Alcoholics Anonymous Reviews

"You walked into the office and sat down. Did it ever cross your mind that I wasn't sober?"

Sitting in the quiet, bright office of a doctor, the question jarred me.

Dr. Graeme Cunningham is director of the addiction division at the Homewood Health Centre.

He answered his own question in his thick, Scottish accent, "of course it didn't," he said. "That's called the doctor-patient confidence."

But there was a time when a patient would have been justified in thinking the former cardiac specialist was drunk.

"It's horrifying, isn't it?" the 65-year-old said of his past alcoholism.

Cunningham is open about his struggles with alcohol and hopes his experience helps others.

He has worked at the Homewood for almost 20 years.

The centre specializes in treating a variety of addictions and mental illnesses. With in- and outpatient services, the world renowned centre treats more than 4,000 patients annually.

Cunningham councils addicts of all walks of life, but in 1990 he helped create one of the few addiction-recovery programs focused on health-care professionals in Canada.

The program is tailored to veterinarians, pharmacists, doctors and nurses. Annually, the Homewood treats 1,500 addicts as part of their in-patient program.

Only an estimated 30 of these are health-care professionals.

Several British studies suggest the incidence of alcoholism is higher among physicians than the general population but their research dates back several decades.

No recent information exists on the rates of drug and alcohol addiction among Canadian health-care professionals.

Since its inception, the Homewood estimates 1,000 nurses and 2,000 physicians have gone through the program.

A personal journey

"I went to medical school to be the very best doctor I could be and I became a drunk one," Cunningham said. "I'd have a few drinks at lunch time to settle my nerves and it wasn't because I was bad, but because I was ill."

He remembers trying to hide his addiction from his patients, colleagues and friends.

Addiction makes family life a frightening and lonely place for everyone, he explained.

"There's an elephant in the living room and no one's talking about it.

"The fantasy is that somehow, I'll only have a couple of drinks, despite the fact that time and time and time again I've run into problems," he said.

"This is the insanity of addiction that somehow, tomorrow I'll be OK."

Cunningham said he became "tired of being sick and tired" and checked into treatment in 1986.

"The first day I sat in treatment a lady came up to me and said, 'I'm your buddy here. I'm here to help,' " he recalled.

"I said 'I'm a doctor' and she said 'so am I.' By doing so, she gave me permission to be sick," he said.

It took Cunningham five years to recover. He realized then that few places catered specifically to the unique needs of health-care professionals.

He changed his career focus, becoming a researcher and counsellor at the Homewood.

When alcoholic doctors and nurses walk into Cunningham's office, the straight-talking man dispenses strong advice.

"Sober stands for 'Son of a Bitch Everything is Real,' " he said. "To the alcoholic the alcohol isn't the problem, it's the solution.

"We don't teach them about drinking," Cunningham said. "They're world-class, gold-medal users. But they know diddly squat about sobriety.

"Someone like me comes along, a bald Scot, and says, 'I'm an ex-drunk.' I give them permission to be wounded."

Under his care, addicts are steered toward support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous.

"It takes an immense courage and a good support system to get better."

Cunningham said many doctors are hesitant to seek care from these groups because they see them as touchy-feely.

He said these programs work, however, because they focus on supporting people as they learn to live without drugs or alcohol.

By contrast, there are few medical schools in Canada teaching about addictions treatment, he said.

"What doctors are taught is liver damage, brain damage and heart damage. They are not taught about the primary illness of alcoholism and the treatment that works for alcoholics."

AA works on the principles of recovering alcoholics supporting fellow alcoholics. The group is free and has no affiliations.

The myth of religious affiliation is one reason some doctors may hesitate to recommend the group for themselves or their patients, according to AA.

Culture of acceptance

Cunningham said many professions, doctors included, have a culture of acceptance when it comes to alcohol.

"It's absolutely appropriate to have wine and cheese at a faculty meeting and go back to see patients," he said.

"We use alcohol continually and socially and that's OK -- except for the 10 per cent of the population who are alcoholics," he said. "And that 10 per cent are trying desperately to hide it, cover it up.

"Every professional training environment is one of 'don't let the bastards see you sweat,' " he said. "Get the best marks you can and pass your next exam."

Doctors who talk about their emotions are seen as weak and unprofessional, he said.

"I've worked in many hospitals across Ontario and I've not worked in anywhere I've been encouraged to talk about my health issues -- any -- no one wants to know," he said.

"In fact you're criticized," Cunningham said. "You're on call and if you can't do it you're seen as a wimp."

Supporting his assertion is the seeming dearth of immediately available information for doctors facing addiction or researchers interested in quantifying the problem.

The Canadian College of Physicians and Surgeons could offer no information on the subject and recommended contacting the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons.

The function of the college, as listed on its website, is one of registering doctors, educating, investigation and quality assurance.

But the college offered scant information when approached, saying they do not keep track of that type of information.

"The college only gets involved if the physician isn't following their treatment program," spokesperson Kathryn Clarke said, adding there have been few hearings in recent years related to physicians with addictions.

However, she could not provide information on the number or precise nature of those hearings.

"They are not like disciplinary hearings because they are not open to the public . . . because they do concern issues of personal health," she said.

Doctors only human

Dr. Robert Ouellet, president of the Canadian Medical Association, said Canada can't afford to lose a single physician and as such the profession must take better care of its members' mental health -- and that includes addictions care.

The nature of the job means physicians can be vulnerable to addiction, he said.

"Doctors are human," he said. "Usually we hear doctors are God, but they are human.

"The job is very stressful," Ouellet said.

"Sometimes we make decisions in seconds with the life of someone in our hands.

"We want to be perfect and do the best for our patients," he said.

Doctors often work long hours and odd shifts. As a result, some doctors lean on prescriptions, he said.

"Drugs are more available to doctors than to other people."

The stigma attached to addiction and mental illness extends even more to doctors, Ouellet said.

In a survey done by the CMA, patients said they would have less confidence in their doctor if they knew he or she had a mental-health illness, including addiction.

"Part of the patient's treatment depends on confidence in the physician," he said.

"If the confidence is not there, part of the treatment is not there."

For Cunningham, his patients have confidence in his abilities because of his past battle.

He said he will continue talking about his recovery.

"I was a public drunk and so I'm happy to go public sober," he said.

"My greatest defect 30 years ago was my alcoholism and it's my greatest asset today," he said.

"The car I drive, the clothes I wear, are all there because of my alcoholism and my recovery."

Guelph Mercury

Whether the legal drinking age is 18, 21 or something in between, at some point the odds are better than even that eventually a young adult is going to have that first drink. About 61% of American adults 18 or older said they've had alcohol in the last year, according to a 2006 national survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For the most part, lessons in how to drink come through experimentation with excess, essentially trial and error, exploring how much can be consumed, as young people go through what has become a rite of passage to adulthood.

"It's a forbidden-fruit sort of thing," says Brenda Chabon, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Montefiore Medical Center, New York. "We haven't done a good job on educating kids. We kind of demonize alcohol on one hand and embrace it in another way."

With ignorance as a guide, the long-awaited rite of passage too often ends up with mangled cars and ruined lives.

But whose job is it to teach responsible drinking? Middle and high schools have their hands tied, says Robert Turrisi, professor of biobehavioral health at the Prevention Research Center at Pennsylvania State University. "School-based programs teach abstinence only," he says. "Schools can't legally teach how to do illegal behaviors."

Beginning in elementary school, students are given the simple message that drugs, including alcohol, are forbidden and bad, a message that often conflicts with what they see at home -- parents having a cocktail before dinner or a glass of wine with the meal. If statistics are proof, the anti-alcohol messages have little effect on kids' drinking. A CDC survey last year found that 45% of high school students drank some alcohol in the 30 days before the survey, 26% binge drank, 11% drove after drinking and 29% rode with a driver who had been drinking.

Once kids step on a college campus for the first time, they're surrounded by new freedoms and temptations. The largely ineffective "just say no" message is likely to go right out the window. So lessons in moderate and responsible drinking are up to parents and, increasingly, colleges.

Lessons from home

Parents and families have been the subject of Turrisi's studies. He's found in a 2000 study published in the journal Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, for example, that among 266 incoming college freshmen, what they learned at home affected the consequences they experienced after binge drinking. If, in questionnaires, they reported that they had learned that alcohol can be a social lubricant or transform them in good ways, they were more likely to suffer a blackout, headache or hangover or get into a fight or a regrettable sexual situation after heavy drinking. But if they learned at home that drinking was normal behavior, they were less likely to suffer those consequences, despite drinking too much.

Those who had fewer consequences from excess drinking were more likely to have talked to their mothers (the students were more likely to report talking to their mothers than to their fathers, Turrisi found) about such things as how drinking changes behavior, the importance of being able to improve mood without alcohol and the negative health consequences of alcohol abuse.

To help prevent future binges, or the worst consequences of binge drinking, Turrisi says, parents need to talk openly to kids about alcohol, throughout their lives. "Let them know that you understand the reasons why kids like to drink, but teach them the difference between drinking and binge drinking. And be prepared to answer questions about your own drinking behavior."

Those who are in favor of lowering the drinking age point to European cultures in which children are exposed to alcohol -- often in small, diluted quantities -- at early ages at family meals. They argue that drinking at home with parents teaches kids that alcohol is normal and reduces the odds that they'll overindulge when on their own.

But it's important to be sure what's meant by "drinking at home," according to a study in the October 2004 issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health. A survey of 6,200 teenagers in 242 U.S. communities found that the occasional glass of wine at a family dinner can have a protective effect. Kids who reported such moderate drinking at the family table were two-thirds less likely to have engaged in binge drinking in the two weeks before the survey.

But the study also found that parents who were oblivious to the drinking in their homes weren't doing their youngsters any favors. Teens who drank with peers at parties with an adult present were twice as likely to have engaged in binge drinking.

The college effect

Eventually, many of these almost-adults land on college campuses. Whether colleges like it or not, the ball is then in their court.

G. Alan Marlatt, director of the Addictive Behaviors Research Center at the University of Washington, has been focusing his research on helping students learn about alcohol, to (if they decide to drink) moderate their drinking and to drink without hurting themselves or others. He does the research in a campus laboratory designed to look like a dimly lit tavern. Students of legal drinking age get real alcohol; younger students get substitutes with little or no alcohol content, though they're often unaware of the substitution.

One study had actors come in and drink a lot, or a little. When the actors drank a lot, the student subjects drank a lot. When the actors drank moderately, so did the students. "If others around you are drinking just a little, you can bring it down," Marlatt said. The copycat effect was more pronounced with men than with women.

Students say they drink more when they feel stressed. So he had actors insult or annoy them in a "waiting room" outside the mock bar. Sure enough, when they were under stress, they drank more.

With that kind of information in hand, he began developing, with funding from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, programs to help college students control their drinking. Two of them, Basics and the Alcohol Skills Training Program, are available at many colleges and universities -- and some provide training to entire dormitories, sororities, fraternities and even whole incoming freshman classes.

In the Basics program, one-on-one counseling is offered to students at high risk of excessive drinking because of a family history of alcoholism or because they have reported drinking more than their peers in high school. In the Alcohol Skills Training Program, students at normal risk get group training. All of them learn what alcohol does to the body, how long it takes to feel its effects, how long it takes the body to be rid of the effects and how to be assertive in saying "no more." Marlatt has found that students in either program were able to reduce their drinking by 40% and maintain the reduction for two years after the program.

"We don't lecture. We say that drinking is like driving. It can be dangerous. It's a skill. You have to learn how it works," he said.

The approach, called harm reduction, has proved effective in reducing alcohol consumption and cutting down on consequences of drinking, according to a 2002 paper in Addictive Behaviors.

Parents sending their charges off to college can look for things that might discourage drinking, says Henry Wechsler, director of the College Alcohol Study at the Harvard School of Public Health. "Make sure there are other things to do, like arts or volunteer efforts," he says. Look for a town that offers recreational and productive outlets, not just block after block of taverns. Help your student choose carefully where to live. Some dorms have turned themselves into alcohol-free zones.

"Even in a heavily drinking college there are places where there is less drinking," he said. "And be very careful of going into a fraternity." That's because drinking rates are uniformly higher in the Greek system. Wechsler found in a 1995 study that students in sororities were almost twice as likely as non-sorority women to be binge drinkers. Fraternity members had the highest rates among college students, with 75% binge drinking, compared with 45% of non-fraternity college men.

Alcohol education from whatever source -- home, family or a formal program -- can help prevent tragedies like the one on the University of Washington campus in the spring of 2001. A student fell to his death off a seventh-floor balcony while drinking with friends. "He was 19, telling a funny story, gesticulating -- and off he went," Marlatt says. "His blood alcohol level was .28."

Los Angeles Times

Alcohol-related causes such as liver disease and car crashes account for nearly 12 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native deaths, 3-1/2 times the figure for the overall population, officials said on Thursday.

Excessive drinking has long been a problem in these often-impoverished populations, as reflected in what the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called the first national report tracking such alcohol-related deaths.

"Hopefully this serves as a constructive wake-up call not only for tribal communities but for the national government and state governments as well," Dr. Tim Naimi of the CDC and the U.S. government's Indian Health Service, one of the researchers involved in the report, said in a telephone interview.

CDC researchers analyzed death certificate data from 2001 to 2005. In that period, an average of 1,514 American Indians and Alaska Natives died due to alcohol-related causes a year.

Alcohol-related deaths accounted for 11.7 percent of the deaths of American Indians and Alaska Natives, compared to 3.3 percent in the U.S. general population, the CDC said.

Sixty-eight percent of these deaths were among men.

The report considered a range of alcohol-related deaths led by vehicle crashes and liver disease but also including murder, suicides, falls and various ailments.

Robert Holden, deputy director of the National Congress of American Indians, an advocacy group, said alcoholism in these populations is one of the many legacies of the destruction of Indian culture and communities.

Holden called on the federal government to provide more funding for Indian health programs overall and for programs aimed at countering alcohol abuse.

"Why is it that the average federal prisoner gets twice as much in health care dollars than Native American people do?" Holden asked in a telephone interview.

Naimi said alcohol abuse is the third-leading preventable cause of death among all Americans, behind smoking and the combination of over-eating and physical inactivity. "This is not a problem limited to one population," Naimi said.

"The good news is that there are lots of effective interventions to reduce alcohol misuse. ... Things like raising alcohol taxes, reducing hours of sale and enforcing widely ignored laws preventing sale of alcohol to intoxicated persons," Naimi said.

It is also important to ensure there are adequate alcohol counseling and treatment services for Indians, Naimi added.

Reuters

Alcoholism among women in Sweden rose by 50 percent between 2003 and 2007 as beer, wine and spirits have become more accessible in the country long known for its restrictive alcohol policy, a report on Saturday said.

"The number of female alcoholics has risen from 65,000 to about 100,000 and the number of male alcoholics has risen from about 135,000 to about 165,000. One important reason is that it has become easier and cheaper to buy alcohol," a report written by the head of the Swedish National Institute of Public Health's alcohol and drug division showed.

Sweden, a country of nine million inhabitants, has an alcohol distribution monopoly, meaning that Swedes can only buy beer, wine and liquor at state-run outlets called Systembolaget. Only Systembolaget and wholesalers authorised by the state may import such drinks.

Sweden maintains that the monopoly, and high taxes on alcohol, are needed to protect public health.

But alcohol has nonetheless become more accessible in recent years.

"Reduced alcohol taxes, private imports from abroad and across the internet, longer opening hours at Systembolaget and an increase in the number of restaurants granted liquor licenses" have all contributed to the rise in alcoholism, said Sven Andreasson, the author of the report published in Sweden's newspaper of reference Dagens Nyheter.

Andreasson noted that while overall alcohol consumption in Sweden had remained stable in recent years, the number of alcohol poisonings, alcohol-related violence and drink driving cases were on the rise.

The numbers he presented in the report were "in line with" reports from the health sector which indicated an increase in the number of people seeking care for alcohol-related problems, he said.

AFP

In the first-ever national survey of its kind, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that almost 12 percent of the deaths among American Indians are alcohol-related — more than three times the rate in the general U.S. population.

The CDC report, released Thursday, also found that the greatest number of alcohol-related deaths among Indians occurred in the Indian Health Service’s Northern Plains region, which stretches from Montana to Michigan and includes North Dakota and Minnesota. There was no breakdown by state or tribe.

Reservations in the Northern Plains region tend to be remote and include some of the most economically challenged in the nation, the CDC report said, factors that may contribute to the higher alcohol-related death rate.

Whatever the reasons for the problem, the report should be “a call to action” for federal, state, local and tribal governments, said Dwayne Jarman, one of the study’s authors and a CDC epidemiologist who works for the Indian Health Service.

In a telephone interview Thursday, Jarman recommended increased alcohol excise taxes to cut demand and more rigorously enforcing policies against serving people who already are intoxicated. “We also need to look at new community-specific ways to address the problem,” he said, as well as closer coordination between tribal health centers and tribal courts.

Accidents, disease

CDC researchers examined death certificates recorded from 2001 to 2005. Traffic accidents and alcoholic liver disease were the two leading causes of alcohol-related deaths, according to the report, each contributing about a fourth of the 1,514 deaths. Other causes included homicide and suicide.

The study may have undercounted alcohol-related deaths, according to the report, because it did not include deaths attributed to certain diseases, such as colon cancer, where alcoholism is considered a major risk factor.

About two-thirds of the Indians whose deaths were alcohol-related were men, and nearly two-thirds were younger than 50.

Seven percent were younger than 20.

The study results confirm previous findings that alcoholism remains a crippling problem on reservations despite development in recent years of “red road” recovery programs designed around Indian cultural values. It recommends further development of “culturally appropriate clinical interventions” and closer coordination between tribal health centers and tribal courts.

Spirit Lake, White Earth

Linda Duckwitz, a licensed addiction counselor at the Spirit Lake Indian Reservation, said the CDC statistics “are very troubling,” but “North Dakota in general is still in the cave when it comes to permissive attitudes toward binge drinking, drinking while driving and alcoholism.”

The Spirit Lake Tribe “is doing some creative things,” including relapse prevention and “equine therapy,” where young addicts in treatment work with horses, she said, but the programs are hampered by a lack of state funding for treatment programs that aren’t hospital-based.

At Minnesota’s White Earth Indian Reservation, a substance abuse program provides intervention and prevention services, diagnosis and referrals, manager Pat Moran said. The band also operates several outpatient and after-care sites on the reservation and an in-patient treatment center for women and their children in Mahnomen.

“Those numbers don’t surprise me at all,” Moran said Thursday after hearing about the CDC report. “We have a high rate of alcoholism on the reservation, and a majority of deaths here are related” to alcohol or other chemical abuse.

The White Earth program is “short-staffed and short-funded,” she said. “We’re always looking for more money to do more things.”

But the band is making progress, she said.

“I see people who are out walking who are in recovery,” she said. “I’m one of them.”

DL-Online

The London Assembly is to investigate the extent of underage drinking and alcohol misuse by young people in the capital following growing alcohol-related hospital admissions involving young people.

The Assembly will look at the underlying causes of alcohol misuse by young people which is can increase the risk of having unsafe sex and ending up in trouble with the police.

The eventual report will aim to make recommendations on the best approach to tackle the problem and Assembly members are calling people of all ages to send in their opinions and experiences.

James Cleverly AM, Chair of the Health and Public Services Committee said: "Underage drinking and alcohol misuse by young people is already beginning to have serious repercussions on public health and young people’s life prospects, and will continue to do so for future generations unless something is done to tackle the problem."

Don Shenker, Chief Executive of Alcohol Concern described the Assembly’s investigation as "timely".

Shenker added that: "for many young people experimentation with alcohol is a natural part of the transition into adulthood. Unfortunately, and for a complicated mix of reasons, youthful curiosity can sometimes give way to more harmful drinking patterns."

Cleverly concluded: "We know that 1603 young people were admitted to London hospitals with alcohol-specific problems last year, but this is likely to be just the tip of the iceberg."

"Our investigation will uncover the true scale of the problem, and I encourage Londoners to help us do that by sending us their views on this issue."

MayorWatch

You might not think that back to school season is prime time for underage drinking parties. But in one area county, experts tell us they're just as big a concern in September as it is during prom season in the spring.

Northern Berkshire County's Community Coalition is teaming up with parents to help them determine whether parents of their children's friends are on the same page when it comes to drinking parties and drug use in their homes.

Under the Safe Homes Parents' Pledge, parents agree not to allow teen parties in the home when adults are not present or to allow he illegal use of alcohol, tobacco or drugs by teens in the home.

The resource guide prints the names of parents who have taken the pledge, allowing other parents to gauge the attitudes of families whose homes their own children might visit.

Sarah Kline, a mother of 10- and 12-year old girls, says "there is definitely a comfort level" in knowing what other parents have pledged to keep their homes safe from underage drug and alcohol use.

She adds it opens a dialogue with her children that lets her talk to them about what her expectations of them and the consequences for bad behavior.

"We don't think parents communicate with each other as well as students do, so this is our attempt to help parents take it back," explains Al Bashevkin, executive director of the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition.

And yes, a committee does review the names of those who sign the pledge -- and if parents don't live up to it, their names can be taken off the list.

WRGB CBS 6 Albany

If you or someone you know regularly drinks alcohol, there are questions that need addressed. At times do you feel you drink too much? In conjunction to that do you ever feel like you should cut back on drinking? Has the consumption of liquor and alcohol become a habitual daily practice? It is an escape from the realities of life in general? Is it something you or that person does to escape problems? If the answer to these questions is yes, chances are you have an alcohol problem of some level. It isn't an indicator of an alcoholic or a need for alcohol rehab, just that the drinking is a little excessive.

The truth is most people can socially drink with no ill effects. Alcohol as a depressant can help to relax and calm individuals. Social drinking is perfectly acceptable behavior for those who can hold their liquor per se. However excessive drinking often can be an indicator of a greater alcohol problem. There are many factors that make up an addiction. An alcohol problem is one of them. With the right social situations and emotional or psychological issues, the consumption of alcohol can become habitual and even controlling in nature.

An alcohol problem, or drinking too much, doesn't initially require alcohol or drug rehab. If people feel it is a problem simply cutting back can help immensely. Even the help of a local 12-step group or support meeting attendance can be helpful at cutting back on alcohol. Alcohol rehab is needed when you can’t cut back, and the body and mind need the drinks to maintain a normal function. Alcoholrehab is needed when the abuse of alcohol takes over other aspects of life like jobs, friends and family.

An addiction to alcohol is a struggle. It is something that only escalates out of control. Initially alcohol addiction can be as harmless as a simple excessive drinking, but can result into a life or death situation. Alcoholism is a chemical dependence to liquor. The body and mind cannot maintain any sense of function unless alcohol is in the system. It is an endless carving to drink that can not be quenched. At this point alcohol rehab can be critical. At this stage of addiction the only solution is to stop consumption completely. Alcoholism is a gradual process from the initial alcohol problem. It is however a quick descent with a difficult process of climbing out.

If alcohol rehab is needed, an inpatient facility can be beneficial. Inpatient facilities function as a safe haven away from the influences of alcohol. They are controlled environments where it's possible to get control of life again. Inpatient alcohol rehab can provide the answers to many of the difficult questions of why a person must drink to feel normal.

TransWorld News

The London Assembly are to investigate the extent of underage drinking and alcohol abuse by young Londoners.

The investigation, launched yesterday (Wednesday), will focus on the

underlying causes of alcohol misuse by young people and seek to make recommendations on how to tackle the problem.

The Assembly is calling people of all ages to send in their opinions and experiences.

Excessive drinking and alcohol-related hospital admissions by young people are a growing concern and among 35 European countries, the UK has the third highest proportion of 15 year olds (24 per cent) that have been drunk 10 times or more.

Alcohol abuse can lead to serious health and social problems with young people under the influence of alcohol more likely to have unsafe sex, injure themselves through taking risks, or end up in trouble with the police.

There are also strong links between patterns of drinking established as a teenager and alcohol dependency later in life that can lead to cirrhosis and liver disease.

Though there is already work being done in London to tackle alcohol misuse, there is no clear picture of just how big the problem is in the capital. The London Assembly committee will undertake in-depth data analysis and extensive engagement with young people that will be a valuable contribution to the debate.

Assembly Member James Cleverly, who is also Chair of the Health and Public Services Committee said: “Underage drinking and alcohol misuse by young people is already beginning to have serious repercussions on public health and young people’s life prospects, and will continue to do so for future generations unless something is done to tackle the problem.

“We know that 1603 young people were admitted to London hospitals with alcohol-specific problems last year, but this is likely to be just the tip of the iceberg. Our investigation will uncover the true scale of the problem, and I encourage Londoners to help us do that by sending us their views on this issue.”

Don Shenker, Chief Executive of Alcohol Concern said: “The Assembly’s decision to pursue a more detailed understanding of alcohol misuse by the capital’s youth is a timely one.

“For many young people experimentation with alcohol is a natural part of the transition into adulthood. Unfortunately, and for a complicated mix of reasons, youthful curiosity can sometimes give way to more harmful drinking patterns.

“By getting a street level sense of what motivates young Londoners to drink heavily we will be in a better position to plan a co-ordinated and effective response.”

Londra Gazete

Berkeley police announced the annual crackdown on underage drinking around UC Berkeley this week, courtesy of an $89,000 grant from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

UC Berkeley Police reported a young woman was hospitalized Monday night after being hit in the head by a brick while attending a fraternity party on Piedmont Avenue where alcohol was being served.

The woman received stitches for a head laceration, and she chipped a tooth, Berkeley police spokeswoman Mary Kusmiss said. She was knocked down during an altercation in which one of two uninvited guests threw the brick at a group of people standing on the porch of the Phi Gamma Delta house, Kusmiss said. Police searched the area for the two men but made no arrests.

"At the beginning of the school year, we tend to see a lot of alcohol abuse and it has a significant impact on emergency services," Kusmiss said.

"You have young people who fall down or get into fights, and people get alcohol poisoning."

Berkeley Police said they will kick off their enforcement program today Friday and Saturday from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. by checking identification at the doors of bars and by using underage decoys to ask adults to buy them alcohol at local stores.

Contra Costa Times

A nationwide initiative to lower the national drinking age widely supported by secondary education officials has drawn questions from a public unsure if good can come from younger, legal alcohol consumers.

Local educators and members of the legal community question the effects of a lower drinking age on 18-year-old high school students and their friends who are often still juveniles.

The Amethyst Initiative is an effort supported by over 100 college presidents and officials, who question the effectiveness of a national minimum drinking age of 21. Though they do not suggest a particular policy, their belief is that a lower drinking age will curb binge drinking in the 18-20-year-old demographic.

The law limiting legal alcohol drinking to those of 21 years and older was established by the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, which restricted those underage from purchasing or publicly possessing alcohol, except in religious and medical purposes, in private establishments and in the course of lawful employment by licensed distributors.

The initiative, which encourages elected officials to debate the 21 drinking age and invites new ideas to prepare young adults to make responsible alcohol-related decisions, is supported by many who believe that the current drinking age has developed "a culture of dangerous, clandestine "binge-drinking." Further, they contend that educating adults to abstain from alcohol completely until of a legal age "has not resulted in significant constructive behavioral change among our students."

The 129 (as of press time) college officials, some of whom lead Indiana schools like Butler University, Hanover College and Holy Cross College, wonder why adults under 21 are capable of voting, signing contracts, serving on juries and enlisting in the military but are considered too immature to drink. They also contend that a lower drinking age leads to compromised morals of students who pursue fake identification to purchase alcohol.

But locally, school and law enforcement officials doubt the benefits of lowering the drinking age.

Frontier School Corporation Superintendent Bernard Graser opposes a lower drinking age. Graser's concern for his students prompted his opposition.

"I think it's (underage drinking) a prevalent problem whether it be here or any other school," he said. "We'd just be opening a larger area for problems."

Graser felt that if the drinking age were lowered, kids under 18 would find themselves with easier access to alcoholic drinks.

"I definitely think that would be a problem, and in bigger numbers," he said. "There's some of it already that's going on because some students have older brothers and sisters.

"In some cases it's even coming from the parents, who think that 'well, I'd rather them drink at home than away,' but then kids start sneaking it out."

North White Junior/High School Principal Jeff Jones remembers debates raging over the same topic, 25 and more years ago; he believes the solution then still works in the present.

"I just think that it's too young of an age to be able to legally access alcohol," Jones said. "I was thinking back to the 70s when I was in high school."

Jones recalled peers traveling out of Indiana to states with lax alcohol laws, but also remembered a high number of complications associated with them

"They switched it back to 21 because they were starting to see an increase in alcohol-related automobile accidents, an increase in binge drinking," he explained. "We've already been down that road; they saw the statistics then, and I don't think that's going to change today."

As Twin Lakes athletic director, Kent Adams often sees the consequences when student athletes choose to drink and then get in trouble.

"We never want that type of negative attention to our athletes, and it takes away from all the good things that are happening and the positives," Adams lamented. "If you have an 18-year-old athlete that is allowed to drink, they would still be subject to the same rules and regulations that everybody else (other athletes) has to obey."

Adams didn't find the benefit in allowing 18-year olds to consume alcohol legally.

"These laws and rules we have are to keep adults and kids safe and from having a serious accident happen," he explained. "I don't see any possible positive impact that doing that (lowering the drinking age) would have."

Being on the state side of the law, White County prosecutor Bob Guy and juvenile probation officer Garry Foster all too often see the result when youth choose to drink, and don't see a lower drinking age improving the situation.

"I would say probably 20 percent of my people are in for underage consumption," Foster explained. "If they're not on for that reason, it may be something that drugs and alcohol are influencing some of the decisions they're making.

"I think with the position I'm in that I would be against it (lowering the drinking age)," Foster concluded. "My biggest concern with the whole thing is you've got 18-year-olds in high school who are friends with these younger kids; I think it's just going to give them more access and make it easier to get alcohol from their friends."

Guy explained that those under 18 caught consuming underage or in possession of alcohol go through the juvenile justice system, while over 18 are charged as adults.

"Our incidents our elevated because of the nature of our resort community," said Guy, excluding Tippecanoe County from his statement.

"I'm opposed to that (lowering the drinking age) not only as a prosecutor but as a parent," Guy said. "I've seen the statistics showing the fatality rates."

Guy pointed out that the laws in place weren't written using arbitrary ages; the ages of 16 for driving and 21 for drinking were established after being time tested. He added that both are not rights but privileges for those old enough that they reasonably should be responsible for their actions.

But Guy took issue with one of the main arguments pointed to by the Amethyst Initiative.

"The argument is if you're old enough to fight for your country you're old enough to drink," he said. "I suppose that's a valid argument; in some ways that's hard to dispute. But also, the law is there in place trying to protect not only the young person but to protect society generally."

Guy believed a lower drinking age would only increase the number of minors consuming alcohol by providing them easy access.

"We would be foolish to think that there aren't 21-year olds or in that general age category that are buying for 18-, 19-, 20-year college friends," he said. "If you are now 18-years old and of legal age, instead of the 21-year old buying for the 20-, 19- and 18-year olds, that 18-year old is now going to be buying for the 15-, 16- and 17-year olds.

"How many 18-year olds do we still have at Twin Lakes High School, North White High School, Frontier High School and Tri-County High School?"

So while many university officials who have joined Amethyst Initiative wish to open dialogue regarding a lower drinking age, those who oversee younger students and alcohol offenders have serious doubts of the benefits of such a measure.

"Why lower our standards anyway?" asked Graser rhetorically. "I think it's a given fact that at a lower age, well at any age really, alcohol inhibits our ability to make good decisions, along with our physical abilities. "

"It's already been experimented with, and I don't think it's going to work now; so I don't see any point in trying it again," concluded Jones.

Herald Journal

Two Rohnert Park 15-year-olds partied with small groups of friends, no adult supervision and plenty of vodka.

The girl in May and the boy in July tapped unknown shoulders at grocery stores and persuaded adults to buy the booze. The teens each drank at least 20 ounces, the equivalent of about 13 shots, and suffered alcohol poisoning so severe that medical officials feared for their survival.

To the surprise of doctors, the teens, unidentified because they are juveniles, both lived.

The two cases reported by Rohnert Park police highlight the dangers and severity of teen drinking, Sgt. Art Sweeney said.

They also show discretionary treatment of underage drinkers who, the same age, in the same city, having drunk the same amount, face different consequences.

The girl was arrested June 18 on charges of public drunkenness and illegally possessing alcohol after a six-week investigation, Sweeney said. The boy likely will not be charged.

"There was a different temperature to them, a different flavor," Sweeney said. "In one, we were able to see that it was best dealt with as a diversion counseling issue. The girl was nearly dead, and we thought it was a crime."

Within the justice system, consideration is given a teen's history, blood-alcohol level, best opportunity for recovery, and how well the teen helps in an investigation, all of which can lead to different treatment of similar cases.

Widespread problem

Law enforcement officers, school officials and parents all say underage drinking is a major problem in Sonoma County.

Among high school juniors in Sonoma County, 54 percent, or 1,796 students, reported having been "very drunk or sick from drinking alcohol" at least once on the 2004 to 2006 California Healthy Kids Survey. Eight percent of seventh-graders, 319 students, said they had been.

This month, Santa Rosa Police have arrested three boys and one girl under the age of 18 on charges of public drunkenness or possessing alcohol.

Last year in Rohnert Park, one juvenile, on average, was arrested each week on charges of underage drinking. Many more teens were released with a warning and no formal report, such as the boy whose vodka binge sent him to the hospital.

"One of our officers taking a juvenile home or otherwise releasing them to a parent is by far the most common way the cases are resolved," Sweeney said. "This reprimand and release does not create a formal report."

For alcohol counselors, law enforcement responses that range from a ride home to a ride to Juvenile Hall make it difficult to convey the message that alcohol is illegal for teens.

"There is inconsistency to some degree," said Diane Davis, program manager of counseling and prevention services at West County Youth Services. "If these kids are caught by law enforcement with alcohol, there needs to be a citation."

Some teens said they are more likely to be warned than cited.

"When they catch you, they just pour out the rest of your drink," said one 17-year-old in Santa Rosa.

"They might warn you and say next time you're going to get a ticket or something, but it never happens," said another.

Davis said students tell her of many more kids who are warned than are arrested or cited.

"Police officers want to give kids a second chance. But having a consistent response is important. If it's inconsistent, the message is that you might get away with it sometimes."

Few go to court

Approximately 700 teenagers a year are seen on drug and alcohol citations and arrests, said Sheralyn Freitas, the Sonoma County Probation Department's deputy chief of field services. The department does not distinguish between alcohol and drug offenses.

Few of the teens are summoned to court, many are requested to call the probation department and most are sent from there to community-based alcohol education programs, Freitas said.

Sonoma County District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua said he would not speak to specific cases, including those of the Rohnert Park 15-year-olds. But he said a number of people, from the police officer who spots a teen with alcohol to the intake officer at Juvenile Hall, have the discretion to treat a teen with varying levels of severity.

Behavior a factor

That some teens would be referred to probation while others are warned, is the result of how teens behave following their drunkenness, Sweeney said.

If a teen immediately provides information about where the alcohol came from and cooperates with law enforcement, that plays a major role in how cops proceed with the case, Sweeney said.

The girl and friends she partied with were not forthcoming about where the alcohol came from, Sweeney said.

In the boy's case, "people there were willing to talk to us," Sweeney said, adding that the boy cooperated with police officers immediately.

Because of that difference, the girl, treated for alcohol poisoning May 3 and arrested June 18, is facing charges.

She nearly died of an alcohol overdose after she filled an empty 20-ounce Gatorade bottle with vodka and drank it straight before wandering off to a nearby park, according to police and friends.

At Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, her blood-alcohol level was 0.578, seven times the level for drunken driving, and doctors feared she would not live through the night.

The boy, treated for alcohol poisoning July 31, will likely be referred to counseling, if anything, Sweeney said.

"There was no crime," Sweeney said. "It's unlikely he would be charged. If anything, he would be referred to a counseling situation."

Friends of the boy told police he drank seven double shots of vodka -- totaling about 21 ounces -- in 15 minutes before an ambulance rushed him from Benicia Park to a local hospital, Sweeney said.

But though the boy drank nearly the same amount of vodka as the girl, he was likely not as drunk, doctors said.

His blood-alcohol level likely did not soar to the lethal levels recorded in the girl because body chemistry differences allow men to tolerate more alcohol than women with fewer effects, said Dr. Anthony Boyce, a chemical dependency specialist at Kaiser Permanente in Santa Rosa.

Still, drinking seven double shots in 15 minutes would have had a significant impact on the teen's body, said Boyce, who did not treat either teen.

"Men tend to tolerate alcohol better and can get away with drinking more," Boyce said. "But that's still a heck of a lot of alcohol in a short period of time."

Boyce said the teen likely passed out and vomited, but whether or not he suffered other consequences, such as asphyxiation and choking, is unknown as is any guess as to what his blood-alcohol level could have been, other than "lethal."

Sweeney said the boy was released from the hospital Aug. 1.

Because he was cooperating with police and not as "close to death as the girl," there was no police report and no record of his blood-alcohol level, Sweeney said.

"We are dealing with the parents and child from a diversion standpoint but not a prosecution one," Sweeney said.

Meanwhile, the girl, now likely in the juvenile probation system, could be facing her actions before a judge and sentenced to counseling as well as community service, a counselor at a local youth services program said.

Among high school juniors in Sonoma County, 54 percent, or 1,796 students, reported having been "very drunk or sick from drinking alcohol" at least once on the 2004 to 2006 California Healthy Kids Survey. Eight percent of seventh-graders, 319 students, said they had been.

Press Democrat

Alcohol problems in the Western Isles are so widespread that the health authority admits it is difficult to know which population groups should be targeted for action.

The comment is contained in a major report into alcohol misuse in the islands which will be considered by the board of NHS Western Isles later this week. It covers the Hebridean archipelago whose populated islands stretch from Lewis in the north to Vatersay in the south.

The paper reports that, in common with a number of other Scottish health board areas, the alcohol-related death rate for men in the Western Isles is 50% or more above the UK average. The rate in 2005 was the second highest in Scotland and has been consistently high in relation to other board areas.

The female rate in the Western Isles was the highest in Scotland in 2005, although it fluctuates because of the very small numbers involved.

Alcohol-related hospital discharges rose by nearly a third over the five years to 2004/2005. Some three-quarters of the discharges - 338 out of 437 - involved men, but there was a worrying 60% rise over the five-year period in the number of island women, compared to a 20% increase for the rest of Scotland. There were some 99 female alcohol-related hospital discharges in 2004/2005 alone.

Meanwhile, the average number of patients accessing detoxification services at Western Isles Hospital each month is currently between 10 and 13. From June 2006 to March 2007, the gender split was 12 women and 84 men.

Although many different groups were in need of help, the report commends targeting young people, saying that in purely pragmatic terms it made sense "...to attempt to reduce future problems".

It says that another local study had found that a significant proportion of the youth homelessness problem in the island was related to parental alcohol misuse.

The report suggests this could be an area for action: "By providing support early on in life, particularly for young people born into a culture of alcohol misuse, it may be possible to help them break out of the cycle."

The provision of youth cafes could make a contribution as "they afford the opportunity for dialogue with young people about support needs and about reducing community alcohol problems.

"The feedback to date from the Barra Youth Cafe suggests that they can be effective in their own right in bringing about change in young people's attitudes to alcohol and drugs".

The Herald

With one of the highest rates of binge drinking among teenagers, Scotland already has an unenviable reputation with alcohol.
But now experts are warning about a new trend among young people that is aimed at speeding up the process of getting drunk – pouring shots of alcohol directly into their eyes.

Known as "one-in-the-eye", it involves using shot glasses in a manner similar to that of eye-wash.

Despite the risk of blindness, users hope that by absorbing the alcohol via the membranes of the eye, it will enter the bloodstream more quickly and have a stronger effect when it reaches the brain.

Originating in the bars of holiday resorts on the continent, the dangerous fad has caught on in university bars and nightclubs, despite potentially catastrophic consequences.

One leading doctor warned those who indulge in the craze are seriously endangering their sight.

Dr Maggie Watts, chairman of the Scottish Association of Alcohol and Drugs Action Teams, said: "It is an extremely dangerous activity. It can damage the front of your eye and can cause the bursting of blood vessels.

"Persisting in doing this could lead to permanent damage. There is the possibility of blindness.

"Once you get scarring on the cornea that can be a very serious problem."

And another expert added: "There are so many youngsters now doing this that it is only a matter of time before someone loses their sight.''

But as the new university term approaches, many students fail to see the potential harm in the drinking game.

Charlotte Greene, 23, said she drank a shot of vodka through her eye.

The former Strathclyde University student said: "It's the kind of daft thing more and more students are tempted to do. You're young and you're messing around.

"I took it like an eye-wash and then just waited to see what happened.

"It was very messy, most of it ran down my face and ruined my make-up.

"But it did start to sting almost straightaway and my eye went bright red and bloodshot.

"I'm not sure how much actually went in my eye. I had quite a lot to drink already but I think it did tip me over the edge.

"My eye was red and sore until the following evening. I was a bit worried I had damaged something. So I just drank the normal way after that.

"It was all a bit silly and a bit of an experiment, but it was fun at the time."

Alcohol awareness counsellors said they are horrified by the trend.

Meg Wright, chief executive of Glasgow Council on Alcohol, said: "We are very concerned about the rise in this practice and about anyone who misuses alcohol in this way."

And Paul Waterson, chief executive of the Scottish Licensed Traders Association, said that his members would not tolerate such behaviour if they saw people doing it in their bars.

He said: "They would be horrified, really, and put a stop to it immediately. It's a dangerous and ridiculous practice and we would have no truck with it".

Kenny MacAskill, the justice minister, has repeatedly spoken out against the problem of binge drinking among young people, threatening to crack down on the sale of cheap alcohol in supermarkets and under-age drinking.

A Scottish Government spokesman said they were outraged by the craze.

"We strongly condemn all irresponsible uses of alcohol, which can lead to very serious health consequences in both the long and short term,'' he said.

The Scotsman

The initial signs of fetal alcohol syndrome are slight but classic: facial malformations such as a flat and high upper lip, small eye openings and a short nose.

Researchers want to know if those facial clues can help them figure out how much alcohol it takes during what point in development to cause these and other lifelong problems.

They have good evidence that just a few glasses of wine over an hour in the first few weeks of fetal life, typically before a woman knows she's pregnant, increases cell death. Too few cells are then left to properly form the face and possibly the brain and spinal cord.

"It’s well known that when you drink, you get a buzz. But a couple of hours later, that initial impact, at least, is gone," says Dr. Erhard Bieberich, biochemist in the Medical College of Georgia Schools of Medicine and Graduate Studies. "But, your fetus may have experienced irreversible damage."

He thinks the damage results from the death of neural crest cells, versatile cells that travel a lot during development, ultimately helping form bone, cartilage, connective tissue, the heart and more. These cells are developing at the same time as neural tube cells that form the brain and spinal cord. Consequently, the telltale facial abnormalities in a newborn also may foretell problems with learning, memory, vision, hearing and more.

Some cells need to die during development. "There is always a very delicate balance between newly formed cells and dying cells," says Dr. Bieberich. "It's a very active period of that balance, because usually you develop a surplus of tissue then later melt it back down to acquire a specific shape." He likes to use the hands as an example of critical melting. "The digits form because the inter-digital tissue dies. If it did not die, we would have paddles instead of hands with fingers."

Cell death likely results from alcohol disturbing the metabolism of the lipids that help the hollow wad of stem cells that forms in the first day of life find direction and purpose, he says.

A grant from the March of Dimes, whose mission is to prevent birth defects and infant mortality, is enabling him to compare cell loss in mice following different levels of alcohol consumption to the usual loss that occurs in development.

His focus is these neural crest cells, which help form the upper part of the skull. Some neural crest cells stay in the brain and, early on, these cells share growth factors with neural tube cells. Cognitive and other brain damage is hard to quantify this early, but mice missing the neural crest gene also experience problems with skull and brain development.

Ideally his measurements will give women a better idea of the risk of alcohol consumption and point toward a way to reduce the damage. "You have to make people aware of the science behind the risk," Dr. Bieberich says. "We are not saying that every pregnant woman who drinks three or four glasses of wine in a short period will have a baby with birth defects, but it elevates the risk."

Fetal alcohol syndrome affects about 1 in 1,000 babies, according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC recommends that pregnant women and sexually active women not using effective birth control refrain from drinking.

Dr. Bieberich's collaborators include, Dr. Guanghu Wang, research assistant scientist; Kannan Krishnamurthy, fifth-year graduate student; and Dr. Somsankar Dasgupta, senior research scientist.

Science Daily

Tehama County teens have an alcohol problem, but a $1.2 million grant may help them find a path to sober and safe behavior.

After a survey revealed Tehama County teen drinking rates are higher than the state average, the Department of Education will address alcohol use among youth during the next three years with an alcohol reduction grant.

The department received the grant from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools in July and will use the money to serve students at Red Bluff, Salisbury and Los Molinos high schools.

The grant-funded program will use family-based curriculum and work with the community to target underage drinking, said Tina Zastrow, the grant's program coordinator.

"We are absolutely looking to try to eliminate underage drinking," she said. "It's illegal. It's dangerous. We know young people get injured and killed when they are engaging in alcohol-related behavior."

Drinking is also often a precursor to drug use, violence and teen pregnancy, she said.

"We see (the grant) as a potential to curb other problems as well," Zastrow said.

Troublesome numbers

Prevention Director Amy Henderson applied for the grant after the most recent California Healthy Kids survey revealed some troublesome statistics.

One of the most alarming revelations was ninth-grade girls are engaging in alcohol use and binge drinking more often than boys in their grade, Zastrow said.

The survey showed 36 percent of freshman girls report having used alcohol in the last 30 days, and 20 percent have drank five or more alcoholic drinks in a couple of hours, compared to 26 percent and 16 percent, respectively, for freshman boys.

The survey also revealed youth are getting alcohol from their own homes, friends' homes or at parties where adults may or may not be present. Of students who use alcohol, 35 percent of freshman and 40 percent of juniors reported having used alcohol at family events.

"They are saying it's really easy to get alcohol in Tehama County," Zastrow said.

The grant will help fund a "Parents who host lose the most" program. When parents allow their children to drink at home, they think they are being safe because they can keep an eye on them, she said. But their children interpret it as their parents being OK with them drinking.

"It really gives them a mixed message," Zastrow said.

Sheriff Clay Parker agreed.

"I think the problem is since it's legal for people over 21, no one really perceives it as a drug," he said. "So, socially it's acceptable for adults to drink, so the kids think it's OK for them, too."

Alcohol a dangerous drug

Whenever Parker attends a conferences where facilitators ask what the No. 1 drug destroying America is, many people suggest marijuana or methamphetamine. But alcohol is just as bad, if not worse, he said.

"For years now, I have been looking at people who are looking at drunk in public, drunk driving and domestic violence with alcohol involved," Parker said.

The department sees alcohol use among minors and responds to related calls on a regular basis, he said. The calls are most often for loud music, loud noise or sometimes reckless driving. A few times each month the department is called out, sometimes by parents, to do an investigation when a minor was provided with alcohol.

Parker spends the first few minutes at the office every day looking at the logs and booking reports. Alcohol is almost always a factor, he said. Curbing alcohol use and abuse among minors is crucial to "prevent them from falling into the trap the adults have."

Education is key - for juveniles and adults, he said. Parents must understand what they are really doing when they allow their children to drink. The grant will be a great tool to aid in that education, and Parker was happy the grant was extended to include Los Molinos High School.

Why teens turn to alcohol

The California Health Kids Survey, which is given to California's fifth-, seventh-, ninth- and 11th-grade students every other year, measure attitudes toward drugs, violence, crime and other issues.

The survey was administered at all county schools last school year and revealed Tehama County youth use alcohol at a higher rate than the state average.

About 34 percent of Tehama County seventh-graders reported having tried alcohol at least once, compared to 18 percent statewide. And while 62 percent of 11th-graders statewide reported having tried alcohol at least once, 73 percent of Tehama County 11th-graders said they had done so.

Zastrow said some teens may turn to alcohol because of the rural nature of Tehama County.

"People think there aren't that many alternatives, that there is nothing else to do for fun," she said.

Many students may also start drinking when they transition into high school. When a student goes from being one of a few eighth-graders to one of 500 freshmen, the student might choose alcohol to ease into a social situation.

The questions posed by the survey don't really get at the root of the problem, such as why freshman girls are drinking more than their male counterparts, Zastrow said. She hopes to host some focus groups to learn the motivations and attitudes behind that statistic.

Curbing the problem

Daniel Curry, superintendent of Red Bluff Joint Union High School District, said he is happy to see Tehama County Health Services Agency drug and alcohol counselors, Girls Incorporated of the Northern Sacramento Valley, the Tehama County Health Partnership and local law enforcement join together to combat underage drinking.

"We have a lot of parents' most precious assets, and that's their children," he said. "Everyone has pulled together to help our kids."

The research-based strategies, some of which will be embedded into students' curriculum, will be especially effective, he said. The grant will also help with drug and alcohol counseling and after school and evening classes for students and parents.

"Anything that gets in the way of our student success is a concern for us," Curry said. "That's why we really look at these statistics and are really excited about this grant."

Red Bluff Daily News

Britian faces a torrent of alcohol-related illness to the tune of £1.7billion and has seen a seven-fold increase in liver disease among women aged 35 to 44.

According to Alcohol Concern, more than three million people in the UK are dependent on alcohol.

While health professionals are jumping up and down releasing warnings and guidelines, fitness and health guru Jacqueline Harvey, adopts a more measured tone.

Citing the increased levels of alcohol in measures and the fact women's bodies in particular tend to find it harder to break down than men, she says: "Our bodies were not built to deal with large amounts of toxins. If alcohol intake to such high levels was good for the system, we'd be a healthy nation.

"Instead, most of us have suffered a 'hangover from hell' coupled with days of depression and feeling weak.

"We don't have to do away with alcohol altogether but we all have a choice about how we want to treat our bodies and we must understand alcohol can damage us if it is used inappropriately. It is not a food but a drug and excessive intake stresses you both physically and mentally.

"If your body is occupied with defending itself against toxins, it will have little strength to deal with real diseases and infections."

She advises:

Eat before you drink. This slows down the effect of alcohol on your blood-sugar levels. If going out for dinner, have a small snack first as this will help you to drink less while waiting for your food.

Keep your body hydrated by drinking water with alcohol. This will help to prevent the general inflammation that causes hangover symptoms such as a headache, dry tongue, bloated stomach and brain fog.

If you've had a heavy night drinking, try to rest the next day to allow your body to process and recover from toxin overload. Focus on cooling your body. Eat green vegetables, lean white proteins and salads, peppermint, camomile, lavender or milk thistle tea.

Daily Record

Teenagers are to be banned from buying alcohol in France, as health advisers dismiss the cherished Gallic belief that children should be initiated in the art of wine-drinking at an early age.

With British-style binge drinking gaining ground among French youth, officials say they want to send out a clear message against adolescent consumption. Roselyne Bachelot, the Health Minister, said that she was planning to make it illegal to sell alcohol to the under18s, with legislation likely to be introduced next year.

Her announcement signals a sea change in a society where 16-year-olds have been able to buy wine and beer, although not spirits, in cafés and restaurants and all alcoholic drinks in supermarkets and other shops with an off-licence. It marks a shift in official thinking over the hallowed French tradition of initiating the young in drinking rituals, notably involving wine.

The French consensus has been that the first sips should be taken in early adolescence – or before – under parental supervision. This is believed to foster a mature, sensible approach to alcohol far removed from Anglo-Saxon excesses – a couple of glasses of red with lunch and dinner throughout the week, rather than ten pints of lager on a Saturday night.

A senior French health adviser told The Times that his compatriots were deluding themselves. Bernard Basset, deputy managing director of the National Institute for Health Prevention and Education, said that not only did childhood tippling encourage adult alcoholism, but it was also no barrier to binge drinking. He said: “In effect, you are authorising them to drink and suggesting that alcohol consumption is a normal thing.”

Studies showed that those who started drinking under the age of 18 were likely to consume more in later life than those who started afterwards, he added. Mr Basset hopes that the ban on serving alcohol to teenagers in public will encourage a similar move within Gallic families. “What we say is, don’t drink before adulthood.”

Research has debunked the idea that the French were immune to le binge-drinking, as it has become known. The percentage of under18s saying they got drunk regularly rose from 19 to 26 per cent between 2003 and 2006, for instance. According to the Health Ministry, the number of people under 24 treated in hospital in connection with alcohol increased by 50 per cent between 2004 and 2007.

Gilles Demigneux, a public health specialist, said: “The fact that you can get completely smashed in an Anglo-Saxon way, using alcohol as a drug, is something we couldn’t have imagined in France in the 1980s.”

In an attempt to curble binge-drink-ing the Health Ministry released Boire Trop(Too Much to Drink), a hard-hitting advertising campaign this summer, cautioning that excessive alcohol could lead to comas, violence, accidents and sexual abuse.

Critics say the government action could be counter-productive, however. The Federation of General Student Associations, a leading students’ union, said: “There is a tendency to infantilise young people when it would be better to make them take responsibility for themselves.”

Olivier Douard, a sociologist at the Laboratory for the Study of and Research into Social Intervention in southern France, said: “Bans are not generally efficient as far as adolescents are concerned. They often lead to transgression.”

The debate has been given added urgency by the death from alcohol poisoning last month of an 18-year-old student in central France who had been out to celebrate passing his end of school exams. In another well-publicised case this week, a father from Brittany sued the supermarket that had sold three bottles of spirits to his 16-year-old daughter, who was taken to hospital after losing consciousness.

Times Online

He says he drank his first alcohol at 14, and it made him feel "good and kind of dizzy." He's 16 now and lives in a Wichita suburb. Until recently, he said, he drank at teen parties nearly every weekend -- six to seven beers each time.

His mother put him in treatment after she found marijuana in his car.

"I'm the dumbest person, I guess," she said, for not detecting his problem earlier. "I'm not dumb anymore."

Their experience is part of a continuing problem of underage drinking.

About 48 percent of Kansas high school students say they have had a drink in the past 30 days, compared with 40 percent nationally, according to a report by the state Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.

The numbers are based on a statewide survey of students.

There has been some good news: Surveys also indicated slightly declining rates of drinking by the state's high school students from 2001 to 2005, although officials note the decline has been small. Some treatment experts said they suspect that part of the decline in alcohol use is due to use of illegal drugs instead.

In 2005, about 55 percent of the state's high school seniors reported drinking alcohol in the past 30 days, according to SRS. About 35 percent of seniors reported binge drinking -- having five or more drinks in a row at least once within the previous two weeks.

"Perhaps of even more concern is the fact that nearly one in 10 youth in sixth grade report drinking alcohol in the past 30 days," said the report, based on a survey.

SRS has started a program to combat underage drinking in 14 counties, including Sumner, Reno, Harper and Kingman counties in south-central Kansas.

"I think we get complacent until something really bad happens," said Tom Buell, addiction services director for DCCCA Inc., one the largest nonprofit social-service agencies in the state.

Early on the morning of Aug. 16, a 15-year-old Derby girl suffered critical injuries when a car struck her as a drinking party broke up following a fight, Sedgwick County sheriff's officials say. About 50 people, ages 15 to 20, were at the party on South 116th Street East, in southeastern Sedgwick County. Detectives are continuing to investigate.

National, local issue

Underage drinking has become a national issue as well, with a debate over whether the legal drinking age should be lowered to 18. Some university presidents contend that lowering the age would reduce binge drinking.

And with school starting, teens are holding more parties, police say.

Parents are a big part of the problem because they often support drinking parties, under a misguided belief that teens are safer if they drink at someone's home, Wichita police and treatment officials say.

Meanwhile, two state-supported Wichita residential treatment facilities for adolescents -- which had a total of 31 beds -- have closed in the past year. So now the closest residential treatment facility is in the Kansas City area. The situation moves adolescents away from their families and makes it difficult for parents to be involved in their children's treatment, officials say.

Teens "should be considered a priority for treatment access in Kansas, and they are not treated as a priority," said Harold Casey, head of the Substance Abuse Center of Kansas, a nonprofit treatment, assessment and referral agency in Wichita. The federal government sets the priorities for the states, Casey said.

'A challenge for me'

Until he was caught with cocaine and began attending outpatient treatment, a Wichita 16-year-old says he drank six to nine beers every weekend at parties.

At the time, he said, he approached drinking as "something you had to do" at a party.

"You just can't be the only sober one," said the teen, after a recent treatment session attended by his mother.

To protect their anonymity as they recover, The Eagle is not naming teens interviewed for this article.

When the 16-year-old drank, he lost his inhibitions. It was the only way he would dance. "If I didn't drink," he said, "I'd be embarrassed."

But he never drank and drove, he said. "It was just something I knew I couldn't do." His sober sister was his driver.

Nationwide, alcohol-related traffic accidents are the leading cause of death among teens and young adults, the SRS report said.

The 16-year-old said he used cocaine so he could drink more and stay awake longer.

Still, he said he doesn't consider himself an alcoholic. He said he has been to two parties and stayed sober.

"And it's not bad. I just tell them I don't want to drink. I tell them I'm in treatment, and they understand."

He's getting more sleep and trying to improve his grades so he can graduate "because people in my family think I can't do it. So it's a challenge for me."

The 16-year-old is Hispanic. That is relevant, the SRS report said, noting that Hispanic students and white students reported a higher prevalence of alcohol consumption.

'It's still not safe'

It seems that more parents are allowing teens and their friends to drink at home as long as they don't drive, says Buell, addiction services director with DCCCA.

But it's still harmful and irresponsible, he said.

"The bottom line is you never know which one of those kids will take that first drink and immediately" be at risk of alcoholism because they are genetically predisposed, he said.

Pam McLucas, a drug and alcohol counselor at Wichita Children's Home, said, "I've heard a lot kids say that, 'My parents don't care if I drink at home. They'd rather me drink at home, in front of them.' "

But it ends up encouraging teens to drink elsewhere as well, she said.

Officer Michael Lloyd, who coordinates the Wichita Police Department's efforts against underage drinking, said if police break up a party, "if there's 20 kids, at least four of those parents will say, 'Well, at least they're not out running around.'

"I just tell them honestly, 'It still doesn't make it right; it's still not safe.'

"We've even had them at hotels where parents are renting the rooms for them," Lloyd said.

Part of problem, he said, is "the parent, they want to be their best friend."

But it can get the parent prosecuted. A law that many parents don't know about makes it a misdemeanor to host an underage party where alcohol is consumed, he said.

'Here, have a drink'

About 85 percent of the children coming to the Children's Home are from families with a substance abuse history, said McLucas, the counselor.

"I say this over and over again: 'Be what you want your kids to be,' " she said. "That may be giving up drinking, even socially. People who go to a party, and they have a few drinks, and then they get in a car and go home. But they're telling their kids not to do that."

Most of the time, she said, "kids will follow their parents' lead."

A 21-year-old Wichita man, now in treatment, says he got his first drink when he was 15, in another state.

He says his mother said, "Here, have a drink," and handed him a bottle with a mixture of vodka and Sprite.

"She was partying, her and my dad."

Growing up, he said, "everybody around me drank."

By 16, he was sneaking into his parents' room to get their alcohol.

"I was drinking like a 30- pack a day when I was 17," he said, although he considered marijuana his main problem because he spent most of his money on it.

After a few years in Wichita, his problems mounted.

"I got drunk and did something stupid" -- breaking into a home. He said he has been convicted of weapon possession and burglary.

"I wouldn't do that if I wasn't drunk," he said.

He said he has been sober about four months.

"I found God, so all I do is pray," he said.

He knows he will go to prison for 34 months if gets in trouble again. All it would take is testing positive for alcohol.

People on his street still ask if he wants a beer or some weed.

"No, I'm good," he said he tells them.

"And I just keep walking."

Kansas

Heavy drinking by females in their teens and 20s may reduce their chances of motherhood later in life, new research has found.

Previous studies have linked teenage drinking with risky sex and early motherhood. Now a study of Australian twins has shown that alcoholism in women resulted in later childbearing.

The study by Washington University's school of medicine analysed the drinking habits and reproductive histories of two groups of Australian twins, born before and after 1964.

Researchers found female alcoholics in both groups had children later in life - a trend not repeated in male alcoholics in the groups.

In the first group, comprising people born before 1964, 64per cent of female alcoholics had children compared with 78per cent of other women.

In the second group, 38per cent of alcohol-dependent women had children, compared with 49per cent of other women.

The study confirmed increasing alcoholism in women. Only 4per cent of women met the criteria for alcohol-dependency in the group born before 1964, compared with 15per cent for the group born after.

The study did not consider what amount of alcohol consumption affected fertility.

Lead researcher Mary Waldron, of Washington University, said the study, to be published in Alcoholism: Clinical And Experimental Research in November, served as a warning against excessive alcohol consumption.

Previous research examined risks to teens or adults but not both, Professor Waldron said. "Our findings highlight a risk associated with [alcohol dependence] in women that is not widely recognised - a risk that has assumed increasing importance given the increased rates of alcohol misuse by women, and particularly young women.

"Young women who drink alcohol may want to consider the longer-term consequences for later childbearing.

"If drinking continues or increases to levels of problem use, their ability and opportunity to have children may be impaired."

Nick Martin, a professor at Queensland Institute of Medical Research who took part in the study, said the links between alcohol and fertility were not conclusive.

"This was about women with persistent drinking problems," Professor Martin said. "The observation is that they will have less reproduction and delayed reproduction.

"While the affect may be hormonal, women with alcohol-dependency probably don't make good partners - that's another possible explanation. I think we have to consider the direct behavioural consequences of alcohol too."

Sydney Morning Herald

Hundreds of patients who visit their GPs are being lectured about their drinking habits as part of a trial being pioneered in the North-East and London.

North-East patients have been asked about how many units of alcohol they drink every week as part of a Government-funded trial.

Those who exceed the recommended weekly limit of 21 units for a man and 14 for a woman on a regular basis are given a leaflet, a five-minute interview, or a more in-depth 20-minute interview conducted by trained specialist alcohol control staff.

The aim is to make drinkers aware of the real dangers of drinking more than the recommended weekly levels.

The scheme covers a number of GP surgeries in Darlington, South Tyneside, Newcastle and Northumberland.

It also involves a number of North-East hospital accident and emergency units and – uniquely – the North-East probation service.

Details of the trial emerged as an advertisement for the new post of director of the North-East Alcohol Office appeared in the Health Service Journal yesterday – the initial move in establishing the country’s first office for alcohol control, which is being set up in the North-East.

The advertisement is seeking someone to “provide leadership and expert advice” on alcohol issues in an area where a “drinking culture” is causing the “widest range of harm”, compared with the rest of England.

The post offers a salary of between £62,000 and £77,000 a year.

Moves to set up the office follow increasing concern expressed by senior doctors about the high levels of bingedrinking in the North-East and the impact on people’s health.

Liver specialist Dr Christopher Record, of the Royal Victoria Infirmary, in Newcastle, said: “Half of my patients with alcohol-related liver failure are under the age of 40.

“It is absolutely monstrous that this is happening, that people should get to this stage at this time in their lives.”

The Sips trial, which stands for Screening and brief Intervention Programme, is being co-ordinated by academics at Newcastle University and the Institute of Psychiatry, at King’s College, London.

Nine sites are involved – four in the North-East and five in London.

Dr Dorothy Newbury-Birch, from Newcastle University, the North-East co-ordinator of the trial, said: “The overall aim is to reduce drinking.

“Research carried out by the World Health Organisation shows that brief interventions with patients does work, by making them aware of the consequences of their drinking.”

Dr Newbury-Birch said she had no doubt that regularly exceeding the maximum recommended levels of weekly alcohol consumption was damaging to health.

She stressed that the problem of excessive drinking in the North-East was something that affected a huge number of people.

She said: “This is something for all of us. It is not a them-and-us issue. This is about us as a society.”

The aim of the scheme is to identify the most effective way of persuading people to cut their drinking.

If successful, it could be extended across the UK.

Dr Newbury-Birch welcomed the creation of a North-East Alcohol Office.

She said: “We have all been waiting for someone to say “you must do this”. People are really beginning to understand there is a need to take action.”

Dr Record, who has campaigned for health warnings to be put on bottles containing beer, wine and spirits, said: “I think this is an extremely good development.

“Hopefully, we might now see some real action.

“It is also good that they are funding a specific post. There is a need for someone to give leadership on this very important issue.

“We are not going to see any changes until the culture of excessive drinking in the North-East is reversed.

“Then people will not think it is cool to drink heavily.”

He said society needed to change so excessive drinking “is no longer the norm”.

Northern Echo

School of Education dean a noted researcher on college alcohol and drug abuse

The call to consider reducing the legal drinking age from 21 to 18 could spur some valuable discussion, but alone won't solve the college student alcohol problem, according to University Dean of the IU School of Education Gerardo Gonzalez, an internationally recognized expert on alcohol and drug education. More than 100 college and university chancellors and presidents have signed a public statement stating that the current legal drinking age of 21 hasn't worked.

"I think that what we're seeing in this letter is a level of frustration that college presidents feel about the problem of drinking on campus," Gonzalez said.

The higher education leaders are part of the Amethyst Initiative, an organization started last month (July 2008). On the organization's Web site, a welcome message reads that the current drinking age "has created a culture of dangerous binge drinking" on college campuses. While not specifically recommending lowering the drinking age, the organization "supports informed and unimpeded debate on the 21-year-old drinking age."

Gonzalez founded the BACCHUS Network (BACCHUS stands for "Boost Alcohol Consciousness Concerning the Health of University Students") at the University of Florida in 1975. It has grown to be the largest collegiate organization focused on preventing alcohol abuse, with more than 32,000 student leaders and advisers working with peers on more than 900 campuses worldwide. Gonzalez continues to serve on the BACCHUS board of trustees and consults with other organizations on issues surrounding campus alcohol abuse.

Gonzalez said he understands the desire for administrators to speak more candidly with students about alcohol abuse. Some campuses struggle with addressing students not of drinking age about the issues of alcohol.

"There's no evidence that reducing the drinking age would make it better," Gonzalez said. "It might make it easier for the colleges to be able to take a consistent approach to the population. But what we have on college campuses is a culture of drinking that leads to the very high level of binge drinking and related problems that we see. So no single approach or policy is going to impact that at the level that it needs to be impacted. It's going to require a comprehensive and sustained effort."

Gonzalez said that there is some research evidence suggesting such a change would have little impact on college students. He said that when a 1984 law required states to make the legal drinking age 21 or lose federal highway money, alcohol consumption and alcohol-related traffic crashes dropped for the 18 to 21 age group as a whole. But for college students, no relationship was found between minimum legal drinking age and either consumption levels or crashes.

The call for a change is also couched in an assumption, Gonzalez said, that drinking would be more open and thus more monitored. "Rather than trying to hide or do it behind closed doors, they might go to bars, go to places where there is more environmental control of the circumstances," he said. "Again, there is no research evidence to suggest that in fact that would happen."

The biggest impact of the presidents' initiative could be a frank discussion of the issues of college student alcohol abuse, Gonzalez said. "And to the extent that the presidents' initiative leads to a dialogue about what should the institutions do and what should be the presidents' role in promoting and advancing effective approaches, I think it is a healthy development. But the assumption that it could all hinge on a change in the drinking age law is not now supported by the research evidence."

IU News Room

A New Study at St James's Hospital, Dublin has shown that excess drinking can lead to heart problems, with the effects particularly dangerous for women.

Doctors investigating the modifiable lifestyle issues of patients being treated for hypertension have found worryingly high levels of alcohol consumption with the consequences including stiffened arteries, enlarged hearts and greater risk of coronary failure.

Dr Azra Mahmud, a cardiovascular and hypertension specialist at the Trinity Centre for Health Sciences based at St James's Hospital defines hypertension as "high blood pressure that is persistent and sustained" and refers to it as a "silent killer". This is because it tends to be an "incidental finding" made for example when someone goes to their GP for treatment for a cold.

Mahmud says that the elevated blood pressure can "often have been going on for years with the implication that other things might have been going on in the meanwhile".

The problem is that this is linked to three major medical problems: cell death in the brain; kidney problems that can result in renal failure; and stiffness as well as enlargement of the heart which can cause heart failure.

In a study presented this year at the annual conference of the American Society of Hypertension, Mahmud studied 200 people being treated for high blood pressure. Blood pressure over a 24-hour period, stiffening of the arteries and echocardiography measures were taken; among other things, echocardiography measures how the heart contracts, relaxes and whether it is bigger than it should be.

Findings showed that for men, excessive drinking (defined as more than 21 units per week) is "associated with higher blood pressure, more stiff arteries (appearing almost 10 years older) and a stiffer heart muscle".

The more surprising finding was for women identified as excessive drinkers, those drinking more than 14 units of alcohol per week.

The effects "bypassed the normal pathways of how you damage your heart and something was happening directly to the cardiac structure because of the high alcohol intake," says Mahmud. The biggest finding was that these women had significantly enlarged hearts.

Since having an enlarged heart is a "prognosticator of increased cardiovascular mortality", according to Mahmud, and the average age of the men and women in the study was 46, these findings should prove a cause for concern for the medical world and society at large.

A very important point is that a clinical diagnosis of hypertension is not necessary for alcohol to have its dangerous impact.

In a study published in 2002, Mahmud had found that more than 21 units of alcohol per week in males chosen from the general population can lead to elevated blood pressure.

WHY WOMEN ARE more affected by alcohol is not yet well-understood. Mahmud says it is possible that they may have fewer enzymes in their stomach lining, so they cannot break down the alcohol effectively. Additionally, they may have poorer metabolising enzymes in the heart itself, which then affects the organ directly.

One of the host of reasons for increased alcohol use is the misinterpretation of the "French Paradox" Mahmud believes. French people have a low coronary heart disease mortality despite a high fat consumption. This is thought to relate to the consumption of red wine which contains flavonoids, "antioxidants that improve nitric availability in the [blood] vessels which makes them more relaxed.

"We know that in moderation it is good but the message is not taken on board; moderation is the message," says Mahmud. Recommendations say average intake for men should be no more than three units a day for men and two for women. She warns: "It is high time to recognise the potential of an alcohol excess induced epidemic of cardiovascular disease before it is too late."

Irish Times

Backing for a new alcohol and drugs strategy for Aberdeenshire came from Members of the Marr Area Committee this week.
The support came after members received a report, containing some stark figures about alcohol abuse by young people and had recounted some experiences from their own areas.

The new, three-year campaign, set to be launched next year, also has the backing of Grampian Police, NHS Grampian and agencies such as Alcohol Support Limited, Drugs Action Limited, Turning Point Scotland Limited and the Scottish Prisons Service.

At their meeting in Huntly, members were told in the report from the Aberdeenshire Alcohol and Drug Action Team that the local authority's area faced "deep-seated problems, due to the problematic use of alcohol and other drugs, that directly and indirectly threaten the wellbeing and economic prospects of our country."

The report said that Scotland had one of the highest per capita rates of drug-related deaths in the world and, in Aberdeenshire, about " 10 such deaths come to the attention of authorities each year."

The report said also that the toll of alcohol-related deaths "had quadrupled in Scotland in the past 10 years."

The report said that alcohol caused more harm in Aberdeenshire than other drugs and the problems were compounded because of the rural nature of the area, making the provision of a wide range of services difficult to deliver.

About 25 percent of the prison population in Aberdeenshire and 85 percent of all crimes are thought to be related to alcohol or drugs and, for 60 percent of prisoners under the age of 24, alcohol was at the root of their offences.

The cost to Scotland as a whole, of alcohol and drugs, was estimated at between two and six billion pounds, with related healthcare costs in Grampian alone estimated at £20m.

The strategy drawn up to tackle the problem will operate on a number of fronts, including early interventions for children and young people, who start to experiment with alcohol or other drugs, in a bid to prevent it from becoming a serious problem. The plan will also aim to improve access to treatment and support and provide a broader range of mainstream community services.

ADAT team member Ian Strachan, presenting the report, told members that some parents were taking the attitude that they would rather their children were drinking alcohol than taking drugs.

Chairwoman Moira Ingleby said that abuse of alcohol was not just a young people's problem. She said that many older people were drinking at home "and possibly unwittingly influencing their children."

Donside Today

BMA Scotland wants end to irresponsible loss-leading

New laws must be introduced to tackle alcohol misuse in Scotland, doctors have argued.

The British Medical Association (BMA) Scotland has responded to the government’s proposals on tackling alcohol-related problems by claiming that the drinks industry’s voluntary measures have failed because of a “conflict of interest”.

Instead it calls for immediate legislation and practical action.

However, the off-trade is very much the focus for the BMA. In its response it calls for an end to deep discounting and loss leading promotions, as well as two-for-one offers.

The BMA also supports the debate around raising the minimum age for off-trade sales to 21.

And it supports separate checkouts for alcohol sales in supermarkets.

It also calls for prices to be increased "in direct correlation to the alcohol cotent of each product".

Dr Peter Terry, chairman of BMA Scotland said: “The facts are simple - voluntary measures implemented by the drinks industry are not effective and do not reduce the damage of alcohol misuse in Scotland.

“The Scottish Government must re-evaluate its relationship with the drinks industry which clearly has a conflict of interest and is flouting the current voluntary measures.”

However Terry admitted that “no single policy will solve the problem”.

He added: “If the Scottish government wants to tackle Scotland’s drinking problem, it needs a comprehensive strategy that is fully resourced and followed through.

“We need to let retailers and the drinks industry know we mean business. Selling to alcohol to under-18s and irresponsible alcohol promotion will not be ignored in Scotland any longer.”

A similar consultation, being conducted by Department of Health, is currently underway in England. The point of the consultation is to form a policy to encourage people to “drink sensibly” and “prevent irresponsible practices”.

The Publican

A group of college presidents is encouraging a national debate about lowering the drinking age to 18.

A group called the Amethyst Initiative has enlisted college presidents to help guide the discussion about the drinking age. A total of 115 college presidents have signed an online petition supporting the movement.

Most of the presidents are from small, little-known private schools in the East and Midwest, but well-known universities such as Ohio State, Dartmouth and Duke are also included. The movement hasn't caught a foothold in the West. Four small private schools are the only ones from California mentioned.

The group says a drinking age of 21 encourages dangerous binge drinking for college students under that age, and a younger drinking age would take away the forbidden fruit allure of drinking among younger students.

It's true that in places such as Europe where there is no drinking age, young people tend not to abuse alcohol as much. Parents might give their teenagers a taste of watered-down wine or low-alcohol beer. Teenagers in those societies don't go hog wild with alcohol abuse. Indeed, many either lose the desire to drink or learn to do it only on celebratory occasions.

There's a lesson there, perhaps — that education about drinking, like education about guns or sex, is best learned from parents sharing their values with their children rather than a government mandate.

Regardless, the city of Chico has demonstrated that a thoughtful dialogue and public education can stem the tide of binge-drinking deaths without the unnecessary task of changing a legal drinking age that many young adults ignore anyway.

After a string of four binge-drinking deaths in five years involving college students ending in 2000, the community decided it had seen enough. Chico State University started an aggressive campaign to educate its students about the dangers of binge drinking and convince students to look out for one another. Community leaders led the charge to crack down on alcohol abuse. Fraternities, under pressure from university leaders, curtailed open parties and hazing.

There have been no alcohol-related binge drinking deaths since then. And there are indications that the public education campaign is working. For example, when a student nearly died from too much alcohol, he was saved when a fellow student sought medical care for him. (Too often in the past, help was called too late.)

There are many ways to curtail the dangers of binge drinking. Lowering the drinking age is not one of them.

Chico Enterprise Record

A number or respected academic leaders in Maryland believe the legal drinking age should be lowered from 21 to 18, to help confront what they describe as a hidden crisis in binge drinking among students. But they offer no convincing evidence that lowering the drinking age would reduce excessive alcohol use by college students.

What we do know is that since 1984, when Congress effectively raised the national drinking age to 21, the number of young drivers charged with drunken driving has declined significantly, as has the number of alcohol-related highway deaths. That persuades us that the legal drinking age of 21 has been an effective deterrent to youthful problem drinking and should remain in place.

University and college leaders are right to be concerned. They confront the effects of underage drinking on their campuses every semester. About 5,000 people under 21 die each year as a result of underage drinking, and thousands more suffer from alcohol-related sexual assaults, violence and injuries, a recent study by the U.S. Surgeon General indicates. Schools must be serious about enforcing the drinking laws -- and make it clear to their students. Students as well as fraternities and other groups that violate them should face mandatory counseling sessions and tough administrative penalties. The school leaders' concern that drinking by students can't be discussed because drinking on campus is illegal seems a facile dodge. If past is prologue, legal drinking on campus has never been a successful antidote for binge drinking among students.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving has been extraordinarily successful in attacking the larger social problem of drunken driving, convincing the public and police that tough laws, strictly enforced, can reduce its tragic consequences. MADD leaders call college binge drinking the result of a perfect storm of affluence, opportunity and tolerance on campuses.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest that raising the cost and limiting the availability of alcohol in a given area can help control binge drinking. It's a problem that afflicts adults as well as students, and a broader public awareness campaign would be helpful. But for now, academic leaders should ask themselves if they are doing everything possible to warn students about the potential consequences of binge drinking and to guard them from its dangers.

Our view: The legal drinking age of 21 should remain

Baltimore Sun

Street drinking in Wisbech is to be banned following escalating reports of anti social behaviour fuelled by alcohol.

A 'zero tolerance' approach is now under consideration by Fenland District Council and the police who say they are reacting to growing public disquiet.

A 25 page report to the council's licensing committee says that in just one month- April- CCTV cameras logged 267 incidents of people seen drinking in public places.

Residents in the town centre, around the Nene, and in Wisbech Park say they are fed up with people urinating in public, smashing glass beer bottles in the street and many are intimidated by the growing number drinking in public.

Linn Bagwell, principal licensing officer, says that in a recent survey, a quarter of residents and business surveyed express concerned about alcohol consumption on the streets and in the park.

"Many said they felt alarmed and threatened by the behaviour of the people involved in street drinking," she says.

Her report, which sets out the steps the committee must now enact to introduce new laws, is due to be considered by councillors today.

If approved, there will be a month long public consultation and once the committee has considered public reaction, the legalities can be introduced.

Police will be given powers to control the consumption of alcohol within the designated areas and can insist people stop and confiscate alcohol from anyone they believe is actually drinking it or they believe intend to drink it.

A fixed penalty of £50 is the first stage but the police can also arrest and prosecute offenders and the courts have power to impose up to £500 in fines. Offenders can also have bail conditions attached to stop them from drinking in public.

If approved, the new by law, and the penalties for breaking the law, will be set out on laminated posters to be displayed in the area covered by the new regulations.

Five areas in which street drinking will be banned are outlined in the report to the licensing committee.

In her report, Ms Bagwell refers to the success of recent dispersal orders in the town which helped reduce anti social behaviour. Whilst they were operating, 400 people were dispersed and of these nine were arrested for contravening a direction to disperse.

But she says a dispersal order is only a short term aim to break up and disperse anti social groups.

"There is always a need to consider the underlying cause of disorder," she says. "It was evident that groups of adults are purchasing 'off sale'alchohol and then consuming the same in public places."

Side effects of this, she claims, are:

# members of the public are put off using public spaces

# public urination

# public spaces littering

# criminal damage to public facilities

She says the regulations involved in bringing in new orders to halt street drinking do not have to conduct a formal assessment to consider the problem.

"It is for the local authority to be satisfied that public nuisance, annoyance or disorder has been associated with drinking in the area concerned," she says. If the committee believes that to be so they have the right to bring in the new orders.

If you get stopped by a police officer for drinking- or attempting to drink- in a public place, here's what he will be required to say.

"This is a designated public place in which I have reason to believe that you are/have been drinking alcohol. I required you to stop drinking and give me the containers(s) from which you are/have been drinking and any other containers (sealed or unsealed).

"I must inform you that failure to comply with my requests without reasonable excuse, is an offence for which you can be arrested."

Church Gardens, Wisbech, has become one of the worst places for alcohol incidents and anti social behaviour, the committee will be told.

These mainly occur between 1pm and 4pm, says Miss Bagwell, and the main problems appear to stem from groups of men gathering in the park gardens and drinking lager.

But Church Terrace is also another hot spot for drinkers, as too is St Peter's Gardens where the problems occur later- mainly from 7pm to 11pm.

"The problems seem to be two or more males in their late twenties and thirties drinking on the benches and causing damage and being abusive to passing shoppers and other park users," she says.

Residents of Leverington Road have submitted complaints to the committee about problems caused by drinkers.

One woman says her family is often subject to "high levels of noise, screaming and swearing" any time through the night and up until 3am. She says the main problem seems to be caused by people drinking in the road.

Another resident says he has lived there for nearly 20 years and regularly collects can and bottles from his garden. His rubbish bins have been overturned and rolled down the road.

"This indicator of alcoholic disorder has caused him to be continually on his guard," says Ms Bagwell.

Another resident says drunks have walked over his car, scratched and dented it, and garden furniture has been stolen and alcohol cans dropped across his lawn.

A Fenland Council street cleaner will tell the committee that around half of the litter he recovers in Wisbech town centre each day is alcohol related.

"He feels that he is trying to keep the neighbourhoods nice, and is fighting a losing battle," says Ms Bagwell.

Thirty two residents of Mill Close and De Havilland Road were recently surveyed- all said the main problems were public drinking and anti social behaviour.

Extensive publicity will follow once the new drinking ban is introduced, councillors will be told.

And they will be assured that leaflets highlighting the ban will be widely distributed in different languages.

ONE PCSO who conducts foot and cycle patrols in Wisbech Park says she spoke with 40 residents last year to ask their views on neighbourhood problems.

"These main issues were identified as adults drinking in the park and surrounding areas and using the park as a toilet," she will tell the committee.

"They stated that these persons were in the park as early as 7am and then all hours of the day and night. Residents felt intimidated by them, and they are noisy, dirty and rude.

Wisbech Standard

Alcohol is the most commonly used and abused drug among young people in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To curb abuse, some Triangle colleges are educating students on drinking dangers even before they set foot on campus.

Fall classes don't begin until Wednesday, but some college students have already fallen into trouble with alcohol.

Over the weekend, University of North Carolina star tennis player Chris Kearney, 20, veered off the road in the 200 block of North Columbia Street and his sport utility vehicle hit two UNC students on the sidewalk, police said.

Carolyn Anne Kubitschek, 21, of Asheville, and Casey Marie LeSawyer, 21, of Weaverville, were taken to UNC Hospitals with serious injuries, officials said.

Kearney was charged with two counts of inflicting personal injury, felony hit-and-run causing personal injury and possessing a fake ID and one count each of driving while impaired and consuming alcohol under the age of 21.

“The car just came from behind us, swerved out of control and hit them,” witness Pam Postage said.

In April, North Carolina State University junior Brian Anthony Reid, 21, was charged with driving while impaired, as well as felony death by motor vehicle.

Nancy Leidy, 60, died after she was struck by Reid's pickup truck while she was riding her bicycle on Nazareth Street near the N.C. State campus.

"I think there is just a perceived societal norm, that this is what college students are supposed to do. They are supposed to drink,” Chris Austin, N.C. State University's assistant director of substance abuse and prevention, said.

Four other students were reported for violating the alcohol policy on campus over the weekend.

While university officials say they don't want underage students to drink , they know some will. So the AlcoholEdu program aims to help those students make informed decisions about alcohol.

Beginning last year, the university began requiring all first-year students take the online alcohol-awareness program. The three-hour program must be completed before they arrive on campus.

“There was a lot of stuff that I didn't know that it was good to hear about. I definitely think it's going to impact how I start off here in college,” N.C. State University freshman Tyler Murphey said.

The school is also posting fliers on campus that offer tips on safe drinking.

“For those who are choosing to drink, our goal is to have them drink in low-risk ways as compared to high risk ways,” Austin said.

UNC Chapel Hill has a similar program. It's only required when a student gets into trouble with alcohol, however. School administrators said are looking into making it mandatory for everyone.

A report that Chapel Hill police issued for activity over the weekend, when students returned to town, listed numerous arrests for consumption by a minor and for having an open container.

WRAL

Almost a quarter of Victorian men aged 16-24 regularly drink more than 20 standard alcoholic drinks in a session.

And 19 per cent of young Victorian women regularly down 11 standard alcoholic drinks a day.

The Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Foundation found most heavy-drinking young people had jobs, at least $80 a week in recreational spending money and lived away from their parents.

"Young drinkers who have greater disposable incomes are much more likely to drink to excess," study author Michael Livingstone said.

The study of almost 11,000 Victorians found many started drinking at a young age, with 17 per cent having their first alcoholic drink by the time they were 13.

Of those, a third are now considered high-risk drinkers.

Young Victorians living in the country were more likely to drink at harmful levels than those in the city, Mr Livingstone said.

Health Minister Nicola Roxon said the findings were frightening.

"This shows the scale of the challenge we're facing -- and highlights why urgent action is needed to tackle binge drinking," Ms Roxon said.

"This epidemic of binge drinking is hurting our young people, and we're not going to stand on the sidelines and let that happen."

Herald Sun

Teens in Tehama County admit to drinking at a higher rate than the state average, so local educators have obtained a $1.2 million grant to address the problem.

A California Healthy Kids survey done earlier this year showed that 34 percent of seventh-graders, 56 percent of ninth-graders and 73 percent of 11th-graders in Tehama County had tried alcohol at least once. That's higher than the state's averages of 18 percent, 41 percent and 62 percent, respectively.

So the county Department of Education is using an alcohol reduction grant from the federal Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools to provide counseling, class projects, parenting classes and other activities centered around preventing teen drinking, said Amy Henderson, the county office's director of prevention programs.

"We were very fortunate" to receive the grant, Henderson said. "I think one thing that was really an asset to us in writing it is that we really responded to the needs of our county."

California administers its Healthy Kids survey every other year to fifth-, seventh-, ninth- and 11th-graders, measuring the students' attitudes about drug use, violence, crime, physical and mental health and other issues.

According to the latest survey, alcohol use among high school freshman girls in Tehama County is even more prevalent than among freshman boys. Specifically, 36 percent of girls that age reported drinking alcohol in the past 30 days and 20 percent had five or more drinks in a couple of hours.

The three-year federal grant will address that concern by allowing the Department of Education to contract with Girls Inc. of Northern California for peer activities around avoiding alcohol.

"It seems that freshman girls are having a really hard transition," Henderson said.

Money will also be spent at Red Bluff, Salisbury and Los Molinos high schools to hold programs for parents and students called Creating Lasting Family Connections and to pay for a Tehama County drug and alcohol counselor to work at the schools, Henderson said.

The Department of Education also will work with the Tehama County Health Partnership to put on a series of educational campaigns, including one entitled "Parents Who Host Lose the Most," aimed at preventing parents from hosting alcohol parties.

"You hear parents saying, 'If they're going to drink, I want them to drink at home,' " Henderson said. "It's still ... giving the message that underage drinking is acceptable."

Activities for students will include a skill-building unit for ninth-graders on how to set goals and develop "refusal skills," Henderson said, while juniors will hold mock court cases on alcohol-related issues.

Educators rely on students telling the truth in the anonymous surveys. Henderson said they have a 95 percent validity rate, and that the few students who may exaggerate their drinking or other activity have little impact on the results.

The survey was taken locally by 564 seventh-graders, 477 ninth-graders and 349 eleventh-graders.

Sheriff Clay Parker believes that alcohol abuse is extremely prevalent in Tehama County. He knows this by looking at booking logs at the Tehama County Jail, he said.

"Every morning, I look at the booking logs for the past 24-hour period and I see more and more bookings for alcohol-related offenses," Parker said in a statement. "Anything we can do to keep our juveniles from using alcohol is paramount, and educating parents and community members needs to be a priority."

Henderson believes the grant will help accomplish this goal.

"We're really excited," she said. "It's really a grant that is responsive to what kids in our community are saying ... We're covering all areas - the individual students, the families and the environment in our community as a whole."

Redding Record Searchlight

Alcohol Dependence
Alcohol dependence (alcoholism) is a disease characterized by a strong craving for alcohol, inability to stop drinking, a need to consume greater amounts to produce the alcohol “high” and avoid the onset of withdrawal symptoms (like restlessness, irritability, sweating, nausea, tremors, hallucinations and convulsions).

The National Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence estimates about 18 million Americans are problem drinkers. Excessive alcohol consumption can cause problems with family relationships, ability to work or keep a job or complete school work. People who drink and drive may have frequent arrests for DUI (driving under the influence). Nearly 50 percent of all traffic deaths are alcohol-related. Alcohol is a factor in 25 percent of admissions to emergency departments, 33 percent of suicides, and more than 50 percent of homicides. Excessive consumption of alcohol is also related to an increased risk for death from heart disease, cancer and stroke.

Treating Alcohol Dependence
Alcohol dependence is a disease and there is no cure. People who decide to stop drinking need to stay away from alcohol for the rest of their lives to prevent a relapse. However, stopping isn’t easy because patients have a hard time coping with withdrawal symptoms and learned alcohol-related behaviors (such as drinking and socializing with friends).

Health experts say support groups (like Alcoholics Anonymous®) can be very helpful for people trying to stop drinking and maintain abstinence. Medications can help reduce withdrawal symptoms. There are also medications that are specifically approved to reduce alcohol cravings and dependence.

New Use for a Drug
Researchers are now testing another drug for treatment of alcoholism, called topiramate (TOPOMAX®). The drug is currently approved to treat certain types of seizures in patients with epilepsy and as a preventive treatment for migraines. Bankole Johnson, D.Sc., M.D., Ph.D., Psychiatrist/Pharmacologist with the University of Virginia, says topiramate interferes with neurotransmitters, a class of brain chemicals. Investigators hope the drug will reduce the activity of a specific neurotransmitter, called dopamine, a chemical involved in processing emotional response and pleasure.

In a recent study, researchers enrolled more than 300 men and women with a diagnosis of alcohol dependency. For fourteen weeks, half of the participants received topiramate and half received a placebo. In addition, patients received weekly counseling sessions to enhance behavioral compliance.

Johnson says topiramate reduced the urge to drink and increased the length of abstinence during the treatment period. The drug led to significantly fewer obsessions and compulsions related to alcohol use, greater quality of life improvement and a reduction in sleep disturbances. Most patients saw an improvement in alcohol-related symptoms within the second or third week of the trial.

Topiramate had a positive effect on physical health as well. Compared to those taking the placebo, patients in the active drug group had a decrease in body mass index, lowered diastolic and systolic blood pressure, decreased cholesterol and improvement in liver function and reduction in liver enzymes (a marker of liver damage from heavy drinking).

Johnson says being able to take a pill to reduce alcohol dependence may reduce the stigma associated with heavy drinking and enable patients to maintain privacy during their recovery. He cautions that topiramate is currently not FDA approved for treatment of alcohol dependence. The drug must be started at low dosages and then carefully increased. It can cause mild to moderate side effects, like dizziness, slowness of movement, problems with concentration or memory and numbness and tingling. Long-term studies are needed to determine how long patients will need to take the medication to stay away from alcohol.

HOI-19

Police say they are getting tough with rowdy British tourists. Really?

About 4am last Thursday, a mob of 200 alcohol-sodden youths gathered outside the Sabotage nightclub on the Greek island of Zakynthos ready for action. Two men were squaring up for a fight. One, a Scouser, had apparently shouted a racist remark at the other, a 6ft 4in black bodybuilder, and it seemed as if things were about to kick off.

Suddenly the black man jumped onto a quad-bike and drove into the crowd, apparently trying to run over his adversary. Bodies went sprawling. Within minutes sirens were blaring and four Greek police officers were wrestling the 19-year-old rider to the ground before carting him off in handcuffs. An ambulance took a teenage girl to hospital.

Elsewhere that night in the popular holiday resort of Laganas, a drunken youth stripped to his underwear and jumped on a car bonnet, drawing roars of approval from his friends, while a young woman hitched up her skirt in the middle of the road to have a henna tattoo painted on her bottom.

Around them, couples barely coherent after downing cheap cocktails – sometimes laced with industrial alcohol – groped each other in public, while others retired to the beach to have sex. “This place is full of girls that are well fit,” said Christopher Duff, 21, an electrician from north Wales. “Four slutty girls have moved into the hotel with us and I intend to sleep with all of them by the end of the holiday. We’ve heard about the reputation of the place and that’s why we’ve come here.”

It was just another night on Zakynthos, also known as Zante, a once-tranquil haven for endangered turtles that is now flooded by thousands of Brits behaving badly. Similar scenes of debauchery are played out across the Ionian Sea at the resort of Malia on Crete, where street brawls have involved hundreds of holidaymakers, and scores of women are reported to request the morning-after pill each day.

In the wake of previous party trouble-spots such as Ayia Napa in Cyprus and Fali-raki on Rhodes, Laganas and Malia have become the modern-day versions of Sodom and Gomorrah. Their lewd and violent excesses, combined with a record number of reported rapes in Greece this year, have now sparked a backlash.

Simon Gass, the British ambassador to Athens, recently flew to Zakynthos to see the carnage for himself and to reassure local officials. And Dionisis Komiotis, the mayor of Laganas, has decided enough is enough. “We don’t want the young people to walk out naked, to cause problems and damage,” he said. “We don’t want them to annoy the rest of the guests and tourists and, of course, put their own lives in danger.”

The authorities are launching the biggest crackdown the island has seen, with alcohol targeted as public enemy number one. “Every day I am sending officers into Laganas to protect young people,” the local police chief told The Sunday Times last week. At least that’s the rhetoric. But given the money at stake and the notoriety of Brits abroad, is anything likely to change? EVER since the Spanish resorts of the Costa del Sol opened their doors, British tourists have been travelling abroad in search of sun, sand and sex. What has taken the problems to new depths, say critics, is the proliferation of cheap flights. This summer a week in Laganas, including flights and accommodation, could be booked for as little as £200.

“The prices of these holidays aren’t vastly different from what they were 15 years ago,” said Dr Arthur Cassidy, a social psychologist specialising in youth and tourism. “Where once it was twentysome-things from more affluent backgrounds who enjoyed these holidays during their student years, cheap prices and credit cards mean teens and those on low incomes can afford to jet off too.

“There’s a far more diverse demographic all mixed together in these resorts – and that’s when trouble can start.”

A Foreign Office report last week revealed that the number of Britons arrested at 15 popular holiday destinations had increased by almost 16% in a year to 4,603. The report stated: “Many arrests are due to behaviour caused by excessive drinking.”

Greece and its islands, which are visited by more than 3m British tourists each year, had the second highest number of people admitted to hospital (602 cases). More worrying were figures released by the Greek police for rapes: 41 British women this summer, a record number only halfway through the holiday season.

The real numbers may be even higher. Dr Andreas Renessis, at the state hospital in Zakynthos, said: “We deal with a lot of allegations of rape, but often we cannot find any signs of resistance. The girls get drunk, go back to the hotels with the men and then they want to say no. I cannot say this is rape.”

Cheap booze, agrees the British ambassador to Greece, lies at the “back of a lot of accidents and incidents”. And it’s not hard to see why. The main thoroughfare of Laganas is lined with bars and clubs with names like Boozerz, Sizzlers and Rescue. Outside another, Cocktails and Dreams, Matthew Cryer, a 17-year-old from Sheffield, choked on his vomit and died after a night of drinking last month.

Some venues employ handsome reps offering free drinks to lure women tourists off the street. In other bars, a £4 cocktail is accompanied by up to three free shots. Notorious “fishbowl” cocktails offer a large potent mixture of spirits for about £8. Such drinks are sometimes known as “bombs” because, as one local doctor explained, “they cause an explosion in your brain”.

Dr Fey Saliba, who has run a private clinic in Laganas for 12 years, said: “People are getting drunk not just because of the quantity of alcohol, but because of the quality. They come to see me because they are still dizzy the next morning, they have stomach complaints and headaches.

“Some say they have drunk 20 or more shots, but often their symptoms are so severe it appears the drinks have been fortified. It is a very dangerous thing.” Saliba, who treats about 10 British tourists a night, also claimed that British barmen deliberately plied young women with free drinks so that they could sleep with them later.

“They will have sex with two or three women a night at the weekend, perhaps seven on an average week,” he said.

The police say they are now clamping down. Last Thursday Commander Bastas Nicolaos, the police chief of Zakynthos, said his officers were stopping bars from offering free drinks and serving underage tourists. He is also deploying plainclothes officers who have been nicknamed “bomb disposal squads”. “We have been testing [for industrial alcohol] and we will have those results through soon,” said Nicolaos. “The owners of the clubs will face prison if we get positive results. Such behaviour will not be tolerated on the island.”

The Foreign Office has also launched a campaign to encourage British youths to behave more responsibly. Using the same crude language as its target audience, the campaign’s catchline is: “Don’t be a Dick.” In messages printed on beer mats, beach-balls and posters, Brits are advised not to “get lairy with the locals” and not to let “a drunken stunt ruin your holiday”. WITH holidaymakers determined to have fun, however, and bar owners determined to make money, the chances of change look slim. Even the police chief’s own staff seem ambivalent about bad behaviour. At the rundown police station at Laganas, one young officer said: “If British people want to get into fights, why should the police care? As long as the trouble doesn’t spread to the rest of the island, the senior [police chiefs] don’t seem worried.”

Indeed, the bodybuilding quad-biker from the Sabotage nightclub was released without charge, although one of his victims was taken to hospital.

Nicolaos refused to say how many British tourists have been arrested under his watch this year.

“We do not think they have done anything too serious,” he said. “We will take them to the police station and make sure they can provide their passport and papers, but then they can go. We want to protect our English guests. We believe they are good people and, of course, it helps our economy.”

Therein lies the crux of the problem: the Greek islands need tourists, although officials would prefer it if they were more upmarket.

And UK holiday companies seem happy to meet the demands of customers more interested in booze than beaches.

Club 18-30, one of Britain’s biggest youth tour operators, promotes Zakynthos as follows: “Laganas – because you’ve got the rest of your life to sort a pension.” On its website last week two of the six reps operating in Zakynthos boasted: “I’m always pissed.” A third member of the team admitted having taken drugs. The company removed the “inappropriate” information after being contacted by The Sunday Times.

Nor did the holidaymakers in Laganas last week seem at all deterred by the authorities’ efforts to curb the excesses.

“I’ve been here eight hours and we’re already out on the pull,” said James Roland, 19, a builder from Cardiff, last week. “I’m having an absolutely cracking time and there’s loads of skirt, girls everywhere. I’m here to have a laugh with my mates – but if I get laid, it’s a bonus. It’s much more lively than Cardiff.”

Becky Askens, 20, an administrator from Northampton on the island with two female friends, said: “It’s awesome.

When we go into a club we’re given four free shots and then we can get two cocktails for €8, also with free shots.” She added, perhaps more in hope than reality: “We don’t want to get paralytic; we just want to have a good time.”

Times Online

Mark says he is learning how to “live life on life’s terms.”

After two drunken driving convictions and two marijuana possession convictions, the 34-year-old father of four is learning that it is time to grow up and make better choices. He’s learning how in an intensive DWI/Drug Court under the close supervision of McLennan County Court-at-Law Judge Mike Freeman, probation officers, counselors and fellow defendants in the program.

Mark says he is lucky to get this extra chance, especially with recent intoxication manslaughter trials that ended in prison terms grabbing headlines and raising public awareness about the tragedy often associated with drinking and driving.

“When I think about those cases or hear something about a drunk driver, I just think, a few years ago that could have been me,” Mark said. “If I have taken anything away from this it is that I don’t have to make the choices that I made, that I can live life on life’s terms and if I take everything that I have learned in this program and practice it, I will be OK.”

Mark, a packaging plant employee who asked that his real name not be used so his wife would not be embarrassed, was raised by his mother, who worked two jobs to make ends meet for him and his younger brother. When he got older, despite his mother’s teachings, he started smoking pot and drinking. Both led him to jail.

“I paid $10 for a bag of weed, and it cost me about $3,000. It was an expensive lesson,” he said.

One that didn’t quite sink in. Not until a second marijuana bust, more probation time and two DWI arrests, both coming on New Year’s Eve a couple of years apart. He got probation for those, too, and was two months away from being discharged on his last case when his probation was revoked because he got behind on court costs and fees.

That ultimately led him to Freeman’s DWI/Drug Court, which combines intensive supervision, more frequent substance abuse testing, counseling, faith-based motivation and principles of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Working the program into his busy schedule was hard, Mark said. He was working 12-hour shifts at times, picking his kids up from school and sleeping when he could.

“I was really bitter for the first two weeks I was in this program because I was like, ‘They are going to nail me. There is no way I can do this.’ But when I sat down and prioritized and thought about it and got with family members, my mom and wife, and we just worked out a system and everything just became easy.”

Freeman said Mark has made great progress in the program. He should be released from probation in about six months.

Larry Courtney, a courthouse security deputy and pastor of Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church, has known Mark and his family for 25 years.

“He is an example of someone who made a mistake,” Courtney said of Mark. “We have criminals and we have people who make mistakes. He made a mistake, a case of poor judgment.”

Mark said he is learning that it is all about making the right choices.

“I tell my kids pretty bluntly that Dad screwed up enough for all of us. I have taken enough money out of this family because I have had to pay for my mistakes, and I don’t want them to go through that. I just try to keep an open relationship with them so if they need to talk to me, we can talk about anything.”

Teran Yaklin, a licensed master social worker at the DePaul Center in Waco, such stories of repeated offenses aren’t unusual. Strict penalties against drunken driving make some people think twice about getting behind the wheel while intoxicated. They are people who are not dependent on alcohol but rather occasionally drink to excess. The issue for them is simply modifying their behavior to what is safe and expected, she said.

But for people who have an alcohol addiction, laws against drunken driving have little to no effect, Yaklin said. Such people know driving drunk is dangerous. They are either in denial about being intoxicated when they drive or they can’t stop themselves from doing it despite a desire not to, she said.

“For people who are addicts, external boundaries don’t mean a whole lot,” said Yaklin, who coordinates a program that provides inpatient detoxification and intensive outpatient treatment to people with chemical dependency. “. . . So many times I hear them talking about (getting a DWI) like it happens randomly to people, like getting struck by lightning.”

Addicts can change only if they realize they have a disease and decide they want to manage it, Yaklin said. Legal trouble can help spur that realization. But it often takes a mix of problems, including struggles at work and home, to really get their attention, she said.

A major barrier to people getting treatment is the prevalent belief that alcohol dependency is a behavior problem, Yaklin said. That mind-set causes addicts to feel a lot of guilt and shame, and that in turn fuels their urge to drink, she said.

“I think the minute we start looking at it as a disease instead of a behavioral problem, people are much more apt to seek treatment, admit they have a problem,” she said. “Right now it has that stigma that you’re a bad person.”

As for what can be done to keep people from getting addicted to alcohol in the first place, Yaklin said it all boils down to education. Specifically, she said, high school students need to be told that some people are more prone to becoming addicts than others and, unfortunately, there is no way to know which category they fit in. Many teens don’t understand that, she said.

Reita Hill, grants administrator for the Texas chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, agreed that education is key. But the organization would also like to see stricter enforcement of current laws.

Many law enforcement agencies don’t have enough officers to dedicate a lot of time to watching for drunken drivers, Hill said. Aggravating that problem is that the paperwork required for a drunken driving arrest usually takes several hours to complete, causing some officers to not aggressively pursue enforcement, she said.

Similarly, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission doesn’t have enough agents to do repeated stings at stores that sell alcohol to minors, Hill said. Under state law, such places can be shut down if they are caught three times in two years. But the chances are slim of TABC having enough manpower to conduct multiple sting operations at the same place in that time period, she said.

If citizens want to get serious about stopping alcohol-related tragedies, they have to agree to fund more officers, she said.

MADD also pushes for expanding existing punishments to more offenders, Hill said. The group would like ignition interlock systems to be mandatory for everyone who gets a DWI.

Such systems are similar to having a breathalyzer installed in a vehicle’s dashboard. Drivers must breath into the device, and the vehicle won’t start unless their blood-alcohol level is within certain limits.

Use of the devices has lowered drunken driving incidents in other states, Hill said. In Texas, judges are supposed to order the use of the devices — paid for by the offender — after a second DWI offense, but not all do, she said. MADD also advocates longer sentences for people who kill someone while driving drunk, Hill said.

Locally, Hill said she has been heartened to see that prosecutors are taking more alcohol-related crimes to juries.

“They are beginning to hold people accountable, which they haven’t done before,” she said. “. . . I remember a few years back I felt lucky if we were getting a five-year sentence (in McLennan County) and now we’re getting the maximum (on some cases). I think it’s just the community finally saying enough is enough.”

Waco Tribune-Herald

The little resort town of Tavira, in Portugal's Algarve, is fed up with the hordes of noisy foreigners who party all night on the beach, drinking themselves senseless and then trashing sunshades, deckchairs and life-saving equipment.

So disgusted have the local residents become with the violent antics of these invaders that this summer the town's mayor, Macario Correia, is calling on the government in Lisbon to change the law so as to ban binge-drinking in public places.

Those responsible for this seaside mayhem are not drunken Britons, nor are they other pallid northern Europeans. They are from Spain – Portugal's neighbour 12 miles up the road. Mr Correia said: "Thousands of young Spaniards come here at night, laden with huge containers of vodka, whisky and beers, get drunk and go on the rampage, committing all sorts of acts of vandalism."

He added that young Spanish revellers cause around €200,000 (£160,000) of damage a year in Tavira. "When it gets cold at night, they go so far as to make bonfires" from items of public property they have destroyed on the beach, he said.

The problem has grown worse since the local government in Spain's Andalusia region, which borders on Portugal, passed a new law in 2006 on the consumption of alcohol in public places.

The aim was to stamp out the vogue for botellon or "big bottle" gatherings – alcoholic binges in which young Spaniards mobilise in their thousands to drink strong spirits in the open air through the balmy summer nights. Other regions of Spain followed suit with similar legislation, which had the effect of shunting the phenomenon across the border into Portugal.

Last week Mr Correia wrote to the Portuguese Interior Minister, Rui Pereira, asking for a change in Portuguese law. "I asked for a similar law to the one in Andalusia," the mayor said.

But Portugal is reluctant to take measures that might offend its prosperous neighbour, whose tourists – second in number only to visiting Britons – greatly boost the Algarve's economy.

Spain and Portugal share not just a long border but centuries of mutual suspicion and hostility. Despite their proximity, they are utterly different in temperament. The soft-spoken Portuguese wince at the high-decibel shrieks of visiting Spaniards.

But Portugal has had to bite back objections, as Spain's influence has moved deeper into its smaller neighbour's economy. Antonio Pina, chairman of the Algarve region's tourism authority, said : "I see the mayor's problem, but I would never make such a direct accusation against a particular nation ... especially from countries where we mount costly publicity campaigns urging them to visit."

But Mr Correia doesn't mince his words: "Every other day our municipal cleaners have to clear up debris left by Spaniards in an alcoholic coma. I worry about the cultural education of these youngsters, who can't enjoy themselves without getting out of their heads with drink.

"It's an affront to holidaymakers who come to rest and enjoy the beach. When around 2,000 Spaniards hit our beach at weekends, it's impossible for the town's two policemen on night duty to control them."

He wants Spanish police to carry out more rigorous checks, especially at weekends, on drunken drivers along the busy coast road that crosses the border.

By contrast, British visitors, for whom the Algarve's small coastal towns are popular holiday destinations, behave well, Mr Correia says. But he adds: "We don't receive many Britons in Tavira. Mostly Spaniards."

The Independent

We have such a great place to live. We have great schools, good jobs and beautiful lakes and natural resources to enjoy. There's another distinction, though, we shouldn't be so proud of: our cultural acceptance of the overconsumption of alcohol. We drink just to get drunk.

As a result, we see so much human misery and face enormous public safety, health and economic costs because of this misuse of alcohol.

It's tough to pick up the newspaper or turn on the news and not see stories about people being arrested for their third, fourth, fifth, sixth and even 13th drunk driving offense.

We're so used to these kinds of stories that we think this behavior is normal. It's not.

Wisconsin has the absolute worst rate of binge and chronic heavy drinkers in the nation. We have the worst rate of underage drinking in the country. We're also worst in the country for fatal car crashes caused by alcohol.

In Dane County, more than 40% of the fatal car crashes last year involved alcohol. Three times as many people are killed in alcohol-related traffic crashes than are murdered in Dane County each year. Three thousand people are booked on drunk-driving charges in this county each year.

Alcohol is a major factor in many other crimes too, like sexual assault. Nearly 40% of offenders and almost two-thirds of victims are under the influence at the time of a sexual assault. Alcohol is a factor in nearly one in three of the physical assaults in our state.

UW-Madison police issued more than 1,000 underage drinking tickets in 2006. That figure doesn't include the tickets written by other law enforcement agencies downtown. Campus police report finding students unresponsive in their own beds and in bathroom stalls lying in their own vomit. Students have fallen off their bikes, down flights of stairs and even worse. All while drunk.

Do we want our deputies and police officers spending their shifts hauling drunks to detox instead of patrolling our neighborhoods?

As taxpayers, we spend about $60 million each year to run the county jail. Nearly half of the sentenced inmates are in jail for alcohol-related offenses. We spend an additional $8 million in hard-earned county tax dollars on court programs to help those addicted to alcohol and drugs.

That's a major commitment, and we've seen great results. Treating the consequences of alcohol abuse and treating those who suffer from it is important work that we should do as efficiently and humanely as we can. But the real question remains: Can't we do more to prevent this problem?

Alcohol misuse is the third leading cause of preventable diseases. Seventeen thousand people were so impaired in this state last year they had to be hospitalized.

Our state has the highest number of women of child-bearing age who binge drink. One in three women ages 19-44 report drinking alcohol during their pregnancies. That increases dangerous risk factors jeopardizing the well-being of the baby.

It's estimated nearly 25,000 Dane County kids go home to parents who are intoxicated, either passed out on the couch or, worse yet, verbally and physically abusive. This is real human misery.

With all the greatness of our community, why do we put up with this?

We can be different. We all need to look inside ourselves and think twice about what we're willing to accept as appropriate. Whether it's looking in the mirror or talking with a co-worker, friend or family member, we all can be part of the solution.

We need to do more for our young people who right now grow up in a culture thinking the only things to do on Thursday, Friday or Saturday nights involve a bottle-opener, can or keg.

That's why I've spent the past several months studying, reading, listening and reviewing the options for how we can best move forward to address our problem with alcohol. This fall, I'll produce a set of steps I think we need to take.

This isn't about stopping drinking to celebrate. It's about stopping the celebration of drinking.

Isthmus

When it comes to tackling Scotland's damaging relationship with alcohol, the NHS is keen to give anything a try – at least once anyway.
Now it seems plans are afoot to help those drinkers who don't quite fall into the category of hardened alcoholics, drink gin for breakfast or collapse on park benches.

This is the large group of people who do not have a major problem with alcohol, but are perhaps showing signs of trouble to come.

The Scottish Government has already been targeting such drinkers through subtle advertising campaigns, pointing out the effects alcohol can have on health and families.

Now there are moves to create a resource where drinkers can receive advice on intake levels over the phone.

The phoneline will be offered by NHS 24, more widely known for its role in directing patients to health services out-of-hours.

But the organisation's annual review this week heard that it was keen to expand its role in other ways.

This includes what is so far entitled the "alcohol brief intervention helpline".

An NHS 24 insider said the project was "still at an early embryonic stage".

Even so, a pilot project could be launched by next spring.

"It will be a telephone-based service that would offer advice related to alcohol consumption," the source said.

"It would be aimed at people who may not have a major alcohol problem.

"But it might be that someone goes to their GP or to A&E with a condition or injury which may be linked to alcohol.

"They could then be referred to a special phoneline where they may receive information on safe levels of drinking and other advice."

How well such advice would go down with your average, overindulgent middle-class drinker remains to be seen.

But NHS 24 is keen to examine how best the service might work before it is rolled out.

There are also plans to work with health boards to record breastfeeding rates.

The aim is for health visitors to target those mothers most in need of extra support, particularly in disadvantaged areas of Scotland.

It seems NHS 24 is hoping to improve the nation's health – maybe then it will have fewer calls to cope with in the evenings and weekends.

The Scotsman

A drug, designed to stop the euphoric effects of alcohol, could one day be used to prevent reformed alcoholics from relapsing, say US researchers.

And scientists say a kill-joy pill like this may also be useful in treating a range of overly-pleasurable pursuits.

Professor Tamara Phillips and colleagues from the Oregon Health and Science University report their study of the effects of the new drug on mice in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Phillips and team hope the drug, which blocks a stress receptor, could not only stop alcoholics from relapsing, but also stop pleasurable feelings gained from cocaine and even food.

"This drug has great potential to treat not only alcoholism, but other stress-related disorders as well," she says.

The drug, called CP 154,526, was originally developed and donated for testing by drug giant Pfizer, maker of the popular drug Viagra.

CP 154,526 physically binds to a receptor in the brain called corticotrophin-releasing factor one (CRF1).

The receptor blocks corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF), a chemical released by alcohol that is thought to create pleasurable feelings.

"It's like you put the key in a lock but don't turn it," says Phillips. "Then you break the key off so no one can use it."

In the study, the researchers gave the drug to mice that had been given a steady supply of alcohol.

Mice given the drug were less likely to gesture for another drink, compared to mice that didn't receive the drug.

The effect doesn't last long - less than an hour - but it doesn't have to, according to the scientists.

"The euphoria you experience with alcohol is extremely rapid and mostly happens within the first 15 to 30 minutes after your first drink," says Phillips.

"Without that initial euphoric reaction, you are less likely to have that second, third or fourth drink."
Other effects not blocked

While the drug should prevent users from feeling happy from alcohol, it doesn't block the other effects of alcohol, such as the inability to walk in a straight line or slurred speech.

It also won't help with withdrawal symptoms or hangovers.

The researchers hope to enter human clinical trials in the next year.

If the drug is approved for human use, the patient would have to ingest the drug soon after or before their first drink for it to be effective.

CP 154,526 isn't the only drug that could help alcoholics stop drinking.

Naltroxone, which affects opioid receptors, is often effectively used in combination with counselling to stop relapse, but for some people it has little or no effect.
Treating hedonism

Phillips and her collaborators are testing their drug specifically for treating alcoholism, but she says that since CP 154,526 binds to a receptor involved in stress and anxiety more generally, it could help treat a number of overly-pleasurable pursuits.

That view is backed up by Dr George Koob, a scientist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, who also studies CP 154,526 but was not involved in Phillips' study.

"CRF antagonists [like CP 154,526] could help re-establish homeostasis involved with hedonic disregulation," says Koob. "This drug could be of use in many different situations."

Other studies have shown that CRF helps regulate the pleasurable effects of nicotine, heroin and cocaine, says Koob.

"In every system there is a yin and a yang, and the same goes for hedonic activities," he added.

"With lots of pleasure there is usually a crash as well."

ABC News in Science

Sydney is in the grip of a teenage binge-drinking epidemic with an average of five youngsters a day being admitted to hospital with alcohol problems.

That represents a doubling - in a decade - in the number of teenagers needing treatment for extreme intoxication, alcohol poisoning or withdrawal.

The Daily Telegraph has obtained an alarming report from NSW Health showing a 100 per cent increase in the past seven years in admissions for alcohol-related problems in 15- to 19-year-olds.

In 2000 the number of teens who presented to hospital was 752.

Within seven years that number had risen to an alarming 1553.

"I find it disturbing," Professor Bob Batey, the clinical adviser in addiction medicine to NSW Health, said.

"Firstly we are reporting better as to what is going on with people presenting.

"But alcohol products are more readily available and marketed to young people. And three, young people are risk takers . . . they think they are invincible."

The source of the document, the Centre for Epidemiology and Research within NSW Health, used emergency department data from 41 hospitals across the state - which covered two thirds of the state's population.

The diagnosis included intoxication, alcohol poisoning, dependence and withdrawal but excludes those admitted for an injury where alcohol was a risk factor.

The director of emergency at St Vincent's Hospital Darlinghurst, Professor Gordian Fulde, said the data "was consistent with what we are seeing".

However, he said the noticeable difference was the number of young females presenting.

Daryl Smeaton, chief executive officer of the Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Foundation said he was deeply disturbed by the data.

"I find it staggering and alarming but not surprising," he said.

"The statistics have increased over the last decade in staggering proportions. But I don't know there is anything we can say with certainty as to why.

Mr Smeaton agreed with Professor Batey on the need to look at marketing of alcohol.

"Increased availability of alcohol is a major contributor . . . but not the only contributor," he said.

"As parents we have dropped the ball in this country. Our kids absorb our drinking habits . . . this is where it is coming from. It is our kids seeing the way we drink.".

NSW Health claimed that around half of the hospital emergency admission for 16 to 24-year-olds were related to alcohol.

It claimed 48 per cent of males and 44 per cent of females between the ages of 16 and 24 engaged in risky drinking behaviour. Approximately 40 per cent of males and 34 per cent between 15 and 17 years have recently consumed alcohol.

Daily Telegraph

Regular binge drinkers could be chopping months off their life expectancy because of their habit.
Figures released by the East Midlands Public Health Observatory show that some Northamptonshire people could be reducing their life by up to 14 months through heavy drinking.

The statistics also show high rates of chronic liver disease in towns and a rise in the number of people being admitted to hospital as the result of drinking.

Latest figures show that men are losing the most, with 14 months for men in Corby, 11 for men in Wellingborough, nine in Kettering and eight in east Northamptonshire.

The picture is not much better for women, with six months for Corby women, four months in Kettering, four in east Northamptonshire and three in Wellingborough.

Health improvement co-ordinator (harm reduction) for the Northamptonshire Teaching PCT Jamie John said: "We hear things in the media about binge drinking, but the number of alcohol-related hospital admissions and liver disease is no worse in Northamptonshire than our statistical neighbours.

"However, the numbers are increasing in line with the national average.

"It is not for people to stop drinking but to drink sensibly, know their limits and know the recommended drinking guidelines.

"How drinking affects your life expectancy is important but there also needs to be more local campaigns and local information about drinking, which is something we are working on."

Another fear is that the problem could get worse because people are drinking more at an earlier age and for longer.

Steve Palmer, from the Northamptonshire Young People's Drug Service, said: "Nurses say that people in their 50s have shown signs of chronic conditions in the past but these things will start happening earlier and there may be people in their 40s suffering."

The short-term effects of alcohol are well known, with people getting impaired judgement because it affects their brain.

Longer-term alcohol effects are often associated with the liver.

However, Mr Palmer says prolonged binge drinking can cause other problems as well. He is now involved in a drive to get younger people to realise the effects of alcohol misuse and safeguard against risk.

He said: "If you're going to do it, slow down and pace yourself. Make sure you are well educated as to how long it takes to go through your bloodstream, because it can take several hours to absorb. We also look at alternative ways for people to spend their time and encourage them not to mix alcohol with other substances."

The PCT issued another warning last week that people aged between 16 to 24 who have high levels of alcohol consumption are more likely to take part in high-risk behaviour, including unprotected sex.

Northants Evening Telegraph

New powers to help control anti-social drinking in Aylesbury have come into force.
Over the past few days, Aylesbury Vale District Council has put up signs across the town to warn people that they are entering an area where the police have the authority to control the consumption of alcohol.

Under the Designated Public Place Orders (DPPOs), it is not an offence to consume alcohol, but police can ask people to stop drinking and also confiscate it. If a police officer's request is refused without a reasonable excuse, drinkers are liable to prosecution and can be fined up to £500.

The council has designated 23 specified areas within Aylesbury as 'public places' where the new police powers apply. Before adopting these new powers, the council consulted the police, local residents, licensees and landowners.

Cllr Judy Brandis, Chairman of the AVDC Licensing Committee, said: "We believe that the DPPOs will prove to be a vital tool for the police when dealing with alcohol-related issues in Aylesbury. The orders will not affect peaceful family picnics, only individuals whose behaviour is anti-social. We are determined to make the district a safe place to live, work and visit and this is another example of the council using the powers at our disposal to help achieve that aim."

Deputy Commander for Aylesbury Vale Local Police Area, Acting Chief Inspector Dave Gilbert said: "Alcohol often plays a role in anti-social behaviour, which we are tackling as a priority because residents have told our neighbourhood policing teams in Aylesbury that it is their biggest concern. This is only one of the measures we have taken together with the district council and other partners to reduce anti-social behaviour in Aylesbury and I am confident it will make a difference."

The order will not apply to areas within the designated zones that are within the boundary of any licensed premises, and any place where the sale of alcohol has been authorised by virtue of an occasional licence or permission.

Aylesbury Today

British tourists drink more alcohol, take more drugs and are involved in more fights than their European counterparts, research has revealed.

It found half of those aged 16 to 35 were drunk on five or more nights of their holiday.

At the same time, a third said they had had casual sex during their stay, with 5 per cent admitting to having five or more sexual partners.

The study, which was carried out by the European Institute of Studies on Prevention with Liverpool John Moore University, interviewed 3,003 British, German and Spanish tourists returning from a week-long stay on the Spanish islands of Ibiza and Majorca last summer.

All were questioned on a range of topics, including drinking, drug-taking, sex and violence.

It found 44.2 per cent of Britons staying in Ibiza had taken the drug ecstasy - with 40 per cent using it on five days or more.

Some 8.6 per cent also admitted using the drug for the first time during their stay, compared to just 1.8 per cent of Germans.

British holidaymakers also topped the poll when it came to violence.

Some 7.2 per cent said they had been involved in a physical fight during their stay, compared to just 3.6 per cent of Germans and 2.3 per cent of Spaniards.

However, the study revealed British tourists were the least promiscuous on holiday.

While 30 per cent of those staying in Majorca had casual sex during their stay, 42.7 per cent of Spaniards and 39.5 per cent of Germans had also done so.

Less impressively, 34 per cent of Britons said they had not used a condom.

The researchers concluded: 'There were significant differences between different nationalities abroad in levels of drunkenness.

'In both Majorca and Ibiza, more than half of British participants reported having been drunk on five or more days per week during their holiday, and the majority of German participants reported drunkenness at least twice a week on holiday.

'However, the majority of Spanish participants did not get drunk during their holiday.'

Speaking of their findings on drugs, they said: 'Overall illicit drug use was highest among British visitors to Ibiza. Here, for example, 44.2 per cent used ecstasy during their holiday and 34.2 per cent used cocaine.

'Germans were least likely to use illicit drugs on holiday. For all drugs, frequency of use increased during the holiday period.

'While 80 per cent of ecstasy users reported using the drug less than once a week when at home, during their holiday 80 per cent reported using it at least twice per week.'

They added: 'Fighting (in Majorca) was most commonly reported by British holidaymakers, with one in ten involved in violence on holiday.'

The research comes as figures published yesterday revealed the number of Britons arrested has soared.

Last year, 4,605 British holidaymakers were arrested - a rise of 15.6 per cent from 2007.

The study by the Foreign Office said alcohol was mostly to blame for the increases, which were due to 'excessive drinking'.

Arrests of UK citizens in Spain - by far the biggest problem country - rocketed to 2,032, an increase of a third compared to the previous year, it found.

At the same time, the number of Britons arrested in France increased by 42 per cent.

The report, called British Behaviour Abroad, also warned female tourists they are more vulnerable to attacks while on holiday.

Spain was found to have highest number of reported rapes among British holidaymakers with 29 last year. This was closely followed by Greece (28) and Turkey (21).

Mail Online

Binge drinking fears have prompted heath chiefs to give the go-ahead for the UK’s first alcohol control agency to be based in the North-East.

The new Office for the Safe Consumption of Alcohol (Osca) has been handed the job of making binge drinking socially unacceptable.

Officials hope they can turn drunken pub crawls into as big a taboo as drink-driving.

The go-ahead means that publicly-funded advertising campaigns to make drunkeness “un-cool” could be appearing on TV screens and billboards in the near future.

Police chiefs say the region is home to some of the most irresponsible, reckless binge drinking in the country.

The North-East has the highest number of people needing emergency treatment as a result of drinking.

The number of people in the region who have died from chronic liver disease has almost doubled in the past ten years from 211, in 1996, to 387 by 2006.

The scheme was given the go-ahead in the wake of the successful campaign group set up to support a workplace smoking ban.

Fresh Smoke Free North- East, which was the only organisation of its kind in England, was hailed as a success and a possible model for similar public health campaigns to curb excessive drinking.

Fresh commissioned a hard-hitting campaign of TV and billboard advertising paid for by North-East primary care trusts and local authorities.

News of moves to set up an office for alcohol control would probably meet with the approval of Professor David Hunter, professor of health policy at Durham University.

In a new book, Prof Hunter argues that the UK Government has failed to transform the NHS into a “health system” rather than a “sickness” system.

He warns that unless the Government takes tougher measures to reduce lifestylerelated illness such as diabetes, obesity and some forms of cancer, the NHS will become unaffordable.

In March, one of the region’s most senior police officers, Michael Craik, Chief Constable of Northumbria, called for greater restrictions on the availability of alcohol, including price rises and a ban on advertising alcoholic drinks.

Mr Craik told a regional event aimed at tackling alcohol misuse in the North-East: “If it was invented tomorrow, it would be a class A controlled drug.”

The idea of setting up a dedicated organisation to help curb excessive consumption of alcohol in the region surfaced in May.

The proposal was part of Better Health, Fairer Health, a blueprint that aims to make the North-East the healthiest place to live in Britain within 25 years.

Last night, The Northern Echo confirmed that the agency – currently named Osca – is being established after the region’s primary care trusts agreed to set aside £100,000 to get it started.

The Department of Health has also agreed to fund a regional alcohol advisor to work with the North-East’s NHS and Osca.

A spokesman for Public Health North-East said that setting up Osca was part of the broader 25-year strategy to improve public health in the region.

He said: “Specific actions include setting up a regional office for alcohol based on the highly-successful Fresh Smoke Free North-East model. It will co-ordinate social marketing, lobbying and regional action to tackle high rates of consumption as well as alcohol-related injury and illness.

“Funding has been agreed with the region’s primary care trusts and it is hoped the office will be up and running by the end of the year.”

A spokesman for the Portman Group, which represents the major brewers and distillers, said: “Any initiative that is going to tackle alcohol abuse will be welcome, but it is important to distinguish between alcohol consumption and alcohol misuse.

“The vast majority of the public drink responsibly but a minority are out of control.”

The spokesman said the proportion of the population drinking to harmful levels had fallen in recent years.

He added: “You need to tackle misuse by a minority rather than the majority of sensible drinkers.”

He said a scattergun approach such as increasing taxation and banning discounts “impacted on everyone”. He added there should be more emphasis on enforcing existing laws against under-age drinking.

Ian Loe, spokesman for the Campaign for Real Ale, said drinking relatively weak beer in a pub where adults could keep an eye on younger people was better than allowing teenagers to buy cheap lager from off-licences and stores.

He said: “We need to move to a culture where alcohol is treated with respect rather than this sledgehammer approach of trying to hammer all alcohol drinks.”

He said “more carrot and less stick” would help.

Osca should avoid “making everybody feel guilty if they have more than two pints a day”, he added.

Northern Echo

A shocking confession from a school teacher about the hold alcohol had on her life.

In these tough economic times, experts say an alarming number of people turn to alcohol to numb their pain.

An estimated half million people here in Arizona suffer from alcoholism and when a recession hits experts tell us fewer people reach out for help.

We begin with a woman who sought comfort in alcohol. Vodka was her drink of choice. She thought she had it under control that is until she lost everything.

“I do believe I was born an alcoholic,” Marci Johnson said. “I drank primarily to function.”

The numbers of people battling the bottle here in Arizona alone are staggering and it is estimated that every year, more than $400,000 people with an alcohol crisis fail to receive the alcohol rehabilitation that they need.

Experts say right now, in the throws of this recession an even more alarming number of people are scared to seek help.

“When the economy is doing as poorly as we are turning to the drugs because it does numb us out to the experience, okay I'm drunk, it is easier to have this feeling right now than for me to go back to my family and say okay I don't have enough money to pay our mortgage,” said Director of Outpatient Service at St. Luke’s Chip Coffey.

Coffey worries that people are suffering in the shadows and afraid of what will happen if they admit that they are addicted to alcohol.

“Addiction is a funny thing and most people don't understand addiction,” Ellie Schafer said.

Counseling alcoholics has been Ellie Schafer's life work. At 91 she still volunteers at St Luke’s trying to help people overcome addiction.

“People are using alcohol and drugs at much younger ages than in the 50s when I started working,” she said.

In the chapel a prayer book shows signs of these difficult times, one person writes "lord please let me find employment."

They come to church seeking strength, trying to find peace and when it happens, Schafer said it is remarkable.

“You see the change in women must faster as they are detoxing, the softness that happens in their features, you just can't imagine,” she said.

For Johnson, the school teacher who used to drink vodka in the classroom, the battle with the bottle left her with no job, no friends and failing health.

“I know today that I had a disease that affected my mind body and spirit and I had to deal with all of those in recovery,” Johnson said.

Today at 79 Johnson is a recovered alcoholic. She hopes her story is a warning to those who are fighting this disease.

Especially in these trying times, there are all those thousands of people who are quietly suffering.

The experts who worked with on this story say an alcoholic has to experience the serious consequences of their addiction, meaning they have to hit rock bottom before they can truly get better.

azfamily

A Trial scheme to tackle binge drinking in Leeds city centre has helped to reduce alcohol-fuelled disorder and nuisance across the city, according to the council.

The scheme, which was commissioned by the Safer Leeds partnership body, spanned a six month period between September 2007 and March this year.

It looked at 15 large city centre licensed premises, including bars and clubs frequented by young drinkers, particularly at weekends.

Some of these premises made use of alcohol promotions during the rest of the week.

At the start of the project, trained observers made observations of levels of alcohol-related disorder at the 15 bars and clubs, ranging from mild good-natured boisterousness to more serious incidents.

In total, there were 5,974 incidents recorded, including 4,513 incidents of drunkenness – defined as staggering or stumbling – and 76 incidents of violence.

They then started working individually with each premises, providing training and helping develop a voluntary code of practice.

These included better training for staff, improved seating, more use of food, limits on the number of people allowed inside the premises, more weekday events and reducing the volume of music.

Follow-up observations were made in March at the same establishments, to see what impact the scheme has had.

The number of incidents showed a 30 per cent fall to 4,167, including 2,759 incidents of drunkenness and 45 incidents of violence, the council said.

A council spokesman commented: "The Leeds report highlights the need for improved training for bar staff, many of whom are young people employed on a temporary basis and relatively inexperienced in dealing with customers who are abusive through consuming excessive amounts of alcohol."

Politicians in the city have welcomed the findings.

Councillor Les Carter, executive board member responsible for community safety and chairman of Safer Leeds, said: "Safer Leeds works very hard to deal with the problems that binge drinking can create. The challenge facing all of us is how to tackle it.

"This research shows that by working with licensees, we can make a significant reduction in levels of drink-related disorder in the city."

Leeds Licensing Committee Chairman Councillor Don Wilson said the work had contributed to a safer city centre at night.

"Leeds has forged a strong working relationship with the licensing trade and we recognise the value of a strong night time economy and the added value it brings to the wealth of the city. By working and improving the standards of those premises that attract younger drinkers it confirms that Leeds is a very safe place to come and enjoy a night out."

n Use of airport-style detectors at clubs and bars in Leeds have proved that Leeds city centre does not have a problem with people carrying knives, West Yorkshire Police said yesterday.

More than 700 people were scanned using the "knife arches" on Friday and Saturday night but no knives or blades were found.

The detectors will be used over the next two weekends.

Yorkshire Post

Business has picked up in downtown Marshall this summer — for the Marshall Police Department, which has seen a spike in drinking incidents related to minors

Earlier this summer, an increased number of police officers were noticed by the Independent in the downtown areas on Thursday nights, around the time of bar closing. Along with the increase in officers came an increase in reported incidents, especially relating to minors and alcohol. If you have noticed this change, it isn't a coincidence.

The increased patrol is because there is an increase in the number of people drinking in the downtown area, even outside of the bars, including underage people, said Marshall Police Chief Rob Yant.

Some city officials have noticed the increase in alcohol-related incidents and now, the city's legislative and ordinance committee is considering a new ordinance to ban underage people in the bar after a certain hour.

The problem

"For the last year, there has been an increased number of people in the downtown areas drinking, as well as an increased number of minors drinking. This has led to more serious crimes being committed," Marshall Police Chief Rob Yant said.

"Cops have always been stationed outside the bars, but with an increase in people and disturbances, the number of officers also increases," said Yant said.

Yant said not only are the number of incidents rising, but the seriousness of the incidents is evolving as well.

"With the increased drinking, other more serious crimes, such as thefts and disturbances, have been on the rise as well," Yant said.

Some of these violations are being committed by people who shouldn't even be drinking in the first place, Yant said.

"The dilemma is that people ages 18 to 21 can enter the bar, and from there they have easy access to alcohol, either through someone older buying it for them, an adult ID, or even stealing drinks," Yant said.

Two of four downtown Marshall bars were contacted about minors drinking at their establishments. One declined comment, and the other said that they had no problem with minors drinking at their bar.

Yant also said many of the people cited for underage drinking or related crimes are not from the Marshall area.

"Regional youth under 21 have found an opportunity to drink here in Marshall," Yant said, citing the fact that many other places around the state do not allow anyone under the age of 21 to be in an establishment where drinking takes place.

Court records show the increase in arrests, which Yant said is due to the increased number of people drinking downtown. Already in 2008, there have been 139 minor consumption arrests made. That is only 31 less than the entire 2007 calendar year, which reported 170 minor consumption arrests, Marshall Police records said. Forty-four percent of those arrests have been for individuals who live outside of Marshall, records said. For other alcohol related incidents besides minor consumption, 48 percent of people arrested have addresses outside of Marshall, records said.

The issue of underage drinking and more serious crimes committed due to the drinking has put a toll on the Marshall Police Department.

" We have to focus on the downtown area," said Yant.

This means sometimes officers aren't able to attend other calls they deem less serious.

"We haven't been able to deal with other issues, we have to take the most serious," Yant said.

Yant said the decision about which problem to attend to is up to officer discretion, and if the problem is life-threatening or not.

Yant hopes establishments are trying to keep the problem from occurring by not allowing minors to drink, but said that the problem "hasn't been handled by the establishments, so it must be handled externally."

Even still, Yant said, "We can't continue to deal with the escalation."

The proposed solution

"We are working with the city attorney to propose an ordinance for no alcohol where minors are," said Yant.

The Marshall Police Department will propose the ordinance at Wednesday's meeting of the Marshall Council Legislative and Ordinance Committee meeting.

The proposed ordinance would state that all people under the age of 21 must be out of an establishment where drinking takes place by 10 p.m., Yant said.

After that, "either you don't allow minors or you don't have alcohol," said Yant.

A similar law was proposed six or seven years ago, said Yant, but wasn't passed at that time.

"It wasn't implicated because of the effects people thought it would have," said Yant.

Marshall Mayor Bob Byrnes said the previous ordinance was stopped in the legislative and ordinance committee, and didn't make it in front of the council.

"There were concerns about how it would affect establishments that serve alcohol but primarily sell food," said Byrnes.

However, Yant says the situation is different now.

"The number of people and the seriousness of the issue is very different than it was last time," said Yant.

"We're not being very restrictive, we're just trying to become more like the norm," said Yant.

Yant said a curfew for minors to be out of bars is common around the state of Minnesota, and the curfew is set somewhere between 9 and 11 p.m. in most cities.

"It will still be OK for families to go out at night for dinner, but it won't be OK for minors to drink," said Yant.

Byrnes agreed with Yant.

"There is no reason for an underager to be in a drinking establishment as late as 11 or 12 p.m; 10 p.m. is a reasonable time. Families who wish to go out for dinner should be able to accomplish that by 10 p.m.," said Byrnes.

Reaction to the ordinance

A new ordinance such as the one proposed would affect many businesses in the Marshall area.

The Gambler, a downtown Marshall bar, was unwilling to comment when contacted.

The Varsity Pub in downtown Marshall said that they would support such an ordinance.

"I was happy to hear about it; minors drinking tends to be where the trouble starts," said Mike Sweetman, owner of Extra Innings at the Varsity Pub.

However, Sweetman also said that the ordinance wouldn't have much effect on his business.

"On a Thursday night we maybe get five to 10 minors in here, so it wouldn't affect us as much...we are a 21- 60-year-old bar," Sweetman said.

Will it work?

Two minors from the Marshall area say that even if the new ordinance goes into effect, it won't keep them from drinking.

A 20-year-old Marshall man and a 19-year-old Marshall man who were allowed to remain anonymous for this story, both say they go out to the bar during the summer months on Thursday nights.

The 20-year-old said that "underage drinking at the bar is low-key and hard to see," while the 19-year-old said, "I see enough underage drinking."

But both men said they think the bouncers at bars such as the Gambler do a good job of detecting minors drinking.

"If they catch you, they will take your drink and kick you out," the 20-year-old said.

"The bar doesn't cause drinking," he said.

He also said the bar is more of a "sobriety place" for him, because he isn't able to drink there and sobers up while dancing from the drinking he did prior to going to the bar.

The dancing available for patrons at the bars is a main reason why both men like to go to the bar.

"Since we don't have clubs like they do in the Cities, the bar is as close as we can get," the 20-year-old said.

Neither of the two think a new ordinance would stop the drinking.

"Kids will find a way to get alcohol - it will just lead to an increase in house parties, which can sometimes be more dangerous than the bar," the 20-year-old said.

"I will just go out and drink at a house instead of the bar," the 19-year-old said.

The 20-year-old said that even with a new ordinance, it won't keep minors from places where drinking takes place.

"Alcohol is everywhere, it's in houses and restaurants, even if I went to a Twins game I will see people drinking. You just have to know that you can't do it until you're 21."

Yant, however, believes Marshall may now have too many opportunities for underage drinking. A new ordinance should change that, he said.

"We want Marshall to be a comfortable place, but not in that context. Marshall is not a place for opportunities for underage drinking," Yant said.

Marshall Independent

A Round-The-Clock home delivery drinks service has got the thumbs down following fears that it could fuel under-age boozing and noisy parties in Basingstoke.

Michael Knight told councillors he wanted to operate a 24-hour drinks delivery service from his home in Popley.

However, the plan was scuppered by members of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council's licensing sub-committee who were not convinced that the business could address police fears about potential under-age sales and trouble from rowdy customers.

Trading as Nite from his flat in Marnel Park, Mr Knight's enterprise would have employed three drivers to deliver drinks to people phoning in orders.

Mr Knight, 36, said he had met with the police and agreed to ideas such as equipping his delivery drivers with head-cams to record each transaction in a bid to prove he was not selling to under-age, drunk or rowdy customers.

He told the committee: "I would rather turn a customer down than lose my business."

Staff would be trained to make age identification checks as well as have Security Industry Authority (SIA) qualifications, he said.

However, Basingstoke police licensing officer Claire Wanless told the councillors that the constabulary still opposed the idea because it would make the town's under-age drinking problem worse and could result in rowdy parties.

She told the committee that under-age drinking is a big problem in Basingstoke, and pointed to an under-age drinking crackdown in Popley, one evening in June, that netted 185 bottles.

She said: "We do have a huge problem with youths getting hold of alcohol in the area and it's a great concern that more alcohol will get into the hands of under-age drinkers.

"Impromptu parties could cause crime and disorder, should the situation get out of hand.

"Supplying alcohol in this way could prolong the noise levels and revelry resulting from high music levels and general rowdiness from individuals."

Speaking after the hearing, Mr Knight said he felt the police had been too negative and had exaggerated possible problems.

He said: "It's a shame because it was a good idea and was a service a lot of people wanted. Most of my customers would have been responsible adults and my staff would have had all the training necessary."

Mr Knight added that he is considering an appeal against the refusal of his application.

Basingstoke Gazette

Men are failing to heed the message that drinking alcohol increases the risk of cancer, a charity has warned.

While the number of women saying they are aware of the link has gone up, the figure for men remains static.

The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) called for more to be done to get the message across about the dangers of too much drink.

It recommends men stick to two alcoholic drinks a day while women only have one.

A poll for the charity found that the percentage of women in the UK knowing alcohol can cause cancer has gone from 35% to 42% in the last year. However, the figure for men has stood still at 36%.

According to the WCRF, there is strong evidence that alcohol increases the risk of breast cancer, bowel cancer, kidney cancer and cancers of the mouth, pharynx, larynx and oesophagus. Some research suggests around 5% of new cancer cases could be due to alcohol.

Lisa Cooney, head of education at the WCRF, said: "It is good news that women are increasingly aware that drinking alcohol increases your risk of cancer. But the fact that men are no more aware about alcohol and cancer than they were a year ago is really worrying.

"The scientific evidence is stronger than ever before but it seems that the message is just not getting through.

"This is a cause for concern because we want to be reaching everybody with this message so that people are in a position to make an informed choice about how much they drink.

Press Association

A Senior Teignbridge police officer has warned more work is still to be done in the fight against alcohol-related crime and behaviour.

Supt Richard Baker, spoke out after a fresh campaign to curb binge and under-age drinking in Teignbridge.

Extra patrols, a poster campaign and meetings with licensees formed part of the crackdown.

Police seized booze, issued fixed penalty notices and made a number of arrests as part of the crackdown which ran from July 18 for seven days to dovetail in with schools breaking up.

Supt Baker said: "In Teignbridge we undertook a range of activities including marketing the campaign in schools by local neighbourhood beat managers.

"It was pleasing to note there were no recorded incidents associated with those schools or students.

"Partner agencies supported the campaign by distributing posters to licensed premises and providing a range of activities for young people during the holiday.

"In Newton Abbot we ran operations in licensed premises to deter the sale of alcohol to those underage or drunk.

"This has been very successful, while I have had to write to a number of premises including off-licences to remind them of their responsibilities, a meeting with licensees was well attended and I look forward to us working together to manage these issues."

High visibility patrols resulted in 25 seizures of alcohol from young people, four fixed penalty notices being issued and three arrests — not a significant number, said Supt Baker.

He added: "Having patrolled the area during the period, I did not find young people drinking in our parks and while I accept we need to keep an eye on this issue, I do not want to criminalise young persons who, in the main, are a credit to the community.

"Violent crime figures in Teignbridge continue to fall, however those incidents directly linked to alcohol have increased."

The issue of binge drinking has been hitting the headlines.

Devon and Cornwall Police Chief Constable Stephen Otter called on local governments to take action to stop people getting 'bladdered' on Britain's streets.

He spoke out after Exeter Crown Court Judge Graham Cottle said incidents of alcohol-related disorder were the 'most worrying development there has been over the past 10 years'.

Supt Baker said: "There has been a lot of media coverage both nationally and internationally regarding the risks associated with binge drinking.

"We will continue to work hard to prevent and enforce legislation to limit the impact locally.

"I have no issue with people enjoying themselves, it is those persons who do not take responsibility for their own actions who concern me as they are the ones having the biggest impact on the community."

This Is South Devon

Some University of Virginia students’ perceptions of their peers’ drinking habits are changing, a new study suggests.

Data from an estimated 15,000 surveys done from 2001 to 2006 has led to a marketing campaign researchers said is correcting misconceptions about what many people believe is more or less a collegiate pastime.

James Turner, executive director of Student Health at UVa, said Monday that the study is based on surveys of undergraduate students.

The study’s findings included showing that over the six-year period students reported driving under the influence fewer times in 2001 than they did in 2006.

While Turner said some students assume the opposite.

“It’s these misconceptions of the norms that tend to drive behavior,” Turner said.

Schools across the country have used similar approaches — known as “social norming” — to curb alcohol abuse, promote recycling and combat prescription drug abuse, among other things.

During the study, the UVa surveys asked students to pair their alcohol consumption with a list of consequences they may have experienced after drinking too much.

The list included missing class, having unprotected sex and getting in trouble with police.

After comparing 2006 numbers with those from 2001, the study found that roughly 2,000 fewer students were injured by alcohol-related events and that 550 fewer engaged in unprotected sex.

The study also found the number of students who reported experiencing no alcohol-related consequences was down by 2,500. And that females tended to respond positively to the university’s social norming marketing 30 percent more often than males, Turner said.

Poster campaign

Turner said the university has reinforced those findings by promoting them campus-wide on posters and on the Internet.

It’s also led to the distribution of more than 30,000 cards that help students gauge their alcohol intake.

Linda Hancock is director of the Wellness Resource Center at Virginia Commonwealth University, where since 2002 freshmen have been surveyed about their perceptions of safe sex and responsible alcohol use prior to their first day of classes.

After the initial surveys, Hancock said, students are inundated with posters around campus that debunk misconceptions about the state of VCU students’ health habits. Officials also print “stall journals” with VCU survey data and place them in bathrooms around the university.

Hancock said people are often skeptical after hearing VCU students live healthy lifestyles. Among students, that perception can come from repeatedly seeing unhealthy living among the same people again and again and thinking it’s normal, Hancock said.

“The majority who don’t get hammered don’t get seen,” she said.

Hancock said VCU’s surveys report 25 percent of the students don’t drink and that upwards of 70 percent are not drinking in a range she describes as “high risk,” or having a blood-alcohol level above .08, the legal limit in Virginia.

The UVa study also reported that 25 percent of its students report being alcohol-free, Turner said.

H. Wesley Perkins, a sociology professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in upstate New York, said that while plenty of schools have tried implementing social norms programs, many don’t stick with them long enough to see substantial results.

Some schools put up posters during Alcohol Awareness Week and then “go home for the year,” he said.

Social norms

Perkins helped pioneer work on social norms in the mid-1980s and helped with the UVa study. He said the five-year data collection period produced figures he believes other schools would find if they stuck longterm with norming programs.

At Hobart and William Smith — population less than 2,000 — Perkins said a four-year study in the late 1990s showed “high-risk drinking” was cut by 40 percent over the life of the study.

Around the country he’s also found that “scare tactics” and cracking down on policy enforcement often lead to a backlash from students.

At Florida State University, health officials try to correct misconceptions among their student body — roughly 35,000 undergraduates this fall — with mandatory classes for those found committing an alcohol violation on or off campus.

Those classes also try to find out if a student has underlying problems, such as prescription-medication abuse, said Lesley Sacher, director of FSU’s Thagard Student Health Center.

Sober data

Outside of a student getting in trouble, the college has also used public service announcements, billboards and advertisements on buses to put sober data out.

“When you’re dealing with a complex social issue, there’s really no magic bullet,” Sacher said of the university’s multiple approaches.

Lynn Reyes, a drug and alcohol counselor at the University of Arizona, said she finds mandatory classes for students who get into trouble with alcohol to be effective.

“My preference is to talk to students one on one about norms,” Reyes said.

Charlottesville Daily Progress

Too many women are getting drunk while playing mas'.

That's the view of the Department of Emergency Management and the National Council on Substance Abuse (NCSA), in the aftermath of Crop-Over's climax last Monday.

Judy Thomas, director of the Department of Emergency Management, and NCSA manager Tessa Chaderton-Shaw, both expressed concern about the substantial number of women who were intoxicated on the Grand Kadooment route from the National Stadium to Spring Garden.

"It looked like most of the related illnesses we had to deal with in our medical unit had to do with drunkenness, and most were females," said Thomas, noting that while she did not have exact figures, the alcohol-related illnesses on the route were more prevalent among women this year.

"I didn't do any study and cannot make comparisons between those who were attended to last year and this year . . . but there seems to be a pattern of more females drinking alcohol and getting intoxicated," Thomas stated.

Chaderton-Shaw said while it was difficult to target any single demographic group because of the NCSA's limited resources, the association was concerned about "the heightened use of alcohol among women at Crop-Over".

She said two major factors should militate against alcohol use on Grand Kadooment Day, namely the heat and revellers' excessive physical exertion.

"When you add alcohol to those two variables, you actually put your body into overdrive," Chaderton-Shaw explained.

She also noted that women's bodies carried ten per cent more fat than a man's and therefore contained less fluid to dilute alcohol, thereby causing them to "get drunk faster".

Pointing to risk factors resulting from drunkenness, including unprotected sex and vulnerability to physical attack, she said "we're obviously concerned about HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies".

She added the NCSA now planned to approach the National Cultural Foundation, which produces Crop-Over, to look at a strategic alliance aimed at sensitising potential revellers on the moderate and responsible use of alcohol.

She said the NCSA had approached one bandleader who dismissed its focus on alcohol awareness. However, they had a positive alliance with the alcohol industry, noting that while Crop-Over saw increased sales, industry leaders didn't want their products associated with accidents, injury or death.

Nation Newspaper

It is a student lecture with a sobering difference.

Freshers at St Andrews are to be given anti-drinking lessons from the police in a bid to safeguard the future of an iconic academic tradition.

The annual Raisin Week foam fight, which sees dozens of students engaging in boisterous revelry in St Salvator's Quadrangle, is considered the social highlight of the year at Scotland's oldest university.

But in recent years the event's image has been tarnished by yobbish behaviour fuelled by binge-drinking.

Student leaders fear that an increase in drink-fuelled criminal conduct could lead campus officials to pull the plug on the traditional November event.

Now freshers at Prince William's alma mater are to be warned by officers that drunken anti-social conduct will lead to them being arrested. They will also be told that a criminal record could harm their career prospects.

Inspector Alastair Topen, of Fife Constabulary, said: "Police in St Andrews will work with the university's student support services and associations to curb antisocial behaviour during events such as Raisin Week. Officers, including our own university liaison officer, will run a series of roadshows during freshers' week to explain the consequences of drinking excessively with regard to personal safety and what effects having a criminal record could have on their chances of getting a job or visa application."

A university spokesman denied they had any plans to halt the pageant, but stressed it could be taken out of their hands if the police felt it was fuelling antisocial behaviour.

He said: "The student community is aware that excessively drunken or criminal behaviour would naturally jeopardise the future of the celebrations – not so much because the university might take action, but because Fife Constabulary would arrest them."

Andrew Keenan, the president of St Andrews Student Association, said steps would be taken to ensure the tradition endures for centuries to come.

"The university and police are trying to calm down the wilder aspects of Raisin Week. The main problem was simply people drinking too much," he said. "We are going to be giving Raisin Week leaflets to every student, which will advise them to enjoy themselves while drinking and acting sensibly."

Scotland On Sunday

Do You or someone you know have a problem with alcohol?

If the answer is yes, then there has never been a better time to get help – following the launch of a new alcohol treatment service.

The scheme got underway this week and a roadshow will roll into Boston on Wednesday providing the perfect opportunity to find out more.

"On the day there will be a stall in the Market Place and on the easiest level we will be giving out leaflets about the services on offer, and then there will also be some working exercises such as a quick quiz which," said Scott Watkinson, alcohol commissioning manager for the Lincolnshire NHS Teaching Primary Care Trust. "There will also be a selection of drinks which we will be asking people to pour as if they were at home – when we did it at the Lincolnshire Show some people were pouring quadruples believing it to be a single believe it or not."

He added: "We want people who have an alcohol problem or know someone, a family member or friend, to come and talk to us."
The PCT has this year invested £1.5million in alcohol treatment – a sixth-fold increase from the previous year, said Mr Watkinson.

"The PCT recognises alcohol treatment needs a serious financial contribution," he added.

As well as the roadshow, the service which is being supported by Lincolnshire County Council, has also launched a dedicated website www.lincs2alcohol.co.uk

Furthermore there will be a new 'open access' to alcohol treatment through Addaction, in Boston's Wide Bargate.

"Lincolnshire has always been very good at dealing with drug problems, with people able to walk in to places like Addaction and get help – the same will now be the case for alcohol treatment," added Mr Watkins.

Shoppers in the town's Tesco supermarket will also be made aware of the scheme via posters targeting those who drink at home.

Boston Standard

Alcohol fuelled anti-social behaviour has soared since the introduction of 24 hour drinking laws, according to new figures.

Crime statistics gathered from almost every police force in the country show that public order offences have increased by 136 per cent in the past four years.

Police chiefs said that more than half of them are alcohol related and that the problem of tackling yob violence in the early hours is taking beat officers away from frontline policing during the day.

Opposition leaders said that the statistics show that attempts to create a Continental-style café culture by letting pubs and clubs open for longer have been a failure.

The figures, obtained from 35 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales under the Freedom of Information Act, show a huge rise in the number of people receiving on-the-spot fines for offences including excessive drinking, urinating and vomiting in the street, shouting abuse at passers-by and damaging property.

In the past year to April, 161,431 Penalty Notices for Disorder were handed out. That compares to 68,342 notices issued to people aged 16 and over in 2004/05 - the last year before the introduction of longer drinking hours.

Mike Craik, Chief Constable of Northumbria Police, said: "What 24-hour licensing has done is to give us more problems at three, four and five in the morning.

"Every force, certainly every force with a big town centre, is experiencing similar problems. It is drinking that is driving the levels of penalty notices up. More than half are given to drunks and I would say this is the case across the country."

Andy Trotter, deputy chief constable of the British Transport Police, added: "Longer licensing hours give people more opportunity to drink more than they should and unfortunately the more they consume the more likely they are to come to the attention of the police.

"The new laws may have brought an end to the 11pm rush but the downside is that police forces now have to deploy large numbers of officers through the night - sometimes to deal with extremely violent incidents - which means fewer resources are available for normal policing during the day."

Penalty notices were introduced in 2003 to deal quickly with low-level, anti-social crime and carry a fine of £50 or £80, depending on the seriousness of the offence.

Twelve of the 25 offences are directly related to alcohol abuse, including being drunk in the street and supplying alcohol to a child.

In March, Gordon Brown published a review which found the official ministerial conclusion of the new 24-hour drinking laws was "mixed''.

The Home Office said there had been a 25 per cent increase in serious violent crimes between 3am and 6am.

Andy Burnham, the Culture Secretary, admitted that crime and disorder had not fallen as hoped since the laws were introduced in 2005.

Dominic Grieve, shadow home secretary, said: "This is a consequence of Labour's decision to recklessly unleash 24-hour drinking on our towns and cities.

"Instead, they should have listened to our calls to pilot extended licensing, monitor the consequences and then apply the results appropriately.

"What is worse is that such disorder is being punished with the equivalent of a parking ticket."

A spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which supervises the licensing laws, said: "The recent evaluation of the Licensing Act showed that it has not led to an increase in crime and disorder.

"The average closing time has increased by only 21 minutes, and overall both crime and alcohol consumption are down."

Telegraph

The Halls of Ivy in the United States provide America with its path to higher education and most parents want their children to gain entrance through one of those ivy-covered doors. But some good old-fashioned education at home might better prepare one's student for path through the ivy.

Yes, we are well aware the college experience is the wing-sprouting event for teens facing their first attempts at adulthood, and some of that experimentation is a natural result of simply being on their own for the first time.

However, activities on college campuses often promote unsafe practices when it comes to drinking or turns its back on students' drinking practices, often with a wink of the eye.

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. That trend is thought to once again to be on the rise recently.

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.

That's a good step in fighting the problem, but we wish all of America's college campuses would take even stronger measures against binge drinking. This actually is a life and death practice and we cannot continue to allow our college students to participate in that kind of activity.

The federal data shows college students on average drink only a little more than adults in a typical week or month. But the binge drinking among students typically spikes on weekends when young people are more likely to go out with the goal of getting drunk. More deaths occur in December, when college students wrap up finals.

Scott Walters, an assistant professor of behavioral sciences at the University of Texas School of Public Health said, "College students tend to save the drinks up and drink them all at once. The goal of a lot of them is just to get smashed."

While we would like to see colleges get tougher on the issue of binge drinking, it wouldn't hurt if students would get more instruction from home before leaving for that freshman year. Values set at home are often much more important and binding than rules and laws set by society. After all, parenting can extend past high school. And you might be saving your kid's life.

Midland Reporter-Telegram

"I felt he didn't love me enough to stop," says Angela, whose husband abused alcohol for 14 years of their marriage. "I felt useless, desperate and demoralised."

About a million people in Britain are dependent on alcohol and a similar number of children are affected by a parent's addiction to drink.

Then there are the partners, family members, friends, co-workers and employers who have to cover up, play detective, issue threats, second guess or simply live in fear of what the drinker may do next.

There is plenty of confusion and denial about alcoholism - after all, not every problem drinker starts the day with a vodka or ends it looking like Amy Winehouse. But, say experts, if the answer to the question: "Is the drinking causing a problem within the family?" is "Yes", then you need help.

Alcoholism can be socially isolating for all involved. The drinker's spouse may be afraid to invite people over; friends can distance themselves; social gatherings can be ruined. The shame is immense.

"I wanted to project this happy family image to friends and neighbours but they all knew," says Angela, now a counsellor for Al-Anon, an organisation that offers support to families and friends of alcoholics.

Angela's husband was a "functional alcoholic" with a job. Even so, the damage he did was far-reaching. "I was on edge all the time," she says. "We had no money because he spent it on drink. I never knew what to expect when he walked through the door."

Like many loved ones, Angela tried to "fix" him. She punished, threatened and cajoled but his lies and deception were commonplace. "My husband only ever admitted having 'one drink'. The trust was non-existent."

Unsurprisingly, depression and despair are common in those close to alcoholics. About 50 per cent of men receiving help from alcohol services have perpetrated domestic abuse. Children are very vulnerable.

"People think they are protecting the children from the drinking," says Angela. "But even very young children pick up the atmosphere." The offspring of alcoholics often feel guilty.

Perhaps worst of all is the powerlessness. "Alcoholics are selfish," says Karen, 35, an artist who began drinking heavily in her early 20s. "My mother was heartbroken and baffled by my drinking. She aged 10 years. I felt guilt, shame and self-hatred but it only made me drink more."

Frank Soodeen of Alcohol Concern says: "You have to accept that neither you nor anyone else can make someone stop drinking harmfully. But you can help them to make changes."

This is why Al-Anon teaches the Three Cs: "I can't control it, I can't cure it, I didn't cause it." What you can do, however, is to get support so that whether your loved one drinks or not, you will cope.

COPING WITH A LOVED ONE'S DRINKING

1. Talk about the problems the drinking is causing

2. Listen - find out how the person feels about drinking

3. Be clear about what behaviour you will not accept and what you will do

4. Don't encourage them to make promises they can't keep

5. Don't make drinking easy by providing alcohol, money or company in the pub

6. Don't try to hide the effects from the drinker or from other people

7. Get support: try Al-Anon (020 7403 0888; www.al-anonuk.org.uk)

Telegraph

Some old people are damaging their health and risking falls and broken bones because they drinking too much.

Now, £30,000 is to be spent in Norfolk trying to learn the scale of the issue.

The county has a rising number of elderly people and it is thought there is a hidden drink problem as well as addiction to prescription drugs such as diazepam and codeine.

NHS Norfolk, the primary care trust which covers most of the county, says there is “significant anecdotal evidence to suggest that alcohol dependency amongst the older population in Norfolk is increasing”.

It is going to find out how many over-65s are drinking too much or are dependent on prescription drugs. It is also going to look at what services are already available and whether they are meeting the needs of the elderly. GPs will be asked to be on the alert for signs of alcohol abuse in their patients.

According to the General Household Survey in 2006, 15pc of over-65s drink every day - a higher proportion than any other age group.

Drinking, even at lower levels, can be more risky among older people because of declining health and the combination with prescription medicines.

Jocelyn Pike, lead commissioner for substance misuse for NHS Norfolk, said: “We know anecdotally we have a massive problem with older people and substance abuse. It is not just alcohol but prescription drugs. People are turning up with slips, trips and falls and it might be because of alcohol dependency or substance use.”

Daniel Harry, partnership liaison officer for Norfolk Drug and Alcohol Action Team, said: “They might be drinking because of bereavement, because they are in enduring pain, or because they are socially isolated, but that might be making the problem worse.”

He said heavy drinking could lead to someone being asked to leave a residential home, or could mean they could no longer cope on their own at home.

One of the problems is that the symptoms of harmful drinking - from headaches and nausea to an untidy house - can be confused with symptoms of an age-related illness.

Mr Harry said: “This is an opportunity to do a piece of research and find out if this is as much of a problem as the limited national research suggests if might be. There is an ageing population in Norfolk and it is an area that people like to retire to, so there may be more prob-lems than in a similar-sized area.”

Phil Wells, chief executive of Age Concern Norfolk, said: “A significant number of people coming to us come for problems which are made worse by alcohol... There is clearly a problem among older people and it can cause financial and other difficulties.

“We know mental health problems are serious and tend to be ignored. We would very much welcome the primary care trust supporting work in this area.”

Eastern Daily Press

Europeans knocked back 79 billion liters of alcohol in 2006, or 101.25 liters for every person. In the U.S. the figure was 98.7 liters per person, while in the Asia Pacific region, it was just 22.1, according to research consultancy International Wine and Spirits.

It's no surprise that Europe is home to the world's heaviest drinkers; from whiskey in Scotland to wine in France, the continent has some long and deeply embedded alcohol traditions. Nevertheless, our ranking of Europe's heaviest-drinking nations revealed some startling results.
By The Numbers: Europe's Biggest Drinkers

Croatia, the Balkan nation on the Adriatic Sea, came in at No. 1, while Britain, where fears about binge drinking have prompted a flurry of new legislation, came in at only No. 15. France and Sweden didn't even rank in the top 20.

We graded each country based on alcohol consumption per capita, legal restrictions on drinking, diseases resulting from alcohol abuse, and whether drinking habits, such as binge drinking or drinking in public places, are especially risky.

Each country was assigned a rank on the basis of each data set; the results were then totaled to produce a final rank.

Though Croatia came in only at No. 5 in terms of per capita consumption, the risky drinking pattern of its population, as well as high death rates from cirrhosis, put it at the top of our list. In terms of per-capita alcohol consumption alone, the Czech Republic came in first. Hungarians suffer the highest death rate from cirrhosis.

Europe isn't just a heavy consumer of alcohol--booze production plays an important role in the economy. It's home to some of the world's largest drink companies, such as Jameson whiskey maker Pernod Ricard, and Diageo (nyse: DEO - news - people ), the company behind brands such as Smirnoff and Guinness. According to a report by the Institute of Alcohol Studies for the European Commission (IAS), Europe produces a quarter of the world's alcohol, and the booze industry employs around 750,000 people in production alone.

But alcohol consumption takes a heavy toll. The tangible costs of drinking in the European Union, including health costs and loss of workforce productivity, were estimated at some 125 billion euros ($197.3 billion) in 2003, or 1.3% of gross domestic product, according to the study.

Nearly all the top 15 biggest drinking nations are in Central or Eastern Europe. Poverty and the harsh climate, particularly in Russia, play a part, as does the tradition of drinking. "Where it's extremely cold it's not uncommon for people to drink all day long," said Val Smith, president of International Wine and Spirits, which provided the data on per-capita alcohol consumption.

And particularly in agrarian regions; farmers often produce their own home brews from anything ranging from potatoes to sugar beets, making alcohol very accessible and very cheap, said Smith. This also makes per capita consumption hard to measure, with official figures sometimes well below actual consumption rates.

After a surge in binge drinking during the mid-1990s, Western Europe has sobered up substantially as greater affluence, education and the professionalization of the work force have changed drinking patterns, according to Ben Baumberg, policy and research officer at the IAS who authored the European Commission's report. A bottle of wine at lunch has become much less common in places like France and Italy.

Methodology

To determine Europe's drunkest countries we ranked 33* nations in four areas: consumption, regulation, riskiness of drinking patterns and health impact. The top 15 are included in our ranking.

Drinking: European countries were ranked 1 to 33 on the basis of per capita alcohol consumption during 2006, gathered by consultancy International Wine and Spirits.

Regulation: Using information from the World Health Organization for Europe's alcohol control data base, we assigned each country a score of 1 (the least restrictive) to 9 (the most restrictive) based on laws affecting alcohol consumption, including age restrictions on sales and opening hours at bars.

Drinking Pattern: We used the World Health Organization's scores for risky drinking behavior, which includes binge drinking and drinking in public places. Each country is assigned a score of 1 to 4, 1 being the least risky and 4 being the most.

Health Impact: We used data from the World Health Organization's Global Information System on Alcohol and Health to rank the countries from 1 to 33 based on the death rate from cirrhosis, a liver disease caused by alcoholism, per 100,000 people.

Weighting: Each of the four factors was given equal weight. Per capita consumption was used to break ties.

*Moldova, Albania and Cyprus were excluded from as complete data was not available.

Forbes

Before Sarah Bowman goes to the bar, there is a ritual.

A group of friends gather at someone's house, turn on some tunes, socialize and "pre-drink."

Sometimes there are three people, sometimes 10, but the objective is always the same: Get a buzz off cheap booze at home before heading to the bar where drinks cost $5.50 each.

"I rarely, rarely go to a bar without any alcohol in my system," said Bowman, 20, a University of Alberta nursing student.

The practice of pre-drinking is one the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission says it is monitoring, especially in light of a new alcohol policies, which came into effect Aug. 1 and will put an end to many cheap drink specials.

"A year ago, I hadn't even heard the phrase pre-drinking and now you're hearing it more and more," liquor commission spokesman Wes Bellmore said.

It is hoped the new policy, which includes minimum drink prices and happy hour regulations, will curb compulsive binge drinking and related post-bar violence.

It is intended to stop people from buying multiple cheap drinks in a short time period, Bellmore said.

Bowman said she is not convinced the new regulations will have the intended effect, and many of her university friends feel the same way.

"These new drink laws are supposed to cause less drinking, but I think people are just going to drink way more before they even get to the bar," she said. "When you do drink more, you lose your inhibitions. People are just going to spend that extra money and not care."

It is illegal to serve anyone who is visibly intoxicated, said Bellmore, and the problem with pre-drinking is it removes the bartender's control.

"I don't think that many licensees would want to have intoxicated people showing up at the bar," Bellmore said. "You have an automatic problem staring you in the face, rather than somebody you have served throughout the evening and you are able to cut them off."

Bartenders also measure carefully, whereas younger drinker are more likely to unintentionally over-pour and over-indulge, said Craig Stainforth, who has worked as a counsellor with the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission for 27 years.

"Some people just pour the old alcohol into the glass and they don't know the dosage," Stainforth said.

This can lead to binge drinking, which is classified as four or more drinks in a row for women and five or more for men, he said.

With binge drinking, blood alcohol levels rise rapidly and there is an increased risk of injury, violence and poor decision making in social settings.

This practice of drinking at home in order to save money before going out is common in the 18 to mid-20s age group, said Kristen Flath, University of Alberta Students' Union vice-president student life.

"I wouldn't say it's a student-specific phenomena, I think it's generally across the age group."

Flath said the student-run university bar is not affected by new policies because its prices were already higher than the new minimums.

But at Hudsons on Whyte, patrons noticed a change Sun., Aug. 3 when the price of the special $2 Sunday highballs was raised to $2.75.

General manager Mike Yates said he isn't overly concerned with people who drink before arriving since staff refuse entry to anyone who looks drunk.

"Our bouncers are well trained. They know what to look for: slurry words, watery eyes," Yates said. "They chat with patrons before they come in."

Prior to Aug.1, there was no minimum drink price in Alberta. Now, bars must charge minimum drink prices for each class of alcohol, such as wine, beer and liqueurs. Happy hours and drink specials must end at 8 p.m. and a there is a maximum drink order after 1 a.m.

Bellmore said he did not hear of any bars that refused to comply with the regulations over the long weekend, but formal reports from inspectors were not yet available.

Edmonton Journal

More than half a million pounds is to be ploughed into tackling alcohol abuse in the county.

NHS Norfolk wants to reduce the number of people who go to hospital due to alcohol use and will be working with police and the probation service to target people who offend because of their drinking.

The funding will initially be used to carry out a series of pilots, which will be evaluated for their effectiveness before being officially implemented.

The pilots include extra training for primary care professionals, working with people hospitalised through alcohol and arranging GP and community referrals for them, offering basic stitching and first aid out in the night time economy to reduce A&E admissions and helping police learn where injuries occur, and targeting criminals whose drinking is classed as dependent and is directly related to their offending.

Recent local research commissioned by Norfolk Drug and Alcohol Action Team (DAAT) in 2007, revealed that:

- in Norfolk 1 in 7 adults is estimated to binge drink

- at least 43pc of violent offences were reported as alcohol-related

- around 13,000 children live in a household with at least one dependent drinker

Dr John Battersby, director of public health for NHS Norfolk, said health services were acutely aware of the growing problems of alcohol misuse.

He said: “In particular Norwich has identified specific trends in behaviour which are a cause for concern - alcohol related crimes being one.”

Working with the probation service, NHS Norfolk will offer clinical prescribing for alcohol-related problems, as well as assisted alcohol detox programmes.

A structured alcohol programme will run over 14 sessions for offenders whose drinking is classed as harmful and who are at risk of re-offending, with the end result hoped to both improve health and reduce offending.

The health service also wants to set up a place of safety in the night time economy in Kings Lynn, to offer a similar service to Norwich's SOS Bus.

Another pilot will be developed in 2009 to focus children and families, and is aimed at ensuring individuals are able to make informed decisions regarding their alcohol consumption, both individually and as a family.

In addition to this an assessment of older people and their needs will be carried out to identify alcohol usage amongst the over 65s.

Jocelyn Pike, lead commissioner for substance misuse for NHS Norfolk, said: “Binge drinking amongst younger age groups is well documented, however within Norfolk the 25-35 year olds, young professionals group has also been identified as one that regularly consumes alcohol over and above the recommended daily limit.”

Bruce Finlayson, consultant in emergency medicine at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, said: “Any initiative that will help protect people from further harm, and possibly avoid their attendance at A&E has the support of this trust.

“It is just as important, however, to educate the public at large on the dangers of alcohol, both in the short term and in terms of the risk of permanent and irreversible damage to health.”

Evening News 24

Austin, Texas, is famous for its parties. People flock from around the world to attend events like the annual South by Southwest film and music festival. And when they get there, chances are they make like the locals and throw back a few cold ones--because Austin may be the hardest-drinking city in America.

Austin ranks high for its drinking habits across the board. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) 2007 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey, 61.5% of adult residents say they have had at least one drink of alcohol within the past 30 days, and a staggering 20.6% of respondents confess to binge drinking, or having five or more drinks on one occasion.

Some residents attribute those numbers to the city's sizable population of college students. Austin is home to several schools, including the University of Texas at Austin, one of the largest universities in the country.

"I imagine that's probably why the city's on [the list]," says Hunter Darby, manager of Austin's Dog & Duck Pub. "Sixth Street in Austin is like a tiny version of Bourbon Street. It caters a lot to a younger crowd who are right at age 21. They'll just go from bar to bar to bar. ... There are a ton of bars per human being in this town."

Collegiate excess has repercussions far beyond hangovers and missed classes, and should be of concern to members of the surrounding community. "Binge drinking hurts not only the drinker but also others near him," says Henry Wechsler, Ph.D., a lecturer at the Harvard school of Public Health, where he was also the director of the College Alcohol Study, and author of Dying to Drink: Confronting Binge Drinking on College Campuses.

"The binge drinker disturbs the peace, through noise, vandalism and sometimes violence. Like secondhand smoke, binge drinking pollutes the environment."

"The [social] cost of alcohol is in the billions of dollars. Roughly half the total is related to what's called alcohol addiction," says Paul Gruenewald, scientific director of the Prevention Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley, which is funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

"The other half is related to other harms that happen to people when drinking; primarily drunk driving, drunk driving crashes, pedestrian injuries, violent assaults, and various criminal behaviors and various injuries," Gruenewald said.

"It's not a pretty picture. It's quite ugly from the public health point of view. It's a much bigger problem than crime related to illegal drugs," he added.
By The Numbers: America's Hard-Drinking Cities

Coming in second on the list is Milwaukee. This city, known as "the nation's watering hole," has a long reputation as a city built on beer. It was once the nation's top beer-producing city, home to four of the world's largest breweries: Schlitz, Pabst, Miller and Blatz. Legendary sitcom characters Laverne and Shirley fixed bottle caps on one of the city's assembly lines. Even the town's baseball team--the Brewers--reflects its boozy past.

Rounding out the top five hardest-drinking cities are San Francisco; Providence, R.I.; and Chicago.

To determine the cities with the highest alcohol consumption, we started by making a list of the 40 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S.--geographic entities defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget for use by federal agencies in collecting, tabulating and publishing statistics.

We then examined data from the CDC's 2007 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey (BRFSS), a nationwide system that collects information on health risk behaviors, preventive health practices and health care access.

In this survey, the CDC develops a core questionnaire and provides it to state governments, which then perform telephone surveys asking more than 350,000 American adults about their health.

Due to state-by-state variations in the handling of the survey, the BRFSS isn't a perfect way to measure drinking habits. But since its data come directly from citizens, it does provide a good idea of regional variations.

The survey doesn't report results for every city in the nation, so two of our 40 candidate cities were eliminated from the list due to missing data. And because the CDC coordinates the surveys but does not individually manage them, there tend to be differences in sample size and margin of error from city to city. So we removed another five cities from our list because they exhibited unusually large margins of error.

The remaining 33 cities were then ranked based on their residents' responses to three different questions on the BRFSS: whether they had at least one drink of alcohol within the past 30 days; whether men had more than two drinks per day or women one drink per day; and whether they had five or more drinks on one occasion. In each case, higher-ranking cities reported larger percentages of their population answering in the affirmative.

To determine the 15 hardest-drinking cities, we added up the rankings from each category, counting the "five or more drinks on one occasion" question twice, since it most directly addresses the question of problem drinking. We then sorted that sum into our final ranks.

Of course, just because a city ranks high on the list doesn't make it a den of debauchery. A top-drinking town could be populated by health-conscious adults who sip a glass of wine a day in order to keep their hearts healthy. And just downing a few cold ones doesn't make a person irresponsible.

Forbes

Heavy drinking and bad behaviour by British tourists abroad has reached crisis point on one Greek island.

Officials in Zante are meeting British diplomats and officials to discuss what to do about young, rowdy tourists from the UK who cause trouble.

The Mayor of Laganas in Zante is so fed up he's demanding changes and says he wants to appeal more to families.

But there's a fear if young people stop going there, local businesses will suffer a downturn in trade.

The Laganas strip is 300 metres of bars and clubs that runs right down to the beach front.

You don't have to pay to get in anywhere and most give out free shots once you're inside.

There are no complaints from clubbers.

Leanne's from Dunstable. She's out in Zante with nine of her friends.

She told Newsbeat: "We're all dressed as mechanics. We're doing MOTs tonight and a lot of people need oiling."

Local disapproval

Laganas is like any other clubbing resort. It's all about the nightlife, cheap alcohol and having a great holiday.

The vibe is incredible on a night out, but not everyone's so happy about the type of tourist Laganas attracts.

Maria lives up the road from the resort.

She said: "We don't deserve the reputation that goes with Laganas.

"I don't know why the children are drinking the way they are but the root of the problem is alcohol and enormous amounts. No normal person drinks that much."

Maria's seen the bad behaviour first hand.

"It was early in the evening. A young girl about 20 years old was blind drunk and got on top of the car," she said.

"She pulled her knickers down and did what you would normally do on a toilet seat."

There is a more serious side to this issue. Laganas has suffered in the press recently.

Just a few weeks ago, a 17-year-old boy from Sheffield died in the resort.

Drinking culture

The Mayor, Dionisis Komiotis, has spoken publicly about what he sees as inappropriate behaviour in his town.

He said: "We don't want the young people to walk out naked to cause problems and damage.

"We don't want them to annoy the rest of the guests and tourists and, of course, put their own lives in danger.

"We want the young people to enjoy themselves and go back home healthy and happy."

That's easier said than done. Tourists come to this resort to drink, have a good time and sometimes things get out of hand.

The British Embassy has been regularly dealing with incidents caused by heavy drinking in Laganas.

The UK ambassador, Simon Gass, says the problems are all to do with alcohol.

He said: "If you have a resort in which there are very large numbers of bars selling very cheap and often low quality alcohol in very large quantities, you can't be that surprised when you get an awful lot of people who end up drunk."

The UK ambassador to Greece has been meeting the mayor, tour operators and local businesses to try to sort out the problem.

The mayor wants to see families returning to the resort.

There is the fear, though, that if young people stop coming, the face of Laganas will change completely with businesses that rely on them, worried about their livelihoods.

Another option would be to put more police on the streets to support the bars and clubs and keep British tourists in line.

BBC News

In a week that saw new powers come into force that allow Gardaí to target alcohol sales and public drinking, a Limerick priest has said the issues which are driving young people to abuse alcohol must be urgently addressed.

Fr Joe Young, chaplain to the Brothers of Charity Services in Limerick, said he "welcomed with open arms" the new laws, which mean off-licences will not be able to sell alcohol after 10pm.

In additon, Gardaí will be allowed to seize alcohol from minors if they believe it is going to be consumed outside of a private home and will also be allowed to hand out fixed penalty fines for public order offences.

"I certainly welcome the measures because I believe 90 per cent of the problems we have in today's Ireland come from a society in denial about alcohol abuse," Fr Young said.

"This denial is a multi-generational problem. Alcohol isn't being seen as a mood-altering drug or as a depressant."

The priest said he believed alcohol was the main contributor in the many suicides committed by young people.

"We must address the issues driving young people to use alcohol. In a lot of cases, depression is number one, especially if they come from a dysfunctional home. When young people are depressed, they self-medicate with alcohol but of course it only compounds the problem." Fr Young added.

"One of the problems associated with depression is the sense of isolation, the feeling that nobody understands or cares. In Limerick, we've just had a 15-year-old girl commit suicide.

"With all our technology, I don't believe we've ever had so much loneliness. We need to address the issue of depression in young people and destroy the stigma that's still associated with it."

Fr Young said he recently called on Limerick Mayor John Gilligan to set up a sanctuary in the city where young people could "share, in a safe environment, whatever is going on in their lives".

Total Catholic

As Americans aged over the last two generations, they drank less alcohol. And the younger generation of adults drank less heavily than the ones before it, according to the first analysis of alcohol-consumption trends over adult life spans.

By the time they reached their 80s, more than 40 percent of men and 60 percent of women said they didn't drink at all, according to a study in the August issue of The American Journal of Medicine.

Over time, beer drinkers generally shifted to wine, the study found, and the younger generation drank less hard liquor than the older ones did. At the same time, more and more adults aged into moderate drinkers by federal dietary standards. They define moderate drinking as two drinks per day for men and one per day for women.

"They've understood that a little alcohol is OK but a lot is not good," said Curtis Ellison, a co-author of the report and a professor of medicine and public health at Boston University School of Medicine.

At the same time, rates of problem drinking remained unchanged, Ellison's team found. Nearly 13 percent of men and 4 percent of women reported problems across the study span.

"It seems they just can't get over their problems with alcohol," Ellison said.

Researchers relied on estimates of alcohol consumption reported every two to four years from 1948 through 2003 for a famous and massive study of lifetime health called the Framingham Heart Study. The alcohol analysis involved 8,600 of its participants, born from 1900 through 1959.

The participants' experiences with alcohol reflect trends for most of the last century.

Women consistently drank less than men, the study found. Heavy drinking dropped with age for men but fell less markedly for women.

By their mid-70s, men were drinking half the beer they'd drunk in their mid-30s, and the decline among women was similar.

McClatchy Washington Bureau

Farmington City councilors are considering bans on Sunday liquor sales and sales of malt liquor and wine containing a high amount of alcohol.

City staffers will draft a resolution in support of a ban at Farmington liquor stores. That resolution would call for a vote by Farmington residents to overturn current Sunday liquor sales.

City councilors asked staff members to take the steps at a City Council meeting Tuesday morning.

The move comes as officials try to address Farmington's public drunkenness problem.

The city, however, cannot pass a law banning Sunday liquor sales on its own; nor can it directly send the issue to a vote of the people.

The resolution only would support the idea of people gathering signatures on a petition, which could lead to a referendum, according to city officials. At least 10 percent of registered voters in Farmington would have to sign that petition.

The resolution would not call for a ban on Sunday liquor sales in restaurants and bars, City Attorney Jay Burnham said.

Bill Standley thinks some groups in the city would be willing to gather petition signatures.

Councilors eventually will consider a law, to be drafted soon, that would ban liquor stores from selling malt liquor and "fortified" wine. "Fortified" means pure alcohol is added after the wine has fermented naturally, Burnham said.

Councilor Mary Fischer said the drinks contribute to alcohol abuse and Farmington's public drunkenness problem, but was skeptical that such a ban would help. She would rather ask stores to voluntarily pull those kinds of drinks from shelves.

"I think we could ban every bit of fortified alcohol and they'd still drink hair spray," Fischer said about some alcoholics who punch holes in hair spray bottles to drink the alcohol inside.

"It's a serious, serious problem," she said.

Liquor store owners had mixed reactions to the proposed alcohol regulations.

The bans would penalize responsible drinkers, said Cory Waldroup, owner of Office Package Liquors. Farmington instead should adopt laws against public drunkenness, which New Mexico lacks, Waldroup said.

Councilors should punish those who drink too much, not liquor stores, he said. Waldroup carries malt liquor, but he won't sell alcohol to "people who are on the street."

But, "I'm not going to take something out of my stores that I have the right to sell," he said.

Susan Douglas, owner of Copper Penny Specialty Liquors, decided to pull malt liquor from her shelves after city officials asked her to do so. Fewer drunken homeless people spend time near her store on Main Street, Douglas said.

Seeing a homeless person spend his or her last few dollars on booze saddens Douglas, she said.

"People who have an alcohol problem will find something else, but I don't want to add to that cause," she said.

Farmington Daily Times

Alcohol and drug abuse is a major issue in Jackson County.

That was the consensus of panelists who discussed the topic Monday night during a town hall meeting sponsored by Together For Jackson County Kids. The meeting "Impact of Alcohol and Other Drugs on Jackson County Community: How Can We Change It?" was held at the Black River Falls Middle School.

About 10 residents attended the meeting, which featured presentations from Nick Lee, a drug and alcohol counselor with West Central Wisconsin Behavioral Health; Terry Greendeer, the Alcohol and Other Drug Program Director with Ho-Chunk Nation; Sheriff Duane Waldera; youth member Ben Hodge from Together for Jackson County Kids and Michelle Schoolcraft, social worker with the county's Department of Health and Human Services.

Brockway Police Chief Christian Eversum could not attend the meeting, but sent a letter saying his research on police calls in 2007 shows 25 percent involved some use of alcohol, tobacco or drugs.

"We clearly have a serious issue in Jackson County and it is going to take the hard work of everybody in this community to make positive change," Eversum's letter said.

Waldera echoed Eversum's comments but said the alcohol and drug connection with county calls is much higher.

"We do have a problem," Waldera said. "We need to somehow come up with a program to intervene. Citations can and do have an impact, but it needs to be more than just paying a fine and moving on. The majority of cases that sit in jail are alcohol-related and alcohol can be just about linked to every case when we've had to intervene."

Greendeer, who has worked with the Ho-Chunk alcohol and drug program for 21 years, said alcohol affects everybody regardless of race, social or cultural beliefs.

"One of the biggest things that I see with the Native American person is that one of the biggest things taken from them is their spirit," Greendeer said. "They aren't able to define what their values and beliefs are once alcohol has taken over their whole life."

Both Greendeer and Lee said preventing youth from abusing alcohol has to start with the parents, who need to understand the law and need to be involved.

"If there is normal, responsible drinking at home and it hasn't become abusive and when it doesn't become that way, there's probably a good chance a teen isn't going to acquire that attitude and engage in abuse of alcohol," Lee said.

Greendeer said her office conducts alcohol awareness activities every April, but the biggest challenge is getting participation from adults.

"Parents do not want to be involved," she said. "It hasn't changed. You're talking about a problem that exists and has been in existence for years and years and generations, but it's always hidden in the closet and is devastating to everybody. I don't know what to do. They don't want to admit there is even a problem."

Greendeer said sometimes a parent will refer a child for in-patient treatment and the child is gone for 45 days, but comes back to the same home environment that contributed to the addiction problem in the first place.

"The family doesn't get the treatment that the child should have had," Greendeer said. "They want their child to live a sober lifestyle but yet the parent hasn't gone the extra mile to be supportive of their child while they are in treatment."

In-patient facility

Judge Thomas Lister, who attended the meeting, asked Greendeer if the Ho-Chunk Nation would be willing to work with the community to provide an in-patient treatment facility in Jackson County. She said the nation is working on providing one for its own members, but would have an interest in a community center as well.

Lister said a facility closer to home would allow members to get the family support they need. He also said the facility would give the courts more options for defendants who need treatment rather than putting them in jail for a cost between $40 to $80 a day, depending on their medical needs.

"Give me an inpatient facility where I can put them rather than in jail," Lister said. "Give me that $40 to $50 a day to a residential treatment center where they can get some meaningful intervention. Maybe we can pull together some philanthropists and local organizations and try for one."

Lister said the court is limited when dealing with alcoholism as a disease. Simply putting alcoholics in jail may be punishment for the crime, but upon release the person has not been rehabilitated.

Waldera said continuing to arrest repeat offenders for bail violations - many of them for consuming alcohol - ties up two to three hours of a deputy's time for each arrest.

"It tends to be a revolving door sometimes," Waldera said. "Our deputies get frustrated. If there is a way to intervene, identify the problem and get them adequate help, it will be a cost-saving to the county. We can fill the beds in the jail; that's not the issue. But we need to keep repeat offenders out of the jail and have them be productive citizens in society."

Schoolcraft said Together for Jackson County Kids remains committed to continuing discussion and dialogue on the alcohol and drug abuse issue and additional town hall meetings are possible.

"We need to find a common ground that all of us can live with to help our children grow up and be successful adults," she said.

Jackson County Chronicle

The fear of becoming caught up in booze-fuelled violence means ordinary people are steering clear of town and city centres during the evenings, a top Westcountry judge has warned.

Judge Graham Cottle said the growing trend in incidents of alcohol-related disorder was the “most worrying development that there has been over the past 10 years”.

The judge, who has 25 years' experience of presiding over cases in the Westcountry, was speaking within weeks of two youths being found guilty of the manslaughter of Timothy Chilcott, 36, in Minehead, Somerset, in January.

Sean Wylds, 20, and a 16-year-old who was too young to name were drunk when they provoked their victim and struck the fatal blow.

And on Friday, Judge Cottle jailed Ian Mitchell, 25, from Newlands, Dawlish, for nine months after breaking a man's ankle while drunk.

Earlier this year, the Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall revealed that alcohol-related crime – mainly public disorder and assault offences – had risen by nine per cent between April 2007 and January this year.

Judge Cottle, who is based at Exeter Crown Court, said he had “serious concerns” about the escalation of such crimes. He estimated that around 40 per cent of cases before his court were now linked to alcohol, and that incidents had risen “both in terms of frequency and severity”.

He said he had passed sentence in a number of cases where a night's drinking had ended in a manslaughter charge. He said that violence after binge-drinking could ruin the lives of both victims and defendants, who were often acting entirely out of character and were frequently “utterly sickened” by their actions when confronted with CCTV footage.

He believed the solution lay in tightening licensing laws, and in working with police and other agencies to change the culture of binge-drinking.

The judge said: “I realised this was escalating into a serious problem, affecting the lives of ordinary people because they were scared by the prospect of what they would witness if they went for a civilised night out. I thought 'We have to do something to redress the balance.'

“Rightly or wrongly, I have adopted an approach which is as near to zero-tolerance as is consistent with my duty to take into account everything that can be said on behalf of the defendant. In practically every case, that will only affect the length of the sentence imposed.”

He said alcohol-fuelled violence had a greater impact on the public than many other crimes, because people trying to enjoy a civilised night out had to witness the attacks.

“The effect is that there are quite a lot of people who simply don't go to city and town centres at certain times of the night on certain days, because they are frightened to do so.”

And he said violent attacks and drunken disorder were not only committed by young men, but “very frequently” the culprits were young girls .

The judge said some of the cases presented a difficult sentencing problem. “Frequently, the people who are in the dock have no previous convictions at all, and are often in paid employment – people who are utterly remorseful, and for whom behaving in that way was totally out of character.”

He said the “zero-tolerance” approach meant he often had to pass a prison sentence, even though it would mean the defendant losing their job and struggling to find work in the future.

He recognised the work of police, who had a “difficult and frightening” job in confronting drunken groups, and praised the release of 200 officers on to the front line in the past year.

And he said the improvement in the CCTV network meant any incident could often be viewed in court from beginning to end, providing vital and conclusive evidence for juries.

The judge blamed the problem in part on the licensing laws, which he said had been “relaxed to the point where effectively, there aren't any”, with the Government's 24-hour drinking legislation having failed to achieve its goal of reducing the number of incidents.

Supermarkets offering heavily discounted alcohol deals also played a role, as well as a “whole raft” of social problems. He said the solution had to lie in a partnership approach to tackling the problem.

Stephen Otter, Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall, was unavailable for comment yesterday.

But in March, he told the WMN that he supported stricter licensing laws as part of the solution: “To my mind, it is the cheap drink, high-volume businesses that need to be controlled. I don't think it – the rise in alcohol-related crime – is a product of 24-hour licensing but I do think that we have got to take our town centres back and again make them places that people can enjoy.”

Hugo Swire, Conservative MP for East Devon, said supermarkets, pubs, bars and parents all had a role to play in a problem which is a national embarrassment. “The 24-hour licensing laws which were designed to stop this problem have ended up contributing to it.

“Until such time as people in this country learn to drink responsibly, rather than going on a complete binge and ending up in trouble, we need to reverse those laws.”

Andrew George, Lib-Dem MP for St Ives, said alcohol-fuelled violence was a “perennial problem” and he advised his son and daughter to steer clear of certain areas where people were often “keen to get into a fight”.

But he questioned the value of a “simplistic” approach to always imprisoning offenders. He said that in some cases, a mixture of a suspended sentence, counselling for anger or the drink problem and confronting the culprit with the consequences of their actions from the victim's point of view, could work.

“The fear is that you turn people who have not been involved in crime before into 'better' criminals.

“They mix with people who take them on a downward spiral rather than an upwards one. It doesn't necessarily help in the long-term.”

This Is Western Morning News

Alcohol experts have warned that a 13-year-old could have died after drinking so much he had to be taken to hospital.

The boy was discovered being violently sick in the Whitfield area of Dundee on Saturday night.

A child concern report will be issued because he was not being supervised.

One alcohol worker said she was "saddened but not surprised" by the incident as drinkers had been getting younger and younger.

Frankie Claridge, from Tayside Council on Alcohol, said: "It may not be a lot of young people that are being taken to accident and emergency, but as a society one person is one person too many at that age.

"Your 10, 12, 13-year-olds - if they get hooked into a habit of heavy drinking at that age then at the age of 20 they will be admitted to hospital for all sorts of alcohol-related diseases and that's very concerning.

"They're not adults and their organs are not able to cope with vast amounts of alcohol as you know now by that 13-year-old with alcohol poisoning."

Ms Claridge wants to see the price of alcohol increased and people employed to go into primary schools to educate children about the dangers of drinking.

She also believes parents should do more.

"As adults we're not very good mentors, we're not very good role models, we're not very good teachers," Ms Claridge said.

"Young children at the age of five, and there has been research done, they know that mummy's juice and daddy's juice is different and it makes them act differently.

"Then at the age of 10, 12, 13, they think, 'let's get out and try some of this stuff' and it's very, very available for them too and it's extremely cheap.

"We're never going to stop underage drinking, never, but it's a duty for every human being to take responsibility for making sure that information is given to young people about what it can do them and how to respect the stuff."

BBC News

Drug and Alcohol Services SA says there are about two deaths a week in Australia involving young people who have been binge-drinking.

Teenager Daryl Horner, 15, died at Peterborough in the mid north of South Australia at the weekend reportedly after drinking home-brewed alcohol.

Keith Evans, from Drug and Alcohol Services, says the death is a tragic reminder of the need to prevent underage drinking.

"We are seeing across Australia around about two deaths a week in relation to young people who are heavily intoxicated," he said.

"I mean it's obviously eminently preventable - this is a real tragedy, a tragedy for that family but we really do have to change this culture that says it's ok to drink to get drunk and, at 15, it's not ok to drink at all.

"These figures are going up year by year so there is something that is happening - it's happening with our younger people, there is an issue to do with their willingness to take risks, the culture of drinking to intoxication, the encouragement of other young people."

ABC News

A new study hints that people who have both alcohol problems and sleep problems – which often occur together -- might be helped by an epilepsy drug. The small study opens the door for further research on how to help alcohol-dependent people escape the Catch-22 of insomnia and drinking that often stands in the way of recovery.

It’s a Catch-22 of the highest order. People with alcohol problems often use alcohol to get to sleep -- but it actually keeps them from getting good-quality sleep all night long.

At the same time, they’re highly likely to suffer from full-blown chronic insomnia that keeps them from getting enough sleep night after night – and that condition has been shown to cut their chances of getting sober again.

Meanwhile, their doctors aren’t likely to prescribe them insomnia medications, because most sleeping pills can be habit-forming or have adverse effects due to an alcohol-damaged liver.

Now, a small new pilot study from a team of University of Michigan alcoholism and sleep researchers offers some sign of a possible way out of this conundrum.

The study, published in the August issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, suggests that the drug gabapentin might be able to reduce insomnia in recovering alcoholics, and help them stay away from alcohol more successfully. The drug, often used to treat epilepsy and chronic pain, is not habit-forming and is not processed by the liver.

Although the study involved only 21 insomniacs in recovery from alcohol dependence, and did not provide long-term gabapentin treatment or long-term follow-up on their sleep or their alcohol recovery, it was randomized, placebo-controlled, and double-blinded. In all, 30 percent of the patients who received gabapentin during alcohol recovery relapsed to drinking, compared with 80 percent of those who received a placebo.

Based on the results, the researchers have already launched additional studies of the potential role of gabapentin in alcohol recovery and sleep.

“We showed that the patients who got the real drug, rather than placebo, were less likely to relapse to drinking -- or if they relapsed it was later,” says lead author Kirk Brower, M.D., FASAM, the executive director of U-M Addiction Treatment Services and a professor of psychiatry at the U-M Medical School. “In other words, gabapentin prevented and delayed relapse. Meanwhile, patients reported sleeping better in both the treatment and placebo groups, which may be due to the gabapentin in the first group and the resumption of drinking in the other.”

Co-author Flavia Consens, M.D., an associate professor of neurology and member of the U-M Sleep Disorders Center, is cautiously optimistic that the new findings could open the door to better understanding of how to handle sleep problems in people who are trying to recover from their dependence on alcohol. As many as 70 percent of people with alcohol problems suffer insomnia, she says, while others cope with other sleep disturbances including breathing problems known as sleep apnea.

Nearly 14 million Americans meet the diagnostic criteria for alcohol abuse or alcoholism. Alcohol problems, alone or in combination with illicit drug problems, account for 40 percent of admissions to addiction treatment programs each year, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

“There may be some underlying chemical changes in the brain that prompt alcoholics to report more insomnia as a co-existing condition than non-alcoholics,” she says. “A possible explanation of these new findings is that the gabapentin might decrease the insomnia initially, and the patient may not need or crave alcohol as a treatment for the insomnia. We’re also looking into other factors that may have an effect on the neurochemistry of the brain, and see how they could impact recovery and sleep.”

The researchers caution that they did not observe differences in brain wave data collected during sleep studies conducted before and after patients received gabapentin. Neither did the drug appear to have a greater benefit for insomnia than placebo during the first 6 weeks of receiving study medication. Six weeks after stopping medication, however, those who had taken gabapentin reported worse insomina than those on placebo. Insomnia was measured using standardized questionnaires for a total of 12 weeks

All of the volunteers met national criteria for alcohol dependence, and were either in alcohol treatment or expressed a willingness to abstain from alcohol. They also all met criteria for insomnia that had lasted six months or more. They could not have other medical or mental health conditions, or be taking medications, that might affect their sleep, and underwent blood tests to rule out medical illnesses such as thyroid deficiency and liver disease.

Each of the study volunteers spent three nights in the U-M Sleep Disorders Center: two during the preparation for the study, and one three weeks after they began to receive gabapentin or placebo. All the volunteers received up to six brief sessions of behavioral therapy aimed not at sleep or alcohol issues, but rather at adherence to the study medication.

Fourteen of the volunteers successfully completed the entire study, including a follow-up appointment six weeks after they completed the six-week course of gabapentin or placebo, and three overnight sleep studies.

Brower notes that the medication dose and schedule used in the study may have contributed to the relatively weak effect on sleep that was seen from gabapentin. Patients took one dose each evening, rather than the three doses throughout the day that are routinely given for epilepsy or pain.

“These results raise more questions for us to explore, including the potential impact of gabapentin on people who are in recovery from alcohol dependence but do not report insomnia,” he says.

University of Michigan Health System

One drink leads to another, and another . . .

This weekend alcoholics from around the South Island will be in Ashburton for an Alcoholics Anonymous assembly. They come from all walks of life, but they share a common desire to stay sober. Reporter Michelle Nelson tells the story of two women affected by alcoholism. Rita is a recovering alcoholic, and Jane talks of the impact her alcoholic father had on her childhood.

My name is Rita, I’m an alcoholic.
Many of you know me, few of you know about my alcohol and drug addiction.

I live among you, work with you, stand alongside you in the queue outside parent-teacher interview rooms, chat with you in the corner dairy and deal with you in a professional capacity.

That’s the odd thing about alcoholics – you just can’t pick us. There are those in our ranks whose drunken behaviour ends in the mayhem and violence that attracts media attention, but the majority of us are living right alongside you. These days, with the support of AA, I am a recovering alcoholic.
For me, only another addict can understand the despair of addiction.

One of the first AA slogans I took on board was “don’t pick up the first one and you can’t get drunk.” It took a while, but therein lies the essence of my “problem.” Cliché; it’s not what we drink – it’s how we drink.

Have you ever told yourself you won’t drink tonight? This week? Until your birthday? Until someone else’s birthday?

Or that you deserve a drink because you had a bad day? Because you had a good day? Because a bird flew overhead?

I made a lot of promises to myself and to those who cared about me. I am a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister and a friend – and I am an alcoholic, I have a disease and my addiction to alcohol is symptom of that disease.

Nobody in their right mind would choose to be an addict. But there is something wrong in my mind; when I pick up a drink I don’t stop until I’m pissed.
There are scientific theories to explain my disease ranging from a genetic predisposition to drink like a fish to my upbringing in a family of boozers – both of which open a stupid chicken or the egg debate, and at the end of the day it doesn’t matter.

The fact is I am an alcoholic. And these days I’m okay with that. In fact I really wonder why I was so scared of being sober.

You see, I never could live life on its own terms. I was an insecure kid and alcohol was a magic potion for confidence - and fear of being exposed kept me drinking.

And that’s one of the things that bond us alcoholics. Underneath the social trappings we all battle common demons and insecurity and fear are a common thread.

By the luck of the gods I found myself in Queen Mary rehab some years ago now.

There I heard a dear old lady speak of stabbing her husband. I ate with a man who tried to cut his girlfriend’s throat.

The stories of the multi-millionaire, who owned a helicopter, the doctor who never prescribed anything he hadn’t tried himself, the accountant, the teacher, the truck driver, the transvestite sex worker, the priest, the gang member and the nurse have much in common.

Alcoholism, or any other addiction for that matter, plays no favourites. It takes no account of race, colour or creed, whether you are rich or poor, or educated and powerful. If it’s going to get you it will. The question is – what can be done about it?

AA is the only thing that worked for me. I tried counselling and saw psychiatrists, walked out the door and got pissed. Today I am sober and that’s what matters.

An eight-year-old child and her little sister sit in a car parked outside a pub. They have been there for a long time.

They are arguing about who will go in to drag their father out of the pub. Both children are frightened of drinking men – and with good reason.
Eventually Jane goes. She is fobbed off with a packet of chips and her father’s promise not to be long.

Hours later he staggers from the bar and gets behind the wheel. The girls know better than to argue.

“He would sit me on his knee so I could steer the car, then I learned to drive and soon I was driving a drunk home, I was only eight or nine years old.”
Soon Jane’s father began taking her on ‘trips’ – which were in fact pub crawls, on which she was frequently abused.

“His hands would be up my dress and he’d say your mother’s doing the same thing to your brother.

“I was disgusted, I loved my mother and I thought what he was saying was true.”

Jane was fed many lies as her father set about isolating her by maligning her mother’s character.

“He told me my mother was having an affair with the headmaster, I thought that was true too.”

Jane doesn’t remember a childhood. Her story is more about her survival in a warzone awash with alcohol.

“I know now that my mother had to beg for money to feed us, but there were always flagons. I never felt like a little girl, I was always worried about what would happen next. I was always trying to keep mum safe, keep my sister safe, keep myself safe.”

When Jane was in her teens her parents separated and her mother learned of the sexual abuse.
“She had a nervous breakdown, it was terrible.”

Again Jane picked up the pieces, setting a pattern she would carry into adulthood.

“All my life I’ve been trying to save people.”

But while Jane was trying to save others she was bent on a path of personal self-destruction. Not surprisingly she left school with few qualifications; she began binge drinking, developed eating disorders and formed a succession of unsuccessful relationships with men.

Two years ago Jane ended a violent relationship and was diagnosed with traumatic stress disorder; she thinks it is responsible for the panic attacks she has long suffered.

“It’s always been there, all my life that I can remember I just never had a name for it.”

Emotionally and physically battered and determined to turn her life around, she made contact with an abused women’s support group then Al-anon, a support group for family members whose lives have been blighted by alcoholism.

“There was no where else to go. Being raised by an alcoholic almost destroyed my life.

“I’m learning to put my needs ahead of others, I can’t save them but I can save myself.”

Ashburton Guardian

According to researchers at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA), the odds of 18-19 year old college women experiencing sexual aggression are 19 times greater when they binge drink than when they don't drink. Binge drinking or heavy drinking was defined as drinking four or more drinks on a drinking occasion.

The analysis that led to this finding was based on daily reports of 179 young college women during an eight-week study. The majority of the women, 118 (66 percent of the sample), reported drinking alcohol during the study. Among those who drank, 73 women (62 percent) reported one or more days of heavy drinking. For this particular group of women, heavy drinking translated to on average, seven drinks.

Reports of aggression were provided by 63 women (35 percent) in the sample of 179. Across the entire sample, a total of 127 days of aggression was reported. Sexual aggression was reported on 26 of these days (or 20 percent of the time). The odds of experiencing sexual aggression were 19 times greater on heavy drinking days compared to non-drinking days. Physical aggression was reported on 16 of the days (or 13 percent of the time). The odds of experiencing physical aggression were 12 times greater on heavy drinking days compared to non-drinking days.

According to Kathleen A. Parks, Ph.D., principal investigator on the study, "Our goal was to investigate the relationships among drinking, aggression, and mood. What we found - in the very high odds of sexual and physical aggression on heavy drinking days - indicates major consequences of binge drinking for women that no research study had previously established."

Parks is a senior research scientist at RIA with expertise in women's substance use and misuse, and alcohol-related victimization of women.

Verbal aggression was reported on 85 of the 127 days of aggression (or 67 percent of the time). The odds of verbal aggression were a little over two times greater on heavy drinking days compared to non-drinking days. This is of some interest because verbal aggression often precedes physical and sexual aggression. When women experienced negative psychological symptoms or moods (described as depression or anxiety), the odds of verbal aggression increased by three times. Furthermore, the odds of alcohol consumption were three times higher for the 24 hour period following involvement in verbal aggression.

The researchers also determined that not all drinking puts women at risk for experiencing aggression. Rather, heavy drinking (consuming four or more drinks per occasion) increased women's risk for involvement in sexual, physical, and, to a lesser degree, verbal aggression.

"These findings provide support for the need to develop intervention programs targeted to this problem," Parks concluded. "In addition, they help define characteristics that put women at increased risk for aggression, regardless of alcohol consumption. Women who enter college with a history of experiencing aggression or a history of heavy drinking are at greater risk for later aggression, as are women who experience depression or anxiety while in college."

This study was part of a larger four-year investigation of 995 first-time freshmen college women. It took place during the spring semester of the second year at college when the women were 18-19 years old. Sixty-one percent of the women were white, 15 percent were black, 13 percent Asian, and the remaining 10 percent were from other ethnic groups.

A complete report of the study was published in the June 2008 issue of Psychology of Addictive Behaviors.

Medical News Today

Alcohol, rather than drugs, is recognised as the biggest social evil in Scotland, although many Scots remain ignorant of the officially recommended safe drinking limits, research revealed yesterday. A Scottish social attitudes survey released yesterday reflected public awareness of the country’s “booze culture”, though fewer than half the respondents could identify the recommended maximum daily intake for men and women, despite a string of high-profile antialcohol campaigns.

The Scots’ troubled and often contradictory relationship with alcohol was also evident in the fact that almost half (48 per cent) believed the country’s record of heavy drinking was a source of shame and a similar number of people (47 per cent) think those with serious drink problems “have only themselves to blame”.

Nevertheless, 67 per cent also said drinking was “a major part of the Scottish way of life”.

Four in ten thought it was “easier to enjoy a social event if you’ve had a drink”. This view is more common among men than women. Moreover, concerns about the social acceptability of avoiding alcohol were apparent in the finding that 31 per cent of drinkers agreed they would be thought odd if they did not drink at all.

Other findings from the independent survey of more than 1,000 people by the Scottish Centre for Social Research included the fact that 51 per cent thought alcohol was the drug which causes most problems, against 22 per cent who said heroin and 9 per cent who said tobacco.

There was also evidence of sexism in attitudes to excess alcohol. One third said a female binge drinker had a “very serious” problem, against only a quarter who said the same of a male binge drinker.

The findings illustrate the challenges facing the SNP administration as it prioritises ways to tackle the alcohol culture. Heavy drinking allegedly costs the country £2.25 billion a year and 70 per cent of assaults are alcohol-related, according to Ministers.

Separate figures, revealed yesterday, show that more than ten people a day are admitted to Scottish hospitals suffering from alcohol poisoning. The figure for these kind of admissions have risen to almost 4,000 last year from under 900 in the 1980s, a fourfold increase in 25 years.

Jackson Carlaw, the West of Scotland Conservative MSP, whose parliamentary question unveiled the statistics, said it was right to focus attention on alcohol but that existing legislation was not being enforced properly.

Respondents expressed different attitudes about different types of alcohol misuse. For example, while 94 per cent believed that a chronic drinker is very likely to damage their health if their behaviour continues long-term, this falls to 47 per cent with respect to a binge drinker and just 35 per cent for a “hazardous” drinker, that is, some one who drinks above recommended weekly limits.

A third of people correctly identified that men are advised to drink no more than three to four units a day. Four in ten knew the recommended daily limit for women was two to three units.

Many were ignorant of how much alcohol their drinks contained. About half knew the number of units in a pint of beer or a single measure of spirits, but only one in seven knew there were eight to 10 units in a bottle of wine.

The public health Minister, Shona Robison, warned: “The survey results appear to show that many people still don’t know how many units of alcohol their pint of beer or glass of wine contains, meaning they could well be drinking above recommended limits.”

Times Online

Two shock-tactic posters are being launched across Tendring next week in a new effort to portray binge-drinking as unattractive and socially unacceptable.

The images show a young woman being helped by a friend while vomiting in a toilet and a young man face-down drunk in a field.

The first is accompanied by the ironic slogan “Classy …” while the second displays the word “Sexy …”.

The posters have been designed to suggest to young people they should drink alcohol in moderation over the coming holiday period in order to have a safe and enjoyable summer.

The new posters will be displayed in bars and clubs across Tendring, including those in towns such as Clacton, Walton and Harwich.

Pc Steve Aspinall said: “We have launched this campaign because we want everybody within our community to enjoy the summer break without it being disrupted by drunken behaviour.

“We are not being killjoys - we are just trying to encourage the public to enjoy themselves but to drink in moderation and not spoil nights out for others.”

The new campaign comes into action just weeks after Operation Duplex Two was launched.

The project means that from Thursday to Saturday nights this summer at least one extra police vehicle will be dedicated to dealing with anti-social behaviour in Clacton town centre.

To man this, at least six additional officers will be on hand above and beyond regular police units on patrol in the area.

It is hoped that the presence of the additional officers in the town centre will help reduce the anti-social behaviour caused by drunks on nights out.

Chief Insp Jon Hayter said: “It is time for the entire community to pull in the same direction and aim for a safer Tendring - we will not tolerate excessive drinking that then adversely affects others.

“Drunken behaviour and alcohol-related crime will be firmly and positively dealt with.”

East Anglian Daily Times

Boozy yobs of Cumbria

Health chiefs have called for urgent action after figures revealed Cumbria’s drink problem was spreading to children and causing more women to act like boozy yobs.

Professor John Ashton, the county’s director of public health, warned that the number of teenagers prosecuted for being drunk and disorderly was just the “tip of the iceberg”.

He spoke as statistics also showed the number of on-the-spot fines handed out to drunken women had more than doubled in Cumbria.

The results come only days after it was revealed the county was one of the worst areas in the country for drinking problems.

Hospital beds are being taken up by drinkers, almost one in five Cumbrians are deemed hazardous boozers and 18 per cent of primary school children said they had consumed alcohol.

Figures released in parliament covering 2006, the latest period available, show 14 children aged under-15 were prosecuted in the county’s courts that year for alcohol-fuelled bad behaviour.

A further 26 kids aged 10 to 15 were given a caution for being drunk and disorderly.

The number of on-the-spot fines handed out to women rose from 58 in 2004 to 140 in 2006. The number of men cautioned increased by more than 50 per cent from 352 to 577.

Dr Ashton said the problem with young people drinking had to be tackled in several ways.

He added: “We need to tighten up availability of alcohol.

“I would also like to see a lot more prosecutions with retailers who are caught selling to under age people.

“I reiterate supermarkets should stop selling alcohol as it cannot be policed.

“I know the Government has a 10-year youth provision strategy but this is urgent – we need things for young people to do apart from sitting in a park drinking.”

A public meeting this week revealed that estimates of binge drinking in all Cumbrian local authorities were higher than the national average. Research also showed that almost one in five Cumbrians go over the daily recommended level of units.

More than 20 per cent of 16-year-olds in Carlisle are said to be binge drinkers.

And almost 40 Cumbrian hospital beds are permanently taken up by drinkers.

The Government is considering putting health warnings on alcohol, banning happy hours and stopping supermarkets selling cheap drink

In England, almost 1.6 million men are considered “high risk” drinkers, downing more than 50 units of alcohol a week.

So are more than a million women, who are drinking more than 35 units a week.

News & Star

Alcohol has been blamed for a 100 per cent increase in violent attacks by women in the last five years.

Last year, 87,200 women and girls were arrested for attacks across the UK - equivalent to 240 every day. That figure is up from 44,200 in 2002/03.

Binge-drinking among the young has been blamed for the rise, and police in Cambridgeshire say this is the impression they get while they are out on the beat.

The nationwide figures, released by the Ministry of Justice, mark the first time more females were arrested for violent offences than for theft.

That category includes everything from street brawls to grievous bodily harm and murder.

Inspector Jon Hutchinson, sector inspector for Cambridge, said: "Officers are experiencing an increase in drunken behaviour from young women, especially anti-social behaviour. We get the impression that this kind of behaviour is being perceived as acceptable.

"A number of experienced officers often comment on how the worst groups to tackle are groups of violent young women."

But the number of women arrested in Cambridgeshire, for all crimes, has dropped slightly. The report showed 18 per cent of all people held were women in 2006/7 - a total of 3,400 - that is compared to 20 per cent, or 3,700, the year before.

In Cambridgeshire, an Alcohol Strategy Steering Group has been set up to deal with a range of issues, including drink-related harm.

One of the key players is Drinksense, a charity which has offices across the county including Cambridge and Huntingdon.

Chief executive Christine Greer told the Newsthe changing role of women in society played a big part in current trends.

She said: "The access of young women to alcohol has been quite a phenomenon in the last eight or 10 years and it is certainly very high at the moment. Around 20 years ago it would have been mainly men using the service but now it is equal. It is understandable, after feminism, that women will be equal drinkers. But their bodies respond differently to men's - they are not able to tolerate the same levels of alcohol or the strength of some of the drinks they are buying, especially the young ones."

Mrs Greer said excess boozing could put women in potentially inflammatory or dangerous situations.

She said: "Alcohol is a volatile drug in the body. It makes it hard to control your behaviour, and people get into trouble or take risks they would not usually take.

"Many people come to us and say 'I can't believe I did this when I was drunk'."

These fears were echoed by nationwide charity Alcohol Concern.

A spokesman said: "When it comes to young men we know there is a tendency for them, when drunk, to interpret the behaviour of others as threatening so they react more aggressively as a result.

"Similarly, as more women begin to drink at comparative levels to their male friends and colleagues, it's logical to assume that a minority of them will begin to behave violently when drunk, as do men."

Mrs Greer said winning the battle against alcohol-related crime was not going to be easy.

She said: "It's not about being a nanny state or getting rid of alcohol, but we do have a serious problem and we need to act to manage the harm it is causing.

"Drinksense is well funded by Cambridgeshire's Primary Care Trust, and people do seem to be taking our messages on board, but as a country we need to devote some real forward thinking to protection and prevention, and continue our work in schools and youth clubs."

Cambridge News

Life-saving surgery to prevent repeated severe bleeding from ruptured veins in the esophagus or upper stomach may not induce some patients with alcoholic liver disease to stop drinking alcohol, researchers report.

Such a surgical procedure may be necessary to reduce the pressure in the veins of the esophagus and upper stomach among patients with cirrhosis, a scarring of the liver frequently caused by alcohol abuse.

The study group consisted of 132 patients with cirrhosis, including 78 with alcoholic liver disease, lead author Dr. Michael R. Lucey, of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, and colleagues report.

The investigators used patient and family member interviews to determine drinking patterns among 132 cirrhosis patients with who had surgically implanted shunts to reduce the pressure in their esophageal and upper stomach veins.

Twenty to 40 percent of patients with alcoholic liver disease acknowledged alcohol use during 5 years after receiving the pump. About one third of those with alcoholic liver disease reported drinking more than four alcoholic drinks per day during follow-up, the researchers report in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

The patients with alcoholic liver disease were twice as likely to drink alcohol during follow-up as patients with cirrhosis from other causes.

Continued alcohol use among patient with alcoholic liver disease was associated with a 153 percent increase in gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT), a liver enzyme indicative of liver disease. These patients also had a significantly increased risk repeat hemorrhage and death.

Lucey and colleagues conclude that a "substantial minority" of patients will return to drinking alcohol after experiencing a life-threatening complication. They recommend that patients with alcoholic liver disease should be encouraged to abstain from alcohol.

American Journal of Gastroenterology

Albertans planning to raise a pint to toast the beginning of the Heritage Day long weekend won't be enjoying any drink specials, as provincial laws banning happy hours after 8 p.m. take effect tonight.

Shen-Wei Lim isn't the type of guy to seek out late evening happy hours at the nightclub, and won't head out searching for cheap drink specials. But he nonetheless reacted in astonishment upon hearing that today begins a new drinking regime in the province, which restricts happy hours and targets super-cheap booze at bars.

"That doesn't really make sense," Lim said, as he enjoyed a pint at Juliet's Castle Sport Lounge on 16th Avenue N.E.

"You're punishing all the responsible drinkers."

Thursday night was the last chance for anyone in Alberta seeking late-night drink specials or trying to get their fill of bargain-basement priced alcohol at the bar.

The new provincial legislation now prohibits happy hours after 8 p.m. It also puts in place minimum drink prices and forbids any patron from having more than two drinks in their possession after 1 a.m.

The legislation is intended to curb binge drinking and associated violence.

At Juliet's, Ricky Rudd was scratching his head, questioning where in all of Calgary one could even find drinks cheap enough to violate the new minimum price rules.

"It really doesn't affect me," he said of the after 8 p.m. happy hour ban. "At 10 o'clock, I'm in bed."

Calgary Police Service spokesman Kevin Brookwell said police hope the province's new rules will help reduce the amount of alcohol-fuelled violence police deal with after last call.

Brookwell said that by raising drink prices, younger drinkers may not be able to afford binge drinking and police won't have to deal with its effects.

"I don't want to sound like we're fun-busters, but if it's difficult to binge drink and get totally out of control -- because the prices are so ridiculously low and you go outside and start fighting and ultimately we run into bigger problems like shootings and stabbings -- absolutely we support that."

He said police are mindful that the change in policy may mean people who want to get drunk could change their plans and drink earlier before going to bars. He hopes anyone who does that will not drink and drive and slow their drinking down once they go out.

The president of the Alberta chapter of MADD Canada also approves of the new legislation.

Wayne Kauffeldt said the hope is that, "if you don't make the prices so attractive for exorbitant drinking or excessive drinking, that it's got to play out to have a beneficial effect on drinking and driving."

But the legislation is rubbing some bar owners the wrong way. Charlie Mendelman, owner of the Garage in Eau Claire Market, and vice-chair of the Calgary Pub and Bar Association, believes the new restrictions will do little to address the problems they are designed to target.

He says few bars, including his own, will be affected by the rules as most don't serve drinks costing less than the minimum, or entertain happy hours past 8 p.m. But Mendelman worries the new rules are just the beginning of more obtrusive regulations that will curtail bar business in the future.

"What next?" he asked. "This is a very, very slippery slope and, I repeat again, (the government) should have bigger fish to fry."

He argues that provincial inspectors can already deal with problem bars, and the new legislation is not necessary.

The new happy hour time restriction does pose a problem for two nightclubs in Banff. Joe Gregory, the operating partner for Aurora and Hoodoo Lounge, said his clubs don't even open until 9 p.m., and drink specials are regularly used to draw people in at the beginning of the night.

When patrons come early for drink specials, he said, bar staff can keep an eye on how much they're served. Now, he said, customers could very well drink before heading to the bar.

"We don't know if they've just consumed a mickey of rye in the parking lot, or at someone's house," he said. "I think what (the happy hour restriction) is going to lead to is to more consumption outside of bars."

The Calgary Herald

The email arrived out of nowhere. It was from friends I'd lost touch with and it said Brian had died.

"He died in the hospital Tuesday night," it said and "he'd been in poor health for awhile" and "he had heart problems."

So I emailed back, said I was sorry to hear about Brian and mentioned that my daughter had died of cirrhosis of the liver two years ago.

So they emailed back and said that Brian's deteriorating health was alcohol related.

"Little by little, he lost his ability to walk," they said.

I try to picture my former drinking buddy, all six-feet-four inches of him, unable to walk and can't do it.

Instead, I see him at the pub table. I see us all at the pub table, drinking too much, laughing, drinking some more and going to work hungover the next day

I see him dumping a beer all over a guy who joked about the little bald spot on the back of his head. At 28, he hated that bald spot.

I listen and I can hear one of us, him, me, you, order another round.

Then, we drifted away, to other jobs, to other towns.

Some of us kept drinking, some of us didn't.

I did. Until one day, after a couple of blackouts, I knew it was time to quit. I did that, too.

I guess Brian didn't. He kept on drinking. More and more.

For whatever reason. Those of us who have drinking problems can never adequately explain to a non-drinker why we continue in that cycle. Maybe there is no explanation.

Drinking to excess is of course, older than Allah, more common than high gas prices and every bit as dangerous as crystal meth. It's just that booze usually takes a little longer to rip a life apart than does meth or cocaine.

And it is that ordinariness of drinking, that "sure I'll have another beer" of it that makes it so socially acceptable.

We tell ourselves that Uncle John likes to drink a bit too much or that our sister Jennifer seems to be getting into the martinis earlier in the afternoon. We may even mention the fact to John or Jennifer, get rebuffed and tell ourselves to forget it.

And then, one day John or Jennifer -- or my daughter, or Brian -- is rushed to a hospital emergency department.

As I look back on my daughter's drinking, my own drinking and Brian's, I wonder if we're so concerned about drugs that we forget -- or minimize -- what booze can do.

Blessed are those who can have one or two glasses of beer or wine or whatever and get a trifle tipsy now and again. If I could do that, I'd start drinking again tomorrow.

But I and, according to Health Canada, some 4.5 million problem drinkers in this country cannot.

Excessive drinking is not attractive or amusing, especially as it continues year after year.

It is instead, debilitating, dangerous and in any number of cases, lethal. I know that, so does my daughter. And now Brian knows it too.

Edmonton Sun

Botswana's cabinet has approved a drastic increase in the price of beer - a staggering 70%, to take effect in three weeks' time.

It is part of a crackdown on alcohol driven by Botswana's new President Ian Khama.

As a committed Christian, he has a zealous dislike for the "evils of drink".

His father, Botswana's founding President Seretse Khama, died at the relatively young age of 59 of cancer and liver problems. He was known to be a heavy smoker and drinker.

Now his son is particularly concerned about alcoholism, which he says can result in ruined lives and misery for many.

It is a position that he set out at his inauguration speech on 1 April.

"Abuse of alcohol is one of the ills that we have to address as a nation," he told the thousands who had gathered for the event.

At a recent Kgotla - a traditional meeting place where national issues are debated - President Khama announced that a new alcohol tax would be introduced, which would raise prices by 70%.

He added that if the manner in which people drink and use alcohol does not improve in three months, there would be a further increase of 70%.

The government has recently appointed a task force to find ways of regulating shabeens - informal drinking bars - as well as traditional home brews.

In Botswana, alcohol abuse is blamed for various socials problems such as domestic violence, road accidents, juvenile delinquency and the spread of HIV/Aids.

The government has the backing of the Botswana Council of Churches, which has been sitting on a national committee looking at social values and morals.

"We have been worried by drinking patterns in Botswana," the organisation said in a statement, "which have resulted in families falling apart and domestic violence."

Drinkers unimpressed

But the president's announcement that alcohol prices would go up did not go down well with beer-sellers and consumers alike who were feeling decidedly flat.

"Seventy percent is too much, " said Ludo, a young drinker at a bar in Gabarone.

"The president should accept that there are no recreational facilities and he should come up with alternatives."

"I am young and when I am done with university classes what will I do?" he asked.

"This is going to ruin our business," said Irene, who manages Linga Longa, a popular bar at the Riverwalk mall in the city.

"We have to buy from suppliers who will also increase their selling prices and we will have to do the same if we have to make profit. I do not see people coming to buy alcohol," she said.

While understanding the reasons for the price increase, the main brewery company in Botswana said this was not the right way to go about tackling alcoholism.

"We are talking to the government to make them understand the implication of the price hikes," Kgalagadi Breweries Limited said.

"We share the government's concern about the harmful effects of irresponsible consumption and abuse. But while the increase in prices may limit access by some people, it does not address the pertinent matter of alcohol abuse and associated effects."

The company believes people with drinking problems will just find a way around the barrier of higher prices, for example by resorting to dangerous home brews.

Many people in Botswana share their concern that the problem may be driven underground.

The increase in tax on alcohol is just one of the battles that sellers of liquor are having to fight with the government.

Recently it introduced a limit in trading hours - a measure some retailers and bar-owners challenged in court.

But they were not successful.

The court ruled that new hours, limiting sales from 1900 to midnight (instead of all day) would come into effect, when existing licences expired. It also banned bars and bottle stores from opening on Sundays and public holidays.

Botswana and beer have a long history together.

Drinking is an intrinsic part of social rituals such as weddings and funerals, as well as the traditional Letsema - where farm workers gather together to share a drink after toiling on the land.

Undoing such a bond may take more than simply an increase in the cost of drinking.

BBC News

Health warning: Women who drink small amounts of alcohol on a regular basis are risking serious heart problems and high blood pressure

Women who have two alcoholic drinks a day are putting themselves at a significantly higher risk of heart disease and high blood pressure, scientists have found.

Researchers showed that people who drink small amounts of alcohol on a regular basis are risking serious heart problems - Britain's biggest killer.

Men who consumed more than three alcoholic drinks per day put themselves at the same increased risk.

Government guidelines recommend 14 units per week, or around two drinks per day, for women as a safe limit. The limit is 21 units per week for men.

But the study, published today, found moderate drinkers to be at risk of metabolic syndrome, a combination of disorders that increase the risk of heart problems or diabetes.

It found those who drink more than the American guidelines - just one drink a day for women and two for men - were at heightened risk.

The symptoms include high cholesterol, high blood pressure, abdominal obesity and difficulties controlling the body's blood sugar levels.

The study by scientists at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, looked at 1,500 people aged between 20 and 84 without a strong family history of heart disease.

A massive 72 percent of men and 68 percent of women had signs of metabolic syndrome, while one in five had already developed the condition.

Dr Amy Fan, who lead the research, said: 'Since more than half of current drinkers in our study drank in excess of the limits, prevention efforts should focus on reducing alcohol consumption to safe levels.'

Tests found that having two alcoholic drinks per day was found to increase the risk of metabolic syndrome by 12 percent.

Three or more drinks a day more than doubles the risk, according to the study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

One in five of the participants in the study was found to have metabolic syndrome - which has been previously linked to smoking, obesity and lack of exercise.

The study concludes that there is a significant need for stricter guidelines about 'low-risk alcohol consumption and health warnings related to binge drinking'.

About 13 million adults in the UK are classed as dangerous drinkers, meaning they regularly exceed the government's recommended limits.

Heart disease kills more than 100,000 people in Britain each year, and 2.6 million are currently living with the condition.

Mail Online

Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) have identified two new medications that may help heavy drinkers modify their consumption, reduce alcohol withdrawal symptoms, and prevent relapse.

In the first study, MUSC researchers along with a team from the University of Virginia Health System have found that topiramate, an effective therapeutic medication, not only decreases heavy drinking, but also cuts risk factors associated with heavy drinking.
The medication effectively lowers all liver enzymes, plasma cholesterol, body mass index (BMI), and systolic and diastolic blood pressure, thus reducing heart disease risk.

“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,” said Raymond Anton, M.D., distinguished university professor.

“This shows that treatment of alcoholism has potential health benefits beyond the immediate behavioural and emotional improvement caused by a reduction in drinking,” he added.

In addition to decreasing liver enzymes and cholesterol levels, topiramate can also cut fatty liver disease risk, which leads to cirrhosis - a common consequence to end-stage liver disease leading to death in some alcoholics.

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,”

Another study by Anton showed that PROMETA alcoholism treatment program, a combination of generic medications, led to significant reductions in cravings and alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

It promoted abstinence, and improved mood and sleep only in those who had symptoms of alcohol withdrawal. The results were presented at Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA) conference in Washington D.C. (ANI)

Newspost Online

Almost 40 Cumbrian hospital beds are permanently taken up by drinkers.

Concern: Every Cumbrian district records a higher estimate of binge drinking than the national average

And on average the length of stay in the 37 beds is eight days.

The worrying statistics were revealed by north Cumbria’s associate director of public health at a meeting last night.

Jane Muller said the region is one of the worst in the country for drinking problems.

Over a five-year period there were 6,500 admissions for alcohol-related illnesses.

Carlisle has the county’s highest rate for male admissions with 217 a year, while Eden has the lowest with 58.

Carlisle also has more people claiming incapacity benefits due to alcoholism, with 90 people of working age signing on because they cannot stop drinking.

All the Cumbrian local authorities record a higher estimate of binge drinking than the national average.

Copeland is the worst with approximately 24 per cent of its population admitting to going on ‘benders’.

The figure for England as a whole is 18 per cent.

Almost one in five Cumbrians are deemed hazardous drinkers in that they go over the daily recommended level of units.

In Carlisle 22 per cent of 16-year-olds are said to be binge drinkers.

A recent NHS survey of Cumbrian youngsters stated that 18 per cent of primary school children had had at least one alcoholic drink the week before they were questioned. The figure for secondary school pupils was 39 per cent.

Ms Muller told the Carlisle Community Liaison Forum that early intervention was key to solving the problem.

She said the difficulty was in finding the balance between allocating funds to treat people who were already ill and making sure money was available to help them avoid getting to the stage where they needed medical treatment.

A number of projects are underway, including several aimed at children.

Alcohol is not just causing problems for the health service.

At the same forum, Carlisle and North Cumbria area commander Chief Supt Andy Davidson said it was a main cause of crime and antisocial behaviour.

From the beginning of this year to June there were 782 offences related to booze in north Cumbria, including 352 assaults.

Police are working with bars to promote sensible drinking.

Officers are also making the most of new powers to temporarily bar people from certain areas if they believe they are likely to cause trouble.

Chairman of Cumbria Police Authority Reg Watson was also at the meeting, which was held at the Victory Hall in Dalston.

He thinks there are two ways to stop drinkers draining the NHS and committing crime.

He wants to see increased tax on stronger alcohol and a fixed national minimum price for drink on sale in supermarkets and off licences.

Mr Watson told the meeting: “I think taxation is a smashing way to do things. It works very well.”

Members of the public disagreed and questioned why the majority should be financially punished for the sins of the minority.

The discussion was part of the Big Drink Debate.

A survey to find out Cumbrian drinking habits is underway.

Health bosses hope the results will help them target resources where they are most needed.

News & Star