerala. In 1986, it was 19 years and by 1994, it had come down to 14 years.

AA never treats an alcoholic or preaches them to quit alcohol. “We share our experiences. We tell them we were like them earlier. At the meetings they share their problems. Only a drunkard can understand the other,” says a member of AA who now leads a sober life.

“Drunkards are always looked down upon by their family and society. In AA, we never do that but welcome newcomers with great affection. He is one among us and all of us are equals.”

AA, which was founded in 1935, currently has a presence in more than 180 countries and has around two million members. Each of its groups is self-supporting and never accepts any outside contribution and holds no opinion on outside issues.

“There are no rules governing the functions of AA groups. The only condition is that the work of a group should not affect the functioning of other groups or the organisation as a whole,” says Ashok.

Thaindian News

The Federal Government in Australia is developing a strategy for combating excessive alcohol consumption, spending $53.5 million dollars on a national strategy. This comes after concern about binge drinking amongst young people, a rise of alcohol-related violence and associated problems.

The national approach follows state government strategies to combat alcohol abuse. One state government recently introduced new closing times for hotels and bars making it more difficult to continue drinking throughout the early hours of the morning.

Another tactic the Government is proposing is to tax the drinks referred to as alcopops –- pre-mixed drinks marketed to young people. Coca-cola Amatil is upset by this move believing that it will have no affect on binge drinking. However, evidence on the taxing of certain alcoholic drinks has shown that when taxed, consumption drops.

For example, when light beer was introduced which attracted a lower tax, a significant number of people switched to the less expensive light beer. In addition, in one state the effect of higher taxes on alcohol lead to reduced alcohol related problems in all communities including indigenous ones. However, this tax was later removed resulting in huge social problems relating to an increase in the consumption of alcohol.

Statistics from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show that teenage girls are becoming heavy drinkers –- 3 times more likely than boys to consume alcohol once a week. They are also drinking more and are more likely to drink at harmful levels with figures showing that nearly 30% put themselves at risk every month (1).

The short term risks include risk-taking behaviour, coordination problems leading to falling over and other accidents, speech problems, unconsciousness, and heart problems (2). While long term there is the risk of breast cancer based on research linking it to the moderate consumption of alcohol.

Over the last 12 months the consumption of alcopops jumped by 15%. The number of teenage girls between the ages of 12-17 that consumed alcopops between 2000-2004 rose from 23% to almost 50% (1).

Surprisingly the tax is not being supported by the opposition who claim that it will be blocked. This is despite the evidence that a tax will contribute to a reduction in consumption as advised by experts. Professor John Toumbourou, of Health Psychology at Deakin University, believes a price increase will affect consumption particularly of girls that have fixed drinking preferences.

It is not just governments who have a role to play but parents as well. Research has shown that introducing alcohol to children at an early age to encourage sensible drinking is not good at all, as the earlier they are introduced, the more likely they will become binge drinkers.

For this reason the National Health and Medical Research Council changed its guidelines. It now recommends that children 15 and under should not be given any alcohol. Some health experts want to take this further and make it illegal for anyone to give children and young teenagers any alcohol.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is now also developing strategies to combat binge drinking among young people as well as health problems caused by over-consumption. This will include guidelines on the marketing, pricing and distribution of alcohol.

Natural News

A Campaign to combat underage drinking on the Cotswolds streets will be launched in Tetbury this week.

The idea is to stop adults from buying alcohol for teenage drinkers and the campaign will highlight the health risks for youngsters and the penalties adults could face if caught.

The Don't Buy for Under 18's' campaign, a Cotswold District Council-led venture in partnership with Gloucestershire Police and local retailers, will be officially unveiled at the Tesco store in London Road, Tetbury, on Saturday July 19.

It will promote the message through retailers, who will enforce the scheme through shelf-edge labelling and posters in stores, special badges and extra training for retail staff and regular tannoy announcements from 6pm onwards informing shoppers of the issue.

Schools will also get on board as the campaign aims to inform young people about the problems of getting adults to buy alcohol for them, and the consequences of underage and binge drinking.

Other bodies involved include the Youth Service and Trading Standards, as well as local businesses, shops and schools.

The charity GDAS (Gloucestershire Drug and Alcohol Service) and GINI, part of the Young People's Substance Misuse Service, are also helping out with advice and support.

Cllr Clive Bennett, the Council's Portfolio Holder for Safe and Strong Communities, said: "This is an excellent programme and I commend the stance that Tesco are taking very highly.

"It is common knowledge that under-age drinking is very bad for youngsters' health, and anyone who gets involved in binge drinking can also get involved in anti-social behaviour. I would hope that all the other supermarkets and alcohol outlets would follow suit and also take this stance."

Other areas where the Don't buy for Under 18's' campaign will be launched later this year include Fairford, Lechlade and Cirencester, before it is rolled out to all the market towns in the Cotswolds.

Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard

Large groups of underage drinkers are still congregating in parts of St Albans according to the local MP.

Anne Main, MP for St Albans, made her comments after challenging a Home Office Minister on Tuesday about the problem of underage children gaining access to alcohol from unscrupulous shops and off-licences.

During the Parliamentary Questions session she said her constituency was experiencing "significant problems" with young people drinking alcohol in public places, often hidden in drinks such as orange juice.

She added: "They obtain their alcohol from small shops and off-licences."

Mrs Main called for much tougher penalties for those who dispensed alcohol to young people and maintained that the "pile it high, sell it cheap" method of selling alcohol rather than the existence of licensed premises was the root of the problem.

Afterwards she said she was aware that there was still a, "very serious problem" in St Albans and anyone who passed through the Abbey Orchard or other parks on a Friday or Saturday night would be aware of large groups of underage drinkers who congregated there and the mess their discarded drinks containers could cause the following day.

She added: "I think the Government needs to assess the reality that many licensed premises are still selling alcohol illegally to under-18s. We need a zero-tolerance approach to this and the anti-social behaviour that occurs as a result.

Herts Advertiser

Booze is a greater problem in schools than drugs - and parents are to blame, a top adviser warns.

Sir Alan Steer, the Government's boss on discipline, said mums and dads must be more responsible if schools are to tackle underage drinking.

He said yesterday: "The threat of alcohol is more of a problem I would say than drugs. We have the wrong attitude towards it. Most parents wouldn't dream of bringing drugs home for their child but some do buy drink, when children are underage."

In a report, head teacher Sir Alan said the problem must be treated as seriously as child abuse. And he demanded help for teachers to spot pupils with a booze problem.

He also wants them to have more powers to stop and search kids smelling of alcohol. Dr John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, also warned of the growing booze and drug menace.

The Mirror

Growing numbers of hospital patients are being treated for liver disease due to alcohol abuse, a Dublin specialist has warned. Prof John Crowe, director of the Centre For Liver Disease in the Mater Hospital, revealed the hidden toll of heavy drinking: over a seven-year period, the number of hospital patients discharged after diagnosis with drink-related liver disease went up by 234pc.

He pointed out that statistics showing Irish people are downing more units per head means we are out of step with most other European states, where consumption is falling.

"Significantly, the annual advertising spend on sport sponsorship is not available," he added.

"From a medical perspective, the effects of excess alcohol consumption can be divided into acute and long-term injury."

A&E departments are left to cope with patients suffering coma, physical injury, self harm including suicide attempts, psychiatric disturbance and withdrawal syndromes due to alcohol abuse.

"Between 1995 and 2002, annual alcohol-related admission and discharges increased from 9,254 to 17,378, which is a 92pc rise.

"Significantly, the discharge diagnosis of alcoholic liver disease has increased by 234pc, from 705 cases in 1995 to a total of 1,745 in 2004.

"This increase is highly significant because it illustrates the emerging burden of chronic alcoholic liver injury that exists within the community," he wrote in the Irish Medical Times. It usually remains undetected until significant complications leading to irreversible liver damage has occurred.

His own experience in the Matter has shown that internal hospital referrals of patients with advanced alcoholic liver disease increased from six cases in 1996 to 114 in 2006. Men outnumber women by two to one and the average age is 50 years.

Over the same time, discharges with a diagnosis of alcoholic cirrhosis rose by nearly 300pc.

Independent ie

Under 18s will be banned from buying alcohol in a bid to crack down on binge drinking, according to health minister Roselyne Bachelot.

In an interview in the Journal du Dimanche she announced a set of measures set to tackle the phenomenon which is on the rise in France.

Included are plans to end ‘open bars’, where bars and pubs charge an entrance fee but then offer free drinks for the remainder of the night.

Drinking alcohol in public places near schools will also be banned and France’s ambiguous rules regarding the sale of drinks to under-18s, which currently vary depending on bars, clubs and supermarkets, will be made into a simple ban.

"Almost half of youths said they had had five glasses of alcohol on a single night on at least one occasion in the previous 30 days, which is the definition of binge drinking," said Ms Bachelot.

She said the number of under-25s hospitalised because of excessive drinking had doubled between 2004 and 2007.

The term binge drinking has been adopted into common parlance in France.

The measures are expected to come into force in 2009 but do not include a plan to ban happy hours – which was discussed by the government.

Another measure will be to ban sales of alcohol in filling stations which currently operates only from 22.00 to 6.00.

The Connexion

Teenage drivers should be barred from drinking any alcohol, the Chief Medical Officer said yesterday.

Sir Liam Donaldson said that among drivers who drank up to the present limit of 80mg per 100ml of blood, the chances of an accident were two and a half times greater for teenagers than for older people.

Drivers aged 17 to 19 had 1,080 drink-drive accidents in 2005. Sir Liam, who presented his annual report yesterday, said that a zero alcohol limit for young drivers would help to reduce this figure. “I’m aware that this is a controversial recommendation, but I believe it will save lives,” he said.

There is, in effect, a zero limit for young and novice drivers in 14 European countries as well as in several Canadian provinces and Australian states.

There were technical problems with a zero limit – the alcohol content of some mouthwashes could give a false reading, for example, Sir Liam said – but he was confident that these could be dealt with. “Other countries that have introduced this measure have overcome these technical difficulties.”

Sir Liam’s call was backed by the road-safety charity Brake, Mary Williams, the charity’s chief executive, said: “Driving after drinking alcohol is extremely dangerous, causing hundreds of deaths each year, devastating families and friends across the country. Young, inexperienced drivers are particularly vulnerable road users, and this combined with alcohol quickly leads to tragedy.”

Vivienne Nathanson, head of science and ethics at the British Medical Association, said: “When people first learn to drive, their reflexes are not as fast. So anything that depresses performance has a greater effect.

“But we are not in favour of a zero limit – there has to be some flexibility to account for alcohol-based mouthwashes. But setting a very low level close to zero, yes.”

Adrian Tink, of the RAC, questioned whether a special limit for young drivers would help. “Motorists want it tougher but simpler,” he said. “Three quarters would back a 50mg limit, in line with the rest of Europe. A special rule for young drivers brings in complexity. Do you potentially start catching drivers who aren’t drink-driving?

“A reduction to 50mg would mean a half of lager or a small glass of wine – or nothing at all to drink. But a two-tier system makes things complicated again, and that wouldn’t be helpful.”

The Department for Transport said: “Drink-driving ruins lives and we take it extremely seriously. That is why we have invested in 30 years of education campaigns and introduced measures to improve enforcement. As a result, the number of people killed in drink-drive accidents each year has fallen by two thirds since 1979.

“We know more can be done to tackle this serious issue. We are considering a range of options.”

Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrats’ transport spokesman, said: “There is a real argument to lower the drink-driving limit for all motorists to 50mg, in line with many European countries. But a zero limit risks criminalising those whose driving is not impaired.

“Young drivers could face legal problems because they have had a couple of drinks the night before or used alcohol in cooking. The answer is a lower limit for all drivers,” Mr Baker said.

Mike Pickard, of the insurance company esure, said: “We welcome Liam Donaldson’s proposal and hope the Government will act on it quickly.

“Drivers under 21 account for just 3 per cent of the driving population but are responsible for over 12 per cent of all convictions for driving under the influence of drink or drugs.

“What’s more, young men are ten times more likely to be convicted than young women so the problem is massively swayed by young males simply not knowing when to stop. “ A ‘zero tolerance’ approach to alcohol will help to remove a temptation that can easily escalate into fatal consequences because young drivers are more prone to peer pressure and risk-taking.”

Andrew Lansley, the Shadow Health Secretary, called for evidence. He said: “The Government should seek evidence to show whether or not a proposal to change the legal blood alcohol level limit for young drivers would improve road safety and not have a perverse effect after the age threshold.

“This new proposal is no substitute for tackling the root causes of spiralling public health problems.”

Road traffic accidents are the leading cause of death among 16 to 18 year-olds, including passengers and pedestrians. Sir Liam’s report focuses on teenagers, a group often neglected because they tend to enjoy good health. But for them, risk-taking was “a rite of passage” and although the proportion involved in accidents or ill-health was small, the numbers were large.

Sir Liam called for a national meeting on health services for teenagers and more involvement of teenagers in the design of health services.

“Young people are exposed to behaviours, opportunities and products that have the capacity to harm their health in the short and long term,” he said.

“Habits adopted in the teenage years can form behaviour for a lifetime – for example, adolescent binge drinkers are twice as likely as their peers to be dependent on alcohol or taking illicit drugs by the time they reach 30.”

Alcohol and accidents

— Transport statistics show 14 young drivers and their passengers die every week in Britain

— One in five drivers aged 17-18 admits drink driving, according to a survey published in 2007

— Lack of experience is the main reason for the higher accident rate in young drivers. For those who pass at 17, accident rates fall by 43 per cent after a year of driving

— The early hours of the morning are the worst. Male drivers aged 17-20 have 17 times the risk of accidents between 2am and 5am than all male drivers

— Young women aged 17-20 have between two and three times the risk of all women, whatever the time of day

— Drivers aged 17-19 have 24 drink-drive injury accidents per 100 million miles. For 20 to 24-year-olds the rate is 16, for 25-29-year-olds 9 and for all ages of driver 5

— The breath-test failure rate is 3.5 per cent for under-20s. For 20 to 24-year-olds it is 5 per cent and for 25 to 29-year-olds 3.9 per cent

Times Online

Full marks to Associate Justice Minister Lianne Dalziel for attempting to learn first hand how a country with a reputation for heavy drinking is handling its alcohol problems.

She has gone to the right country looking for answers. Recent statistics reveal that Scots are twice as likely to be knifed to death, or end up in hospital with stab wounds, as people in England.

The most up-to-date Scottish statistics, from 2006, reveal 57 people died after being stabbed- a rise of 27 percent since 1998.

Hospitals treated 1284 victims for knife and other stabbing injuries.

Ask many young men why they carry knives and they tell you it's for "protection" - they're afraid of being knifed so they carry a knife.

Add to their world a mind-bending cocktail of booze, drugs, parental indifference, educational failure, and hormone-driven aggression and you get a recipe for just what Scotland has been experiencing - knife crime on a frightening scale.

So Ms Dalziel will get a further insight into some of the problems which have turned a nation of generally happy drinkers into a worried land.

Ms Dalziel is in Edinburgh, where she met Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill yeterday to discuss proposals which include minimum pricing, banning irresponsible promotions and introducing a social responsibility fee.

Mr MacAskill said he was pleased to bring her up to speed.

"Scotland has an unenviable reputation as a hard-drinking nation that's proud to be able to drink others under the table," he said in a joint statement.

"For many years this has been seen as a source of pride to many Scots. We are now beginning to start a different international reputation on alcohol."

He said Scotland had admitted it had a problem with alcohol misuse, and was taking "bold action" to tackle it.

Ms Dalziel said New Zealand faced similar challenges, and doing nothing was not an option.

She is right. We are sure she will return with some good ideas to assist in our law reform work.

Gisborne Herald

France will ban the sale of alcohol to minors and drinking in public near schools as part of a broad crackdown on binge drinking among youths, the health minister said in an interview published on Sunday.

Roselyne Bachelot said that a recent study showed an over all decline in alcohol consumption among youths but the frequency of drunkenness was increasing.

"Almost half of youths said they had had five glasses of alcohol on a single night on at least one occasion in the previous 30 days, which is the definition of binge drinking," she said in an interview with Journal du Dimanche newspaper.

She said she was working on a new bill that would also ban promotions known as "open bar" which allow customers to drink as much as they want to for a fixed price.

"We are also going to ban open bars ... which are a classic at student parties and which encourage binge drinking," Bachelot said.

She said the number of under-25s hospitalised because of excessive drunkenness had doubled between 2004 and 2007.

"Drinking alcohol in public places close to schools will also be forbidden," she said.

She told the newspaper that at present there was a grey area surrounding sales of alcoholic drinks to teenagers aged 16 to 18, with different rules depending on the kind of alcohol and whether the sales point was a bar, a club or a supermarket.

She said her bill would unambiguously ban any sale of alcohol to under-18s anywhere in France.

Another measure will be to ban sales of alcohol in filling stations. Bachelot said that at present, such a ban exists only from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. and the new rule should help curb drunk driving.

Bachelot said the measures, which she expected will come into force in 2009, would be accompanied by an advertising campaign featuring youths in a heavenly environment that turns hellish after they have been drinking.

In May, a government body in charge of fighting drug and alcohol addiction said it was considering banning "happy hours" during which bars offer cheaper drinks early in the evening to attract customers. Bachelot's interview made no mention of this.

International Herald Tribune

Drunk young men getting into fights account for almost half of those requiring facial surgery and are costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

The disturbing information was revealed in a study by senior Canterbury maxillofacial surgeons Leslie Snape and Kai Lee and has prompted calls to cut the availability of alcohol and increase rehabilitation programmes as the country's binge-drinking problem worsens.

The study, published in the New Zealand Medical Journal, said alcohol abuse was one of the main causes of facial injuries.

It looked at more than 2500 cases over 11 years, finding 49 per cent of cases involved alcohol, with men accounting for 88% of alcohol-related injuries.

Males aged 15 to 30 were the main group requiring treatment for smashed-up faces after getting into fights while out on the booze, the study found.

The Accident Compensation Corporation estimates that last year a quarter of its $1.7 billion payout was alcohol-related, although this included car crashes as well as violence.

Snape said there was a growing problem of alcohol consumption and violence, particularly among men in the 18 to 25 age group.

"It's today's young man's disease."

About a decade ago "broken faces" were typically the result of car crashes, sports clashes and accidental falls, but the single leading cause was now alcohol, he said.

"Despite educational programmes directed at teenagers and young adults that illustrate the social and personal ill-effects of alcohol over-consumption, New Zealand continues to be faced with the high cost of injuries caused by apparent lack of self-control," he said.

The study's results were likely to be "just the tip of the iceberg" as many people requiring hospital treatment or surgery after injuring themselves while intoxicated would deny drinking.

Otago University professor of preventive and social medicine Jennie Connor said there were ample signs that New Zealand had a serious problem with alcohol.

Of particular concern were figures showing the same prevalence of heavy drinking in male and females aged between 12 and 17.

Medics needed to agitate increasingly for action on reducing alcohol harm because of its huge impact on health, she said.

Connor suggested reducing hours of sale and the density of liquor outlets and increasing the tax on alcohol.

Strict enforcement of licensing laws and stopping irresponsible marketing of alcohol to minors were also necessary steps to curb alcoholic harm, she said.

She also advised dropping drivers' blood-alcohol limit to 50mg from 80mg per 100ml of blood.

People needed to be screened for alcoholism in medical settings and put immediately into treatment programmes, she said.

Alcohol Advisory Council chief executive Gerard Vaughan backed all of Connor's suggestions. "We know our health service is under pressure, and intoxication and health harm is entirely preventable," he said.

Economist Brian Easton has calculated alcohol harm costs the health sector at least $655 million a year.

Vaughan said the best thing clinicians could do was introduce early intervention with patients.

This meant doctors raised the issue of someone's drinking, how much they were drinking and how they felt about it, he said.

Studies had shown this approach resulted in lower levels of dangerous drinking, especially among young people, Vaughan said.

Stuff NZ

Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study (CAS), have ascertained that your college environment could be highly responsible in self indulgence of alcohol and making you binge drink. An analysis of more than 50,000 students in 120 colleges between 1993 and 2001 supports this study. The findings suggest that binge drinking in colleges emanate from a handful of alcohol control policies on campus or the environment that surround you, inadequate implementation of prevalent policies, strong advertising campaigns, an effortless access because of low prices and a potent drinking culture.

The hazardous social and health consequences binge drinking has on drinkers along with their family and friends was the main focus of CAS during its 14 year existence Director Henry Wechsler, lecturer on society, human development and health at Harvard School of Public Health remarked, “Our study drew attention to the heavy drinking of students, most of whom were not considered alcoholics or in need of traditional treatment, but nevertheless experienced problems as a result of their drinking. The five/four drink binge measure is a good indicator of who will experience alcohol-related problems, and more importantly, captures most students who actually experience problems, something measures with higher drink thresholds fail to do.”

CAS explained that binge drinkers could face many complications such as risky driving behavior vandalism, injury, social conflict, academic difficulties, and risky sexual behavior. The study further revealed that on a single occasion males indulging in more than five drinks and females indulging in more than four drinks are likely to suffer from many other problems including tobacco and illicit drug use. Drinkers not only face problems themselves but could also cause nuisance for others in and around the campus. Drinkers thus affect the entire college community.

Research also found that colleges with a good party reputation had a great enrollment ratio as compared to those colleges that forbid alcohol on the campus or house substance free options.Unsupervision of students was also more likely to have a higher rate of binge drinkers. Changing the alcohol culture by refraining easy availabilty on campus and enforcing stricter alcohol control policies seem to be few of the remedies to prevent high consumption of alcohol

Health Jockey

The coolers of beer were tempting, like cookie jars. They sat in the backyards and garages and homes of Brian Gerrits’ family friends during social gatherings, and their contents were off-limits to him.

Gerrits, who grew up in Kaukauna, started drinking by putting his hands in those coolers, furtively, when he was about 12 or 13 years old.

“I was sneaky about it,” he said. “I would take a beer here or there, when people weren’t really paying attention and stuff. I’d go hide. It’s like, every day it seems there’s a reason for people to get together and drink, the adults. It just kind of grows on you and that becomes the norm, thinking, that’s what I’m going to do when I grow up.”

Now a 19-year-old college student in Kaukauna, Gerrits recently appeared in court on his first charge of driving under the influence. The alcohol-tinged trajectory of his life is not uncommon among Wisconsin’s youth.
Wisconsin youth drink a lot, often

According to the 2005-06 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, Wisconsin youth and young adults between the ages of 12 and 20 rank fourth in the nation for either drinking or binging on alcohol in the past 30 days.

The survey defines binge drinking as consuming five or more drinks one after the other or within a couple hours of each other.

In a state where people drink at events ranging from baby showers to wakes and where the most popular part of many communal activities is the beer tent, it’s not hard to see the generational influence of drinking, said Helen Aguilar, a certified drug and alcohol counselor at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Appleton.

“The taverns and supper clubs and bars are so family-friendly,” Aguilar said. “I think that’s just a direct translation from Europe. I think the problem is somehow we missed the boat in teaching responsible drinking.”

Some of Aguilar’s adult clients remember the confusing cues they picked up on as children.

“Several of them described getting watered wine when they were old enough to move up from the kiddy table, Christmas at grandma’s house,” Aguilar said. “I think that’s also giving mixed messages to kids that this is what big people do, this is what is socially acceptable.”

Freedom High School counselor Deb Siebers, who taught for six years in Ohio and who has worked in Wisconsin schools for 28 years, said another Wisconsin school district in which she worked took a survey of teenage drinking habits within the district.

The survey asked the students to indicate at what age they had sampled their first alcoholic drink.

“It did not go low enough,” Siebers said.

Though it's easy to see that underage alcohol abuse abounds, there's often a disconnect between identifying the abuse and getting a youth into treatment, said Thomas Doughman, ThedaCare Behavioral Health manager.

A ThedaCare Behavioral Health adolescent substance abuse outpatient program, in operation for at least 15 years, closed in 2005, Doughman said. The program had then sent its 35 to 40 clients to other agencies.

“We had lots of people that were saying they needed help but they weren't always getting to our doorstep,” he said. “The ability to go from an identified problem to getting that person help for the problem was difficult. Sometimes the folks that needed the help didn't have any financial means to get the help.”

In other cases, Doughman said, schools would refer students but couldn't always guarantee their compliance, that families would want to follow through.

“As parents we want our children to be well and we want to trust that they’re doing well,” he said. “The concept or thought that, ‘I experimented when I was a child and that’s kind of normal and tolerated, and I made it through,’ can contribute to ... ‘my child is going through a phase, it will pass.’”
‘This is not happening’

Although Gerrits doesn’t consider himself to be an alcoholic, some of his choices have been steeped in alcohol.

During his days at Kaukauna High School, he thought of drinking as “something fun” to fill the hours on weekends. It was common for him to drink beer three or four times a week, downing six or seven beers at a time.

“I put on a good front in high school. I went to school all week and worked hard and (the weekend) was the time for me to have fun with my friends and relax,” he said. “When we were 16, every weekend, yeah. We used to throw barrel parties with 50, 60 people. There’s like, a keg, and people come and pay five bucks for a cup and it’s all you can drink until the keg runs out.”

Gerrits, who graduated last year in the top 30 percent of his class with a 3.5 grade point average, participated in football, track and power lifting. He balances his time as a student at the University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley with a job at a local credit union and fatherhood; Gerrits shares custody of his 9-month-old daughter with the baby’s mother.

He thinks about alcohol as he plans out his days.

“I would love to go to Madison (to complete a four-year degree) but I know I couldn’t even handle it because of all the binge drinking,” Gerrits said.

“Usually the first thing that comes to mind when someone brings it (drinking) up is, what do I have to do the next morning.?

“If I have to work I don’t usually think twice about it because then I wouldn’t be able to go to work and do my job well, and I like to do my job well and put that first. If I see my daughter and stuff, I like to be awake early and ready to play with her.

“If I have nothing to do, I’d just drink as much as I could.”

When Gerrits faces an emotional crisis, alcohol is his escape. Gerrits said he drank to the point of intoxication every night for about two weeks in May after his relationship with his daughter’s mother ended.

“I got drunk to forget my problems and stuff, and I’d wake up the next morning and get drunk again,” he said.

It was after work on May 20 that Gerrits called a friend and the two started drinking.

“Then I got behind the wheel of a car and I was really, really drunk and I just wanted to go home because my daughter was coming over the next day,” he said. “I got pulled over in Kaukauna and the first thing I thought was, ‘Wow, this is not happening to me.’”

Gerrits said officers twice used a Taser gun to subdue him because he was belligerent. Having stopped him for speeding, he said, police found a case of beer and a bottle of vodka in his trunk.
‘Get them drunk’

Those who start drinking in their early teens are four times more likely to develop alcohol dependence, said Chris Wardlow, a prevention specialist at ThedaCare Behavioral Health who runs advocacy and community education programs in Outagamie County.

Nationwide, alcohol contributes to more than 14 deaths a day among people ages 12 to 20, Wardlow said. Among the causes of death are traffic fatalities, suicides, homicides, alcohol poisoning and unintentional injuries resulting from risky behavior.

Some adults accept and even facilitate drinking as a rite of passage, Siebers said.

This spring during lunch at a Fox Valley restaurant, Siebers said she overheard some mothers talking about their sons, who were soon to graduate from high school.

“This is what they were discussing — and they all agreed — they had to take their sons out and get them drunk so they’d know how to handle it when they got to college,” Siebers said.

“It’s a learned behavior. I admire those kids who hold out as long as they do. The kids who wait longer to drink are less likely to be the ones who abuse it.”

Across the state this spring, town hall meetings played out as part of a nationwide series of gatherings, launched by Acting U.S. Surgeon Gen. Steven K. Galson, to promote measures aimed at curbing underage drinking.

This spring Wardlow convened a meeting at the Fox Cities Rotary Multicultural Center in downtown Appleton. The goal: to supply parents and guardians information about how alcohol affects teenagers’ minds and bodies.

“Now we’re educating parents of younger kids and the kids themselves,” he said. “The new research we’re being exposed to tells us that drinking and driving is just one of the consequences. There are physiological, neurological consequences. No longer is taking the keys and letting them drink the wisest choice. …

“Oftentimes teens are there, saying, ‘We want parents to step up and be parents.’”

The connections made at such meetings have created parent networks, Wardlow said.

“I think that we’re beginning to turn the corner a little bit in Wisconsin,” he said. “I think the next generation of parents and adults are going to get it a little better than we get it.”
‘The choices I make’

Gerrits, a single father who said he hasn’t drunk alcohol since May 20, sees a psychologist.

“We just talk about the choices I make,” he said. “I was doing so good up until my DUI.”

For driving drunk, Gerrits lost his license for eight months, was fined $663 and ordered to undergo an alcohol- and drug- abuse (AODA) assessment.

Gerrits has attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings before but said it’s not likely he’ll do so again. He had a hard time identifying with members of the groups, he said, because he doesn’t consider himself an alcoholic.

“Those are people who would wake up with the shakes, and they were sick to their stomachs, and I guess I can’t really relate to them in that sense,” he said.

“It makes me feel out of place.”

He does not want to give up alcohol.

“I guess honestly I could say I just want to be to the point where I can be like everyone else and have fun and not get into trouble and not have problems,” he said.

“I’m in college, I’m not even 21, and I already have a DUI.”

Gerrits said he’s committed to staying sober behind the wheel. He remembers the fear of getting caught. But it is what didn’t happen that night that most weighs on his mind.

“The day after, I said it was the best thing that could happen to me because I could have hit someone,” he said.

“I don’t ever want to have to think about getting one again.”

Appleton Post Crescent

A 14-year study of heavy alcohol consumption or binge drinking among college students in the United States has linked the conditions in the college environment as being the cause.

Factors such as easy access to alcohol, low prices and special promotions, weak control policies and lax enforcement are what encourage binge drinking, the review stated.

Researchers with the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study (CAS) had discovered that the college environment was the main contributor to binge drinking, after making a landmark study that surveyed more than 50,000 students at 120 colleges from 1993 to 2001.

During its 14-year existence, the CAS focused attention on widespread binge drinking at American colleges and the ensuing serious health and social consequences to drinkers, fellow students and neighbours.

CAS’’s findings and implications were examined once again and according to a new review, the researchers concluded that the heavy drinking behaviour of students was more common in college environments that have a strong drinking culture, few alcohol control policies on campus or in the surrounding community, weak enforcement of existing policies, and alcohol made easily accessible through low prices, heavy marketing and special promotions.

CAS Director Henry Wechsler, lecturer on society, human development and health at Harvard School of Public Health and Assistant Director Toben Nelson, assistant professor of epidemiology and community health at the University of Minnesota, conducted the review.

“Our study drew attention to the heavy drinking of students, most of whom were not considered alcoholics or in need of traditional treatment, but nevertheless experienced problems as a result of their drinking,” Wechsler said.

The CAS found that students who binge drink as five or more drinks in a row for males, and four or more drinks for females, on a single occasion in the past two weeks, are more likely to experience a wide range of problems, including academic difficulties, social conflict, risky sexual behaviour, risky driving behaviour, vandalism, injury and alcohol overdose.

The study also discovered that binge drinkers were more likely to engage in other risk behaviours such as tobacco and illicit drug use. Students who binge drink frequently were most likely to experience these problems.

Besides the harm that they can cause themselves, CAS also pointed out the problems that drinkers can cause for others on and around campus.

The “secondhand” effects of alcohol use, similar to the concept of secondhand smoke, helped people understand that student drinking is harmful to the larger campus community.

These problems include drinking-related behaviour that is disruptive to studying and sleep, vandalism, and physical and sexual assaults.

“The five/four drink binge measure is a good indicator of who will experience alcohol-related problems, and more importantly, captures most students who actually experience problems, something measures with higher drink thresholds fail to do,” Wechsler said.

“Binge drinking among college students varies widely from college to college,” Toben Nelson said.

“At some colleges almost no students binge drink, while at others nearly four in every five students do. Interestingly, we found that the levels of binge drinking, and the problems related to it, remain very stable at the same colleges over time.

This finding occurred despite surveying a new group of students in each of the CAS surveys.

“That suggests there is something about certain college environments that promote binge drinking,” added Nelson.

On the other hand, colleges that restricted use by banning alcohol on campus or offering substance-free housing options had fewer drinkers, and as a result lower binge drinking levels.

The state and local government can also play a role in cutting back binge drinking, as was found out about students who attended colleges in states with stronger alcohol control policies were less likely to be binge drinkers.

The other factor contributing to binge drinking is when students have an easy access to alcohol.

“A ”wet” college environment, one that has many stores where students can buy alcohol, and may be influenced to do so by heavy marketing, low prices and special promotions, creates the conditions for heavy drinking,” Wechsler said.

Thaindian News

In March 2004, a college student named Jason Reinhardt entered a bar frequented by North Dakota State University students at midnight on his 21st birthday and began throwing back shot after shot during a ritual common at the time called your “Power Hour.”

From the exact minute you are literally able to consume your first legal drink — midnight — to bar closing — 2 a.m. — you consume 21 shots, a sort of warped rite of passage for many college students.

Friends cheered him on as the bar provided Reinhardt with a metal bucket — a souvenir from the event — as he vomited his 13th shot, a “Prairie Fire,” a nasty combo of tequila and Tabasco.

After closing, Reinhardt returned home, escorted by his buddies, and never woke up. This occurred about two years after Lance Jerstad went into a coma following a Power Hour at the same bar.

For students in the Fargo-Moorhead area, none of this was shocking. The more than 40 bars between the two cities are mostly fueled by students from the four colleges; their livelihood was made from students willing to hand over what little money that had for a good time, and often an extreme one. If parents could get a peek into what went on inside those establishments, even the most knowledgeable would be shocked at what bar owners let happen.

It took a death for some of those bars to crack down on the ritual.

The Associated Press recently released an analysis of deaths attributed to alcohol poisoning between 1999 and 2005.

Surprisingly, only 6.2 percent of deaths were among college-age people ages 18-23. Not surprisingly, of those, 83 deaths involved victims under the legal drinking age.

Labeling college students uninhibited drunks is not entirely correct; many students drink responsibly, and many more, in fact, don’t drink alcohol at all, whether they are of legal age or not. There are students who do say “no” or do not put themselves in those situation. And according to many studies, binge drinking on college campuses nationwide is on the decline.

The reasons why young people choose to binge drink are convoluted. Some claim there’s nothing else to do, others feel an indirect or direct societal pressure, and many have never experimented with alcohol and have been thrown into an environment saturated in it. Parties, bars, drinking games, fraternity houses — the college experience for some students revolves around social gatherings focused on alcohol.

But the deaths tallied in the AP analysis are not exclusive to youth — the survey was the total of all deaths attributed to alcohol poisoning.

Much of our infatuation with alcohol (and the dangers of it) is a culmination of our culture’s attitude toward the stuff.

As a teen or even pre-teen, we are warned of the perilous consequences of drinking. Drunken driving arrests and deaths are imminent, alcoholism inevitable… the “gateway drug” will likely lead you down the path to unwanted pregnancies, drug addiction, crime, unemployment, dropping out of school. We are not taught at those ages how to drink responsibly; we are taught not to drink at all. Ever. Bad things could happen, and we must protect these young and vulnerable people.

For some teens, at least in today’s society, danger is sexy. The possibility of getting caught, of doing something prohibited, could make you part of a “desirable” crowd. Of course, school environments and communities vary on this perception, but there is always that one group of kids who subconsciously finds the “other side of the tracks” a little bit more appealing.

Alcohol is easily accessible to underage kids. Find a “buyer,” and you are in. Raid the parents’ cabinets, get a fake I.D., buy an expired one from a legal age friend, befriend a local bar employee. There’s always that one kid whose parents let him or her drink and even have parties at home. Usually, alcohol is readily available and accessible if teens want it.

The U.S. has the highest legal drinking age in the world; those even close include Japan and Iceland at 20 and South Korea at 19. Most others have set their age at 18, 16 or do not have a minimum age requirement. Some states, however, allow those under 21 to drink when parents or guardians provide consent or are present.

Many experts believe this “prohibitionist” approach is failing, but the majority of Americans do not agree.

Results from a July 2007 Gallup poll show that “more than three in four Americans — 77 percent — say they would oppose a federal law that would lower the drinking age in all states to age 18. Just 22 percent of Americans would support such a law.”

The poll showed that 60 percent of Americans believe penalties for underage drinkers should be more strict, and Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 had much more lenient views toward underage drinking.

Regardless of the many stances on alcohol and drinking, it cannot be ignored that the nation’s approach is broken. Attitudes in this culture need to somehow change so we can work toward curbing this problem.

Austin Daily Herald

Some people continue to face challenges related to theirs or someone else’s drug/alcohol daily.

What’s being done to change the situation? Since and before last July, the Rice County Chemical Health Coalition has been actively working to reduce and prevent youth alcohol and other drug use. Coalition partners include all local law enforcement agencies, school districts, healthcare providers, county agencies, local colleges and other organizations. The coalition, comprised of several action teams including the Northfield Mayor’s Task Force on Youth Alcohol and Drug Use, continues to employ strategies to help young people lead healthy lives.

Notable examples of coalition work:

• Adolescent treatment groups provide accessible local treatment and aftercare services.

• Alcohol sales ordinances developed for Rice County based on best practices; similar ordinances recommended to county cities.

• The Zero Alcohol Providers law enforcement project identifies and prosecutes adults who provide alcohol to minors.

• Compliance checks by law enforcement hold alcohol sellers accountable for legal sales. The Northfield Police Department recognized businesses that passed compliance checks.

• A locally-produced DVD will be disseminated in early fall. Spearheaded by the Rice County Sheriff’s Office, the DVD offers adults information about youth drug use.

• Providing opioid withdrawal medication locally in order to better support recovery efforts of community members.

• Efforts to address misuse and disposal of prescription medications with plans to implement education and disposal efforts locally.

• Alcohol awareness training provided in cooperation with South Central College for alcohol servers and license holders. Fifty-one alcohol servers have been trained in the past year.

• A parent meeting provides opportunities for parents whose children have addiction issues to support each other and discuss experiences.

• Coalition members provide training sessions for health care providers to help identify and respond to substance abuse among their patients.

• Schools are instrumental in data gathering about youth behaviors, knowledge and attitudes via surveys. Increased time for an alcohol/drug counselor in Northfield schools provides services to struggling students, families and teachers. Northfield schools hosted “After the Headlines,” designed to continue community conversations on this topic. Curriculum review and piloting the DARE program have been school efforts.

• Media efforts include posters, flyers and mailer aimed at parents. Messages support parents’ efforts to talk about alcohol/drug use. Local coffee shops provide opportunities to use conversation-starters supplied by the coalition.

• A resource directory addressing substance use prevention, intervention and treatment services is available at northfieldhci.org/chemhealthdir/chemhealthhome.shtml in both Spanish and English.

Over the past year, the Northfield Union of Youth/The Key was instrumental organizing and fostering dialogue between youth and adults. Leaders from The Key have repeatedly demonstrated compassion and keen insights.

Northfield News

Give young people more facilities and activities to take part in and you will reduce under-age drinking, is the message from Moray teenagers to the Scottish Government.

But increasing the age people can buy alcohol from off-sales outlets to 21 will do nothing to stop youngsters drinking, they claimed.

Teen drinkers will either get even older people to buy drink, find more at home or even use fake IDs to buy it themselves.

Whatever age limit politicians choose to impose on the sale of alcohol, said a group of Moray teens, the key is personal responsibility.

They said many youngsters experiment with alcohol because of peer pressure and it is seen as the cool thing to do.

For Government ministers behind the current national alcohol consultation, which aims to tackle Scotland's growing binge drinking culture, it would be well worth their while visiting Elgin Youth Cafe to speak to the young people themselves and see an example of a thriving project which takes young people off the streets.

'The Scot' spoke to four young people, aged 14-16, who attend the centre on a regular basis to find out their views on alcohol.

A key plank of the Government's proposals to tackle under-age drinking is providing alternative leisure and youth work opportunities for young people.

That is exactly the kind of opportunities offered at Elgin Youth Cafe where young people aged 12-18 can meet, enjoy a range of games and activities, and have a drink (non-alcoholic) and something to eat with friends.

The young people are given a high level of responsibility for running the facility themselves and are also given non-judgmental advice on a range of issues, including alcohol.

One 16-year-old boy admitted he started drinking at 12, mostly on a Saturday night, because that's what everybody he hung out with did.

"I got taken home by the police at the age of 14 because I was drunk and disorderly, although I never got charged. After that I decided not to get myself into a state again and I haven't since then," he said.

"I know a lot of people who go out to get blazing drunk every weekend."

Many youngsters stash booze for the weekend in secret locations at schools.

Even although he drinks himself, he admitted he would try and steer any children he has in the future away from drink.

"If I was a parent and my son asked for a drink I would put some vinegar in it to try and put him off," he said.

Another 16-year-old girl admitted she first tried alcohol from the age of 14 but only on special occasions.

She said young people's attitude towards alcohol is determined largely by the example set by their parents.

"I have been brought up well enough to realise that drink can be OK in moderation. My parents trust me not to go out drinking and know I don't really like it."

She believes increasing the age limit on buying alcohol to 21 is unfair and even suggested that allowing people to legally drink at 16 should be considered.

"You can leave home at 16, get a job, have kids, get married. It is all about your attitude to drinking," she said.

They all agreed alcohol and drugs education in schools in Moray was good but said more real-life examples of the dangers and consequences of taking them would hit home to more young people.

A 14-year-old boy said: "One of my friends when he was 12 would skip tea on a Friday night, tell his parents he was going to bide at a friend's house and then go out and spend £15 on booze."

Statistics issued by the Government paint a worrying picture of under-age drinking.

A survey revealed that 40% of 15-year-olds and 15% of 13-year-olds drank alcohol in the previous week.

One in six of the 15-year-olds also tried drugs and one in seven had unprotected sex as a consequence of alcohol consumption.

In Scotland an estimated 65,000 children live with a parent with a drink problem and 25% of children on the child protection register are there due to parental alcohol or drug misuse.

Fiona Birse, chairman of Elgin Youth Cafe, said: "We have done a lot of one-to-one work with kids who have come from alcoholic backgrounds and are simply doing as they see (at home)."

Peer pressure also plays a part in youth drinking. She said the youth workers try to educate them, but not in a lecturing or critical fashion, and occupy their time with other activities.

"The cafe is a totally drink-free zone and parents know their kids come here and are totally safe, and we would never change that. Outwith this environment they may be drinkig and we want to educate them in a non-judgmental way."

All the activities for the youngsters are free (the only charge is 50p for the pool table) and a busy summer programme includes a barbecue, sailing, gorge walking, self-defence classes, and theme nights.

The kids also get involved in a range of community projects under a "Delta Force" banner and these have included cleaning chewing gum off the steps of St Giles Church in the centre of Elgin and getting involved in a garden project at Anderson's Residential Care Home in the town.

The cafe, in Francis Place, is open on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday through the day and at night until 9.30pm. It is also open on a Friday through the day and hopes soon to reintroduce Friday evening opening. The centre used to be open on a Friday and Saturday night but funding issues saw that stopped.

It costs £100,000 a year to run the centre which comes through a variety of sources, including St Giles and St Columba's Churches, the Laidlaw Youth Trust, Lloyds TSB, Diageo and the Robertson Trust, the latter two both drink-related organisations which try to help with education programmees.

Northern Scot

Children as young as 12 are being taken to hospital in a very serious condition after becoming “paralytic” on alcohol in Suffolk's market towns.

Suffolk police has warned that towns in east Suffolk are suffering from anti social behaviour caused by youngsters illegally drinking alcohol.

Chris Lucas, a police inspector based in Leiston, told an extraordinary meeting of Aldeburgh town council: “In Framlingham we have had girls aged 12 and 13 taken to hospital absolutely paralytic and they have had to have their stomachs pumped out.

“I think this is replicated across other towns and it is a serious problem.”

Insp Lucas said letters are sent to parents warning them about their children's behaviour and police officers use litmus tests to distinguish if an innocuous looking drink contains alcohol.

Extra police patrols will be introduced for the three-day carnival weekend in Aldeburgh which is packed with thousands of visitors and usually there is an increase in crime.

The drinking culture among youngsters was the focal point of the special town council meeting where councillors discussed how they could crack down on the problem.

Latest figures show that children aged 11 to 15 are now drinking 11.5 units of alcohol a week. This compares with five units in 1990.

Aldeburgh town council decided not to follow the example of other towns in Suffolk Coastal who now have designated alcohol zones where it is an offence not to stop drinking in public when asked by a police officer.

Instead, the town council voted for police to use dispersal orders. These are powers which allow officers to move people on, seize alcohol and forbid them from returning to a location for 48 hours.

Councillors had mixed views on the extent of drunken behaviour in Aldeburgh. John Digby said: “I can not see that we have a major problem, it is just four to six weeks of hassle. August is the problem and has been for 40 years.”

But Marianne Fellowes said: “When people leave the Jubilee Hall on Friday and Saturday nights they have to walk through crowds of young people.

“A lot of residents said there was a problem, especially on Crag Path, and there was an assault on the lifeboat crew.

“A lot of people live in fear during July and August weekends and there are certain areas of town where young people are gathering and drinking a lot of alcohol.”

Hugo Herbert-Jones said the problems should not be exaggerated and he did not want the town to be plastered with notices about alcohol zones.

“This would give the impression that it is a hotbed of crime and disorder which is not really in the Aldeburgh tradition at all,” said the former mayor.

Letting agencies in Aldeburgh are to be asked to give their tenants “house rules” which emphasise the need to drink sensibly.

East Anglian Daily Times

A new analysis regarding the growing toll of alcohol poisoning serves up another sobering reminder of how lethal the mix of young people and drinking can be.

An Associated Press examination of federal records found that 157 college-age people, 18 to 23, drank themselves to death from 1999 through 2005, the latest year for which figures are available. The annual total has grown from 18 in 1999 to a peak of 35 in 2005.

Over that period, more than half were under the drinking age of 21.

The report, released this week, just adds to the body of evidence that alcohol is a deadly ingredient for young people. While young people literally drinking themselves to death is bad enough, the number of alcohol-related deaths under other circumstances is far greater.

Nationwide statistics show that 5,000 youth die each year from incidents involving underage drinking. About 1,400 college students die in America annually in alcohol-related incidents.

Turning 21 doesn't necessarily mean the dangers go away. One practice reported in the AP analysis -- drinking 21 shots of alcohol on a 21st birthday -- has proven especially lethal. Of the college-age deaths that made news, 11 people (including eight college students) died while celebrating their 21st birthdays.

All in all, it's a grim picture. But while it's generally acknowledged that under-aged people who want to drink will find a way, it's a reality that should be targeted for change. Education for all young drinkers and enforcement of underage drinking laws remain the best way to go about it.

Unlike some college campuses where alcohol poisoning has claimed lives, Marshall University has been fortunate. In fact, MU Police Chief Jim Terry said there hasn't been an alcohol-related death on Marshall's campus in his 20-year stint with the university's police department. But it is something he worries about, with good cause. According to the Marshall Police Department, there were 222 arrests or citations issued for liquor law violations involving students in 2005. Less than half were on campus, and most involved in underage drinking, Terry said.

According to Terry, his department works hard to combat underage drinking and has taken the fight against underage drinking off campus by teaming up with other local law enforcement agencies. While that alone won't eliminate problems, it can help young people think twice before putting themselves at risk. And it may make it harder for adults to supply them with alcohol.

Like most universities, Marshall emphasizes to its new students the rules regarding alcohol and the dangers of drinking. The university's Substance Abuse Education Program (SAEP) provides seminars, growth groups and other programs to promote the responsible use of alcohol and to educate the campus community about the problems associated with the use of illegal drugs. Individual counseling and referral are part of this service. The coordinator of the program also serves as adviser and university liaison for BACCHUS, a student organization which advocates the responsible use of alcohol.

Those education and help efforts should continue full force. Likewise, public schools should review their curricula to ensure that their students are getting a strong message about the dangers of drinking. The 2005 West Virginia Youth Risk Behavior Survey showed that 31 percent of young people in the state had their first drink before they were 13.

Parents also play a huge role -- or at least they should. Make children aware of the statistics, inform them of the limits when alcohol can lead to risky behavior or alcohol poisoning. And if you learn that they need help to battle an alcohol problem, acknowledge it and get them appropriate assistance.

Through a concerted effort, perhaps the tide can be turned against the grim statistics.

Herald Dispatch

Up To 1,000 extra people could be helped out of alcohol or drugs problems after a clinic received £123,000.

The drug and alcohol liaison service at the QMC will now be able to handle 6,000 cases a year.

Service manager Jackie Dennis said: "We are delighted to have the funding secured for our proposal to dramatically expand this much-valued service.

"The team currently provide an extremely worthwhile and much-needed service to support those with substance misuse issues in Nottingham, and we are looking forward to building on this."

It is estimated that half of all admissions at the emergency department at the QMC, and ten per cent of all medical cases, are directly related to alcohol.

Alcohol liaison nurse Mark Holmes, who helped to set up the service, said: "We give people an opportunity to change their ways.

"We try to get them motivated to stop drinking by setting them goals and targets. It's a long process."

The service is managed by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust. It was set up in 2001 and provides support and advice to people in Nottingham aged 18 to 65.

Nottingham City Primary Care Trust has awarded the £123,000, most of which will be spent on employing two extra clinicians.

Sue Cupit, 44, from Carlton, started attending the service in 2003. She had been told she had just three weeks to live because of her huge intake.

Heartbroken by the death of her mother, Sue consumed 24 cans of lager and four litres of wine a day to escape the pain.

She attended the clinic every week for six months to receive help and advice and now no longer drinks.

"It normally takes eight years for alcoholics to develop cirrhosis of the liver - I managed it in four," she said.

This is Nottingham

Researchers at the Universities of Bonn and Sweden''s Karolinska Institute have found that a particular gene variant might make women more vulnerable to alcoholism

In mice also, endorphins seem to play an important role in the amount of alcohol consumed, particularly among females.

Endorphins are known as ''happiness'' hormones and they activate what is known as the reward system in the brain and thereby ensure a good mood.

Without these hormones, a person should be going easy on the alcohol, according to researchers'' theory.

Researchers tested this hypothesis by examining mice that could not produce any endorphins due to a genetic mutation.

The laboratory mice had the choice of quenching their thirst with pure water or an ethanol solution.

"Overall, mice without endorphins drank less alcohol than their relatives with endorphins,'' Dr. Ildiko Racz from the Bonn Institute of Molecular Psychiatry explains.

The endorphin effect was particularly marked in female mice. Normally these tend to hit the bottle more than males.
"But without endorphins, the decrease in their desire for alcohol was particularly drastic." Dr Racz adds.

On contrary, in males the absence of the endorphins made less difference.

Researchers then scrutinised genes, which are important in the human endorphin metabolism.

For this, they analysed blood samples of just short of a total of 500 female and male alcoholics for peculiarities.

"We were able to show that two genetic changes in the genes of female alcoholics occurred significantly more frequently than in healthy women. We don''t know what the exact effect of these changes is," Dr Racz said.

By contrast, the scientists did not find any changes that indicated a contribution of endorphins in male alcoholics.

Women with a particular genetic make-up could therefore be at greater risk of becoming dependent on alcohol.

"Today we estimate the influence of the genes in this disease to be at least 50 per cent," Dr. Racz said.

However, she warns against exaggerating the results.

"We can only evaluate how large the influence of the genetic mutations we found really is after carrying out further research," Dr. Racz said.

At least it seems to be a bit clearer now that endorphins really do play a role in the development of ethanol addiction.

MSN India

An Associated Press analysis of federal records found that 157 college-age people, 18 to 23, drank themselves to death from 1999 through 2005, the most recent year for which figures are available.

Over the seven-year span, 83 of the college-age victims were under the drinking age of 21.

A separate AP analysis of hundreds of news articles about alcohol-poisoning deaths in the past decade found that victims drank themselves well past the point of oblivion -- with an average blood-alcohol level of 0.40 percent, or five times the legal limit for driving.

Schools and communities have responded in a variety of ways, including programs to teach incoming freshmen the dangers of extreme drinking; designating professors to help students avoid overdoing it; and passing laws to discourage binge drinking.

The federal data showed deaths spiking on weekends -- when young people are more likely to go out with the goal of getting drunk -- and in December, when college students wrap up finals. Most of the dead were young men.

Every year, Karen Douglas, a counselor at McMurry University, offers a voluntary alcohol screening for students at her school, part of a national effort each year to assess how much drinking college students do each year, whether they've been in an accident or injured, have relatives with alcohol problems, etc.

While binge drinking doesn't appear to be a problem on her campus, Douglas said she does at times have to recommend to students that they curb their drinking -- or if they are underage, stop altogether.

"Based on their score, we would sit down with them and give them advice, or recommend that they follow up with a professional," she said.

Like Abilene's other universities, alcohol is not allowed on McMurry's campus, and the school takes an active interest in teaching students about the dangers of alcohol use and abuse in the form of special classes and other resources.

A recent Associated Press analysis of federal records found that 157 college-age people 18 to 23 drank themselves to death from 1999 through 2005, the most recent year for which figures are available,

Vanessa Roberts, dean of students at McMurry, said a proactive approach, and open dialogue with students about the hazards of alcohol, can make a difference in preventing such accidents.

Roberts even encourages students to call her directly, no matter what time of the day or night, if they need help, she said.

"They all have security's cell phone number, and they have my cell phone number," said Roberts, who said she has gotten calls "at two or three o'clock in the morning" from students with questions or concerns.

The potential dangers of alcohol use are discussed in a McMurry 101 class required to be taken by every freshman. The course also deals in part with the hazards of other drugs, Roberts said.

The college emphasizes that any drinking under the age of 21 is illegal while also talking about making healthy and safe choices, she said.

"It's not like we pretend it doesn't happen," she said.

Those who are under 21 who are caught with alcohol on campus must attend a state-sanctioned alcohol course taught by the university's nurse.

"It's two nights, three hours each night," she said.

Rules and regulations

Lynne Bruton, Abilene Christian University's director of public relations, said that the college has never experienced an alcohol-related death on its campus and does not have a problem with binge drinking "because ACU maintains an alcohol-free campus."

But the school is "aware that binge drinking is becoming a large part of college culture across the nation," Bruton said, and thus offers various alcohol education programs to the student body, including "Making Choices Week," she said.

Also, as part of its residence hall curriculum, all on-campus residents attend mandatory meetings where many issues are discussed, including alcohol.

For off-campus students, ACU offers voluntary general safety seminars, where alcohol dangers and issues are addressed.

Hardin-Simmons University offers sessions led by faculty and staff about the dangers of alcohol during new student orientation.

"We also have small student-led discussions about the topic during the week," said Forrest McMillan, the school's dean of students. "Our nurse's office offers a program once a year where students can experience simulations of driving drunk and impaired vision as well as a program communicating the dangers of abuse."

Additionally, the school's student development office offers four classes a year on alcohol and drug abuse prevention.

Learning lessons

Hardin-Simmons student Abigail Michel, 21, said that she wasn't aware of binge drinking on the campus.

"I think if people do drink, they're usually pretty responsible," she said.

While she said she was certain some students drink on campus, it's not something Rachael Tomko, 22, has ever done during her time at Hardin-Simmons University, where she is a graduate student.

"It's just not a main theme here," she said. "The theme here is the activities you can get involved in (and) the things you can go to."

HSU student Allison Baskin, 20, agreed.

"Obviously it is a college campus, and there are kids just starting out on their own," she said. "They're getting away from their parents, and they're probably going to try some things that aren't that smart."

Though McMurry offers manifold resources to students, Douglas' yearly survey shows that "some people are obviously not learning" what the university and others are trying to teach them about alcohol, she said.

Abilene Reporter News

When women's groups band together to make their men sober

Boonsri Jaimano once earned 150 baht a day delivering gas tanks. Most of his earnings, if not all, went into filling his stomach with alcohol. His wife, Junya Jaimano, on no more than 20 baht a day, fed the stomachs of her husband and their young daughters with whatever she could find along the canal near their home in the Ha Thanwa (December 5) community. Boonsri often complained about the food. Junya could only tolerate his behaviour for a few days before she lost patience. And when that happened, they would begin to quarrel and Junya would end up getting hit by her inebriated husband. She had often thought about suicide, but there were her two daughters to consider.

A few months after the birth of his second daughter, Boonsri was tricked by two female community leaders into joining an anti-drinking and anti-domestic violence campaign, with much reluctance. Today, Boonsri has been sober for more than seven years. Gone forever is the front tooth that he lost when he drunkenly carried his then eight-month-old eldest daughter into the bathroom, slipped and smacked his tooth on his daughter's forehead.

His relationships with his wife and his first daughter, who was sent to live with her aunt at 16 - until Boonsri's drinking problem improved - have gotten better. Boonsri now drives a red song taew for a living. The vehicle will soon be in his name as the instalment plan is almost complete. Boonsri and his family now own a house, which they recently finished renovating. Junya says she is now able to face society, something she avoided when her husband roamed the neighbourhood as a drunkard.

In Chiang Mai's `Ha Thanwa' (December 5) and Fah Mai communities, women clean up the abusive habits of men and strive for equality.

The men and women of Chiang Mai's December 5 community are no strangers to alcoholism and its violent ramifications. According to Pun-Ngarm "Mae Pung" Sommana, one of the community leaders, liquor stores once lined the soi where the community is located. A number of men begin drinking at a very young age, following examples of the older men in their families. Since the community is made up of working class families, economic constraints, lifestyle and social habits only aggravate their dependence on the substance.

"Everyone once hoped to sell liquor. And everyone who bought it was from the community. It's convenient. They buy it there; they get drunk there. And if there's a problem, there are family members and friends around to help control the situation. However, if they get drunk outside of the community, then there's no one to protect them. Some people weren't happy when I asked them to stop selling liquor," said Mae Pung.

Since the start of the anti-drinking and anti-domestic violence campaign in 2002, by Mae Pung and Rattana Boonyarat of the neighbouring Fah Mai community, various alcohol-related problems suffered by community members have been tackled more systematically. Consequently, the campaign has improved the health, living, economic and social conditions for many of the community residents. Currently, there are 40 alcoholics, seven of whom are women, participating in the campaign.

Tough, determined, patient and unconditionally kind, Mae Pung has been dealing with violent intoxicated men since childhood.

"My father was very abusive. He was drunk all the time. My mother was a rural teacher. She was someone who tried to make society better. My father sometimes helped my mum, but when he got drunk, he was a totally different person. He used force. He didn't listen to anyone. He hit everyone. But when he was sober he was such a fair man," she recalled.

When Mae Pung first came to Chiang Mai, situated on Wualai Road along the outer city wall, the community was considered a slum replete with thorn bushes that muggers used as a hiding place. The five rai of land where the December 5 community now occupies belongs to the State Property Bureau, while the city wall is under the supervision of the Fine Arts Department. As a result, people from rural areas flooding into the city to find jobs and settle down in old Chiang Mai, faced constant eviction threats from government officials.

From a dusty tract that turned into knee-high deep mud during the monsoon season, it is now a paved road. The settlers fought to stay on the land by cleaning the unpaved streets and surrounding canals. The December 5 community, together with 37 other communities were able to negotiate with authorities to stay on the land. On the fifth of December, 1988, HM the King's birthday, the community project was formed. The community believes it is because of the monarch that they can be where they are today, hence the name. All of the work to improve the lives of the community members is dedicated to the King.

As the president of the December 5 Women Development Group, Mae Pung has spearheaded several projects to help elevate the status of women. The community now has a day nursery, which enables single and/or working mothers to work in the city. The credit union, set up in 1994 to help build financial security and provide loans to community members, is run by women. It began with 25 members and less than 2,000 baht in reserve. Everything was done by hand and paper. The staff initially worked without a single calculator and, for three years, without salary. Today the credit union has over 1,300 members, the majority of whom are women.

Mae Pung began combating violence against women in her community using nothing but pure leadership instinct, common sense and a man's pride to work against him.

"Women used to knock on my door because their husbands beat them. I had to hide them in my house ...

"I started by talking to the women: 'If your husband is drunk, don't do anything to provoke him.' Women didn't dare tell anyone else. We went in there to console the women. Sometimes we told the men to tone it down. Sometimes we threatened them, yelled at them. Sometimes we went in to help the women yell at their husbands. We just helped each other ...

"Some of the men stopped beating their wives because they were afraid that I would put a sign in front of their house to embarrass them. I tried everything to stop the men from drinking, like talking to them directly," Mae Pung said.

Even after years of work to get men to quit drinking - with some success stories - many of them still get defensive when approached by female community leaders about their drinking habits. "Who are you to tell me to stop drinking? Even my own father can't stop me," is not an uncommon reply that Mae Pung and Rattana receive from men. Yet, Mae Pung never considers anybody in her community a lost cause no matter how many times they have tried and failed.

On the day of the interview, a few inebriated men, former alcoholics and their families sat in Mae Pung's office. As a participant of the campaign, who has suffered a relapse after one year of sobriety, was talking of his struggle to quit, Mae Pung chimed in: "He's got ideals. He's got a good mind, but his will is weak. He's the most difficult case, but a case we never let go. If you are able to help one person, then you can get more people on board to help you."

In 2002, the December 5 and Fah Mai communities joined the Friends of Women Foundation research project, "Alcohol as the contributing factor to domestic violence". The initiative led to the launch of the communities' on-going campaign against alcohol abuse and domestic violence, and the establishment of the centre for women and children designed to help victims of alcoholism and violence. The centre not only focuses on providing addicts and their families a support system through intensive case studies, but provides support groups where fellow addicts meet regularly to share their experiences, which acts as a link between the sufferers of marital abuse and relevant legal agencies. The centre offers youngsters preventive cultural programmes by engaging them in theatre activities and Lanna fiddle music, and healing for victims of abuse through spiritual methods, according to their beliefs.

In their fight to better the lives of women and men - which cannot be tackled alone - Mae Pung and Rattana enlist the men of the community to join them in working towards a healthier living condition and equality. Some of the men who have been able to remain sober return to participate in the anti-drinking programme, using their success stories to inspire others who are still struggling with their addiction; some of whom become leaders of the project.

Banjerd Rattanamalikul of Fah Mai community has been sober for two years. The father of two and grandfather of three children began drinking since he was 26. He has always worked alongside monks, accompanying them on their alms rounds. Banjerd's old job put him in constant contact with death, as he transported dead bodies to the cemetery - some of whom were his drunken neighbours. And it was Buddhism, fear of death and his deteriorating health that made Banjerd decide to overcome his drinking habit. Today he's an active leader in the campaign. He said his life has turned from black to white. He has gained back his weight. More people approach him and he is more efficient in everything he does.

Bangkok Post

Funding to tackle alcohol abuse in Dumfries and Galloway is set to treble over the next three years.

A report to the region's health board shows the allocation to deal with the problem rising to £1.2m by 2010.

It is part of a Scottish Government package to help improve treatment services across the country.

Director of public health, Dr Derek Cox, said the resources would be targeted at a number of areas to try to help reduce people's alcohol intake.

He said part of the money would be spent on treatment, detoxification and providing social and other forms of support.

Alcohol intake

However, he said a large proportion of the funds would go to a scheme which carries out checks when people visit their GP.

"A very considerable bulk of the money is going into a thing called 'brief interventions'," Dr Cox said.

"In brief interventions what we do is we pose people four questions about their drinking.

"Depending on how they respond to these four questions we can decide whether or not they are likely to have harmful drinking habits."

If it is decided that they do need help they will be given a 15-minute talk about their alcohol consumption and given information about the problems it can cause.

Dr Cox said his had been shown to make a major difference.

"There is scientific research that shows that doing that actually does significantly reduce people's alcohol intake over a large population," he said.

The scheme is already being used in one part of the region and the funding will allow it to be spread to the whole of Dumfries and Galloway.

BBC News

Drinking laws are “a shambles” says an expert, as alcohol-related hospital admissions more than double in just four years, leaving hospital chiefs with a £15 million hangover.

Hospital admissions in Worcestershire have risen from 3,410 in 2002/03 to 8,394 in 2006/07 according to figures from Worcestershire Primary Care Trust.

The figures, revealed exclusively to your Worcester News, represent an increase of 250 per cent in alcohol-related hospital admissions in just four years.

The cost of treating such patients, admitted often for falls or fights, was an estimated £15 million in Worcestershire 2006/07, the latest figures available.

The figures were revealed after a report by the Local Government Association said police, medics and local councils are more stretched than ever before by alcohol-fuelled violence after Labour introduced new licensing laws in November 2005.

Peter Thorogood, chief executive of the Worcestershire Community Alcohol Team, said binge-drinking was turning our towns and cities into ‘vomitoriums’.

He said: “Everybody is saying it’s a complete shambles. It hasn’t cut down on violence. If anything, it has got worse. We’re seeing more people referred here from A&E. You hear about nurses getting assaulted. I think the law needs a rethink.”

Worcestershire Primary Care Trust has also reported a “dramatic rise in ill health” due to alcohol.

Richard Harling, the PCT’s director of public health, said: “The alcohol problem was getting worse before the introduction of the legislation and is still getting worse but whether this is due to legislation is a moot point, although there is no evidence that it has made things better. This report highlights the damage that alcohol does to individuals and our society.”

The LGA report says 94 per cent of local authorities are more stretched as a result of new licensing laws.

Half of all police authorities also said alcohol-related incidents were happening later into the night and early morning since the Act was introduced.

But Mike Foster, MP for Worcester, said more evidence was needed to establish whether more liberal licensing laws were to blame for increased binge drinking.

He said: ”The idea behind more flexible licensing arrangements was to avoid the binge drinking close to finishing time which added to drink-fulled problems including crime and anti-social behaviour in the evening.

“I’m not sure whether it has made things worse in terms of anti-social behaviour, criminal damage and people becoming more dependent on alcohol. Policy-makers and politicians need to spend more time looking at hard evidence and not go by gut instinct reactions.”

Worcester News

Excessively high numbers of children and young people are being admitted to Royal Bournemouth Hospital with alcohol-related illnesses.

A total of 142 children - those aged 18 and under - have been admitted to the hospital for drink-related problems in the past two years, with the youngest aged just three.

Health bosses say that initial figures appear to show that the rate of young people being admitted to hospital with alcohol-specific conditions is 34 per cent higher than the national average.

Statistics compiled for Bournemouth councillors show that in 2006/07, one child aged three, one aged 10 and one of 12 was admitted to hospital. Over 2006/07 and 2007/08, three 13-year-olds, seven 14-year-olds and six 15-year-olds needed hospital treatment.

The report, by Bournemouth and Poole Primary Care Trust, also warns that almost 16 per cent of Bournemouth adults are thought to be engaging in harmful levels of drinking. The town already has an alarming number of men dying from alcohol-specific conditions - almost double that for England.

And in one 18-month period, from April 2006 to October 2007, 581 admissions to the hospital were attributable to drink.

Barry Webb, deputy director of public health at the PCT, said they were "very concerned" about the figures but had a range of measures planned to try and address the problems.

He said: "Bournemouth has a very vibrant night-time economy. As a university town, it has a high population of people in their early 20s. But we also possibly have a problem around older people who drink and then develop chronic health problems as a result.

"We do have a serious problem with alcohol misuse in the Bournemouth area but, together with the council and the police, we're determined to tackle it."

The British Liver Trust, which has its national headquarters at Ringwood, said it was "dismayed but not surprised" at the picture painted by the report.

"It has become increasingly acceptable for younger people to drink heavily on a regular basis," said Alison Rogers, chief executive of the trust.

"Alcohol is readily available and affordable and until we have a sea-change in attitudes within the government, retail sector and the drinks industry we will continue to see a rise in alcohol-related liver disease and death from chronic liver disease."

Bournemouth Echo

The new Virginia law to stiffen penalties for those under 21 caught driving under the influence, as reported on June 22 by Washington Times' Amanda McClure, is a necessary step by state lawmakers, but illustrates two larger problems within the state's alcohol jurisdiction.

First, the state's monopoly on hard alcohol sales isn't necessarily living up to its intention of enhancing community safety when an increasing number of "Baby DUI's" is leading lawmakers to seek harsher penalties.

Virginia was the first state to hold a retail monopoly on hard alcohol sales according to a report by Dr. David Hanson of Potsdam University. "Following the repeal of a national prohibition in 1933, some states decided to continue their own prohibition against the production, distribution and sale of alcohol within their borders." In 1934 the Commonwealth established the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control that combined with other state monopolies to establish the National Alcoholic Beverage Control Association in 1938.

Virginia law currently stipulates that all liquor stores be run by the state, although beer and wine can be sold in supermarkets. Despite the state's hopes of promoting responsible distribution of alcoholic beverages by licensees, responsible consumption by those of legal age and zero tolerance for underage consumption, alcohol is still too accessible to young people.

Just look at the statistics. In a 2004 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 29 percent of Virginians age 12 to 20 reported using alcohol in the past month. Among youth 15 to 20, years of age, 63 were killed and 419 injured in alcohol-related crashes in Virginia in 2004, according to the Substance Abuse Services Council. The same study revealed that over 1,300 young people were "ticketed" for impaired driving - when in actuality they should have been arrested.

Secondly, as of July 1, underage drinking and driving, which previously had more lenient consequences than those for charges of underage alcohol possession, is now considered a Class 1 misdemeanor offense. If one is found guilty, the consequences are equal to penalties for underage possession. Conviction can result in a mandatory 12 month license suspension, up to 12 months in jail and a maximum $2,500 fine or 50 hours of community service. Increasing the penalty of "Baby DUI's" was a positive step, but Virginia lawmakers are sending the wrong message by making the punishment for operating a vehicle while impaired equal to that of underage possession.

Further introspection of Virginia's jurisdiction of alcohol sales is necessary. In order for the state to claim monopolization of alcohol sales, its intent must not simply be profit. If Virginia wishes to control alcohol distribution, it must also work to prevent the upsurge in underage possession and alcohol-related fatalities.

Washington Times

Scientific evidence has long suggested that moderate drinking offers some protection against heart disease, certain types of stroke and some forms of cancer. But new research shows that stopping drinking -- including at moderate levels -- may lead to health problems including depression and a reduced capacity of the brain to produce new neurons, a process called neurogenesis.

The findings from the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill appear online in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.

"Our research in an animal model establishes a causal link between abstinence from alcohol drinking and depression," said study senior author Clyde W. Hodge, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and pharmacology in the UNC School of Medicine. "In mice that voluntarily drank alcohol for 28 days, depression-like behavior was evident 14 days after termination of alcohol drinking. This suggests that people who stop drinking may experience negative mood states days or weeks after the alcohol has cleared their systems,"

The mice were tested for depression-like behavior using a widely recognized method called the Porsolt Swim Test. The mice are placed inside a beaker filled with water and allowed to swim for six minutes. Mice are good swimmers and have no problem completing this task. The amount of time they spend immobile (floating and not swimming) is measured as an index of despair or depression-like behavior. The more time a mouse spends immobile, the more "depressed" it is thought to be.

"This research provides the first evidence that long-term abstinence from moderate alcohol drinking -- rather than drinking per se -- leads to a negative mood state, depression," Hodge said.

The study also found that the emergence of depression was associated with a profound reduction in the number of neural stem cells (cells that will become neurons) and in the number of new neurons in a brain region known as the hippocampus. This brain region is critical for normal learning and memory, and recent studies show that the development of neurons in the hippocampus may regulate mood, Hodge said.

According to the researcher, the negative mood state in mice may represent depression in humans and appears to be linked to a diminished capacity of the brain to form new neurons. "Thus, people who drink moderate alcohol socially, or for potential health benefits, may experience negative mood or diminished cognitive abilities due to a loss of the brain's ability to form new neurons," he said.

But the study also found that treatment with an antidepressant drug during 14 days of abstinence prevented the development of depression and restored the capability of the brain to produce new cells.

"Treatment with antidepressant drugs may help people who suffer from both alcoholism and depression by restoring the brain's ability to form new neurons," Hodge said. "Moreover, this research provides an animal model of alcohol-related depression with which we can begin to fully understand the neurobiology underlying co-occurring alcoholism and depression, and thereby develop successful treatment options. At this point it appears that blunted neurogenesis may underlie the effects of abstinence from alcohol drinking on mood, but understanding the mechanisms by which this occurs is a key challenge for future research."

Several co-authors, all from UNC, also contributed to the study: Jennie R. Stevenson, neurobiology graduate student; Jason P. Schroeder, Ph.D., and Kimberly Nixon, Ph.D., research associates with the Bowles Center; Joyce Besheer, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry; and Fulton T Crews, Ph.D., director of the Bowles Center and professor of psychiatry and pharmacology.

The research was supported by grants from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (a component of the National Institutes of Health) and by the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies.

Science Daily

With a difficult exam behind or a weekend ahead, a college student goes drinking. After the youth ties one—or make that several—on, he or she is noticeably drunk, but friends simply put the inebriated to bed to "sleep it off." Instead of passing out, the student passes away—and becomes another troubling statistic of alcohol poisoning. Drinking games play a deadly role, which explains the flat reception for a video game called "Beer Pong."

Rising toll
An Associated Press analysis of federal records found that 157 college-age people, 18 to 23, drank themselves to death from 1999 through 2005, the most recent year for which figures are available. The number of alcohol-poisoning deaths per year nearly doubled over that span, from 18 in 1999 to a peak of 35 in 2005, though the total went up and down from year to year and dipped as low as 14 in 2001.

Point of oblivion
A separate AP analysis of hundreds of news articles about alcohol-poisoning deaths in the past decade found that victims drank themselves well past the point of oblivion — with an average blood-alcohol level of 0.40 percent, or five times the legal limit for driving.

Fighting bingeing
Schools and communities have responded in a variety of ways, including programs to teach incoming freshmen the dangers of extreme drinking; designating professors to help students avoid overdoing it; and passing laws to discourage binge drinking.

This week, a Las Vegas-based company changed the name of an upcoming video game to "Pong Toss," instead of "Beer Pong" — the name of a popular college drinking game. Connecticut's Atty. Gen. Richard Blumenthal had said Monday that a video-game-rating board's decision to approve "Beer Pong" for children as young as 13 showed the organization needed to take the issue of teen drinking more seriously.

Spike on weekends
The federal data showed deaths spiking on weekends — when young people are more likely to go out with the goal of getting drunk — and in December, when college students wrap up finals. Most of the dead were young men.

College students on average drink only a little more than adults in a typical week or month, said Scott Walters, an assistant professor of behavioral sciences at the University of Texas School of Public Health. College students "tend to save the drinks up and drink them all at once."

Fears for Freshmen
Freshmen were found to be at greatest risk, with 11 of 18 freshmen deaths occurring during the first semester.

Walters said one reason is that freshmen are on their own for the first time and trying new things. Also, there is a mentality that "if you're under 21 and someone's got alcohol, you've got to drink it, because you never know when somebody's going to have it again."

One practice—drinking 21 shots on a 21st birthday—has proven especially lethal. Of the college-age deaths reviewed, 11 people, including eight college students, died celebrating their 21st birthdays.

Chicago Tribune

Cologne, Germany - Alcohol abuse in the workplace quickly leads to problems. Experts estimate that 15 to 25 per cent of all occupational accidents are alcohol-related, the Technical Inspection Association (TUEV) Rhineland pointed out recently in Cologne in connection with United Nations Anti-Drugs Day.

A worker who has consumed alcohol is less attentive and overestimates their skills, experts warn. Although German labour laws do not categorically prohibit alcohol consumption in the workplace, TUEV Rhineland said, many companies forbid their employees from drinking alcohol during working hours.

It is not always easy to recognise a co-worker with an alcohol problem. 'Relatively reliable signs are an unsteady gait, bloodshot eyes, slurred speech, the smell of alcohol on the breath, and trembling hands, said Ulrike Roth, an occupational physician for TUEV Rhineland.

Co-workers and superiors should not cover up for alcoholics, but should voice their suspicions. A drinker who endangers themselves or or others can be told to leave the workplace immediately, Roth said.

If drinking recurs, employers in Germany have the right to issue a warning. Should that fail to change the drinker's behaviour, employers can threaten consequences including dismissal.

Deutsche Presse-Agentur

When it comes to treatment, the experts think alcoholism needs to catch up to depression.

Three decades ago, long before the dawn of the Prozac Era, depression was a disease rarely treated in its mild form, reluctantly treated with drugs and usually treated by experts only. Today, signs of depression are actively sought, drugs are prescribed early and often, and most cases are handled by non psychiatrists.

With alcohol abuse, however, most physicians don't go looking for trouble and don't recognize it until it's breathing in their face. Over-drinking patients often don't think of looking for help even if they know they are heading in the wrong direction. And society as a rule looks at alcohol treatment as a last-chance, 90-degree corner taken only at high speed.

Simplify screening

All this will change if American physicians adopt the new guidelines for "Helping Patients Who Drink Too Much" promulgated by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, part of the National Institutes of Health.

The idea is to simplify the screening for excessive alcohol use in general medical practice and to convince clinicians and patients that early intervention for drinking that hasn't yet wreaked havoc is both possible and useful.

"We're trying to increase the accessibility and attractiveness of treatment to a much broader spectrum of people," said Mark L. Willenbring, a psychiatrist who
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directs the Division of Treatment and Recovery Research at NIAAA.

Those especially targeted in the guidelines are heavy drinkers who are not yet physically dependent on alcohol but are at risk for becoming so.

"We know that that group responds very, very well to what we call facilitated self-change and brief motivational counseling. We could make that very widely available without much cost," Willenbring said.

A big part of the new strategy is to make primary care physicians — people without specialized training in addiction medicine — think about alcohol abuse the way many now think about depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Which is to say, they need to think of it as something common, diagnosable and within their capacity to treat. The guidelines make this easy: The screening tool for alcohol problems consists of a single question. For men: How many days in the past year have you had five or more drinks? For women: How many days in the past year have you had four or more drinks?

"Most doctors don't know how to make the diagnosis and don't really try to do anything about it until it is so easy to diagnose that all you have to do is glance at the patient," said Charles P. O'Brien, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania who has been treating alcoholics for 38 years.

"It used to be said that you can't treat somebody until they are down and out. But when they are down and out, they are really hard to treat," O'Brien said.

Willenbring concurs.

"I think there is a belief that people with more moderate levels of dependence don't know they have a problem. I think they do. But they don't think rehab is the model of treatment for them — and I don't, either."

The sort of therapy both advocate does not involve magic bullets or easy answers or effortless behavior change. But it does enlist pills that help a little, quite a bit of talk and lots of self-discipline.

And what does it get a person?

Perhaps not surprisingly, there's evidence that getting control of a drinking problem early can improve one's health, completely apart from the social, psychological and familial benefits it brings.

Looking at death rates

A study published two years ago looked at the experience of 628 men and women who entered alcoholism treatment (either in residential rehab or as outpatients) in their mid-30s and were followed for 16 years.

Over that period, 121 died, or 1.2 percent a year. The average age of death was 48. But the chance of dying was significantly lower in people who after the first year were abstinent or had no drinking-related problems or symptoms.

So how successful is treatment, or at least how successful has it been?

Researchers in 2000 analyzed seven studies, one going back to the late 1970s, in which more than 8,000 people were treated for alcoholism in various ways, including with drugs. After a single course of treatment, one-fourth were abstinent for at least a year and one-tenth dramatically decreased their drinking. The rest, about two-thirds of the subjects, drank less often and in quantities averaging less than half of what they consumed before treatment. Mortality in the first year was 1.5 percent.

Some of those patients had a four-week stay in "rehab," but most did not. A long treatment-center admission as the optimal strategy to stop a serious drinking problem is much more the model of the 1980s than the 2000s. The newer one emphasizes outpatient treatment — occasionally after a brief hospital stay for acute detoxification, if necessary — with care provided by non-specialists in many cases.

How often contemporary treatment succeeds was also explored in a complicated clinical trial of about 1,400 alcohol-dependent men and women, average age 44 and consuming 12 drinks a day, that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2006.

The researchers randomly assigned the patients to nine groups. Four of the groups got nine sessions, conducted by a doctor or nurse and lasting at least 20 minutes, that reviewed the health consequences of excessive drinking, encouraged abstinence and attendance at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and urged adherence to the study medicines. Four of the groups also got intensive counseling by alcohol-addiction experts — up to 20 hour-long sessions.

Drug therapy

Some of the patients were assigned to take a drug for three months: either naltrexone, which blocks opiate receptors in the brain that are involved in alcohol's "reward pathways," or acamprosate, which works through so-called GABA receptors to decrease the anxiety and restlessness that can come with abstinence. Some got placebo pills.

A year later, there were no big differences among any of the groups, although there were some interesting small ones. (This was true even with what the researchers considered the placebo group, the people who received specialized alcohol counseling but no time with a physician and no pills.)

People who met regularly with a doctor or nurse and then got either naltrexone or the intensive counseling did equally well; about 66 percent were abstinent. People who had those sessions and got placebos did less well; 59 percent were abstinent. Those who got intensive counseling but no pills, neither active ones nor placebos, had an intermediate outcome, with 62 percent abstinent.

Unlike some other studies, this one showed no benefit from acamprosate. But that may not be the last word.

Interesting findings

A clinical trial not yet published showed the drug worked only when started during a period of abstinence, not while a person was still drinking. And last month researchers reported more evidence that GABA receptors play a role in alcohol addiction. Laboratory rats that got the drug gabapentin, which enhances the action of GABA, drank less — but only if they were already chronically exposed to alcohol. Those that used alcohol only occasionally did not show such an effect, suggesting the pre-existing state was crucial to the response.

Abstinence, in almost all practitioners' minds, is always the goal. But its absence doesn't signal abject failure.

"It is a fiction that the typical change process is a sudden transformation," Willenbring said. "The more common is a change process that lasts years and is characterized by lengthening periods of sobriety and shorter relapses until they are gone."

In that way, alcohol abuse is like depression. In another way, too.

"Recovery from depression requires effort. The same is true for alcohol dependence," he said.

And in both cases, he thinks they're really worth the effort.

Washington Post

On the morning after the house party on Johnson Street, Jenna Foellmi and several other twentysomethings lay sprawled on the beds and couches. When a friend reached out to wake her, Foellmi was cold to the touch.

The friend's screams woke up the others still asleep in the house.

Foellmi, a 20-year-old biochemistry major at Winona State University, died of alcohol poisoning on Dec. 14, one day after she had finished her last exam of the semester. According to police reports, she had three beers during the day, then played beer pong — a drinking game — in the evening, and downed some vodka, too.

Foellmi's death was tragic, but typical in many ways.

An Associated Press analysis of federal records found that 157 college-age people, 18 to 23, drank themselves to death from 1999 through 2005, the most recent year for which figures are available. The number of alcohol-poisoning deaths per year rose from 18 in 1999 to 35 in 2005.

Over the seven-year span, 83 of the college-age victims were, like Foellmi, under the drinking age of 21.

"There have always been problems with young people and alcohol, but it just seems like they are a little more intense now than they used to be," said Connie Gores, vice president for student life at Winona State. "The goal of a lot of them is just to get smashed."

A separate AP analysis of hundreds of news articles about alcohol-poisoning deaths in the past decade found that victims drank themselves well past the point of oblivion — with an average blood-alcohol level of 0.40 percent, or five times the legal limit for driving. In nearly every case, friends knew the victim was drunk and put him or her to bed to "sleep it off."

"Her friends were with her. It's not like they just left her alone," said Jenna's mother, Kate Foellmi. "She went to bed and she was snoring. She just didn't wake up."

Schools and communities have responded in a variety of ways, including programs to teach incoming freshmen the dangers of extreme drinking; designating professors to help students avoid overdoing it; and passing laws to discourage binge drinking.

Charges were filed in about 40 percent of the cases in which outcomes of criminal investigations were known — most often against fraternity members or others who obtained alcohol for someone underage. There were a few hazing charges. In most cases, plea bargains were reached and the penalties included fines, probation or community service. Jail time was rare.

The federal data showed deaths spiking on weekends — when young people are more likely to go out with the goal of getting drunk — and in December, when college students wrap up finals. Most of the dead were young men.

College students on average drink only a little more than adults in a typical week or month, said Scott Walters, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Texas. But college students "tend to save the drinks up and drink them all at once."

The federal figures do not indicate whether a victim was a student or not. But the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health showed that adults ages 18 to 22 in college full-time are more likely to binge-drink than those not in school.

AP's analysis of news articles found freshmen at greatest risk, with 11 of 18 freshmen deaths occurring during the first semester.

Walters said one reason is that freshmen are on their own for the first time and trying new things. Also, there is a mentality that "if you're under 21 and someone's got alcohol, you've got to drink it, because you never know when somebody's going to have it again."

One practice — drinking 21 shots on a 21st birthday — has proven especially lethal. Of the college-age deaths that made news, 11 people, including eight college students, died while celebrating their 21st birthdays.

"The 21st birthday we knew was coming. We didn't know about the 21-shot thing," said Cindy McCue, who lost her son Bradley, a junior at Michigan State University, in 1998 after he downed 24 drinks in less than two hours.

The McCue family started a nonprofit organization nearly 10 years ago called Be Responsible About Drinking, or B.R.A.D., to teach young people about the dangers. The foundation created birthday cards reminding those turning 21 to celebrate responsibly.

Some universities are trying to send the same message with Web sites and programs that feature slogans such as "Remember Last Night."

San Diego State has a Web site that lets students punch in information about their drinking habits and learn about the risks. Winona State is starting an online course to teach incoming freshmen the dangers of excessive drinking.

Forty professors at Fresno State in California have taken a pledge to learn about the effects of alcohol misuse and advise students. The professors' names are on posters around campus. Other universities have banned or restricted alcohol advertising and sponsorships in athletics.

Minnesota passed a law that blocks people turning 21 from being served alcohol until 8 a.m. on the day of their birthday — a measure aimed at stopping customers who turn legal at midnight from drinking as much as they can before closing time. Other states have similar laws.

In the case of Bradley McCue, who went out at midnight when he turned 21, the bartender kept serving him, even though he was obviously intoxicated, his mother said. The bar owner was charged with supplying alcohol to an intoxicated person and other counts. The owner agreed to pay $50,000 in fines and costs, close for 30 days, and retrain employees.

Jenna Foellmi worked to put herself through school, made the dean's list one semester and was a high school member of Students Against Destructive Decisions, according to her mother.

"She was the one we never had to worry about," Kate Foellmi said. "I remember calling her up and saying, `I am just so proud of you. I'm so glad you have your head screwed on straight.'"

On the morning of Dec. 13, the young woman finished a physics final and called her mom, screaming: "I passed!" She told her mother she was going to go have a beer.

"I said, `You deserve one,'" Kate Foellmi recalled.

Exactly how much Jenna drank that night isn't clear. The coroner did not release her blood-alcohol level, saying only that it was "not compatible with life."

Associated Press

Owner Scott Hanadel has plenty of help keeping the bar's copper surface polished: the elbows of all those drinkers.

The popular bar frequently is packed, especially when there's live entertainment -- no small feat in a town with so much competition for a drinker's dollar.

Including restaurant bars and those inside other gathering spots such as the local VFW post, New London has one bar for roughly every 420 residents. That ranks among the higher numbers nationwide but is not unusual by Wisconsin standards. A 1990 study by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism found that Wisconsin was home to seven of the country's top 10 metropolitan areas with the most bars per capita.

Hanadel has no doubt what would happen if the town ever ran dry.

"It would die," he said. "There would be no reason to come downtown unless you wanted to catch a movie. This town would be a ghost town."

In Wisconsin, where drinking is inextricable from the fabric of life, alcohol informs not only the culture but also the economy. Nowhere is that more evident than in the state's small towns.

Notwithstanding the well-documented human and financial toll of alcohol abuse, which can be overwhelming, officials say the production and sale of alcohol infuses Wisconsin's economy by providing livelihoods, generating revenue and breathing life into city centers that otherwise would wither.

Such dichotomy makes for a complicated and sometimes rancorous debate.

Liquid assets

Wisconsin's drinking establishments rang up $598 million in sales in 2002, the last year for which full figures are available, according to the 2002 Economic Census. There were 14,038 people employed in alcohol-serving capacities, census data show.

Currently, Wisconsin has 10,571 drinking establishments that operate with beer-liquor licenses, according to Jessica Iverson, spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Department of Revenue. That includes standalone bars, restaurants, recreational venues such as bowling alleys and hotel lounges.

Another 1,760 operate with beer-only licenses. The vast majority of those are restaurants, Iverson said.

A 2007 survey conducted by the Washington, D.C.-based Beer Institute reports that the brewing industry was responsible for more than 30,000 jobs in Wisconsin in 2006. The industry had a $3.35 billion impact on the state when based on brewers, wholesalers and retailers, the survey reports.

Wisconsin ranks near the top for per capita alcohol consumption. In 2005, Wisconsin ranked fifth, averaging 2.92 gallons of booze sold per person.

Terry Harvath, president of the Outagamie County Tavern League, said downtowns in many small towns likely would fizzle after dark without alcohol.

"When people do go out for entertainment, I think drinking and dancing goes with it," Harvath said. "When you can cover all aspects of somebody going out -- if you can serve food, the beer and the liquor, and wine at the same time -- you're cornering the market."

Wausau Daily Herald

It was a sight that stunned early-morning surfers and left environmentalists in disbelief.

For the first time in memory, San Diego-area beaches didn't look like a dump the morning after Independence Day.

With alcohol banned at most county beaches this year, Fourth of July festivities were milder, family-friendly affairs up and down the coast. And for the most part, these sober partyers cleaned up after themselves.

More than 1,000 volunteers flocked to the shore to help in the annual July 5 beach cleanup Saturday. But many of them were left virtually empty-handed.

The typical bounty of booze bottles and beer cans was missing. But so were many other party leftovers. Absent from the beaches was the usual plethora of abandoned furniture, carpets and ice chests.

“I thought there was going to be way more trash. But I did find a SpongeBob baseball bat,” boasted 14-year-old Shannon Booth of Clairemont.

The do-gooders who participated in the Surfrider's “Morning After Mess” scoured the shoreline at six local beaches – from Del Mar to Ocean Beach – carrying long-handled tongs and near-empty plastic bags. With beaches in decent shape, the crews were deployed to parking lots and nearby streets that attracted determined drinkers and partyers the night before.

All told, volunteers collected about 4,000 pounds of trash, more than 50 percent less than last year's 9,000-pound hall. They also collected 28,000 cigarette butts, about 8,000 more than last year, with the increase due to the expanded cleanup zone.

“We usually have piles and piles of trash from the sea wall to the high-tide mark,” said Bill Hickman, coordinator of the Surfrider Foundation's San Diego chapter. “This is amazing.”

Although July 4 is widely considered to be the trashiest day of the year for San Diego County beaches, efforts to curb litter have been steadily attacking the problem – even before the alcohol bans.

Environmental organizations, community groups and government agencies joined together as the San Diego Clean Beach Coalition to take on the cause. They distributed large bins for trash and recyclables at some of the area's most popular beaches in anticipation of July 4 crowds, which are expected to linger throughout the weekend. The La Jolla Shores Surfing Association and the Pacific Beach Town Council also pitched in with cleanups.

San Diego outlawed alcohol on city beaches with a one-year trial ban that took effect in January. Other jurisdictions followed with similar ordinances, leaving Silver Strand State Beach near Coronado and the shores of Camp Pendleton as the only beaches in the area where alcohol is allowed.

Longtime Mission Beach resident Nancy Fairfield was among those who supported the beach alcohol bans. She said Saturday's clean beach vindicated her position.

“Typically on July 5, I do not walk on the beach because I'm too disgusted by the trash,” said Fairfield, who strolled the beach Saturday with her two black Labrador retrievers. “I'm very impressed.”

Cloud Grove of Mission Hills couldn't help but take his eyes off the waves to admire the unexpected state of Pacific Beach.

“I usually avoid the beach this time of year,” Grove said. “I'm happy to see this.”

City Councilman Kevin Faulconer, a leading advocate for clean-and-sober beaches, was beaming as he inspected the coastline.

“This is great to see from an environmental standpoint and from a neighborhood standpoint,” Faulconer said. “The beaches belong to everyone.”

Union Tribune

Health authorities will call on GPs and other medical workers to ask patients about their alcohol consumption as a poll reveals that four in five of us think Australia has a binge-drinking culture.

The recommendation to manage drinking behaviour before it gets out of control would be part of a plan to prevent alcohol disease that is being prepared by a working party for NSW Health.

The plan grew out of the 2003 alcohol summit and is expected to be finished in three to six months.

Bob Batey, clinical adviser at the Mental Health and Drug and Alcohol Office, said a check would identify people who are beginning to exhibit problems with alcohol.

The working party will examine whether the check would need mandating if clinicians failed to adopt the recommendation.

Dr Batey said the alcohol history check could lead to an "early and brief intervention" when needed.

"This intervention may simply be a chat between the doctor and his patient about strategies to avoid drinking as much," he said.

"The doctor may require the patient to visit them again in a month to see if their behaviour has altered. They could medicate the patient to reduce their need for alcohol or even refer them to a psychologist or drug and alcohol advisory service.

"This is about harm reduction and getting an individual to look at their drinking behaviour."

The debate about alcohol consumption continues as a Sun-Herald /Taverner poll of 602 people - conducted by telephone across NSW from June 25 to 27 - found 81 per cent of respondents believed there was a binge-drinking culture in Australia. Only 15 per cent said there was not, and 4 per cent were unsure.

The poll found that 60 per cent of people believed the Government had no responsibility to curb binge drinking, but close to four in 10 felt the Government had some responsibility to act.

Only 14 per cent of respondents thought a higher tax on alcohol would be an effective solution.

It was in late April that the Federal Government made its daring assault on teenage binge drinking with a proposal to lift taxes on sweet alcoholic drinks.

Binge drinking became a campaign issue in the June 28 Gippsland byelection, which the National Party won with an unexpectedly large swing against the Rudd Government.

Spirit manufacturers financed a "ute man" television campaign to protest against the Government's so-called alcopop tax. It said the new tax was a revenue grab rather than a health-based attempt to arrest binge drinking among teenage girls, and that tradesmen who drank cans of mixed spirit-based drinks were collateral damage.

Taverner Research managing director Philip Mitchell-Taverner said: "Excessive drinking is considered by many to be a more endemic social behaviour problem that will happen regardless of what impositions are placed on the behaviour - and should be better approached through alternatives such as parental responsibility and school education, advertising campaigns and limiting direct promotion, lowering alcohol content, changing licensing laws and increasing the legal drinking age."

Four out of five people (81 per cent) in NSW across all ages, genders and voting persuasions think Australia has a culture of binge drinking. Fifteen per cent disagreed and 4 per cent were unsure. A majority (six in 10) told The Sun-Herald /Taverner pollsters that the Government did not have to curb the problem, but almost 40 per cent said it had at least some responsibility to act on the matter. About 14 per cent of respondents thought a higher tax on alcoholic drinks, such as that introduced by the Rudd Government, was an effective solution. Others agreed that it would help.

Wagin Argus

The Post-Crescent of Appleton gathered data for the 50 states in 10 key areas that gauge the price, availability of alcohol; related criminal justice, social and health costs; alcohol's prominent place in the state's economy; and the drinking habits of Wisconsinites.

That Wisconsin came out on top as the most-alcohol saturated state doesn't surprise public health officials and alcohol research experts.

Wrapped inside the portrait of Wisconsin's drinking culture are other stories. Some show the benefits; alcohol, especially the beer industry, helps bolster the state's economy. Others show the costs; Wisconsin has an unparalleled rate of alcohol abuse, which manifests itself in a number of ways, from disease to drunken driving fatalities.

"Each state has its own issues. In Wisconsin, clearly, the No. 1 issue is alcohol abuse," said John Easterday, administrator of the state Department of Health and Family Service's division of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.

Here are the measures and Wisconsin's ranking based on the averages:

# Wisconsin has the highest rate of binge and heavy drinkers in the nation, according to data collected by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

# Wisconsin ranks second for underage drinking, with more than a third of young people, ages 12 to 20, consuming alcohol, and more than a quarter engaging in binge drinking, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

# Wisconsin has the fourth-highest alcohol sales per capita, averaging 2.82 gallons of alcohol per person sold annually, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

# Wisconsin had the fourth-highest number of on-premise liquor licenses per capita in the nation in 2006, according to Adams Beverage Group, an information business serving the beverage alcohol industry. Wisconsin has a bar, tavern or alcohol-serving restaurant for every 430 residents.

# Wisconsin has the second-lowest beer tax in the nation, at just 6 cents per gallon.

# The state has the third-highest alcohol-related health care costs in the nation, according to an alcohol cost calculator developed by the George Washington University Medical Center.

# Over the past five years, Wisconsin has averaged the 11th highest percentage of fatal motor-vehicle crashes involving drunken drivers with blood-alcohol levels of 0.08 or higher, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

# Wisconsin has the fifth-highest percentage of residents who have an alcohol dependence or abuse problem, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

# The state has the fifth-highest percentage of people who need, but do not receive treatment, according to the Survey on Drug Use.

# Finally, FBI crime data show that Wisconsin has the nation's fourth highest arrest rates for crimes directly caused by alcohol: drunken driving and liquor law violations.

"… Many of the measures you have used are commonly used to assess excessive alcohol consumption and related harms in states and communities," said Dr. Robert Brewer, alcohol team leader at the CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion in Atlanta.

"When alcohol is widely available and extremely cheap, people use it and there are a lot of problems," said Paul Gruenewald, a senior research scientist at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Berkeley, Calif. "There's not a lot more to the story than that."

Manitowoc Herald Times

Wisconsin, where beer is king and drinking goes hand-in-hand with tailgating, snowmobiling, deer hunting and even children's baseball games, has a thirst for alcohol second to none, according to a data analysis by Gannett Wisconsin Media.

Drinking is a way of life in Wisconsin, and alcohol permeates and shapes the cultural landscape more than in any other state, the newspaper group's analysis shows.

The analysis is based on a methodology Gannett Wisconsin developed to test in quantifiable terms the state's legendary propensity for imbibing. The newspaper group ranked all 50 states in 10 key areas thought collectively to provide the best gauge of a state's drinking culture. Those areas measure the price and availability of alcohol; its economic importance; and its criminal justice, social and health impacts.

The newspaper group's analysis is unique in that it takes into account all 10 indicators to arrive at a composite score for each state and a ranking system that shows which areas of the country are most infused and informed by alcohol.

Conceptually, Gannett Wisconsin's ranking system makes sense, epidemiologists and other experts on alcohol said.

"It's a pretty reasonable approach (Gannett Wisconsin) took, to use a bunch of indicators and put them together," said Paul Moberg, a senior scientist at the Population Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Moberg co-authored a 2007 study on Wisconsin's alcohol- and drug-use patterns.

The newspaper group's state rankings are the centerpiece of a series of stories and multimedia components about Wisconsin's drinking culture that will start Sunday and run during the next month.

In some ways, the Gannett Wisconsin series is a departure. While much has been written about alcohol abuse, which can be defined in relatively exact, quantifiable terms, little has been done to capture the overall essence of a state's drinking culture.

Abuse is part of that culture.

"There isn't a standard method for ranking states across multiple measures, however, many of the measures used (by Gannett Wisconsin) are commonly used to assess excessive alcohol consumption and related harms in states and communities," said Dr. Robert Brewer, alcohol team leader at the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion in Atlanta. The center is part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"I think rating states based on measures of excessive alcohol consumption and related harms can help highlight the need to invest in effective community prevention strategies."

But meaningful change is hard to come by.

"This state is so ingrained in the drinking culture," said Kari Kinnard, Mothers Against Drunk Driving Wisconsin's executive director, "that one is not allowed to touch anything that revolves around that culture."

The sale of alcohol fuels Wisconsin's economic engine, said Rob Swearingen, president of the Wisconsin Tavern League, which has 5,000 members, paid lobbyists, and an annual budget of more than $1 million.

"We're (the tavern industry) one of the largest employers as a whole for the state of Wisconsin," Swearingen said. "It's huge and the dollars are huge."

Chicago Tribune

Health authorities will call on GPs and other medical workers to ask patients about their alcohol consumption as a poll reveals that four in five of us think Australia has a binge-drinking culture.

The recommendation to manage drinking behaviour before it gets out of control would be part of a plan to prevent alcohol disease that is being prepared by a working party for NSW Health.

The plan grew out of the 2003 alcohol summit and is expected to be finished in three to six months.

Bob Batey, clinical adviser at the Mental Health and Drug and Alcohol Office, said a check would identify people who are beginning to exhibit problems with alcohol.

The working party will examine whether the check would need mandating if clinicians failed to adopt the recommendation.

Dr Batey said the alcohol history check could lead to an "early and brief intervention" when needed.

"This intervention may simply be a chat between the doctor and his patient about strategies to avoid drinking as much," he said.

"The doctor may require the patient to visit them again in a month to see if their behaviour has altered. They could medicate the patient to reduce their need for alcohol or even refer them to a psychologist or drug and alcohol advisory service.

"This is about harm reduction and getting an individual to look at their drinking behaviour."

The debate about alcohol consumption continues as a Sun-Herald/Taverner poll of 602 people - conducted by telephone across NSW from June 25 to 27 - found 81 per cent of respondents believed there was a binge-drinking culture in Australia. Only 15 per cent said there was not, and 4 per cent were unsure.

The poll found that 60 per cent of people believed the Government had no responsibility to curb binge drinking, but close to four in 10 felt the Government had some responsibility to act.

Only 14 per cent of respondents thought a higher tax on alcohol would be an effective solution.

It was in late April that the Federal Government made its daring assault on teenage binge drinking with a proposal to lift taxes on sweet alcoholic drinks.

Binge drinking became a campaign issue in the June 28 Gippsland byelection, which the National Party won with an unexpectedly large swing against the Rudd Government.

Spirit manufacturers financed a "ute man" television campaign to protest against the Government's so-called alcopop tax. It said the new tax was a revenue grab rather than a health-based attempt to arrest binge drinking among teenage girls, and that tradesmen who drank cans of mixed spirit-based drinks were collateral damage.

Taverner Research managing director Philip Mitchell-Taverner said: "Excessive drinking is considered by many to be a more endemic social behaviour problem that will happen regardless of what impositions are placed on the behaviour - and should be better approached through alternatives such as parental responsibility and school education, advertising campaigns and limiting direct promotion, lowering alcohol content, changing licensing laws and increasing the legal drinking age."

The Survey

Four out of five people (81 per cent) in NSW across all ages, genders and voting persuasions think Australia has a culture of binge drinking. Fifteen per cent disagreed and 4 per cent were unsure.

A majority (six in 10) told The Sun-Herald/Taverner pollsters that the Government did not have to curb the problem, but almost 40 per cent said it had at least some responsibility to act on the matter.

About 14 per cent of respondents thought a higher tax on alcoholic drinks, such as that introduced by the Rudd Government, was an effective solution. Others agreed that it would help.

Sydney Morning Herald

About 85 percent of crime dealt with in the Nelson District Court is alcohol related, Judge Tony Zohrab says.

Judge Zohrab was the guest speaker at an Alcolink breakfast in Monaco on Thursday

Alcolink is an ACC-funded initiative designed to create stronger links between police and licensees.

Judge Zohrab told those at the breakfast that there were 75 people on the police list at the court on Monday and of those only about 10 people were appearing for crimes that were not linked to alcohol.

He said alcohol-related crimes included street disorder, disorderly behaviour, assaults, drink-driving offences and even fraud.

Judge Zohrab said when he punished offenders he always tried to give them a combination of punishment and help.

No easy way of rehabilitating offenders existed, and while prison was the right punishment in some cases it wasn't always the answer and wasn't necessarily the deterrent some people believed it was, he said.

About 85 percent of people went back to prison within five years of being released, he said.

Judge Zohrab said he did not know what the answer to the problem was, as very often when he saw people in courts, and even in youth court, it was too late.

Often drug and alcohol problems started at home, he said.

Judge Zohrab said he believed in helping trying to break the cycle by offering offenders treatment and support even though this was not always successful. This could be achieved through putting conditions on their sentence, or after they were released from prison.

Judge Zohrab said he also supported residential treatment programmes such as the one offered by St Mark's in Blenheim which could help people try to break the cycle of their alcohol and drug problems, even though those programmes often had relatively low success rates.

Judge Zohrab said facilities such as St Mark's struggled for funding and one thing he was trying to do was direct penalties, which would normally go to charities such as hospice, to St Mark's where possible.

For example, last week he ordered a drink-drive offender who was leaving for Australia to pay St Mark's $3000.

"I would like to send more and more people to programmes like St Mark's, but they have limited funding."

Nelson Mail

The new federal tax on pre-mixed drinks is turning Australians into hardened drinkers, new figures suggest.

Sales of ready-to-drink alcohol have slipped 39 per cent, while the volume of full-strength spirit sold has climbed by 23 per cent.

The Liquor Merchants Association of Australia has compared sales figures from May last year with spirits sold in the same month this year.

"The trend is clear," said Doug McKay, executive chairman of Independent Distillers Australia.

"Australian drinkers are turning to the harder stuff as RTDs are replaced by full-strength spirits.

"The implications of this research should be of very real concern to government and the public health community.

"As LMAA data show, the tax impost means people are switching to less measured, less controlled forms of alcohol.

"It is worth asking if we are moving in the wrong direction if drinkers are substituting harder spirits and, at the same time, serving larger volumes.

"It all underlines the fact that problem drinking is about the way (not what) people drink."

The research coincides with health professionals rejecting claims by four major alcohol-making companies blaming individuals, not the industry, for alcohol-fuelled problems.

A coalition of health agencies headed by VicHealth said a four-pronged attack on alcohol problems in the community needed the support of alcohol industry representatives.

"It's now time for the alcohol industry to stop blaming others for problems caused by alcohol and start supporting prevention strategies that are known to be effective," Australian Drug Foundation chief executive officer John Rogerson said.

Herald Sun

Many of the volunteers are expected to have recovered from alcohol addiction

More than 100 people in the east end of Glasgow are to be given one-to-one help to beat alcohol addiction.

A befriending service run by Greater Easterhouse Alcohol Awareness project has been given £448,083 - five years funding - by the Big Lottery Fund.

It is expected that many of the 100 volunteers recruited will themselves have recovered from alcohol addiction.

The initiative is one of nine Scottish projects to share just under £3m in the latest round of lottery funding.

The volunteers recruited by the Easterhouse group will help people with alcohol misuse problems access specialist services such as counselling.

The scheme's befriending service manager, Mary Fisher, said: "By providing one-to-one support these befrienders can assist in accompanying individuals to activities or to access other agencies.

"This grant will enable us to continue recruiting and training volunteers who in turn will provide a vital service by building the self confidence of local people and supporting them to reintegrate back into their communities."

BBC News

Under-age drinkers are being targeted in Harlow as part of a police crackdown.

Last year Harlow recorded a high number of under-age alcohol incidents with a staggering 35 per cent of shops in the town failing test purchases by selling to minors.

Now Harlow Council is teaming up with Essex Police, Essex County Council Trading Standards and the Safer Harlow Partnership to tackle the problem.

County Cllr Roger Walters, executive member for Trading Standards said: "We are confident we can improve the situation in Harlow and we are pleased to be working alongside our colleagues at Harlow Council and Essex Police.

"We cannot achieve this unless we have the support of local shops. Those who ignore our warnings will be punished accordingly."

Trading Standards will be visiting all shops selling alcohol to hand out advice on not selling drink to young people under the legal age limit, in a bid to cut the number of children being given easy access to alcoholic drinks at local shops.

Currently the town centre and Wych Elm, Bush Fair, Bush Fair playing field and paddling pool, Potter Street, Old Harlow, East Park, Chipping Field, Staple Tye, Maunds Hatch and Pollards Hatch all have an alcohol ban.

Harlow Council's Licensing Committee will decide next Monday whether to apply a non-consumption of alcohol in public places designation order on two playgrounds in the town: Stile Croft near Tillwicks Road and Nicholls Field behind Brays Grove School.

These two new proposals, if given the green light, would mean nearby residents and people using the park and playgrounds should feel safer and not concerned about crime commonly associated with drinking.

Trading Standards will be encouraging shops to use the Think 21 policy, which hopes to cut the number of under-age sales and encourage shop staff to always ask for proof of age if the customer looks under 21.

Test purchases will also be carried out across Harlow using under-age volunteers. Shops failing more than one test purchase risks having its licence suspended or revoked.

After failing a number of test purchases The One Stop in The Stow had its licence taken away in July 2007, but is now hoping to set an example by agreeing to check the ID of every person wishing to buy alcohol, regardless of age

Trading Standards officers will be joining police and licensing officers on evening visits preventing groups of children from drinking and getting involved in anti-social behaviour.

District commander, Chief Insp Mike Martin said: "Young people often don't realise how alcohol can affect them.

"By working closely with our partners, these measures will bring us one step closer in our aim to keep young people safe within our communities; we also want to promote responsible drinking."

Harlow Herald

Vulnerable people are not getting help to beat their problems with alcohol, because of a lack of funding for an addiction treatment service.

No dedicated treatment for alcoholics is being offered in the Hambleton and Richmondshire districts of North Yorkshire, after a substance misuse group run by a primary care trust decided to withdraw its services to patients with drink problems.

Senior NHS doctors in the area have written to healthcare bosses at North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (PCT), pleading for funds to be made available.

In the letters seen by The Northern Echo, doctors talk of feeling demoralised and helpless by the lack of funding.

One letter from a senior healthcare professional, whose identity we are not revealing, expresses "concern at the continued absence of a commissioned alcohol service" for the area.

The letter, dated June 3, reads: "I understand from my colleagues in the PCT that such a service will not be commissioned this year or next. This is very disappointing."

The letter says Hambleton and Richmondshire Substance Misuse Services (HARSMS) will no longer provide a service to patients with alcohol problems.

It reads: "HARSMS is funded to provide treatment to drug users only.

"Historically, a service has been provided to patients with alcohol problems. However, there are very long waiting lists.

"As the demands on this team to demonstrate improving performance on treating drug misuse are increasing, they will cease to provide any further service to patients referred for the treatment of alcohol dependency.

"The service will continue to treat existing patients with alcohol problems and will work through its waiting list as resources allow."

A trust spokesman said: "The PCT is fully aware of this issue, and we are working closely with our healthcare colleagues to implement a full review of this service.

Nothing has been decided yet.

"This is a problem, and more funds need to be allocated for alcohol, rather than drugs.

"We are meeting with clinicians and healthcare professionals in the area, and reviewing the services we provide."

Councillor Ralph Andrew, Hambleton council's member for health, said: "I have a meeting scheduled with the PCT in the near future, and I intend to discuss this with them, along with issues about improving health in Hambleton."

Northern Echo

Children as young as 10 are getting drunk in public across Ulster, it has been revealed.

PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Duncan McCausland said primary school children were drinking alco pops, cheap cider and spirits, often bought by parents.

And that unless the cycle could be broken, there was a strong possibility many of the youngsters would be heading for an adult life of crime, he added.

The ACC was speaking ahead of this week's launch of Operation SNAPPER - a PSNI campaign to tackle the problem.

"We have had young people who have been taken home (by officers) as young as 10," he said.

"Though it (the problem) tends to focus mainly on the 14 to 18 year-old bracket.

"They are drinking alco pops or some of this cheap cider and sometimes they will buy lemonade and mix it with very strong spirits."

Earlier this year PSNI officers ran a pilot project against under-age drinkers in Antrim, Lisburn, Newtonabbey and Carrickfergus. Over two nights they seized almost 1600 bottles and cans.

He said the pattern discovered in the pilot project suggested that up to 10,000 bottles and cans could be seized when the campaign is rolled out across Northern Ireland.

SNAPPER stands for Support No Alcohol in Public Places Through Partnership Enforcement and Regulation and will see dedicated teams of officers patrolling underage drinking "hot spots".

He said young people see the activity as symbolic of growing up and "being cool" and that there were parallels to knife culture. He said 46% of crime is linked to alcohol with 60% of people on probation having issues with drink.

"There is a societal problem growing in terms of the use or abuse of alcohol," he said. "If we don't act then 10 to 15 years from now you are going to have a generation of young people and society that is going to have chronic alcohol problems and the associated problems with crime."

He said police knew that some parents give alcohol to their children and send them out because they think they will "have a good night".

"It's incumbent on us all to protect young people and also to set examples, because there's a really serious problem here - what example are we as a society setting to these young people and I have to say that we as a society have to seriously question ourselves on whether we are setting the right standards."

He also challenged retailers as to why cans of cider were cheaper than soft drinks.

On retailers he added: "Is it not strange that a can of coca cola is actually more expensive than a can of cider?

"If outlets are using alcohol as a loss leader to attract people in there has to be a social conscience there and a moral responsibility on them," he

A new law that forbids drivers from consuming any alcohol in Brazil has already caused a reduction of about 25 percent in alcoholic beverage sales in pubs and restaurants of Rio de Janeiro, local media reported Tuesday.

According to the Hotels, Pubs and Restaurants Association of Rio (SindRio), the amount of alcoholic beverages sold has been falling since the law became effective on June 19, and an even bigger reduction is expected in the coming weeks.

In spite of the losses, SindRio said it supports the new regulation.

Seven drunk drivers were arrested in Rio in the first ten days since the new rule came into effect, while the figure for the whole country was 296. Am additional 665 drivers have been fined.

The dry law stipulates the suspension of driving license for a year and a fine of 955 reais (597 U.S. dollars) for a driver caught with any amount of alcohol in the blood. If the amount of alcohol exceeds 6 ml per liter of blood, the driver is arrested.

However, many consider the new law as being too harsh.

The Order of Attorneys of Brazil (OAB), a local version of the Bar Association, says the new law is unconstitutional, as it foresees that a driver who refuses to submit to the breath-analyzer test will receive the same punishment as a drunk driver.

According to Brazilian law, no one can be forced to produce evidence against oneself.

The street police believe that the fines and arrests will scared rivers into staying sober and reduce accidents caused by drunken driving.

Xinhua

Parents have been branded naive for ferrying children as young as eight to illegal all- night drinking sessions.

The youths drink cheap, litre bottles of wine until the early hours.

Some even take sleeping bags, pillows and blankets because they will be too drunk to make it home.

People who live near the shopping parade, in Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough, have complained they are the target of anti-social behaviour and verbal abuse at weekends.

It is understood many of the children do not live in the area and are driven to The Avenue by their parents.

"We believe quite a few parents are dropping their children off and they already have bags of alcohol with them when they get out of the car," said a spokeswoman for Cleveland Police.

Lesley McGloin, chairwoman of Nunthorpe Community Council, said: "Some youths bring sleeping bags, bed covers and even the odd pillow to rest their weary heads upon to save the effort of going home or they are not in a fit state to go home."

Writing in a community newsletter, she said: "I and other residents have had to endure verbal abuse from youths as young as eight, particularly on a Friday and Saturday and at times Sunday night.

"As early as 5.30pm, especially on a Friday evening, teenagers can be seen congregating at particular points throughout the community, usually starting in small clusters.

"It does not take long until larger groups of youths arrive, sometimes as big as 20 to 40, who circulate among the smaller groups, handing out or offering bottles of cheap, litre bottles of wine.

"This can, at times, be quite threatening and intimidating, as they drink themselves stupid until the early hours of the morning.

"Believe me, this is not a pretty sight, especially witnessing young girls drunk and disorderly shouting constant foul-mouthed abuse."

Middlesbrough was recently named the fourth worst place in the country for alcohol-related hospital admissions.

Don Shenker, spokesman for Alcohol Concern, said: "Parents are generally not aware of some of the dangers and also the amount some young people are drinking. They are naive to what they are getting up to.

"When young people drink too much unsupervised, they become vulnerable. It can be the start of problems later in life."

The police spokeswoman said there would be extra patrols.

She said: "We are also working with the schools nearby to help highlight and tackle anti-social behaviour.

"We are issuing a stern warning to parents that this will not be tolerated."

A £50,000 play area is planned for The Avenue, and will be fitted with a surveillance camera to reduce incidents of vandalism and anti-social behaviour.

A Project to tackle the sale of alcohol and tobacco to children and young people in Lancashire has won a major national award.

The work of Lancashire County Council Trading Standards, in partnership with Young People's Alcohol Project, took first place in the Public Protection of the Year prize in the Municipal Journal's Local Government Achievement Awards 2008.

County Councillor Hazel Harding, Leader of Lancashire County Council, said: "I was over the moon when they read out our name and I am delighted for our officers who put so much effort into tackling underage sales.

"The award shows that this is the best initiative in the country for tackling the illegal sale of alcohol and tobacco.! The issue is so important to the future health of people in our county that we have included it in the Local Area Agreement and will continue to work hard on it.

"The Young People's Alcohol Project is there to tackle an issue that is of major concern to many people and I hope that this award will go some way towards reassuring Lancashire residents that sales of alcohol and tobacco to underage people is not tolerated.

"But, more importantly, we also know that our work is having an impact in our communities. Based on the results of our test purchasing programme in Lancashire we know that illegal sales have been driven down. Only 11% of test purchases result in an underage person being sold alcohol or tobacco - I hope that this figure will go down even further in future.

"Many of the initiatives developed in Lancashire to address health, anti-social behaviour and wider social issues have been adopted regionally and nationally."

Jim Potts, Chief Trading Standards Officer for Lancashire County Council, said: "The Association of Public Health Observatories profiles show that approximately half of Lancashire districts are worse than the national average for alcohol and tobacco related issues.

"The good news is that the work we are doing through this project is paying dividends. Since 2007 the project has played a part in significantly reducing the availability of alcohol and tobacco to young people across the county.

"The project team works with partners to develop awareness raising and educational materials around these issues. They support the targeting and impact of enforcement, test purchasing activity in response to local community concerns and intelligence. We are very pleased that this work has now been recognised nationally."

Initiatives in the strategy range from educational websites for primary aged pupils, an interactive DVD for secondary schools highlighting the links between young p! eople's drinking and anti-social behaviour; training seminars and resources for retailers and information for parents.

The team has also successfully launched a campaign raising awareness about young people getting access to age restricted products via 'proxy sales' which is where someone over 18 purchases alcohol for someone under 18. This is against the law and could result in a fixed penalty notice being issued or court appearance.

Morecambe Today

If you have children between the ages of 12 and 20, you might want talk to them about the dangers of underage drinking. A new study released from the Federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration says more kids are drinking at a younger age because their parents aren't educating them enough about the consequences.

The report surveyed thousands of students between the ages of 12 and 20. A staggering 40-percent said they've received free alcohol from either their parents or adults over the age of 21. Researchers are hoping parents will spend more time educating their kids, instead of giving them alcohol.

“I think it's absolutely true,” says Sally Stearns, whose daughter just graduated from Corcoran High School. “It’s too easy, with jobs and all the other stresses you have, to just let the school districts DARE program handle it. And since they have DARE in school, we [assume we] don't have to talk to them about it because they're being talked to about it. The only people they listen to are us.”

Sally continues to discuss the issue with her daughter.

”My daughter and I have talked about it continuously since she was five years old,” Stearns said.

”I believe some students care, depending on their life stories and if they've seen people drinking in their lives or not. But I believe there are also plenty of students who don't care,” said Samantha Elias, Stearns’ daughter.

Another study from the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services says two-thirds of seventh to 12th graders have tried alcohol at least once in their lives.

AP: Study: Many teens get alcohol from adults

Many of the nation's estimated 10.8 million underage drinkers are turning to their parents or other adults for free alcohol.

A government survey of teens from 2002 to 2006 said slightly more than half had engaged in underage drinking.

Asked about the source of alcohol, 40 percent they got it from an adult for free over the past month, the survey said. Of those, about one in four said they got it from an unrelated adult, one in 16 got it from a parent or guardian and one in 12 got it from another adult family member.

Roughly 4 percent reported taking the alcohol from their own home.

"In far too many instances parents directly enable their children's underage drinking - in essence encouraging them to risk their health and well-being," said acting Surgeon General Steven K. Galson. "Proper parental guidance alone may not be the complete solution to this devastating public health problem - but it is a critical part."

The nationwide study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, being released Thursday, tracks the social contexts involved in underage drinking, a problem leading to thousands of alcohol-related traffic deaths and injuries each year.

About one out of five of those aged 12 to 20 - or roughly 7.2 million people - said they had taken part in binge drinking, defined as consuming five or more drinks on at least one occasion in the past month, the survey said. Rates were significantly higher if they lived with a parent who engaged in binge drinking.

The study, which uses data from the National Surveys on Drug Use and Health, is based on a scientific random sample of 158,000 people aged 12 to 20 in the United States. Among the other findings:

-Over half of current underage alcohol users were at someone else's home when they had their last drink, while 30.3 percent were in their own home. About 9.4 percent were at a restaurant, bar or club.

-About 3.5 million teens aged 12 to 20 each year meet the diagnostic criteria for having an alcohol use disorder, such as dependence or abuse.

-Among younger teens, slightly more girls reported drinking than boys did. In the middle teens, they drank at roughly the same rate. Among 18 to 20-year-olds, boys outpaced the girls.

-Rates of underage drinking and binge drinking were slightly higher at the opposite ends of the economic spectrum.

-Rates of current and binge alcohol use among 12 to 20 year olds were higher in the Northeast and Midwest than in the South or West.

-Rates of alcohol use disorder among those aged 12 to 20 was higher for American Indians or Alaska Natives (14.9 percent) than for whites (10.9 percent), blacks (4.6 percent), Hispanics (8.7 percent) and Asians (4.9 percent).

"This report provides unprecedented insight into the social context of this public health problem and shows that it cuts across many different parts of our community," said Terry Cline, administrator of SAMHSA. "Its findings strongly indicate that parents and other adults can play an important role in helping influence - for better or for worse - young people's behavior with regard to underage drinking."

News Channel 9 WSYR

The introduction of 24-hour drinking in late 2005 was supposed to lead to the relaxed café culture of Mediterranean Europe, as well as reducing binge drinking and related crime and disorder.

More than two years later there is little sign of people sipping wine under the stars on balmy evenings. There is, however, much of the same rowdy after-hours behaviour with youths vomiting at street corners. The only difference is that it happens at 1am or 2am rather than 11pm.

The controversial laws were both delayed and amended in the summer of 2005 as local authorities struggled with their new responsibility to license more than 190,000 pubs, restaurants and clubs and extend the hours in two thirds of them.

The police and David Blunkett, by then the former Home Secretary, both voiced concerns that the new rules would lead to greater crime and the Tories and Liberal Democrats also opposed the policy. Mr Blunkett was overruled by Tony Blair, Prime Minister at the time, and Tessa Jowell, who assumed responsibility for the policy at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Related Links

Today’s LGA survey comes after the Home Office’s own report earlier this year that suggested that alcohol-related crimes between 3am and 6pm had increased by more than 20 per cent and that hospitals had reported heavier workloads at A&E departments as youths not only continued to binge drink but also fall over, have fights or need their stomachs pumped.

The LGA survey suggests that a third of primary care trusts have experienced more alcohol-related incidents since extended drinking hours were introduced.

The Government paraded its own statistics yesterday and it is too early to tell whether the more liberalised drinking laws are the main factor behind rising crime figures.

However, Sir Simon Milton raises another, equally relevant point. More than £100 million of council taxpayers’ money has already been sunk into the laws – both in administering the scheme and monitoring it and, according to the LGA, the Government has failed to pay a penny back. In addition health trusts are paying for ambulance services and A&E treatment and nearly half of police authorities claim that the laws have led to either no change in alcohol-related disorder or an increase.

The Government should at least pay hospitals and councils back for the mess it has so far created.

Times Online

Binge drinking conjures up images of young people slumped in the gutter or staggering home after a night out.

But women only have to consume more than six units - three large glasses of wine - in one evening to be classed as binge drinkers and men need to exceed just eight units - four pints.

This means those of us who consume an entire bottle of wine in front of the TV in the evening or drink more than four pints in the local pub once a week fall into the binge drinking category.

Stephen Dowson, president of the Students’ Union at the University of Teesside said it is an issue that affects more people than you think.

“Binge drinking is not particularly a student issue. My bar has seen a downturn in trade this year of 14%.

“We have a responsible drinking policy which includes fixed price drinks. Our minimum beer price is £1.50 a pint - in Tesco you can buy a can for 24p.

“Forty per cent of all alcohol is sold from supermarkets.”

He said the problem is many people do not even realise they are binge drinking.

“It goes beyond age and class. You have got your stereotype young person having a few cans at home but then there’s the happily married couple with stable jobs having a couple of glasses of wine every night and it’s that casual drinking that people don’t associate with binge drinking.”

According to latest figures from the Department of Heath one in four adults on Teesside binge drink.

Peter Kelly, executive director for public health across Teesside, said: “Too many people are binge drinking too often.

“The amount of harm due to alcohol consumption is rising year on year. And we are not just talking about anti-social behaviour - the number of deaths related to alcohol on Teesside has doubled in the past few years.

“Drinking in moderation is fine but six to eight pints a night of normal strength beer is 14 to 16 units and if you do that regularly you are at risk of serious medical problems. By the time you get to 40 you will be in big trouble.”

Lorraine Ivison, of Pallister Park, Middlesbrough, said she will drink about eight halves of lager (eight units) on a night out but does not see herself as a binge drinker as she only goes out a couple of times a month.

The 39-year-old Vauxhall office worker said: “I used to binge drink when I was younger. I worked in a bar and used to drink every night - that was binge drinking.

“I think binge drinking is going out every Friday and Saturday night and drinking more than eight units. It’s doing shots and having one drink after another.

Lorraine said she has cut down on alcohol since signing up to the Gazette’s Get a Better Life campaign, as has Billy Simpson who used to drink up to 15 pints a night, seven days a week.

The 45-year-old dad from Whinney Banks, Middlesbrough, has reduced his alcohol consumption dramatically but was surprised to learn that drinking eight cans (12 units) in a night would still see him labelled as a binge drinker.

“I have cut right down,” he said.

“I feel 100% better and my wife is over the moon with me.

“I only had six cans on Saturday and eight on Sunday.”

Even though this is more than eight units Billy no longer sees himself as a binge drinker.

Government guidelines on drinking mean that you have to consume less than maybe you thought to be considered a binge drinker. Bernie Jenkins, 54, a pub owner and father-of-four lives in the Longlands area of Middlesbrough with his wife Davina and kids Tom, 18, Sarah, 16, and James, 11.

He runs the Liberty’s In Town pub on Linthorpe Road with his son Paul, 34 ... and he happily admits that under the Government’s guidelines then he is a “binge drinker”.

On a normal night out Mr Jenkins says he would drink four or five pints followed by a couple of Bacardis.

“We work every day of the week to make our business a success so what’s wrong with having a few drinks to wind down?

“If you feel healthy and you’re not using the funds of the NHS then let’s start enjoying our lives.

“The Government should get themselves in order before they start criticising us. If they want to call me a binge drinker they can, but it doesn’t cause them any problems.”

Mr Jenkins’ wife Davina said she rarely drinks enough to put herself in the “binge drinker” bracket.

“I know my limits and when I’ve had enough but so do a lot of people who will drink more than I do. I’ll have two or three halves and I’m happy with that but I think people are entitled to drink what they want. I don’t believe that people who drink six pints on a Saturday night are causing the Government, NHS or anyone else any problems.”

Graeme Brown, 23, is a hospital porter at James Cook University Hospital and a father-of-two.

He lives in Linthorpe with his partner Ellen Rose and their two children Kaitlyn, three, and two-month-old Jack.

He said: “I can just as easily go out and drink two pints as I can six. It depends what mood you’re in but I always know when I’ve had enough and don’t cause anyone else any problems. I don’t see myself as a binge drinker - I can go well over the Government’s advised amount but I don’t drink shots or shorts.”

Telephone engineer Ray Jenkins, 39, lives in Middlesbrough with his wife Christine, 52, who works as a chemical assistant with chemical distributors Univar.

The couple will visit the Master Cooper pub on Acklam Road on a weekend to socialise with friends.

Ray says as long as he’s not working the next day he will sink eight to ten pints of lager.

“I work hard and at a weekend we go out and enjoy ourselves. It doesn’t cause me any health problems and if it did then I wouldn’t but I know my own limits. Most of my friends do the same.

“If the Government want to call me a binge drinker then fair enough but it’s not what I would call it. It’s just socialising.”

Wife Christine, mum to Mark, 27, and David, 13, said she would start in rounds with their group of friends then go onto halves or soft drinks later in the night.

“I would still go over six units or the equivalent of three pints,” she said. “You know your own tolerance and you use your common sense. I wouldn’t call myself a binge drinker I would call myself a social drinker.”

Evening Gazette

1am. A 20-something man stumbles into the emergency department, blood dripping from a gash above his right eye, his two mates attempting to prop up his 100kg frame.

The triage nurse doesn't need to ask if he's been drinking; she is 5m away but can smell the alcohol on his breath and seeping out of his pores.

By the time I examine the young man 30 minutes later, he and his two friends have made sexual advances on the triage nurse, vomited on the waiting room floor and made numerous demands for morphine and pseudoephedrine.

His knuckles are scratched and bleeding and the gash above his eye is deep. It's difficult to tell whether the man is suffering from concussion or whether he's just feeling the effects of the alcohol.

To be sure, I order some tests and the consultation takes twice as long and uses double the resources it should.

I recommend an overnight stay for observation but, thinking he knows better, and wanting to return to the local nightclub to get the guy who punched him, the young man discharges himself.

As the clock strikes midnight on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, emergency departments around the country begin flooding with men and women who have been injured or harmed as a result of -- directly or indirectly -- excessive drinking.

Night after night doctors and nurses treat teenagers with alcohol poisoning, recipients of brutal beatings and stabbings and, worst of all, victims of road trauma accidents caused by drunk drivers.

We have all seen the photos of drunken violence in our streets on the front pages of our newspapers. But the violence doesn't stop in the ambulance or on the way to the hospital.

Doctors and nurses in our emergency departments clean up the mess, cop the abuse from drunk patients and are tasked with breaking bad news to the families caught up in the mess.

We push other patients needing treatment further and further down the emergency triage queue to treat injuries that could have been prevented.

Extra pressure is put on already stretched beds and resources.

Binge drinking is not just an issue among teenagers and nightclub revellers.

I regularly see older patients with destroyed livers, stomach ulceration and limited brain function resulting from prolonged alcohol abuse. Excessive drinking can lead to diabetes, weight problems and liver damage.

In Australia, alcohol is estimated to contribute 5.3 per cent of the burden of disease for men, who are more likely to drink to risky levels, and 2.2 per cent for women.

The health costs are enormous to individuals, and also to the community. The last available figures are now 10 years old, when the tangible social costs of alcohol consumption in Australia were estimated to be $5.5 billion in 1998-99.

I'm sure it's a lot more now.

The massive growth in emergency department presentations, the lack of beds in public hospitals, and the lack of capacity in the system have all been well documented.

Working in emergency departments today is a lot harder than a few years ago. In my emergency department, alcohol-affected patients take up a significant amount of time and resources.

The stress and the unpleasant task of dealing with drunk patients is another pressure we just don't need.

There is a place for alcohol in our community. It can help us unwind, it goes well with food and it is served at the places we go for entertainment. But excessive alcohol consumption is a major health problem.

The debates around the Federal Government's alcopop tax and the Victorian Government's 2am lockout trial have been useful in highlighting some of these problems, but it will take more than a single measure to change binge-drinking culture.

Emergency departments are at the pointy end of the harm caused by alcohol. We are there to help, regardless of the state of the patient.

We do not judge the individual, but I am concerned at a society where so many people are caused such harm through alcohol abuse.

Herald Sun

Heavy-drinking parents are being singled out in a new campaign to stop them passing drinking habits on to their children in a country that is afflicted by alcohol-related violence.

Advertising for the government-run campaign, called Kids Absorb Your Drinking, show a young boy being asked to get a beer for his father at a family barbecue. The youngster then morphs into an adult and, in turn, asks his son to do the same thing. The premise is simple – that children mimic their parent’s behaviour.

Tackling the abuse of alcohol has become a priority for the Australian government. Official figures show alcohol-related violence increased in the country’s most populous state, New South Wales, by an average of 6.5 per cent each year since 2004.

“It’s a cause for concern because although the increases themselves are not substantial, they are coming on top of big double digit increases in alcohol-related assaults back in the late 1990s,” said Don Weatherburn, the director of the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.

“There has been an increase in the number of young women who are being admitted to hospital with alcohol poisoning or injuries,” he said.

A study by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare in 2004 showed 25 per cent of those aged between 14 and 19 drank alcohol on a daily or weekly basis. The legal drinking age in Australia is 18.

Australia is a very thirsty country and one that is well aware of its reputation. More than 80 per cent of the adult population drinks alcohol.

For this, Australia could blame its history. During early colonial times, rum was used as currency, helping to create the foundations of a hard drinking society.

“Australia has a sorry history of drinking too much. No question about it,” said Mr Weatherburn. “That problem started from the earliest days of the colonies and has continued on ever since.

“There seems to be a groundswell of opinion in favour of greater controls on licenced premises and greater controls on trading hours. People are growing tired of the offensive behaviour, malicious damage to property and violence that they see around them, and they want to see it stopped.”

Alcohol causes more death and injury in Australia than all other illegal drugs combined. While the number of Australian drinkers is less than that of the French, it is estimated that one in eight consumes so much that he or she suffers permanent brain damage.

“Everybody knows people in their fifties and sixties who are mere shadows of their former selves mentally and physically because they’ve had a lifetime of drinking,” said Gordian Fulde, the director of the emergency department at St Vincent’s hospital in Sydney.

“It’s a cumulative thing. It’s not a one day, a one week, a one year or even a one decade thing for a normal person, but it all adds up. You are guaranteeing yourself measurable brain damage.”

“I could put up innumerable cat-scans of the brain where you can see there’s a whole lot of brain tissue missing in people who are 45 or 50 who are still functioning. It’s not your down-and-outs. It’s your businessman, your doctor and their wives and friends. Alcohol is rotting our brains,” Mr Fulde said.

Australia enjoys liberal licencing laws. There are 24-hour pubs and clubs and the liquor industry generates about US$15 billion (Dh55bn) annually. While beer, wine and spirits are relatively cheap and their consumption socially acceptable, Australia seems to be trapped in an alcoholic haze.

“My family’s riddled with alcoholism,” said Paul, 43, who works as an information technology consultant in Sydney. “[My] father died from it, friends are dying from it.”

For young people in Australia alcohol plays a big part in socialising after work and on weekends.

“Yeah, we go out every weekend. Every Friday, Saturday we drink a fair bit, yeah, out with friends,” said a 23-year-old office manager, who did not want to give her name.

Her friend, Nate, 24, said alcohol was also a big part of his weekends. “Wake up, start drinking beer, drink right through and then end up going out and having fun and partying,” he said. “It’s been a way of life. People around me have always been drinking beers and you only live once – may as well have fun while you’re doing it.”

For many young Australians drinking is a rite of passage.

“Binge drinking is a major issue in Australia, particularly among young people but it’s an issue that the community as a whole needs to address because alcohol is so much part of the way that we live,” said Caroline Morey from the Inspire Foundation, an internet-based charity.

“We use it to celebrate, we use it if we’re feeling down or if we’re stressed. It’s only natural that young people see that as being part of our culture.”

The key is moderation, according to Mr Fulde. “I’m not saying don’t drink. For your heart a bit of alcohol’s great, but we must ask ourselves do we want to have this much alcohol on board? Given that if I keep doing this on a regular basis my brain will be so damaged decades down the line.”

The National

The number of people who sought advice and treatment for alcohol and tik (methamphetamine) addiction rose by 100 per cent from April last year to March this year.

Sanca‘s head in George, Brenda Pienaar, said at the weekend that drugs such as tik and heroin had become easily available from informal traders and at taxi ranks.

She said there had been an alarming increase in the number of young white men addicted to heroin, while coloured men made up a third of those addicted to alcohol.

However, Pienaar said the major cause for concern was alcohol abuse by children.

“Our concern at Sanca is that children are abusing alcohol at a younger age.”

Pienaar earlier told local newspapers of instances in which a 13-year-old child was addicted to alcohol, saying it was not unusual for primary school children to get drunk over weekends.

She said the old “tot” system, whereby farmers remunerated their workers with alcohol, could not be blamed anymore as most of the children lived in town.

Dysfunctional families and a lack of morality had caused the problem.

Pienaar said Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) was also a problem as children suffering from FAS normally ended up abandoning school.

According to Pienaar, statistics showed that 10% of all drinkers eventually became alcoholics and 20% became problem drinkers.

According to studies last done in 2002 by the SA Medical Research Council‘s alcohol and drug abuse group along with the University of SA, 45% of all non-natural deaths in major cities could be linked to a high alcohol intake, particularly road accidents and murders.

The studies found that 39% of trauma patients had high alcohol levels in their blood. In addition, more than half of all people seeking treatment for substance abuse were addicted to alcohol.

Herald Online

Some Tennessee college students may think being 18 means freedom from parent oversight.

Those in state schools will need to rethink that assumption.

A new measure, signed by Gov. Phil Bredesen on June 19, means higher-education institutions governed by the state must notify the parents of any student younger than 21 who violates drug and alcohol laws or policies.

The law is the first of its kind in the country and takes advantage of a 1998 amendment to the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. FERPA prohibits schools from releasing other information about students 18 or older without the student's permission, but under the 1998 amendment, schools can decide whether or not to notify parents in the case of drug and alcohol violations.

State Sen. Roy Herron, D-Dresden, the bill's sponsor, said he is appalled by the numbers of college students who die or are injured each year as a result of alcohol abuse and that he believes the measure will improve student safety.

"The universities are not able to be parents, and they are not able to be family," Herron said. "Instead, they ought to help families reach out to their loved ones."

At the University of Tennessee, the new state measure is eliciting mixed reactions from students, mostly positive responses from parents, and promises by administrators to comply with the law, despite previously expressed concerns.

Anna Harlan of Lenoir City, whose daughter will be a UT freshman in the fall, said she supports the new law and believes it could benefit students in trouble.

"Whether they are in college or are 26 and in law school, if the student is having problems, someone should tell the family," Harlan said. "I hope somebody would do that for me if I was losing my capacities."

Alex Mullins, 18, of Oak Ridge, attending UT orientation like Harlan and her daughter, also supports the law, though from a different standpoint.

"If parents are paying the tuition, they have a right to know what's going on," he said.

On the other hand, 21-year-old UT senior Ben McComb said such a law could interfere with a student's ability to mature and conflicts with the other responsibilities of adulthood.

"If I'm over the age of 18 and I get a speeding ticket, I still have to pay for it," he said. "If I get a DUI, it would still be my discretion whether I told my parents."

Before enactment of the new law, UT contacted students' parents in some but not all situations, according to Tim Rogers, vice chancellor for student affairs.

"We would not contact a parent in every case, particularly if it were just a case of possession of a can of beer," Rogers said.

Anthony Haynes, UT associate vice president and director of state relations, spoke to legislators on behalf of the university. According to Haynes, the university did not formally oppose the measure but did express concern about losing the option not to notify parents in certain situations.

"First and foremost, we always want to do what's in the best interest of the student," Haynes said. "If the relationship with the parent is the root of the problem, maybe that's the worst thing to do."

David Gregory, who also spoke with lawmakers, is the vice chancellor for administration for the Tennessee Board of Regents, which represents other state schools outside the UT system. He, along with Haynes, originally had concerns that the rule might contradict FERPA, but the Board of Regents eventually decided that there was not a contradiction.

Likewise, when state Sen. Jamie Woodson, R-Knoxville, who chairs the Senate's education committee, requested that State Attorney General Robert E. Cooper Jr. look into that possibility, Cooper found that the measure did not contradict federal law. In the end, Herron's bill won out, with the measure passing unopposed in the Senate and by a 69-22 vote in the House.

Now the task falls to the colleges and universities to implement the law. The coming years will tell whether the measure has an impact on students' use or abuse of drugs and alcohol.

UT student Craig Harris, 21, said he thinks notifying parents would decrease repeat offences but that it wouldn't do much to curb overall alcohol consumption by younger college students.

"The only thing they could do to lessen underage drinking would be to lower the drinking age," Harris said.

He paused and then added, "You've got to give them credit for trying."

Knoxville News Sentinel