Alcoholics Anonymous Reviews

Parents who introduce their children to alcohol in the hope of encouraging responsible drinking might be doing more harm than good, work suggests.

The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism found drinking before the age of 15 increased a child's risk of becoming a heavy drinker.

A teenager's fast-developing brain becomes programmed to link alcohol with pleasure, experts believe.

Research shows that by the age of seven most children will have tasted alcohol.

A poll of 11 to 15-year-olds in England in 2007 by the NHS Information Centre found around 640,000 were likely to have drunk alcohol in the past seven days.

Of hospital admissions in 2006/7 specifically due to an alcohol-related diagnosis, almost one in 10 were in under 18 year olds.

The NIAAA study matched information on the teenage drinking habits of more than 22,000 Americans with the development of alcohol-related problems.

Starting young

The men and women were divided into three groups - those who first drank under the age of 15, between 15 and 17, and 18 or older.

People who started drinking before the age 15, and to a lesser extent those who started drinking at ages 15 to 17, were more likely to become dependent on alcohol as adults than people who waited until 18 or older to start drinking.

This link remained even when they took into account factors like duration of alcohol exposure, family history and a wide range of other risk factors.

Research also shows the likelihood of developing alcohol-use disorders in adulthood is about 50% higher for people who start drinking before the age of 15 as for those who abstain until they are 18 or older.

Deborah Dawson, research scientist at the NIAAA, said: "We can see for the first time the association between an early 'age of first drink' and an increased risk of alcohol use disorders that persists into adulthood."

Howard Moss, the institute's director for clinical research, said: "Early alcohol consumption, as a misguided choice, is driving the relationship between early drinking and the risk for development of later alcohol problems.

"The data support the notion of delaying the onset of drinking behaviour as late as possible."

Don Shenker, chief executive of Alcohol Concern, said: "Parents are certainly the best placed group to encourage responsible drinking attitudes among young people, but this study, like others should give them pause about precisely when it's right to start giving alcohol regularly to their children.

"Younger adolescents whose physical and mental development is ongoing ought not to be drinking regularly as successive pieces of work has shown a close connection between that and damage to key systems."

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore of University College London's Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience said young brains were very malleable and changed fast in response to new influences.

Early alcohol exposure could be acting as an environmental trigger for adolescents with an underlying disposition to alcohol problems, she said.

"Although a lot might depend on the amounts drunk as well as the exposure itself," she added.

A spokeswoman from the social care organisation Turning Point said: "At the moment there is simply not enough help for children and families affected by alcohol misuse.

"Without important interventions at vital stages of these young lives, they are much more likely to go on to have alcohol problems themselves."

The NIAAA study will be published in the December issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

BBC News

Just under half of all violent offences in the city are committed under the influence of alcohol.

The true scale of the problems caused by alcohol abuse in the city has been revealed as a new strategy is launched to tackle its problems.

Leicester is significantly worse than the national average for drink- related crimes, violence and sexual offences.

More than four per cent of all road accidents in Leicestershire and Rutland are linked to booze.

In about a third of fatal fires, the victim had been drinking.

The problems also have a massive impact on health services in the city.

Under the title One Leicester – Tackling Alcohol Harm, a plan has been created by the Safer Leicester Partnership, which includes councils, police, fire, probation and health services.

It is the first time a major coordinated strategy has been drawn up.

Rod Moore, deputy director of public health at NHS Leicester City, said: "The strategy shows the city faces some significant problems.

"There is above-average mortality and very high rates of alcohol-related hospital admissions.

"But there are now very definite plans to improve access to treatment, capacity and prevention activities."

The city has significantly worse rates than the national average for deaths from and alcohol, chronic liver disease, as well as alcohol-related hospital admissions.

The city has about 33,000 hazardous drinkers – classed as women drinking between 14 and 35 units and men between 21 and 50 units per week.

There are about 11,000 harmful drinkers, men and women who drink more than 50 or 35 units each week.

In 2005 to 06, the costs of hospital stays attributable to alcohol in Leicester was just under £10 million.

Plans by One Leicester – Tackling Alcohol Harm include ploughing an extra £225,000 into treatment of problem drinkers and another £234,000 over two years into treating offenders who were under the influence of alcohol.

The strategy also includes a programme of educational campaigns.

Young people and parents and others whose drinking is putting children at risk will be targeted.

The hope is to reduce the rate of alcohol-related hospital admissions, which last year increased by 13.9 per cent.

Kate Galoppi, from Leicester City Drug and Alcohol Action Team, said: "There is a lot of data here that demonstrates the need for us to have a response to alcohol in the city.

"We've looked at what the current provision is and where the gaps are and what we need to do.

"This is the start of the journey. There has been lots of work with alcohol in the city, but there hasn't been a coordinated effort to pull all that together before.

"We have to deal with the problem of youngsters binge drinking," he said.

"A lot of crime, violence and the break-up of families is associated with drink."

Stuart Fraser, a GP in Highfields, Leicester, said: "I think all GPs are well aware that alcohol is a problem for health. It is often a hidden problem that patients don't recognise.

"You have to get the person to recognise that they have a significant problem and they have to want to do something about it."

This is leicestershire

Canterbury mother-of-five Terri would drink all night, then, after a short doze, pile her five children in the family car and drive them to school.

Eventually, she allowed her 13-year-old daughter to take the wheel for the school run.

Terri spoke of her own experiences yesterday after reading about a Christchurch mother who was stopped by police and charged with drink-driving on two consecutive mornings last week as she took her children to school.

Terri is urging the woman to get help, as she did after her battle with alcoholism put her children in danger.

The 66-year-old, who did not want to give her full name because she belongs to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), has been sober for five years and five months.

Terri said she was married at 22 and had five children by the time she was 29.

When the children were younger, the family would often spend afternoons at barbecues and backyard cricket matches with friends.

"Then we'd bring the party back home. It never occurred to me that one of us should stay sober for the children," Terri said.

"I was putting my children in danger all the time and not realising the sort of people we were allowing into our house around four vulnerable daughters and our son."

Terri said she was not a morning drinker but would drink through the night, believing two hours of sleep would drain her system of alcohol.

Today, four of Terri's grown-up children are in AA and she said she "walks on eggshells" around her fifth child, who she believes also has addictions.

"I looked at that story (about the Christchurch mother) and thought, `what's the poor woman hiding?' and I prayed for her.

"If you get into the room (of an AA meeting) for long enough and hear the message, then, beyond your wildest dreams, you'll find happiness," Terri said.

"A different world opens up and there is peace in my house today."

Stuff NZ

A woman was found dead in the street dressed in only a cardigan after a binge drinking session, an inquest heard.
Rosalinde Neville is thought to have stumbled out of her flat in Quinton Gardens, Emsworth, and collapsed on the pavement.

She was discovered at 4am by neighbour Thomas Bowen who had taken his baby out for a walk to get the tot off to sleep.

Miss Neville's body was lying on the pavement with her legs in the road.

Her body had started to develop rigor mortis, suggesting she had been dead for some time, the Portsmouth inquest heard. It is believed she may have died from hypothermia.

The police were called after her body was discovered on June 21 last year but found no suspicious circumstances.

Miss Neville, a marine biology graduate from the University of Portsmouth, had a history of alcohol problems.

A statement from her father, Antony Neville, read out at the inquest, said: 'She died at the age of 46 and she had a serious problem from the age of 36.

'She had always been to the pub, always had done, and I suppose it just increased and got worse as time went by. She was a very intelligent girl, she went to university in Portsmouth and had a degree in marine biology.

'We had been to see her two weeks before (her death) on her birthday and it was a lovely time.

'We had hoped she had got to the stage where she would be able to overcome this.'

A post-mortem was inconclusive.

Coroner David Horsley recorded a verdict of accidental death.

He said: 'She had been drinking for a number of days and she was not aware of what she was doing. It looks as if she stumbled outside and she has fallen asleep dressed in only a cardigan.

'I think she has succumbed to hypothermia.'

The News

In Wardha district, where Mahatma Gandhi ran his famous ashram, liquor is legally banned. Youngsters from Sevagram actively carry out daru bandi programmes in villages around here, trying to get residents to kick the debilitating habit that more often than not destroys the lives of the poor. But, as an inmate of the Sevagram ashram admits, it's an uphill battle.

Travel just a few hours away, however, and you encounter a village that would have made the Mahatma proud. In Bhikeshwar in Chandrapur district, the ban on booze is self-imposed; or perhaps, more correctly, imposed by an army of determined women who live up fully to the dream that Gandhi had of India's female population taking the lead in building an alcohol-free nation.

The women first took up the cudgels against the liquor menace around six years ago. "When we'd stand in the village courtyard and chat in the evenings, we realised that our neighbours would come home drunk, eve-tease our children and even ill-treat their wives," says Devangani Gajbhiye, explaining how the seeds of the movement were first sown. Cringing as she recalls those days, she says they were forced to act when they realised that menfolk in many households were blowing up money meant for the family's grain and kerosene supplies on alcohol.

Hidden behind their colourful sari pallus, the women bared their steely resolve. A group of ten women formed a gat (self-help group), took the help of a local NGO called Association of Women Awareness and Rural Development (AWARD) and brainstormed on how they could fight the alcohol menace. Sunanda Mate, one of those at the forefront of the campaign, says they started out with holding sabhas to spread information on how alcohol was wrecking their lives. "For many of us who were largely confined to the four walls of our homes, even stepping out was a new experience. But as we went along, the support increased and so did our confidence," she says.

As the campaign gained momentum, the women took their cause to the streets. The three local liquor shops were the main targets. "We wouldn't allow women vendors to sell alcohol at the chowk. The minute they set up shop, a group of us would march to the police station and demand that the police take action," recalls Mate. If a man returned home drunk, the group of women would go warn him off drinking ever again.

It wasn't all smooth sailing for the largely unlettered group. Hatred and abuses flowed their way, so much so that that one of the members, Anita Kasare, lost her husband who was stabbed to death in a fit of rage by an alcohol vendor. "Even we withdrew our support after this incident, as we saw how dangerous the struggle against alcohol was becoming, but the women soldiered on," says Gunvant Vaidya of AWARD.

However, their resilience bore fruit. Slowly the shops folded up, the policemen became more vigilant and the menfolk were forced to give up their habit. Today, 40 more women have joined the campaign, and there's one proud achievement they all like to relate. "Nobody dares sell or drink alcohol in the village. Some villagers still go to neighbouring villages to get their quota, but can't bring it back into our village," they chorus. Buoyed by their success, neighbouring areas have taken a cue from the courageous women, and nearly 36 villages in the block have gone liquor-free.

As the sweet taste of victory sank in, the women formed a brigade of their own, taking on new challenges and crossing new milestones. With the backing of more voluntary organisations such as UNICEF, more self-help groups mushroomed and women began tucking away household savings, formed monitoring committees to keep a watch on the anganwadi workers and schoolteachers and even began addressing the village panchayats on safe drinking water and maternal care. Today, 80 per cent of deliveries take place in the hospital and every household has a toilet of its own. The self-help groups dole out money at lower interest rates than the local moneylender.

Seated on a mat in the village school, the group relates another favourite anecdote. They recall how trucks would veer off the highway, take a shortcut and pass through their narrow village road in the middle of the night, making it unsafe for young girls. In a bold move, the women held a rasta roko one night, lay down in the middle of the road, hopped onto the stalled trucks and forced them to drive to the police station. Ever since, the truckers have been sticking to the highway.

So, do the men feel left out? Nanaji Mate, the sarpanch, laughs. "The village has undergone a tremendous makeover thanks to the womenfolk," he says. "And we're proud of it."

Times of India

The average age at death among Seminole Indians in Florida has dropped by 12 years in the past decade, according to a newspaper analysis, to below age 50.

Figures obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel show 11 of the tribe's 17 recorded deaths in 2008 have been related to drugs or alcohol. Further, the average age of a Seminole at death has dropped from nearly 60 in 1997 to 48 in 2007.

That's well below the average age statewide of 73 years old.

"I call it the 'Rez disease,'" said Jarrid Smith, a 23-year-old former Florida Atlantic football player.

Smith said at least seven of his friends and former classmates are dead, in jail or in rehabilitation facilities.

"These things have been going on for too long. Progress is slow. I am afraid of losing more people," Smith said, acknowledging he might upset tribal leaders by publicly commenting about the issue.

Tribal leaders declined comment for the story published Sunday, citing privacy concerns, spokesman Gary Bitner said.

Some suggested the tribe's staggering wealth, earned from its gaming operations, have left young members without life balance. The tribe provides each member a free education, guaranteed job and an income of roughly $120,000 a year.

Zena Simmons, a 24-year-old Seminole and Florida Atlantic student, said she sees a correlation between the money and excess. So does her sister, 29-year-old Thomasine Jumper, who is now jailed for drug and traffic offenses in Collier County.

"You use that money, so you don't have to work," Jumper said. "Maybe the lifestyle on the rez is too easy. I have not taken advantage of the opportunities, but they are there."

There is almost an expectation, Simmons said, that loved ones will die soon. She has lost an uncle and brother to alcohol-related crashes, and at least two friends to suicide and drugs.

"You grow numb to it, so when someone dies you already accept it," she said.

Fort Mill Times

Parents who give their children alcohol at home believing that it will teach them to drink responsibly could be doing more harm than good, new research suggests.

A study in the United States found a link between the age at which young people have their first drink and alcohol dependence in later life.

Children under the age of 15 were at greater risk of developing a taste for alcohol after being exposed to drink than older teenagers, the study found.

The results challenge the belief that giving youngsters small amounts of wine at home will enable them to grow up with a more mature attitude to drink.

Social factors such as poverty and abuse may explain why many young people turn to drink early and develop a dependency in later life.

But the study by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAA) suggested that exposure to alcohol itself, whatever the reason, could lay the foundations for a drink problem.

Scientists suggested that giving children alcohol during early adolescence, when the brain is more malleable as it is developing fast, could act as a "trigger" for those with a predisposition to addiction.

"We can see for the first time the association between an early age of first drink and an increased risk of alcohol use disorders that persists into adulthood," said Dr Deborah Dawson, a researcher at the NIAAA.

The study examined the age at which 22,000 young people first tasted alcohol.

They were divided into three groups: those who had their first drink under the age of 15, those who did so between 15 and 17 and those who waited until they were 18 or over.

Those in the first category showed a greater disposition to alcohol related problems in later life.

Dr Edel McAndrew, a clinical psychologist who practises in Manchester and Ireland, said: "Some parents try to introduce alcohol under their supervision but it is 50:50 whether that young person will develop a slow-to-moderate drinking habit which is socially acceptable or go on to develop more serious problems."

She cited on example of a girl she had dealt with who had have her stomach pumped at 15 after drinking from the age of three, because her mother thought it wise to introduce her to drink at home.

Dr Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London, said the explanation may be the brains of people in their early teens are more susceptible to be influenced by factors such as what they eat, drink or smoke.

"Research has shown time and time again that the brain develops really dramatically in early adolescence, it is very malleable and very changeable," she said.

Early exposure to alcohol could be acting as an "environmental trigger" for adolescents with an underlying disposition to alcohol problems, she added.

In a similar way, recent research has shown that young people who smoke large amounts of cannabis at that age were more likely to develop schizophrenia - suggesting that the drug is a trigger for the condition.

But she added: "The research on how alcohol affects the teenager's brain during development has not been done and there are a lot of unanswered questions."

The Telegraph

A Youth survey calling for more police on streets to curb alcohol-fuelled crime has won support from a south-west health professional.

More than 2000 young people took part in an online Liberal and National Coalition survey about binge-drinking.

It revealed youths wanted more police on the beat and alcohol-free events for under 18s to drive down alcohol-related violence.

They also wanted free water in pubs and more drug and alcohol counsellors available in community health services.

Western Region Alcohol and Drug (WRAD) centre director Geoff Soma said the survey mirrored local concerns, including the need to better enforce existing licensing laws and stop minors and those already affected by alcohol from entering venues.

"It is important that all people, not just teenagers, realise the implications of excessive alcohol consumption," Mr Soma said.

"We don't suggest people should stop drinking or stop having a good time but we do need to get the message across that abuse of alcohol leads to many health and social issues."

Shadow drug abuse minister Mary Wooldridge criticised the State Government's Victoria Alcohol Action Plan (VAAP) which she said did little to combat alcohol abuse.

"The consistent message has been that more needs to be done to reduce the level of binge-drinking among young people," she said.

"The survey results show that young people believe the laws which currently exist should be enforced and we need more police to send a clear message that drunken behaviour on our streets is unacceptable."

The online survey began in July.

A spokesman for Mental Health and Community Services Minister Lisa Neville defended the Government's alcohol plan.

"The VAAP was the product of consultation with health experts, police and industry and tackles the damage being caused by alcohol in our society in a variety of ways," he said.

'These include establishing a $17.6 million liquor licensing compliance directorate to strengthen our enforcement of existing laws that ban licensed venues from serving alcohol to people under 18.

"Victoria Police has also established Operation Razon which involves a taskforce of additional police to target high-risk licensed venues."

Warrnambool Standard

Giving children alcohol at an early age increases their risk of becoming drink-dependent at a later stage in life, according to new research.
The claim challenges the long-held notion that introducing children to alcohol in small measures over time may prevent teenage binge drinking.

The new study, by the US National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), suggests that parents may have got it wrong. It found that if young people have their first taste of alcohol before the age of 15, it sharply raises their risk of becoming alcohol dependent later in life.

Deborah Lawson, a research scientist at the NIAAA, said: "We can see for the first time the association between an early 'age of first drink' and an increased risk of alcohol disorders that persist into adulthood."

The study involved data gathered from more than 22,000 young Americans over three years, which matched the age when a first alcoholic drink was taken with first incidence of alcohol abuse or dependence.

The NIAAA's associate director, Howard Moss, said the study showed that it was important to delay the onset of drinking behaviour for as long as possible.

The findings have emerged amid concern over the level of binge drinking among teenagers in Britain. In Scotland, a recent survey of 13-year-olds found 20% had had a drink in the previous week. Among 15-year-olds, 40% of boys and 46% of girls said they had had an alcoholic drink in the past week.

Until now, it has been argued that exposing young teenagers to alcohol by giving them watered-down drinks is the best way them to educate them to consume alcohol responsibly.

But the NIAAA study suggests early exposure to alcohol even in small quantities is a risk in itself. It means that giving children alcohol to prevent problems may have the opposite effect.

One theory is that teenagers' brains are developing so fast that exposure to intoxicants can create a link between alcohol consumption and pleasure.

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, a cognitive neuroscience researcher at University College London, said: "The young brain is very malleable and changes fast in response to new influences."

Scotland On Sunday

More than 100,000 people are drinking alcohol at dangerous levels in a South Yorkshire city, a conference called to deal with the problem has heard.

Health officials have revealed that 20% of Sheffield's population are drinking so heavily that the effects are putting strain on the emergency services.

One city councillor told the gathering that he watched his 32-year-old daughter drink herself to death.

Now a £100,000 scheme has been launched to tackle the alcohol-fuelled culture.

A vivid picture of the city's relationship with excessive drinking was painted at the conference in the city hall.

Over the past 12 months there were 6,500 alcohol-related admission to hospitals across the city, health service figures showed.

Health chiefs, senior police officers, MPs and members of the licensed trade attended the meeting to try to find a way of dealing with the consequences of alcohol abuse in the city.

And as the Liberal Democrat leader and city MP Nick Clegg called for a minimum price to be set for alcohol, one councillor revealed he watched his daughter die from alcohol-related liver disease.

Councillor Clive Skelton joined the summit to discuss the city-wide social and legal fallout from abusive drinking.

Mr Skelton's daughter, Donna, died in July.

He said that at 17-years-old she was a fresh faced youngster, but aged 32, and after 13 years of drinking she was hugely bloated.

"She was drinking five litres of sherry a day, she had passed out outside an off licence and was taken to the Northern General Hospital and she died just under three days later.

"The death certificate said alcoholic liver disease, but I think everything had just shut down.

"She was in extreme pain because everything had swollen so much internally that all her organs were being crushed.

"It's an awful way to die.

"I think people generally think of an alcoholic as the bumbling idiot in the streets, throwing up somewhere or somebody who gets thrown out of a nightclub, someone who's had three or four too many and causes a fight.

"Alcoholism is a sickness, an illness, and the more we can do to highlight that the better it will be, I think."

BBC News

Waking up in a drunk tank has a tendency to become a sobering experience for many. Unfortunately, the experience seldom lasts beyond the next drink.

But 25-year-old Craig proved to be the exception. Waking up in the Delta County Jail 15 months ago led him to take the first step on a path that has kept him sober ever since.

A charming, soft-spoken young man with an engaging smile, Craig said, like many alcoholics, he began drinking while still in high school

"I started drinking when I was about 16," he said. "I honestly thought that's what people did. When I was drinking, I always had lots of friends. We all drank together."

Beer, hard liquorit really didn't matter. Whatever was available was Craig's booze of choice.

Alcohol first got Craig into trouble when he was still in high school and a "minor in possession" charge got him suspended from school sports. But the MIP charge wasn't much of a deterrent.

It was while Craig was in college that his drinking really became problematic, and a second MIP cost the youthful offender his driver's license. But no big deal. He considered the punishment was just another "bump in the road." Little did he realize that the road he was traveling was already leading him to a life as a problem drinker and still more scrapes with the law.

"I thought everyone drank like me," he explained. "I would drink three or four times a week, and whenever I went out at night, going out meant getting drunk. That's just the thing you did."

With the exception of a girlfriend, Craig said no one ever expressed concern about his drinking becoming problematic.

"She told me she thought I might be drinking a little too much, but I never took her seriously," he said. "I thought I was just as normal as anyone else. That's how sick I was."

Along with alcohol, Craig said his college years also provided him with the opportunity to experiment with drugs.

"My drug use was strictly experimental," he said. "I was ready to try just about anything. It's funny now that I look back on it, but when I was in college, I took alcohol classes and drug classes that should have told me I had a problem."

Craig said his drinking didn't prevent him from graduating from college with honors and finding a job in his chosen profession.

But Craig's blase attitude didn't last long. He was soon laid off from his job, and with no driver's license, he had little opportunity to look for another one. Unfortunately, he had no difficulty finding his next drink.

"After my second DUI (driving under the influence) I woke up in jail," he said. "When I woke up, I wondered Where am I and why am I in jail?" The experience, he said, left him feeling ashamed.

As part of his sentencing, Craig said he went through outpatient treatment and attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings as part of the program.

"I had gone through it before, but this time was more positive. I knew I had to stop drinking," he said. "Previously I had done just enough to get by. I thought the treatment was just part of the punishment, and now I realize that it's the solution."

Although Craig is one of a handful of 20-something people in AA meetings at the Delta Alano Club in Gladstone, Craig said he wasn't deterred by the fact that the majority of those in the program are 40 years of age and older.

"My first impression was that I thought it would be more serious than it was," he said. "Here they were laughing and having a good time and that took me by surprise. It took me a while to be able to come and have a good time myself."

Craig is proud of the fact that he has not relapsed since he began attending AA meetings 15 months ago.

"I honestly don't want to drink, and I still get sick to my stomach when I think about having a drink," he said.

Although Craig said he has not felt the need to have a "sponsor" help him, he readily acknowledges he needs the support gained by attending AA meetings on a regular basis.

"It's not like I'm doing it on my own by not having a sponsor. Half the people in AA have one and half don't. There's no evidence to show those who do have a sponsor have more sobriety than those who don't. But what I do know is that I still have to go to meetings."

Craig said he is not surprised that he has lost many of his former drinking buddies on his road to sobriety.

"I learned that most of the friends I had were not my friends once I became sober," he said. "A lot of them realize they have a problem, and I think they're ashamed of their drinking and would like to be sober as well, but they're not ready to admit it."

Still with no driver's license and no new job in sight, many would expect that Craig would have every reason to relapse into his former drinking habits.

"Sometimes it comes into my mind, but it's only for a second," he said. "Sometimes when I hear of a new drink, I find myself wondering what it tastes like. Let's face it - drinking was my only hobby. But I've learned that I need to make plans. I don't knew where I see myself next week or even tomorrow, but I have all the tools I need to keep from drinking today. I hope to get my driver's license restored soon and then we'll see what happens."

Although Craig has advanced to the 12th step on AA's road to recovery, he has yet to fulfill its mantra entirely.

"The 12th step has to do with 'carrying the message.' Although I can readily share my story within the group, I haven't yet carried it out to others," he explained. "I tell myself that anyone I would want to tell probably wouldn't want to listen. The truth is that I don't have the courage to even tell them. I'm not prepared to do that yet. Maybe someday I will."

Daily Press

Drunken female party animals are inundating NSW hospital emergency departments in record numbers.

NSW Health has released new figures which show an overall 59 per cent increase in alcohol-related emergency department cases from 2000 to 2007.

The biggest increase in hospital visits was among so-called ladettes - the 18- to 24-year-old group of females with a thirst for grog to match their male rivals - whose numbers increased by 200 per cent.

The numbers were drawn from a sample of NSW hospital emergency departments with the number of females increasing from 412 to 1233 patients a year.

Alcohol-related illnesses and injuries are taking a huge toll on the NSW health system.

Yesterday NSW Health Minister John Della Bosca said he was so concerned about the level of these hospitalisations - particularly among young people - he would use the health ministers' round-table meeting in November to call for a ban on alcohol advertising.

Mr Della Bosca said the time had come to address the issue, with more than 40,000 drinkers being admitted to NSW hospitals each year.

Excessive alcohol consumption is associated with cirrhosis of the liver, mental illness, several types of cancer, pancreatitis, fetal growth retardation, aggressive behaviour, family disruption and accidents.

He said all options should be considered, including warning labels on alcohol, no alcohol ads to be screened on television before 9pm or a complete advertising ban.

A ban on alcohol advertising would have huge social ramifications and change the landscape of Australian sport which is heavily dependent on the grog industry's financial support.

"Binge drinking is caused by a number of factors but advertising does not help," Mr Della Bosca said. "The power of persuasion of alcohol advertising is the most sophisticated and seductive I have seen. As a student of the art of persuasion for electioneering, the alcohol industry is almost unbeatable."

Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon yesterday said the alcohol-related hospitalisation figures were a cause for concern. She did not rule out toughening advertising laws, saying: "We need to have a comprehensive response to tackle binge drinking in Australia."

A $1.5 million trial of specialist nurses in six hospital emergency departments to deal with drunk or drugged patients is being rolled out by the Rees Government. The nurses will work at the Campbelltown, Liverpool, Royal Prince Alfred, Concord and John Hunter hospitals and The Children's Hospital at Westmead to deal with emergency department patients suffering behavioural disturbances due to drug or alcohol use.

"The hospitals have been chosen because they have access to psychiatric emergency care centres and in-patient detoxification units," Mr Della Bosca said. "This will alleviate the pressure on emergency department staff who experience an increase in alcohol and drug-affected patients.

"At the request of Council of Australian Governments, the Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy also has agreed to progress the Federal Government's $53.5 million National Binge Drinking Strategy, including community level initiatives.

"This national approach aims to reduce the incidence of alcohol-related violence and the impact of alcohol abuse on individuals, the community and the health system.

"There was also agreement to assess late-night lockouts for licensed premises based on analysis across the nation of existing and trial lockouts to recommend a preferred framework."

Mr Della Bosca's comments came as police investigated a brawl near a Parramatta hotel yesterday.

An 18-year-old man was struck in the head with a beer bottle during the incident, about 12.40am in Horwood Place. He underwent surgery at Westmead Hospital.

Social commentator Neer Korn said trying to change young Australians' love of binge drinking would require more than changing taxes for alco-pops.

Mr Korn, director of Heartbeat Trends, said the number of young people visiting hospitals for alcohol-related problems came as no surprise.

"We have been tracking 18- to 24-year-olds for at least a decade, talking with them three to four times a year, and we have increasingly seen them engage with alcohol," Mr Korn said. "They want to have a great life with extreme experiences. They have this philosophy of compensation where they beat up their body to the nth degree on a binge, but then take a vitamin pill, go for a swim or do yoga the next day to make up for the punishment. They view bingeing as being functional. Someone who drinks every day in the morning or lies in the gutter is dysfunctional in their minds."

Canberra Times

A conference in Sheffield today will look at ways of stamping out alcohol-related problems including illness, crime and anti-social behaviour. Sheena Hastings reports.

Brenda Hemment started drinking socially when she was about 18. She says she didn't really notice how her consumption was steadily increasing. By the time the factory supervisor was 24 years- old, she was drinking every day, putting away two to three bottles of gin.

"I suppose the reason I never noticed was because I was never actually drunk, I was just 'topping up.' I needed it to get through the day. I didn't think I was behaving badly, and for a long time everything seemed normal.

"But then I started to lose friends – people wouldn't come round or go out with me. I began to stay at home to drink and lost my job. Over the years I lost my nice home, my family – including my son, who hated me drinking and went to live with his grandparents. Eventually I went to prison, after burgling to pay for alcohol."

Around a decade of Brenda's life was spent in and out of prison (where she brewed her own hooch) and bail hostels, or living on the street, where she was surrounded by other alcoholics and drug addicts.

On a few occasions booze led to hospital admission, and Brenda twice attempted suicide by mixing tablets with the drink. She came out of prison on her 40th birthday, and after another 12 months' solid consumption she collapsed with severe liver and pancreas problems. She weighed only around three-and-a-half stone.

"I was so out of it. I don't remember the two weeks in hospital really," says Brenda, who is now 54 and has been dry since that two-week stay in hospital, when she was told she had either to stop or choose her own coffin.

Brenda says she still struggles every day with the urge to drink, and has never fathomed why she, from a "normal" family in a village near Doncaster, whose parents rarely touched alcohol, was the one who became an alcoholic.

Having moved to Sheffield, she was helped in her recovery by a Methodist minister and members of his congregation. She still doesn't understand how she didn't die years ago. Brenda stuck to her determination to resist the bottle, but David, her partner of eight years, died last year from an alcohol-related brain haemorrhage, having tried many times to quit drinking.

"I've no idea how I survived everything, and I look back to all the things I lost. There's just me and my dog now. I still go into town and talk to some of the drinkers I used to be on the street with. I don't try to convert them, but sit and listen."

The ones she does try to change by telling her own story are the under-age drinkers she sees hanging around local shops in the Low Edges area of the city.

"When I see the way some of them are knocking it back, part of me wants to hit them, I feel so annoyed. I've told some of them what happened to me, and a few of the young girls seem to have cut back on how much they drink as a result. I look at them and think 'what a waste'."

The health service gave Brenda the care and the wake-up call she needed. But in her view the authorities could do more to help stem the escalating tide of drinking among young people and problem drinkers in general.

"I don't think there's enough support, the way there is with drug addicts. There should be more people going out on to the streets to find them and offer help, and far more fines for shopkeepers who sell drink to under-18s. I see them doing it all the time."

A one-day alcohol "summit" held in Sheffield today will hear the views and ideas of the agencies involved in tackling alcohol-related problems and promoting sensible drinking to minimise the rate of associated illness, crime, violence and anti-social behaviour. They've been co-ordinating efforts in this field and others for a few years, under the banner of the Sheffield First Partnership.

"No-one's making out that Sheffield is any worse than other cities in the North of England when it comes to alcohol-related problems," says Jo Daykin-Goodall, director of the city's Substance Misuse Strategy.
"But we want to do all we can to ensure that adults who choose to drink can do so safely and responsibly.

"A major challenge is that of the dual perception of alcohol: that it is enjoyable but it also has a clear cost to society. We recognise that the drink industry is a major employer and adds to the vibrancy of the city, and we're working with the industry. For instance, we're hoping to implement the national Best Bar None scheme, which gives bar and door staff additional training in dealing with issues around excessive drinking. We're not talking about zero tolerance, though."

While Sheffield may be no worse than some other cities with large student populations and certainly better than some, statistics published last year do make sobering reading.

Of a population of 417,500 in Sheffield, 108,550 were "hazardous or harmful" drinkers (men regularly drinking more than 3-4 units a day and
women drinking more than 2-3). Other figures suggest that almost 21,000 people are alcohol-dependent.

What that misuse adds up to, says Daykin-Goodall, is £11.9m a year in costs to local health services, £15.3m cost to the criminal justice system and the loss of around 250,000 working days in the city each year. Alcohol was linked to 161 sexual assaults a year, and the lives of 7,900 children were affected by having drinking parents.

The many-pronged approach needed – and being adopted in Sheffield – to reduce the prevalence of harmful drinking and help those already damaged by it must also address public perceptions of drinking, says Daykin-Goodall, citing recent research by the University of the West of England, which monitored references to alcohol made across 1,200 hours of radio on six stations from December 2007 to February 2008.

"There were more than 700 references to alcohol, with DJs frequently referring to people being 'out on the lash', 'having the hangover from hell' or suggesting that fun was 'only a bottle away'. Nearly three-quarters of the comments appeared to promote drinking or excessive drinking.

"There's been a societal change, with more people drinking above safe limits year-on-year, but also a change in attitudes, with people now laughing and accepting drunkenness."

Steps already taken in Sheffield include the creation of "safe points" where police and ambulance patrol together, and city ambassadors around the streets on the look-out for trouble.

Funding has also been found to increase the number of treatment places available for community-based treatment for those with alcohol-related illness. The current wait for such help is six months.

Chief Inspector Simon Verrall of South Yorkshire Police says one strategy used when new students suddenly surge back into Sheffield at this time of year is a "Meet and Greet" which involves getting the message across to young people temporarily living the the city that they should be treating it and its residents with respect.

Binge drinking by youngsters in a small area of the city centre can wind up costing valuable NHS as well as police resources, but those who tend to end up in the care of hepatologist Dr Dermot Gleeson are drinkers who have been hitting the bottle for many years.

He sees 40 new cases a year of people in liver failure due to alcohol. Their mean age is 46, but they range from mid-20s to 70s. Typically, they have drunk for decades and have become gravely ill. Often they are swollen around the abdomen, jaundiced, bleeding and in pain.

Of these 40, one in six will die during their first hospital admission (one of the 5,000 deaths a year nationally due to alcohol-related liver failure), and the other five will leave hospital with the potential to recover if they give up drinking.

"The most worrying fact is that the average age of a patient presenting to us is mid-to-late 40s. Twenty years ago it was 60. Various factors influence this, including people beginning to drink at a younger age, the amount of alcohol being drunk, social deprivation and obesity," said Dr Gleeson.

"If I could make one highly focused improvement in how we deal with the problem it would be the provision of more specialist nurses to help people in treatment to minimise or stop drinking. A more general strategy could involve raising the price of alcohol."

Yorkshire Post

Torbay police are launching a scheme to highlight the risks women face because of binge drinking.

The SASH (sexual attack and sexual health) project was designed to high-light the risks associated with excessive drinking, specifically the risks for women.

The scheme has been designed in partnership with Torbay council, the Police, taxi companies and local businesses.

These groups all play a vital role in making sure the public stay stafe while enjoying Torbay's night life.

Acting sergeant Dave Pebworth from Torquay police said: “The project has been designed to tackle two specific issues surrounding excessive drinking - that of sexual attacks on drunk or vulnerable females and also that of the risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections through unprotected sexual intercourse.”

The campaign will be launched on Saturday, 27 September with the SASH packs handed out from 1.30 am on Sunday, September 28.

The small lightweight packs will be distributed from clubs and pubs within the project area. They will include a pouch for extinguishing cigarettes, condoms, advice leaflets and bottled water amongst other items. The packs also highlight the risk of excessive drinking and risks to sexual health and aim to illustrate the heightened risk of sexual attack when drunk.

Sgt Pebworth said: “All licensed premises within the project area will be briefed on the project and will be encouraged to tackle any behaviour they feel inappropriate within their premises.

“They will be asked to challenge males buying large quantities of alcohol for females or anyone who is suspected of taking advantage of females’ vulnerabilities.

“All taxi drivers will receive a letter stating what we want them to do if they have concerns for females who appear vulnerable through excessive drinking.

“We want drivers to proactively police their cabs and challenge behaviour they think inappropriate within their cars. If in doubt we want drivers to contact police and ask for assistance”.

Mid Devon Star

Only one in five older Britons consumes alcohol every day, according to a survey that reveals the generational gap in attitudes to drinking.

The poll of more than 10,000 people aged over 50, carried out by Saga for The Daily Telegraph, found that few feared becoming an alcoholic and a significant proportion never drank alcohol at all.

The majority did not worry about safe drinking levels recommended by the Government, but drank less than the maximum advised level anyway.

Most said they had drunk on average just five glasses of wine, two pints of beer and two glasses of spirits over the past seven days.

This comes despite widespread concern at the damage Britons are supposedly causing to their health by social drinking, such as middle-class couples who get through a bottle of wine between them over an evening meal.

Doctors have claimed pensioners are at greater risk than younger drinkers, as they have more time on their hands after retiring and because the body becomes less tolerant of alcohol with age.

But Saga, the group of companies that provides insurance, holidays and financial products to the over-50s, said the new survey showed fears of a generation of "Sage louts" are unfounded.

"Unlike the youth of today, by and large, older people go for quality over quantity - more civilised a Chablis than a loutish lager," said Paul Green, Saga's head of communication.

"We all deserve a bit of fun and the over-50s live life to the full - but they also know how to behave - even when a little tipsy."

He added: "The fact that older people don't know what the 'nanny state' regards as 'safe limits' or what a 'unit of alcohol ' is comes as no surprise to me.

"Whilst alcohol can be a problem for some, in my experience the over-50s are an independently minded bunch - savvy and brimming with a sound experience of life and generally they know when its time to stop and don't need the Government to tell them."

The survey conducted by Populus on behalf of Saga, questioned 11,612 older people on their drinking habits.

A total of 7 per cent said they never drank at all, while many more said they had beer, wine or spirits only occasionally.

The poll showed 12 per cent had not had any alcohol over the past week, and two-thirds had drunk on fewer than five days in the past seven.

Just 8 per cent had drunk alcohol on six of the past seven days, and 19 per cent drank every day.

Over half said they never worried that they or their spouses drank too much, while just 1 per cent admitted they had been regularly drunk, hungover or ill through drinking in the past month.

Don Shenker, chief executive of the charity Alcohol Concern, said "Like those in other age groups many older people enjoy socialising or unwinding over drinks."

But he warned: "The issue at hand is whether in those rare cases where heavy drinking is damaging an older person's quality of life the right kind of support is in place.

"Investigative work by Alcohol Concern suggests that older people are far less likely to either seek or receive help for their drinking."

Telegraph

Here are some sobering statistics for Madison County parents.

# Madison County is in the top 10 counties in the state for underage DUI risks, says Patsy Hillard of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence of Central Mississippi.

# While the national average is age 13 for children to start using alcohol and the state average is 12, "kids start drinking at age 11 in Madison and Rankin counties," Hillard said, based on a survey of high school students in the state. Of the 4,509 students in Madison County who participated in the Smart Track survey in 2007, 10.2 percent of local students said they started drinking before age 11 and 17.6 percent started between the ages of 11 and 14.

"Alcohol usage among teenagers is very prevalent in all areas of our community," said the Rev. Bill Barksdale, who chairs the steering committee of the Madison County Drug Court. "In my fifteen years of youth ministry here in the community, I have met only a small percentage of teens who graduate high school without ever participating in alcohol consumption that puts them at-risk legally or jeopardized their future health."

The problem of underage drinking exists in every community, not just Madison County, but it's one that law enforcement officers and drug educators say needs to be addressed.

"Parents think 'It's just drinking, at least they're not on drugs,'" Hillard said.

The Smart Track survey showed statewide that 21 percent of high school students participated in binge drinking (five drinks or more in one sitting) in the past 30 days and 41 percent said they had at least one drink in the previous month, said Caroline Ranck, the underage drinking prevention coordinator for DREAM. "Far more kids drink alcohol than do drugs," she said.

Alcohol carries its own set of problems for underage drinkers. To name a few:

# There's the issue of drinking and driving that can can result in a DUI or an accident with injuries or fatalities.

# Drinking can lead to teenage violence, suicides and risky sexual behaviors.

# New research shows that early heavy alcohol use can have negative effects on brain development.

# National studies show people who begin drinking before age 15 are four times more likely to develop a dependency on alcohol than those who take their first drink at 20 or older.

Alcohol poses a direct risk to teens in other ways, Barksdale said. "Teens have to illegally buy it or obtain it. Second, they have to sneak around and drive somewhere remote to use it. Third, teens are more likely to binge drink because of the undercover atmosphere of obtaining and drinking the alcohol and then teens are challenged to somehow arrive home safely at the end of a long night, afraid to call parents when they are in a situation that is over their heads."

Sheriff Toby Trowbridge said teenage drinking is a growing concern in the county because by starting at a young age "the problem escalates."

"The perception is if mom and dad do it, it can't be all bad," Trowbridge said. "I urge parents with young kids - don't flaunt drinking in front of your kids. Don't walk around with a beer in your hands."

Some parents, however, may be aware of their teens' drinking and even encourage it, experts say.

"There's a problem with some moms and dads condoning it or furnishing it," Trowbridge said. "Parents think if they furnish the alcohol, the kids will stay home and out of trouble but then the party breaks up and everybody goes home."

"Parents will say 'They're going to do it any way. I'd rather have them here than out driving," said Lt. Brad Harbour with the Madison County Sheriff's Office, who visits schools regularly to talk about the dangers of alcohol and drugs. "But, when that child grows up and is alcohol dependent or an alcoholic and runs over and kills someone, the people who got them started at a young age are the ones responsible," Harbour said.

The idea of parents hosting parties and providing beer and liquor for their children and other teenagers is not new, but "I think it's fare more prevalent than we're aware of," Ranck said. "So we as communities have to say this is not OK."

Madison Police Chief Gene Waldrop said his officers have made arrests at home where parties were going on that parents weren't aware of and at some where the parents are at home.

Some parents are unwilling to set a higher standard for their teens than their personal standards, Barksdale said. "They rationalize that if they are going to be drinking anyway, they might as well be in plain sight. These parents do not realize the enormous legal liability they assume by allowing underage drinking on their personal property," he said.

"Rather than make their kids safer by hosting parties, they in fact put more teens at risk. There is no such thing as a 'small' party in Madison. Once word gets out that a parent is allowing teens to drink in their home, hundreds of teens will descend upon the house," Barksdale said.

Madison-Ridgeland Academy is working to keep teenagers from drinking. The school is continuing a program it started at prom last spring by having students use a breathalyzer to gain entry to the homecoming dance next weekend.

"There were absolutely no incidents at prom, and we expect the same results at homecoming," principal Greg Self said.

MRA is also beginning a new program to educate students about the dangers of underage drinking. Beginning in October, all students in grades 9-12 will take part in an online alcohol awareness program, like is being used at the University of Mississippi, Self said.

"We want to give them information to make wise decisions," he said.

Next semester the school will do a follow-up program to determine how effect the online program is. "We want to see how it does affect their ability to make decisions," he said.

"Parents genuinely feel that they are preparing their teens for the reality and pressures of college by allowing them to drink in high school," Barksdale said. "This again is a false premise, because the longer a teen delays experimenting with alcohol, the more maturity they will have gained, which corresponds with physical development of the brain.

"The more maturity, the less likelihood there is of at-risk behavior," he said.

Madison County Herald

Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk unveiled a number of alcohol initiatives in her proposed budget Wednesday after a task force investigated alcohol abuse in the county for seven months.

In an effort to target alcohol abuse, Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk announced a series of budget initiatives Wednesday aimed at providing increased funding for drunk driving enforcement and rehabilitation programs.

Falk noted the state of Wisconsin holds many unfavorable titles when it comes to alcohol abuse statistics—it is the worst state for binge drinking, underage drinking and drunk driving—problems she plans to curb within Dane County.

“We can make a difference in a problem that is bringing our whole community down,” Falk said. “We can confront the overuse of alcohol in our community starting with prevention when children are young [to] tough enforcement for chronic offenders.”

In February, Falk created a task force to evaluate alcohol abuse within Dane County and make recommendations for strategies to fight the problem. Falk’s proposed initiatives aim to educate children about alcohol abuse at the middle school level, provide repeat offenders and chronic users with treatment opportunities and reduce drunk driving by providing an extra 1,000 hours of patrols on Friday and Saturday nights.

Falk said while she met with representatives from the tavern industry and Susan Crowley, director of UW-Madison’s PACE Project, an initiative aimed at reducing high-risk drinking on campus, the alcohol problem is not exclusive to Madison’s infamous downtown area.

“It’s not just a State Street problem. State Street is a problem [but] it’s not the only problem,” Falk said.

According to Falk, just under 50 percent of sentenced Dane County inmates are incarcerated for alcohol-related offenses ranging from drunk driving to domestic violence, a statistic Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney called an “eye opener” to the county’s alcohol abuse problem.

Dane County Board District 4 Supervisor Brett Hulsey, chairman of the county’s personnel and finance committee, said Falk’s proposals would not only help people suffering from alcohol abuse, but also help reduce jail crowding and ease the burden of taxpayers.

While Falk said her proposals are not a “silver bullet” to solving the problem, she is planning to announce additional alcohol initiatives in October to continue the fight.

Daily Cardinal

Worried police hit out this week - after seizing a massive booze haul from teen tipplers in Galloway.

Officers confiscated 1185cl of various bottles of alcohol, four cans of cider and 18 cans of lager from young people at various points between Newton Stewart and Creetown at the weekend.

Police believe most of the stash was destined for the Creetown country weekend - but was stopped before it reached there.

A police spokesman said teenagers consuming large amounts of alcohol are a problem at weekends. They will source it any way they can, with some alcohol coming from home and the rest being bought for them by over-18s or parents.

The spokesman said the young people who had alcohol taken from them by the police would now have a letter sent to their parents advising them of the incident.

Community Constable Nicola McFadzean added: "We all know that buying alcohol for a minor is an offence and can render you liable to prosecution.

"My worry is that a young person is vulnerable when under the influence and they can find themselves in all sorts of dangerous situations. They can get drunk very quickly on very little. Every year, 1,000 under-16s in Scotland are admitted to hospital with alcohol poisoning.

"Drinks-spiking is another concern. Young people drinking from an already opened bottle which is being passed round concerns me. Anything could have been placed in the drink without the young person knowing."

The PC added: "We also understand that if people come across a group of drunken teenagers it can be intimidating and give the area a bad name.

"For me and my colleagues Creetown Country Weekend it is a great event to police, because it is virtually trouble-free and it is great to watch local people and visitors enjoying the hours of entertainment provided and joining in the party atmosphere. However, outside the main event it is a different story.

"We have discovered scores of young people who descend on the streets of Creetown for a night out. They too have travelled far and wide. The majority are well behaved and do not come to police attention, however a few also spoil it for everyone else with alcohol-fuelled anti-social behaviour.

"I would urge parents of teenagers to make sure you know where your child is and what they are up to. Talk to your children about alcohol and sensible drinking limits. It is important for young people to understand the risks associated with alcohol and to keep safe when they are out and about during the evenings."

Galloway Today

William Herbst got out of the Dane County jail on May 15, 2007, after serving 75 days for his third drunken driving offense. He went to a bar, drank more rum than he can remember, and climbed into his pickup. Next thing he knew he slid off the rainy road somewhere near Cottage Grove. Police found him stuck in the mud and put him right back in jail.

That's when Pathfinders, a diversion program that offers 50 inmates a year treatment for alcohol and drug abuse in place of incarceration, took him in. By his third week in a residential treatment center in Madison, Herbst admitted he was an alcoholic, that he suffered from depression, and that he had accomplished none of the things he dreamed about as a kid.

Like most alcoholics, Herbst's road to recovery is not a straight climb. He was arrested for driving drunk a fifth time on March 21, 2008. "I could have killed somebody or myself," said Herbst, 32. Since then, he has stayed away from alcohol, gotten back on medication for depression, and enrolled in classes at MATC. On Oct. 28, he goes back to jail for a year. He is hoping for more treatment instead. This time, he promises, he'll turn his life around.

"I'm under construction," he said. "Pathfinders gave me the tools to save my life, and I finally know how to use them."

Herbst is just one of thousands who struggle with the ups and downs of alcohol abuse in Dane County, but he may soon get some help thanks to a new alcohol initiative to be unveiled this morning by Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk.

After seven months of research into Wisconsin's struggle with alcohol abuse, Falk sat down with The Capital Times to talk about the first phase of her initiative. Falk has scraped together $200,000 to expand funding in her upcoming 2009 budget for Pathfinders and two other local projects.

Pathfinders has been a favorite of the county executive ever since she launched a pilot version of it in 2003. She is fond of talking about how it makes financial as well as humane sense: Dane County spends $50 million to run its jail, where half the inmates are there for drunken driving. It costs $22,000 a year to keep an inmate locked up, but only $7,000 to treat a person. And it works -- last year only 10 percent of participants ended up with another arrest. Even so, the program has had to turn away dozens a year. Now the county will be adding 14 slots for drunken drivers to the 50 a year it currently serves.

The other two projects that Falk has earmarked for additional funding are not as well known, and would serve a portion of two at-risk populations that Falk says have long been neglected in Dane County: young adolescents and the homeless. Project Hugs is a support, counseling and advocacy group that works with families of high schoolers struggling with alcohol and substance abuse. Now the program will expand into middle schools. The third project will be to train 25 health clinicians around the county to use an innovative alcohol and drug screening intervention approach.

Falk's selection of these three programs for additional funding is just the first phase of her ambitious alcohol initiative, which she plans to make the cornerstone of an expected fourth term in office.

The second phase, which she will unveil in October, will involve the creation of a county-wide coalition of businesses, law enforcement, youth groups, and longtime health care providers and activists. Their goal: nothing less than changing Wisconsin's drinking culture. "We can make a difference," Falk said. "We did it with smoking."

Falk is waiting until after the November elections to announce the third piece of her plan, which will include recommendations to toughen state alcohol laws. At that time, she said, she also will meet with Gov. Jim Doyle to ask for his support. Wisconsin has not raised its alcohol tax in decades and has the worst rates of binge drinking, underage drinking and drunken driving in the country.

"We're the only state in the country where a first time OWI is not subject to a criminal penalty and a five-day jail sentence," she said.

Falk voiced confidence that the Dane County Board will support her recommendations for changes at the county level, but admitted the next two phases of her initiative would "involve some heavy lifting."

Project Hugs is a shoestring operation that wins kudos for providing support to parents of high schoolers struggling with alcohol and substance abuse.

Stacey Slotty, a parent advocate, says that the program currently serves 32 families and that seven more families are on the official wait list. "We are in dire need," she said. "Parents don't have a clue where to turn. I've been to funerals where kids have died because we couldn't get them help."

Under Falk's initiative, the organization will open two new programs in middle schools, one urban and one rural. Falk said she was sobered by research showing that if you can stop children from drinking before they reach age 15, they are four times less likely to have alcohol problems later on in life. Yet in Dane County behavioral surveys have found that nearly a third of seventh- and eighth-graders admit they have already binged -- had five or more drinks at one time. "It's a whole lot less expensive to be intervening when children are 12 than when they are 30 and sitting in jail for their fifth time," Falk said.

The health educator training project in line for some new county money involves the use of an innovative technique called brief motivational interviewing. Surprisingly effective, it uses short screenings and questionnaires in places like emergency rooms, jails, schools and clinics to identify people at risk of alcoholism and other substance abuse.

"Just 15 minutes of a frank conversation can lead to someone making a dramatic decision to quit or cut back," said Dr. Richard Brown, a professor at the University of Wisconsin's School of Medicine and Public Health who has been administering a federally funded trial of this approach at 23 clinics around the state. Falk plans to target the homeless, among others. She predicts that the screening will help identify problems with mental illness as well as alcoholism, and enable people to move off the streets.

Falk spoke about the process of putting together the alcohol initiative in two free-wheeling interviews last week. Dane County has dozens of deserving alcohol treatment programs, and choosing which ones would receive scarce extra dollars was a tricky balancing act, she said.

"It was extremely difficult, given the volume of the problem and our tight budget," she explained. But it was important, she added, that she move ahead just the same. "When you have a big problem, sometimes people don't know where to start, and then they don't," she said. "But that's what I love doing. Take a big problem. You just take a big chunk, and then you do the next chunk, and then the next chunk, and that's how you get things done."

Breaking the complex subject of alcohol abuse down into chunks was a job she hired two longtime community activists to do. "There were no magic bullets. It was really complex to pull together all the pieces," said Carol Lobes, former director of the Dane County Department of Human Services, who worked on the project with Judy Adrian, who co-directs the Center for Democracy in Action with her. Together Lobes and Adrian put in more than 20 hours a week over seven months reading and condensing more than 200 scientific reports, interviewing more than 80 experts, attending more than a dozen meetings, focus groups and conferences, and taking their boss on what Falk called "field trips" to the county jail and State Street. Falk, the daughter of an alcoholic, said she was struck by not just the toll in county dollars but in what she calls "human misery" (see Q&A).

Falk ended up with a 40-page report on these efforts. Then, she said, it was up to her to find "leverage points" -- areas where action could make a difference and be cost-effective. "We wanted to get the best bang for our buck," she explained.

The four main areas Falk intends to concentrate on are: improved alcohol and mental health treatment through brief motivational interviewing, community partnerships, tougher laws, and a focus on young adolescents and families.

Falk's initial move to add $200,000 to the three local programs would increase the $8 million Dane County already spends on alcohol and drug prevention and treatment by roughly 2.5 percent. "It's a very significant commitment given this incredibly tight budget," Falk said.

Significant, perhaps, but still likely not enough to meet the overwhelming demand.

Don Mason, a recovering alcoholic and a former counselor at Hope Haven, where many Pathfinders clients are treated, says that on some days he gets up to 20 or 30 calls an hour begging for help. "The phone is ringing constantly. I'm hearing crying parents, desperate wives, men tired of being out on the streets because the waiting lists are so long," he said. One client was so desperate, Mason recalled, that he stole a pack of cigarettes so he would be sent to jail. "The sad part of it is, the people who are getting treatment fastest are in the corrections system," he said.

Like Falk, Mason grew up in Milwaukee. In fact, he thinks he may have bought liquor from the Falk family business during a couple of drinking binges years ago. Like Falk, he lost his father to alcoholism. As his dad was dying at age 54 of cirrhosis of the liver, comforted to know his son was on the path to recovery, he asked Mason about Alcoholics Anonymous: "How long have you been in that square-ass program?"

Mason, 50, has now been sober 28 years. "If I can stay sober, anyone can," he said. "There is a lot of hope -- if we can provide treatment."

Capital Times

For alcoholics, experts say the consequences of addiction last long after an evening binge to affect abusers' entire lives, from restless mornings to sleepless nights.

BU School of Medicine is conducting a clinical trial to test the effectiveness of a psychiatric medication that could eliminate or significantly reduce heavy drinkers' cravings for alcohol, according to researchers involved with the trial.

"One of the major symptoms of alcoholism is the inability to sleep without a drink, which is a vicious cycle we want to help people overcome," BU study project manager Eric Devine said.

The study will test Seroquel XR, a drug already on the market as a sleeping aid, to see if the drug helps excessive drinkers overcome alcohol dependence. If it works, Devine said the drug could prevent alcoholics from resorting to more drastic measures to combat their addiction later in life.

"I hope that people who are suffering and need help will see that there are alternatives to Alcoholics Anonymous and detoxification," he said.

At first, alcohol's sedative properties help people fall asleep easily and quickly, but habitual drinking eventually leads them to experience sleep disruptions throughout the night, said Joanne Fertig, a project officer at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

BU's study is one of five similar clinical trials around the country sponsored by the NIAAA. The trials are an offshoot of a 2007 University of Pennsylvania study that found Seroquel XR helped some heavy drinkers become completely sober and relieved many participants' sleep problems.

"It was exciting to find a treatment that might work in a hard-to-treat population because people usually give up on [alcohol-dependent] patients," said Helen Pettinati, the principal investigator for the UPenn study.

Researchers said that alcoholics tend not to treat their problem until late in their lives. One BU student named Aaron, who asked that his last name not be used, said he has drunk alcohol and taken Vicodin pills several times to help him sleep.

Still, the College of Arts and Sciences freshman said the benefits of drinking outweigh the risks for him.

"If you can't sleep, you can't function," he said. "Alcohol helped me sleep for the first time in 11 days on one occasion."

Other students wondered about the drug's uses. College of Communication senior Andrew Clapham said he thinks the study is a worthwhile undertaking, but added if the drug proves successful it could lead to unnecessary prescriptions for people who are not heavy drinkers.

Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences junior Lisa Ziegelbauer said she has friends who drink in order to sleep so she would support a drug that helps people get over their desire for alcohol.

"Any drug that could get rid of someone's craving for alcohol so that they don't abuse it is a good idea," she said.

Daily Free Press

Lieutenant Governor Duke Aiona says alcohol is the substance most widely abused by Hawaii teens.

That's why tomorrow he's launching a state wide effort to combat the problem.

Knowledge is power and Lt.Governor Aiona wants to use it to stop underage drinking.

"It's informative, it's easy to read and it's a guide that should be looked at daily."

Tomorrow a drinking awareness insert will be found in newspapers across the state informing youngsters and their parents about the negative affects of underage drinking.

And the Lt. governor says this information can't be relayed too soon...

"At the age of five I would start talking to them age appropriately about alcohol. get them to understand the consequences and that's what you want them to understand."

The list of consequences goes on and on from violence and promiscuity to traffic fatalities.

"5,000 young people every year die because of alcohol."

The human brain grows until the age of 23 and consuming alcohol can affect growth and lead to memory loss.

From the Attorney General's Office, Valerie Marion says, "It's a public health issue, its about safety, it's about concern, it's about not impacting other people's lives by either causing any kind of damage or death perhaps."

Under the "use and lose" law minors caught possessing, consuming or purchasing alcohol will have their drivers license suspended for at least six months.

Seven-Eleven Hawaii has been trying to reduce underage drinking since November of last year.

"We changed our policy to ID all, requiring our employees to ID everyone who wanted to purchase alcohol, says Blake Yokotake of 7-11 stores.

But parents educating their children is the greatest weapon of all to win the battle against underage drinking and the Lt. Governor hopes they put the insert's information to good use.

KHON2

Police Minister Bob Cameron said the State Government-supported lockout has been a success, and he agreed with police that binge drinking was the next battle in the war against alcohol-related violence.

“With the lockout, you’ve just got less people on the streets in the middle of the night who are really drunk or on the way to being drunk,’’ he said this week. Mr Cameron said the rate of serious assaults had declined since the introduction of the lockout - proof of its success.

He reiterated comments made by Superintendent Peter Bull to The Advertiser yesterday that binge drinking was the next crisis facing community leaders.

“Binge drinking a huge problem in the western world, and a huge problem in our own society where people’s use of alcohol is excessive.

“At the core of those, we have this society problem of people wanting to drink until they are absolutely blotto and that has significant long-term health consequences for a lot of people down the track,’’ he said.

Mr Cameron, who has been police minister for nearly two years, said the treatment of alcohol abuse was a huge undertaking.

“This is one of the big health challenges of the future, just like diabetes and obesity,’’ he said.

The recent introduction of police powers to ban troublemakers from a designated entertainment precinct within the CBD for 24 hours was a positive approach, Mr Cameron said.

“It’s another iron in the fire from police’s point of view. It’s a way of trying to get someone to go home and sleep it off, before they end up doing something stupid to themselves or others.’’

The Advertiser

This summer has been another wet one. With all the rain it's enough to drive you to drink!

Most of us enjoy a tipple now and again, but do we really know how much is safe and when to stop? Am I better off having an occasional pint or should I cut it out altogether? How do I recognise if I have a drink problem? Who can I contact when I want help with cutting back on my intake?

The Government has released so-called safe limits of alcohol in units per week. The lads get to drink slightly more than the ladies, but these limits can be misleading. Men should drink no more than 21 units or 10 pints in a week and women should drink no more than 14 units or seven large glasses of wine in a week.

However, unlike the French and the Italians, we tend not to have a glass or two in an evening, we gulp it all down on Friday or Saturday in the space of four or five hours, concentrating the insult to the liver into a short space of time.

When the safe limits were worked out they did not take this into account.

In any evening two to three drinks is more than enough and any more is likely to cause you harm.

Abstinence is better than excess but not better than a small amount daily. People who do not drink are slightly worse off in terms of overall health than those who drink one glass of wine or similar a day.

If you drink too much you put yourself at risk of liver cirrhosis (pickled liver), gastritis (stomach ulcer and inflammation), depression, sexual dysfunction, heart disease, high blood pressure, road traffic accidents, certain cancers, and obesity (three pints or glasses of wine is the equivalent of an extra meal a day!). Alcohol in pregnancy can be very harmful to the unborn baby's development.

Anyone who shows signs of withdrawal after a day or two of not drinking is alcohol dependent. The signs of withdrawal include nausea or feeling sick, trembling, sweating, anxiety and a strong desire to have a drink. People whose work is affected by alcohol consumption, who drink by themselves or early in the day, or who try to conceal the amount they drink, are likely to have an alcohol problem.

Like any drug it can take time, effort and support to regain control. For some, this will mean stopping drinking alcohol completely. Few alcoholics can maintain a low intake without relapsing into heavy drinking again.

If you think you need help or know someone who does, your GP can point you in the right direction and may support you with advice and support on how to cut down.

That said, 'everything in moderation', there's nothing like a pint or a glass of wine down by the river on a sunny day; just don't have so much you need to be fished out.

This Is Exeter

I recently conducted an interview with a young woman who had graduated from the 45th Judicial Circuit Family Dependency Treatment Court. I couldn't publish her name because she was (and still is) in Alcoholics Anonymous. AA has a strict privacy policy, so none of the members can have their names published while in the program. For the purpose of this article, her pseudonym is Natasha.

Talking with Natasha, I couldn't get over the fact that she was near my age (possibly even younger). Unlike most of my contemporaries, she has already faced one of the most difficult events that she will ever encounter, dealing with a dangerous addiction, and overcoming it.

Natasha shared with me that before the family dependency treatment her life was very rough and very dark. She drank everyday and drove with her two children in the car.

"I drank until I passed out every evening," she said. She said that one time her neighbors spent all day trying to wake her up because her children were outside playing unsupervised and naked. They brought the kids into her apartment and shook and slapped her in an attempt to rouse her.

"I have no idea what it must have been like for my children. They just found snacks in the closet. I don't know because I wasn't any type of mother to them," said Natasha.

She stated that her relationship with her boyfriend was very unhealthy. She said that they would break-up and get back together, and at one point she filed a restraining order against him, but then got back together with him. At one point, they fought with the neighbors, and the police were called. They arrested her boyfriend because of the restraining order.

"So I drove to the police station. My phone wasn't working. I decided to drive to the police station to find out when he would get out of jail, even though I had been drinking. See I thought that no one could tell that I was trashed, even though I looked horrible and probably smelled," she said.

She remembered that she prayed on the way to the station, even though she stated she did not believe in God at the time. She prayed for His help because she was just so tired of the way her life was. She hated life.

She made it to the police station and found out that her boyfriend would get out the next morning. As she was leaving the station, the officers ran after her.

"They said, 'Ma'am did you drive here.' I said, 'yeah,' and I even had my youngest with me. They wouldn't let me drive back home, they ended up driving me back," she stated.

Once home, they asked her to do a breathlizer test. She refused.

"So they were there for a while, on their cell phones and things, and they ended up taking my youngest son into custody right then. Then they told me that DFS (Division of Family Services) would get in touch with me," she said.

The next day she talked to DFS about family drug court, which she was told she would have to participate in to get her children back. Her older child was not taken into custody, but could not be with her and had to stay with his father.

She was in the program a little over a year, sharing that she did the best she could to do everything that they suggested. She attended AA meetings, NA (Narcotics Anonymous) meetings and four meetings a month for drug court. Additionally, DFS (and her drug court case worker) did in-home visits. She also attended parenting classes, which was a requirement of family drug court.

Through her hard work and dedication, her children were returned to her in approximately two months, which is quite a feat in that it often takes longer to regain custody of children.

"The way I saw things was so twisted. You know, I thought these people kidnapped my kids, what's wrong with the government? I didn't trust them," she stated. She explained that even though she was suspicious of drug court, she had no other choice but to go. She described her time without her children, "as extremely devastating."

After awhile in the program, she realized that the government and individuals involved in the program were on her side and they wanted the best for her. Looking back, she stated that DFS stepped in and took care of her kids when she could not.

She admitted to her own mistakes during that time and did not try to rationalize her actions. She took responsibility, speaking honestly and directly, being much more adult and mature than many older individuals that I know.

Even though she has completed family drug court, she still regularly attends AA meetings and is active in the Drug Court Alumni organization. Drug Court Alumni is composed of those who have graduated the program and those in the latter phases of it. The Drug Court Alumni group offers support and keeps the participants united in their efforts to maintain a sober lifestyle. They also like to give back to the community through various fundraisers, for example they have donated funds to the American Red Cross to benefit flood victims."I am really grateful for them (those involved in drug court) because they showed me a new way of life and they showed me how to live clean and sober. They really helped me out a lot," said Natasha. She went on to say she could never make up for what drug court has given her back- her life.

Lincoln County Journal

Delegates representing Alcoholics Anonymous(AA) the world over will gather for the Fellowship’s 20th World Service Meeting (WSM) at the Crowne Plaza Times Square, New York. The event will take place 26-30 October and is being hosted by the general service board of the United States and Canada.

Since its beginnings in 1969 the WSM has served as a forum for the worldwide sharing of experience and ideas on ways to carry the AA message of recovery from alcoholism. The event alternates biennially between New York City and other locations around the globe, and has convened in such diverse cities as Auckland, New Zealand; Cartagena, Colombia; and Helsinki, Finland.

The WSM’s success in bringing together AA worldwide service centres for biennial meetings during the past two decades reflects a final vision of AA cofounder Bill W., who believed there could be “one world of AA” to assure that help will always be available for sick alcoholics wherever they are or whatever language they speak.

A 1950 visit to AA groups in Britain and Europe convinced him that AA could cross all of the barriers that had “divided and shattered the world of our time”.

The first WSM gathering was in New York in 1969, slightly more than a year before Bill W.’s death.

Much discussion at the 2008 WSM will centre on the theme “Service – Gratitude in Action”, underscoring the spirit of an AA tradition’s suggestion that individuals speak as A.A. members only if their full names or faces are not revealed at the public level.

Today AA has a presence in more than 180 countries, with an estimated total of 113,168 groups and more than two million members worldwide.

Independent Online

Bendigo’S nightclub lockout has driven down assaults in the CBD by almost 10 per cent as it approaches its first anniversary.

Now building on its success, the next war waged by Bendigo police will be a battle against the bottle.

“The message is clear,’’ Superintendent Peter Bull said yesterday, flagging binge drinking as the next target..

“You are going to have a pretty ordinary life and a lack of quality of life, if you engage in binge drinking at an early age, because it is going to destroy your brain in one form or another.’’

Findings show 30 per cent of young men and 25 per cent of women under 25 engage in binge drinking.

“I think that’s the issue that just doesn’t seem to have hit home yet,’’ Superintendent Bull said.

Problems caused by alcohol were five to 10 times more prevalent than those due to using illicit drugs, he said, and police were more likely to spend time dealing with alcohol issues rather than illegal drugs.

With this weekend marking the one-year anniversary of the lockout’s introduction in Bendigo, Superintendent Bull sat down with The Advertiser to reflect on its benefits, failures, and what is next on the radar.

“We said right from the start, it’s not about pleasing everybody,’’ he said.

“It’s trying to come up with a reasonable position that provides some balance between what revellers want, what the businesses want, what the public and the people who live in the city want.’’

The lockout, introduced during last year’s AFL Grand Final weekend, generated fierce debate.

Holders of 3am licenses were concerned the curfew would limit early-morning patronage.

Superintendent Bull said the effectiveness of the lockout in regional areas was highlighted by the “debacle’’ of the recent Melbourne trial lockout.

“It’s far more likely to work in rural centres,’’ he said.

“It has been a very well worthwhile exercise, and we are far from being concerned about the failure of the Melbourne exercise.’’

The Advertiser

The growing trend of online health assessment has come to UNM.

Students can now log on to Web sites such as PingMyHealth.org and the Electronic Checkup To Go, or E-CHUG.

"The E-CHUG is an excellent online alcohol assessment tool that had its beginnings here at COSAP," said Jill Anne Yeagley, Campus Office of Substance Abuse Prevention program manager.

Yeagley said the PingMyHealth assessment measures alcohol consumption and evaluates other health factors for students. PingMyHealth is free for students, and users have the chance to win an iPod or $150.

Yeagley said the E-CHUG is aimed at changing students' drinking habits and is based on motivational advancement therapy.

The E-CHUG also shows students how much they are spending on alcohol over time. It asks students how much they spend on alcohol per week and then asks what their monthly spending limit is.

"The purpose of E-CHUG is to give feedback in a nonjudgmental fashion that is very specific to that person's drinking habits and history," Yeagley said.

The E-CHUG started out as a pencil-and-paper assessment, said John Steiner, a health educator at COSAP.

"A graduate student that used to work at COSAP took the assessment to San Diego State University, and they decided to make it an online tool," he said.

Steiner said several hundred schools now pay a fee to SDSU to provide the E-CHUG on their Web sites. COSAP does not have to pay to use the program because the original assessment was designed at UNM, he said.

"We hope that students who become aware of their drinking habits and how they affect their life as a student will make positive changes," Yeagley said.

The results of the E-CHUG study showed that females stayed at baseline levels of alcohol consumption, while males who participated reported lower drinking levels over time, she said.

"The average level went down from 14.23 drinks per week to 5.9 drinks per week over the course of the study," Yeagley said.

She said females only reported having three drinks per week, and because of this low baseline, the results did not show a significant change in the drinking habits of females.

Sophomore Peggy Sue Azua said she took both online evaluations and found the UNM-sponsored one less helpful.

"I think the PingMyHealth assessment was more accurate and positive than the E-CHUG," she said.

The feedback from PingMyHealth was more constructive, Azua said. She took the E-CHUG last year and this year, and the feedback was the same both times.

Yeagley said E-CHUG is less expansive but provides a more in-depth analysis than PingMyHealth.

"Alcohol is the most widely used and abused, and that is why the E-CHUG mainly targets drinking," Yeagley said. "I think, with an instrument like the E-CHUG, if you try and get into several different drugs or items you really dilute it."

New Mexico Daily Lobo

In January, 26 people, mostly students from Middlebury High School, were charged with various crimes stemming from a New Year's Eve bash that spiraled out of control when a 22-year-old friend brought alcohol to the party. Police said the large crowd caused more than $10,000 in damage to the Homer Noble Farm in Ripton, a historical residence once occupied by poet Robert Frost.

And in June, 62 New Jersey teens were cited by the Vermont State Police for underage possession of alcohol after authorities broke up a post-prom bash in three rental homes in Dover.

But an even larger group of alcohol prevention leaders and law enforcement professionals, about 65, representing each county in Vermont, say the time has come to be proactive and prevent substance abuse among minors before more headlines are made.

The mission, and the gravity of the problem, was clearly defined by members of the Vermont Teen Leadership Safety Program, the state Department of Liquor Control, and other community organizations from across the Green Mountain State at the annual "Together We Can Reduce Underage Drinking" conference held Friday at the Holiday Inn in Rutland Town.

Underage drinking among high school students — why and how — was the focus, and the problems associated with it were identified. The brainstorming session resulted in yearly goals for conference participants to achieve, from partnering with police to provide counseling for students caught drinking to starting community groups to spread the word about the dangers associated with underage alcohol consumption, including suicide, drunk driving, pregnancy and rape.

For some, the publicized incidents are only a few examples of the growing problem among minors across the state, one that has implications not only for the young teens engaging in alcohol-related activities, but for entire communities, according to Kerri MacLaury, a Vermont Americorp volunteer and advisor to a group called SADD, Students Against Destructive Decisions.

"When communities aren't supportive of youth making healthy choices, they will start to self-destruct," said MacLaury, a former student from Manchester. "They (young people) are all leaving now. They're saying they're going to take off."

MacLaury said her opinion of how lacking community support factors into underage drinking is based on fact statistics released by the state Department of Health reported that less than half of all students who took part in a Youth Risk Behavior Survey last year, about 8,453, said they felt valued by their community.

And nearly 40 percent of all students said they drink, according to the survey.

"We see what's going on and we're working toward solutions," said Christie Henry, a senior member of Essex High School's Youth Advisory Council.

Henry said while some of her classmates are saying, "Oh, my God, everyone else is doing it, I can't be against it," she chose otherwise — to figure out why some of her classmates went from getting straight As to nearly dropping out.

But students weren't the only concerned Vermonters who expressed concern about their peers' behavior.

Nicholas Zeoli, an 85-year-old Hubbardton resident and leader of FAN, Fair Haven Area Neighborhoods, was worried too.

Zeoli said he's heard that about 50 percent of the student body in a Vermont high school has consumed some form of alcohol or drug. A former athletic director and teacher for more than 50 years, Zeoli said he knows students' problems with alcohol and has a solution to fix it. He said he wants a substance-abuse course given to all Vermont high-school students once a week as part of their normal curriculum.

Zeoli believes that if alcohol abuse among minors isn't thwarted from the beginning, "it will cost us more in the future," monetarily and socially.

Other conference participants asked the group to take action at local liquor stores and distributors, including friends and parents who are of legal age to buy alcohol, in an effort to stop problems before they start.

According to Steve Waldo, of the state Department of Liquor Control, statistics show that 48 percent of female high school students and 35 percent of male students said they get alcohol from someone who gave it to them.

The bad news about underage drinking was offset by ideas from Rutland, Winooski, Essex and other high schoolers from across the state on how to steer their peers away from potential alcoholism — by posting informative notices on bulletin boards, participating in ride-alongs with the police and planning drug and alcohol-free events.

The discussion, however small or large, is an important one to have, according to Stephen Malgeri, a group advisor and counselor at Essex High School.

"One bad decision impaired by alcohol can ruin someone's life," Malgeri said.

Rutland Herald

A Three-year strategy to tackle Devon’s growing alcohol problem was launched in Exeter this morning.

The amount of help and advice to those living with alcohol-related problems is to be increased thanks to the initiative by the Devon Drugs Alcohol Action Team.

The strategy is supported by a £1m investment plan from the Devon Primary Care Trust to improve alcohol harm prevention, intervention and treatment services.

The commitment makes Devon PCT one of the leading trusts nationally working to address alcohol-related harm.

Research shows that between 2003 and 2007, 16.5% of hospital admissions in Devon were alcohol related.

In A&E departments between midnight and 5am, 70% of attendances were alcohol related.

A total of 43% of people passing through A&E were identified as problematic drinkers after screening.

Almost 38% of all violent crime recorded in Devon was also alcohol related.

Mid Devon Star

After overcoming her alcoholism, Debbie Garrett became a facilitator for a women's support group that explores the link between addiction and domestic abuse/sexual assault at CARE. As a host of the event, Garrett offers bracelets that read "Recovery is everywhere."

Eecovery from alcoholism is no longer a secret journey.

In celebration of National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month, Deb Garrett of Roseville and Renee Palmer of Southfield are sharing their success stories in the hope of reaching those in need of a role model.

"It's especially important during an election year to let the policymakers know: We vote, we're not the minority," said Garrett, chairwoman for Greater Macomb Project Vox, a group dedicated to education and advocacy. "We need to keep treatment dollars in place — they're taking money away from them. Treatment is necessary. It works. It worked for me. And in the end, it saves the community money; money through lost wages, health insurance claims and loss of life."

Garrett, who facilitates a women's support group that explores the link between addiction and domestic abuse/sexual assault at CARE, teamed with Palmer Sept. 13 and 14 to help host the 6th annual Walk and Rally for Recovery at Belle Isle and the first annual Recovery Fest at Huron Park in Roseville.

"Alcoholism is a disease, not a disgrace," said Palmer, who oversees Women for Sobriety of southeast Michigan, an alternative to Alcoholics Anonymous that focuses on the positive. "Society tells us: 'Addicts are bad.' Recovery doesn't work. It's just not true. I've been (sober) for nine years, had zero relapses and life couldn't be better. I don't think I could ever go back there."

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, in 2007:

An estimated 22.3 million people aged 12 or older were classified with substance dependence or abuse in the past year, equivalent to 9 percent of the population aged 12 or older.

3.9 million people aged 12 or older (1.6 percent of the population) received some kind of treatment for problems related to the use of alcohol or illicit drugs.

Among the 3.9 million people aged 12 or older who received treatment for alcohol or illicit drug use in the past year, 2.2 million of them received treatment at a self-help group, and 1.7 million received treatment at a rehabilitation facility as an outpatient.

"Treatment does not work for all people who suffer from cancer, heart disease or diabetes," said Kathy Rager, executive director of CARE, a Macomb-based nonprofit committed to community empowerment. By the same token, "Treatment for alcoholism and other drug addiction does not work for everyone (either).

"My brother died at the age of 38 after participating in treatment programs. My sister died at the age of 50 after very limited treatment," Rager said.

In both cases, treatment for alcohol addiction did not come quickly enough.

But it can and does work much of the time; Rager sees it on a daily basis -— and believes so strongly in its wisdom that she has devoted her entire career to helping those who want treatment find access.

Here are two local success stories:

Deb Garrett, who got divorced and sober within six weeks, on the heels of her third DUI (driving under the influence), was fortunate to collect a small financial settlement from the sale of her marital home.

"I had a bit of money that allowed me to pay for time in a treat

ment center," said Garrett, who has been sober since November 2001. "If I didn't have that money, I would have had to go to prison because of the DUI.

"One in three women becomes a victim of some form of violence," said Garrett, who helps run her family's Roseville-based roofing company. "Seventy-five percent of those will go on to abuse some sort of substance.

"Part of the message I would like to get out: If you are a person in recovery, putting a face on your journey encourages people who might not otherwise seek treatment," Garrett said. "The advocacy movement is thriving and growing all over the country. We invite you to be a part of it."

For Renee Palmer, getting sober meant first relinquishing custody of her 7-year-old son to her ex-husband.

She kept her head, got back together with the loving and supportive ex-boyfriend — who told her not to come back until she was sober — and eventually won sole legal and permanent physical custody of her son.

"My twin sister had to bail me out of jail," Palmer said. "I lost everything: my house, my job, my son. I had nothing."

Hitting bottom provided the much-needed catalyst for getting sober with the help of AA and Women for Sobriety. She then reconnected with her ex-boyfriend who "saved my life" with his zero-tolerance attitude.

"Now I have everything: an awesome job as an estimator for a supportive employer, a wonderful husband and a great relationship with my oldest son," said Palmer, who, in addition to serving as a certified moderator for the Women for Sobriety group in Livonia, was voted in 2005 to serve on its board of directors.

"My second husband has since blessed me with another son," Palmer continued. "I got to watch him graduate from kindergarten, we just went to his first soccer game and — best of all — I was sober for it," Palmer said. "It just makes me all the more grateful."

For women, low self-esteem and abusive relationships often lead to alcoholism, Palmer said.

"It's amazing how it all weaves together," Palmer said. "There's more to addiction than what people initially think."

Daily Tribune

There is need to boldly step out and tackle the link between alcohol and HIV says Dr Samba Nyirenda, co-founder of the Save Haven Counselling Centre in Francistown.

Presenting on Alcohol and HIV Transmission at Botswana International HIV conference, hosted by the Botswana HIV Clinicians Society in Gaborone Dr Nyirenda said alcohol was a problem in Botswana.

In addition, she said numerous reports and studies had shown the connection between HIV infection and alcohol abuse “Alcohol use is associated with multiple risks for HIV transmission and we need to integrate its abuse to HIV preventative measures,” said Dr Nyirenda.

She said there was need to implement liquor regulations to arrest the problem and called for action against what she termed hazardous drinking promotions such as ‘happy hours’ where one buys one and gets one free.

She said this binge drinking needed screening and interventions now as part of HIV preventative measures.

Dr Nyirenda said there are socio-economic problems that lead people to indulge in excessive drinking, which put them at risk of making wrong decisions and possibly getting infected with HIV because of the mind altering drug.

In another presentation, Professor Leickness Simbayi said there was need to target people who knew their HIV status when it came to prevention measures.
Presenting on Prevention for Positives, Prof Simbayi said prevention had been focused on general population, including those who were not at risk.

He said this had worked as they had been seen declines on the prevalence rate, but the idea of targeting those who already know their status would help them in taking the lead in prevention matters.

“This will help them to avoid transmitting sexual transmitted illnesses to themselves and to those not infected,” said Prof Simbayi.

He said some countries such as the USA had been using the prevention for positives and added that there was need to integrate HIV prevention interventions into expanding treatment programmes.

“Prevention for positives should become part of a comprehensive HIV prevention strategy,” said Prof Simbayi.

Meanwhile, Ms Christine Stegling of Botswana Network on Ethics, Law and AIDS (BONELA) said medical ethics should encourage health professional to lead the community and all others in the prevention of TB and HIV transmission.

She said there was need to have legislature on HIV related matters.

A Third of Victorians regularly indulge in risky binge drinking, an alarming snapshot of the state's drinking habits shows.

Males often indulge in risky binge drinking, downing more than seven standard drinks at a sitting.

And females aren't much better, putting away five or more standard drinks - more than 50g of pure alcohol - in a session.

The new Australian Institute of Health and Welfare figures put one third of Victorians at short-term risk of alcohol abuse because of their binge drinking.

In addition, one in 10 Victorians are deemed to be at long-term risk by drinking more than 29 standard drinks a week (for men) or more than 15 standard drinks a week (for women).

As the silly season begins, marked by the AFL Grand Final and the Spring Racing Carnival, VicHealth has warned that risky drinking is marked not only by how often you drink but by how much you regularly drink in one sitting.

"Most Victorians drink in moderation most of the time, but many go overboard occasionally - and that's when most of the damage is done," VicHealth chief executive Todd Harper said.

"It's time to stop making excuses and start to take some serious steps towards changing our drinking culture."

The figures show one in 10 Victorians drink daily, nearly half drink weekly, a third drink less than weekly, one in 20 are former drinkers, and nearly one in 10 don't ever drink.

And Mr Harper said Australians continued to believe myths about how to minimise the effects of alcohol.

"Cold showers, fresh air or hot coffee don't help you sober up," Mr Harper said. "Only time will remove alcohol from the system. It takes the body approximately one hour to eliminate the alcohol in one drink.

"As the old saying goes, 'Give a drunk a cup of coffee, and all you have is a wide awake drunk'."

He said none of the supposed hangover cures worked.

"Prevention is better than a cure," Mr Harper said.

"If you drink within a safe limit, you reduce the risk of a hangover."

The AIHW figures show that when it comes to long-term heavy drinking, Victorians are actually among Australia's more moderate drinkers: 9.1 per cent of Victorians drink at a risk or high risk of harm in the long term, compared with a national average of 10.3 per cent.

But when it comes to binge drinking, we don't do as well: 14.5 per cent of Victorians binge drink at least once a year, compared with the national average of 14.2 per cent.

However, we're not apathetic about the problem. When compared with the national average, Victorians report more support for various alcohol policy reforms, including:

Stricter laws against serving the drunk (83.4 per cent).

Strict monitoring of late-night licensed premises (77 per cent).

Limiting TV advertising until after 9.30pm (72.5 per cent).

Increasing the size of standard drink labels on alcohol containers (67.0 per cent).

Restricting late-night alcohol trading (59.1 per cent).

Reducing trading hours for pubs and clubs (41.4 per cent).

Increasing alcohol taxes to pay for health and education and for the treatment of alcohol-related problems (41.4 per cent).

Herald Sun

Washington County Sheriff Fred Newman says the party was larger than most – 100 kids gathered at a riverside home to revel in the start of the football season.

And while many residents have questioned the police involvement and expense to raid the party Aug. 23, once the partiers ran, there was no other choice. There were dozens of young people who were believed to have been drinking; some fled into fields and woods nearby and others got wet crossing a nearby river.

What started out as a simple effort to shut down an underage party turned into a search-and-rescue effort involving Abingdon town police, sheriff’s deputies, Virginia State Police and state Alcoholic Beverage Control agents.

Teens are going to invent new ways to get into trouble and gathering at a riverside house to drink and socialize is an irresistible draw. But this party quickly grew over the top. Kids came from Abingdon, Johnson City, Tenn., Wise County, Va., and parts of Kentucky. The noise and number of cars made it impossible to conceal. Around midnight on Friday, Aug. 22, police approached to shut it down and young people fled – to the woods, to fields, to nearby houses.

The Virginia State Police eventually used a helicopter and infrared cameras to find stragglers hiding outside.

Eighteen people were charged with underage possession of alcohol.

Asked the cost of the work that night, Newman said he does not intend to calculate it. His sole goal was keeping everyone safe, not determining the cost to do it. “There’s no amount of money that would make up for the loss of life,” he said.

Noble thinking and Newman is right; he gets paid whether his Friday night is a yawner or involves helicopter searches. But Friday night party raids like that which happened Aug. 22-23 are much more expensive than the quieter nights. No one wants to see teens hurt or killed from drinking alcohol or other reckless behavior.

But law enforcement had to spend hours searching for wet, cold and possibly drunken teenagers who ran from a party they weren’t legally old enough to hold in the first place.

A letter claiming to be from an Abingdon High School parent supports Newman in raiding the party and says that is what will curb this behavior. “The more parties that are raided and stopped; maybe the kids will think twice,” the letter reads.

It also chides young people for drinking: “To the kids who think you are cool for drinking ... you’ll look back on these days and you won’t believe how stupid you looked or how stupid you were. If you are lucky enough to survive your teenage years. When you have kids of your own, it changes your whole judgment on the issue.”

Correct and correct. But teens have tried to find ways to drink alcohol for generations.

Concerning to us is the brazen behavior exhibited at this party – an enormous crowd of young people who have little to no respect for the police. When confronted, they ran off and forced an hours-long search.

Concerning also are many adults who defend the behavior with a “kids will be kids” defense. Young people rise to the standards insisted of them.

Young people convicted of possessing alcohol underage usually get community service hours. If running through the woods, cold and afraid, isn’t memory enough, these young people need community work assignments so they don’t forget why this was such a bad idea.

Tri Cities

When Rosalie Cebreros went out with friends Thursday evening, she found herself in a place she least expected: the Addiction Recovery Center.

It wasn't even the freshman's first visit to the ARC this fall semester.

Cebreros, an open-option major, spoke from the audience about her experience with excessive alcohol consumption during a panel discussion on Wednesday about binge drinking among CU students.

"It's not something you plan on," Cebreros said about her first visit on Aug. 28.

Even with the help of her friends, Cebreros could not function properly.

"My friends tried to wake me up a few times; they sprinkled water on me," Cebreros said. "But they couldn't wake me up. I think I just wanted to sleep. I don't remember any of it."

Cebreros's story can be scary and as well as too real for many CU students.

The panel was held on the 4-year anniversary of CU freshman Lynn Gordon "Gordie" Bailey's death from alcohol poisoning.

While many students are against heavy drinking, multiple students still do.

"We are seeing an increase in the number of students choosing to abstain from alcohol," said Deb Coffin, assistant vice chancellor of Student Affairs. "At the same time, there has been an increase in the number of students that binge."

Excessive alcohol consumption is not a new concern at CU, and with 247 liquor licenses in Boulder, access to alcohol is not hard.

"I'm a firm believer that outside behavior affects the classroom," said Jane Curtis, the director of alcohol and other drugs program at CU. "Alcohol abuse affects all of us."

That is why the CU administration is encouraging safe drinking habits for all students by working with the Guidelines and Objectives of Responsible Drinking.

"Responsible drinking means it's important for students to be watching out for each other," said Victoria Garcia, a junior communication major and USCU tri-executive. "Be aware."

The CU administration hopes to ease such decision making with the university Good Samaritan Provision.

The policy allows any student to help an intoxicated student without the involved parties being subject to formal university disciplinary action. In turn, these students are required to undergo alcohol education.

The policy applies to students living both on and off campus.

The thin line between responsible drinking and binging is one not limited to CU students; it's not even limited to students at all.

"We're dealing with a huge societal issue in our country," Coffin said. "I don't believe it's just a student issue-we are seeing as a society that over-consumption is being tolerated."

Cebreros is one student who is ready to change her habits.

"No, I don't see this happening again," Cebreros said. "This stuff really hits home, and I don't want to be the next 'Gordie'."

Campus Press

UNM was given $2.5 million this semester to start one of the nation's first fetal alcohol research centers.

The program is funded by a five-year grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

The New Mexico Alcohol Research Center will look at the effects of alcohol on the brain. Dr. Daniel Savage, who is leading the program, said he will research fetal alcohol syndrome and a new ailment called fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

He said differentiating between the disorders is important because they can affect patients in different ways and at different times in life.

"We call it fetal alcohol spectrum disorder these days because FAS is just one end of the spectrum of problems that have been associated with maternal drinking during pregnancy," Savage said.

Cathy Salazar is the adoptive mother of 7-year-old Shelly, who has FAS and has also been diagnosed with OCD. Shelly will work with Savage at the NMARC.

Salazar said that as a parent of an FAS child, she had to learn a new set of parenting rules. When Salazar adopted Shelly, she was 13 months old, but she was born at 28 weeks and weighed 1 pound, 8 ounces.

"As foster parents, we didn't know much about FAS," Salazar said. "I read a book about parents of FAS. One of the hardest things is impulse control - as a parent you have to constantly repeat directions."

Shelly cannot communicate with many people outside her family, but she is learning to talk through a computer language program. Salazar said that as Shelly gets older, there will probably be more behavioral complications.

"She will probably always need someone to help her take care of herself," she said.

Savage said close to .03 percent of the population has FAS and 1 percent has FASD, making the disorders more common than autism.

Savage said research of FASD needs to pick up in the next couple years.

He said more than a half million women in the U.S. drink alcohol during pregnancy each year. The NMARC wants to help people understand the consequences of maternal drinking during pregnancy and find ways to help those with FAS and FASD, Savage said.

"One of our goals is to identify new approaches for diagnosing children," he said. "And, if we can, identify some of these lesser-affected children earlier, and then develop ways to effectively treat them so they will be better off in the long run."

Savage said maternal drinking can affect people later in life. Many people show symptoms of FAS at birth, while those with FASD show symptoms around middle school or high school age.

"There are certain kinds of learning problems, particularly with math and science," he said. "There's problems in abstract thinking, social learning problems, understanding the difference between right and wrong, risk-taking behaviors and getting in trouble with the law."

Savage said some young people behave this way but will grow out of it when they are adults, while someone with FASD will continue to act out.

He said this is because the frontal areas of the brain are affected by alcohol, and these parts are some of the last to develop in humans. Savage said this also means other important discoveries about the brain could be made by researching FASD.

"We hope that part of what we learn may have some application and extension to other neural development disorders," Savage said.

Dr. Piyadasa Kodituwakku is a clinical psychologist working with the research center and oversees much of what goes on with patients.

Kodituwakku said research should not only look into the effects of alcohol on a fetal brain but other possible factors as well.

"I think that we need to look at behavioral function that results from a number of things. One is alcohol-related brain damage," he said. "There can be other sources. If they are not placed in an optimal environment for learning, that doesn't help."

Many children with FAS are born into homes that might not be able to support a child, Kodituwakku said.

"The third source is the genetic factor," he said. "We find that parents who are abusing alcohol might have a learning disability as well."

Kodituwakku said many FAS and FASD patients also have to deal with other psychological disorders such as depression or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. There have been follow-up studies on children with FASD which showed that as they grew older, many developed psychological disorders.

"The underlying cause of the psychological difficulties we don't know and, in the end, there might be multiple sources," Kodituwakku said. "There may be a significant number who have experienced trauma."

New Mexico Daily Lobo

Data from the Alcohol Action in Rural Communities (AARC) project show that the third and fourth weekends in September are historically associated with higher incidents of alcohol-related crime in Parkes.

According to Stephanie Love, a member of the AARC team working closely with Parkes, “the upcoming weekends of September 19th – 21st and September 26th – 28th are both historically associated with an average of two to three incidents of alcohol-related malicious damage and up to one alcohol-related assault”.

“This means that across both weekends, on average, a total of up to six incidents of malicious damage and two incidents of assaults occur across both weekends” she said.

“This indicates that these two weekends of September is an important time to implement strategies aimed at reducing alcohol-related harm, especially given the costs these incidents impose on the Parkes community”.

AARC has reported to a steering group of Parkes representatives that two relatively simple and effective strategies for addressing this increased harm are prioritised visible policing and increased vigilance from licensed premises.

Given this, Parkes Police have agreed to prioritise visible policing on the third weekend of September and the Mayor has written to pubs and clubs in Parkes, requesting that they be extra vigilant.

Specific recommendations include: continued practice of responsible service of alcohol, encouraging patrons to use a designated driver or alternative transport options to get home, and taking a more strategic approach to security by working co-operatively with police.

Licensing Sergeant of Lachlan Area Police, Constable Cindy Moore, agrees that targeting alcoholrelated harm is a primary concern.

“We will be prioritising visible policing on weekends identified as particularly high risk for alcohol-related crime in Parkes and I should also remind residents that random breath testing will be in force in Parkes as usual,” she said.

In addition to specific strategies by police and licensees, it is recommended that the community be aware of the high rates of alcohol consumption and related harm.

“It is clear from nationally collected data, and data specific to Parkes collected by AARC,” said Dr Shakeshaft, “that short-term risky drinking is higher in rural communities than elsewhere.

“So if you are drinking, it is important that you take responsibility for your safety, and the safety of others.

“By planning ahead before you start drinking, such as planning to go home at a set time, drinking water between alcoholic drinks and selecting a designated driver or taxi to get you home safely, you can significantly reduce your chances of experiencing alcohol-related harm,” Dr Shakeshaft said.

Mayor Ken Keith agreed, pointing out that “Parkes is fortunate to have a proactive liquor accord.

“But it is not all up to the hotels and clubs,” he said. “By being more aware of the potential consequences of your behaviour when you are drinking, you can make a large contribution towards reducing alcoholrelated harm in our community.”

Dr Suzanne Czech, a member of the AARC team working with the Parkes community, echoed the statement made by Mayor Keith.

“A key component of this project is to involve the community in becoming aware of how even the smallest of changes in their own behaviour, can result in dramatic benefits for the community” she said.

“AARC will be working closely with Parkes police to measure whether there is a reduction in alcohol-related crime across the third and fourth weekends of September 2008 compared to previous years, and will report this back to the community”.

Parkes Champion Post

Alcohol is being blamed for an increase in the number of brain injuries caused by assaults across Australia.

The organisation Brain Injury Australia says last year assaults caused more than 3,000 hospital admissions and nearly 150 deaths from brain injury.

It says nearly 6 per cent of all women are assaulted each year and the rate of assault among Indigenous women is 70 times higher.

Brain Injury Australia's Nick Rushworth says alcohol-fuelled violence at pubs and clubs is becoming commonplace.

"One hundred and thirty two infant boys were admitted to hospital because of assault, 123 infant girls," he said.

"There's a pattern of violence generally through the community, but when it comes to traumatic brain injury, I still think the biggest concern is in the young age groups, where the alcohol is involved."

ABC News

The presence of alcohol is an issue on campuses everywhere - between football games and Greek life, college towns' cheap bars and students' newfound freedom, drinking has simply become a part of the American college experience.

And unfortunately, hard partying and binge drinking are not just limited to college kids. Many middle- and high-schoolers turn to alcohol to relieve stress from school work.

In August, 100 university presidents asked lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18. They claim that the current laws are not working - and actually encourage binge drinking on campus. Tell us what you think on this controversial topic. Either way, remember that it's never too soon to start taking measures to prevent young people from abusing alcohol. Know that it is possible for young adults to steer clear of alcohol-related injuries and accidents. You can help them prepare to make smart and responsible decisions by talking to them now about the dangers of binge drinking and hard partying.

Myths + Truths

More than 1,700 college students in the U.S. are killed each year as a result of alcohol-related injuries. That's nearly five per day. With drinking games gaining popularity, alcohol-induced deaths on college campuses are becoming everyday occurrences. Nearly 30 percent of students who drink take 21 shots on their 21st birthdays, and many boost their social status by posting drunken or provocative photos on Facebook and MySpace. (Center for Substance Abuse Research, 2008)

What you can do

Know a kid who recently headed off to college? Reduce his or her risk of suffering an alcohol-related injury by following these 7 tips:

1. Make sure he knows where and how he can get help on campus - for emergency, general medical care and mental health reasons - before he ever needs it.

2. Recommend she read the following "reality checks" on the dangers of binge drinking at college: "From Binge to Blackout" by Chris Volkmann and Toren Volkmann and "Dying to Drink: Confronting Binge Drinking on College Campuses" by Henry Wechsler and Bernice Wuethrich.

3. Help him realize that not everyone drinks in college. Suggest that he get involved in sports or student organizations to meet kids he clicks with without drinking or using drugs. And emphasize that even if he does end up making friends who drink, he doesn't have to drink just to fit in with them.

4. Suggest she consider living in a substance-free dorm. That way, she'll have less temptation to drink.

5. Remind him that underage drinking can result in serious and sometimes deadly consequences. For example, 95 percent of violent crime on college campuses is alcohol-related, and 90 percent of college rapes involve alcohol use by the victim and/or assailant.

6. Emphasize that no one can make her do anything she doesn't want to do. A Greek organization, club or team that hazes by forcing new members to drink is doing something illegal.

7. If you're his parent or play a significant role in his life, make sure he knows he can always ask you for help or support, no matter what. Even if you're many miles away, he should know that he can call you to discuss his problems so he doesn't have to turn to alcohol.

WMICentral

By the time the family get-together was over, there was so much blood on the ground that a biohazard team had to be called in to clean up the mess.

A July 19 shindig at the Robert Livermore Community Center degenerated into an alcohol-fueled mob scene when multiple fights broke out among guests, according to police and Livermore Area Recreation and Park District staff.

"The sprinkler system was uprooted in our courtyard," said Sheryl Hardin, assistant community center director. Brawling partygoers tore up irrigation pipes and tried to use them as weapons, she said.

Park district officials said the guest of honor at the large gathering of friends and relatives was under 21. That incident and others at LARPD's four public rental facilities have prompted the park district board to ban alcohol at all "youth-centered" events, including graduations, birthday parties and quinceaneras.

Youth parties, especially ones for teenagers, often lead to chaos when alcohol is served, LARPD officials say. Friends, classmates or rivals of the guest of honor show up for the free food and booze, and the crowd of kids quickly grows too big to police, Hardin said.

"When you have a contingent of youth, there is an unknown entity," Hardin said. "They invite their friends, and sometimes people the guest of honor doesn't even know show up. (Organizers) are serving alcohol, and they can't control the underage drinking."
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Weddings and other events in which the majority of guests are adults aren't as problematic, she said.

Livermore's alcohol ban, unanimously adopted by park district board members last month, also applies to events for younger children, such as baptismal parties, first Holy Communion celebrations and bar mitzvahs.

Neighboring communities that prohibit drinking at youth events include Danville, Pleasant Hill and Milpitas, according to an LARPD survey. Berkeley, Hayward, Elk Grove and Newark do not allow alcohol at any event, while Modesto, Benicia, Brentwood and Tracy do not have any provisions against alcohol, the report said.

The Livermore community center, a three-year-old facility that can accomodate 350 guests, is regularly rented for weddings and other private events. So are the other three facilities managed by LARPD — Veterans Memorial Hall, Ravenswood Historic Site and The Barn.

For large parties, renters are required to provide their own security, said Hardin. But despite the provision, parties have been getting out of hand lately, according to LARPD findings.

Of 30 events held in the past 12 months in which the guest of honor was under 21 and alcohol was served, 80 percent of them had problems. Incidents ranged from underage drinking and noise disturbances to acts of violence and property destruction.

"We noticed as we looked back at some of the problem events that have take place that there's been a common denominator," said LARPD general manager Tim Barry. "If there's bad blood between (the guests), it comes out at the celebration. Passions run high, you add alcohol, and it's a bad combination."

The worst incident occurred July 19 at the community center, park district leaders said.

Livermore police arrived around 11:15 p.m. after someone called to report 10 to 15 people fighting in the parking lot, said Livermore Police Lt. Matt Sarsfield. By the time officers got there, the melee was over, although facility security guards were still on scene. Police saw numerous cars leaving the parking lot but couldn't locate any victims or perpetrators, Sarsfield said.

While the incident did not lead to any arrests, it created "a mess beyond belief," said Hardin. Repairs were made by the park district's maintenance crew, and a special clean-up was performed to remove the blood, said Hardin. She said she did not know the cost of the repairs, some of which were offset by the organizers' security deposit. LARPD staff declined to say who the organizers were.

Marcia Somers, assistant manager for Danville, said the town has an unwritten rule barring alcohol from youth events at rental facilities. There have been no major incidents, though parks officials make sure to educate renters about the policy beforehand, she said. A chaperone is required for every 10 minors and additional security is strongly recommended for parties of 50-plus people," Somers said.

"It's really a policy that we implement because it makes good sense," she said.

Contra Costa Times

Lufthansa flight LH 756 from Frankfurt, which landed in Mumbai on September 9, was unusually eventful for passengers as well as the cabin crew, who were kept busy throughout the journey by an inebriated passenger.

He refused to sit quietly in his seat and kept toppling over a female passenger next to him. He had to be lifted and wheeled out of the aircraft after the flight landed. And, when he tried to get up and take charge of himself and his luggage, he fell flat on the floor and stayed there till the airport security helped him to a rest room.

"He was so drunk and disruptive that the lady next to him had to be given another seat. The crew had a hard time wheeling him out as he kept falling off the chair," a witness to the sordid drama said.

A Qatar Airways’ Doha-Bangkok flight had to be diverted to Mumbai a couple of months back after a passenger got sloshed on board and hit one of the flight attendants. The crew had to tie his hands to prevent him from hitting other passengers before he was off-loaded in Mumbai and the flight took off again.

A few airlines and even politicians have lobbied with the civil aviation ministry for booze to be served on domestic flights; and Air India has made up its mind to serve liquor even on the ground at international airports during delays. But flight attendants of several airlines have raised a pertinent question: why is there no wellspelt-out rule to tackle boorish and violent behaviour after consumption of alcohol on flights?

Most airlines depend on flight attendants’ discretion on whether to serve alcohol to passengers if they get tipsy. Air India cabin crew, for instance, are mandated to serve only two drinks and give a third one only on discretion. Other airlines, too, have certain internal norms to tackle drunk passengers.

"We refuse to serve passengers more if we notice them getting incoherent or sozzled. We may also dilute the drink so that it doesn’t hit too hard," a Jet Airways flight attendant said. She remembered occasions when a drunk passenger was successfully put to sleep but couldn’t open his eyes and stand on his feet even after the flight had landed.

The problem, say cabin crew, lies not in serving alcohol on flights but in the absence of any rule laying down the upper limit than can be served. The trouble often begins when tipsy passengers take offence at being refused.

"Nothing flares them up more than being refused more alcohol. This is when they make more fuss and start throwing a fit," a flight attendant said. "To add to the problems, the impact of liquor is much higher at higher altitudes," she added.

A drunk passenger on a Delhi-bound flight from Vienna threatened to blow up the plane last year, with explosives he claimed to be carrying, after he was refused more drinks.

"This is a problem all over the world and has to be solved by a common set of rules. We have written to the civil aviation ministry and urged the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to draft out a common policy to set a common limit to the quantity of alcohol that can be served and also some punitive measures against passengers who go out of hand," Aviation Industry Employees’ Guild general secretary George Abraham said.

Dealing with drunk fliers

Airline staff have several ways to deal with sozzled passengers. Flights are often diverted to the closest airport to offload passengers who are handed over to the local security agency; this is done if things look like getting out of hand and if the passengers’ behaviour looks like posing a serious problem to flight operations.

Some airlines have plastic handcuffs to rein in drunk passengers who turn violent on board; these passengers are handed over to the airport security personnel who, in turn, pass them on to the local police station. But, if airline officials so request, passengers are let off by the airport security personnel after being made to write a letter of apology.

Economic Times

The English-speaking group of Alcoholics Anonymous in Torrevieja celebrated its 20th birthday on September 6.

A number of visitors, primarily from the UK and Ireland, together with other English-speaking AA members from the rest of Spain, joined local members to celebrate this special anniversary.

The group in Torrevieja started in 1988, initially with meetings at an urbanisation on the outskirts of the town, La Siesta. The founding member, then in her early months of sobriety, often sat alone waiting for others to come along, which they eventually did, usually visitors from the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia.

She still lives on the Costa Blanca, although not in Torrevieja, and remains in AA to this day. Her continuing sobriety is just one example of how the programme of AA works for those with a genuine desire to stop drinking and who are willing to work its universal 12-step programme of recovery.

Continuing the traditions of the fellowship founded in the USA in 1935, Alcoholics Anonymous in Torrevieja and on the Costa Blanca has expanded dramatically over the last six years. In the last 20 years, many already sober alcoholics have moved permanently to the area, bringing with them their AA experience of living life without the need to drink, one day at a time, and sharing this with newcomers – that is how AA works. They have been joined by a growing number who have found freedom from their obsession with alcohol for the first time by attending AA meetings and working the famous 12-step programme. Members’ stories, periodically published in The Euro Weekly News, reveal the varying depths to which alcoholics sink before surrendering and seeking help. There is no need for an alcoholic to end their drinking ‘career’ alone, destitute or institutionalised, but it can happen, unless they recognise earlier that they have become, or are clearly becoming, a slave to drink.

In this year alone, local newspapers have reported the deaths of two expats evidently as a result of prolonged alcohol abuse – further evidence of the need for a strong AA presence within the English-speaking community in the area.

Many members first come to AA as a result of persistent pressure from their partners, family or friends. Perhaps this is not the best motive for going to an AA meeting, but, by identifying with all or part of the stories they hear from members, they continue to attend for their own well-being and, by doing so, improve the quality of their home life. By 2001, global membership of AA was, conservatively, estimated at two million people attending meetings organised by 100,800 groups in 150 countries. It is a fully self-supporting organisation, actively declining donations or assistance from outside its own membership.

Euro Weekly News

The government believes it has identified nine types of heavy drinker as it launches a new alcohol campaign.

Research by the Department of Health in England with focus groups found heavy drinkers often fell into one of a number of categories.

These ranged from de-stress and depressed drinkers to people who boozed because of boredom or to bond.

Experts said helping people to understand the reasons for their drinking habits was "very useful".

The nine types of heavy drinker

The research showed that those drinking heavily - defined as consuming 35 units a week for women, 50 for men, which is twice the recommended limit - did so for a variety of reasons.

For example, de-stress drinkers were defined as people in pressured jobs who used alcohol to relax.

Whereas it said bonding drinkers could be anyone in society who had hectic social lives and lost track of their drinking.

The research was done to inform a new drive by ministers to crack down on heavy drinkers.

A pilot is being run in the north west of England over the coming months to specifically target heavy drinkers.

Over 900,000 households will receive leaflets through the post highlighting the link between drinking and conditions such as cancer and liver disease.

The campaign is focusing on adults aged over 35 who fall into the nine drinking categories.

Risk

Along with the information about disease risk, people will be given details about where they can go to get help.

This will include a website where they can calculate their own individual risk from drinking and get access to a self-help manual. A telephone helpline will also be set up.

The government hopes the tailored approach will help 4,000 people in the region to reduce their drinking within a year.

If it is successful, officials hope to roll it out to other parts of England.

Public health minister Dawn Primarolo admitted these heavy drinkers were a "tough one to crack".

But she added: "This is a totally fresh approach to helping people understand the effects of their drinking habits and help them make changes for the better."

Alcohol Concern chief executive Don Shenker said: "This type of marketing is very useful.

"In order to get people to examine their drinking they need to become aware of why they are doing it and what motivates them."

Click here to return

The Nine Types of Drinker

Name Characteristics Key motivations

Depressed drinker | Life in a state of crisis eg recently bereaved, divorced or in financial crisis | Alcohol is a comforter and a form of self-medication used to help them cope

De-stress drinker | Pressurised job or stressful home life leads to feelings of being out of control and burdened with responsibility | Alcohol is used to relax, unwind and calm down and to gain a sense of control when switching between work and personal life. Partners often support or reinforce behaviour by preparing drinks for them

Re-bonding drinker | Relevant to those with a very busy social calendar | Alcohol is the ‘shared connector' that unifies and gets them on the same level. They often forget the time and the amount they are consuming

Conformist drinker | Traditional guys who believe that going to the pub every night is ‘what men do' | Justify it as ‘me time'. The pub is their second home and they feel a strong sense of belonging and acceptance within this environment

Community drinker | Drink in fairly large social friendship groups | The sense of community forged through the pub-group. Drinking provides a sense of safety and security and gives their lives meaning. It also acts a social network

Boredom drinker | Typically single mums or recent divorcees with restricted social life | Drinking is company, making up for an absence of people. Drinking marks the end of the day, perhaps following the completion of chores

Macho drinker | Often feeling under-valued, disempowered and frustrated in important areas of their life | Have actively cultivated a strong ‘alpha male' that revolves around their drinking ‘prowess'. Drinking is driven by a constant need to assert their masculinity and status to themselves and others

Hedonistic drinker | Single, divorced and/or with grown up children | Drinking excessively is a way of visibly expressing their independence, freedom and ‘youthfulness' to themselves. Alcohol used to release inhibitions

Border dependents | Men who effectively live in the pub which, for them, is very much a home from home | A combination of motives, including boredom, the need to conform, and a general sense of malaise in their lives

BBC News

Irish teenagers are splashing out €145m a year on alcohol -- more than the entire national spend on illegal drugs like heroin. Some start drinking as young as 13, psychiatrists warned yesterday.

The specialists from the Irish College of Psychiatrists have now called for a complete ban on alcohol advertising and the drink sponsorship of sporting events.

Launching the report yesterday, Dr Bobby Smyth said 16-17 year olds -- who legally cannot purchase alcohol -- were spending €20.09 a week on drink.

"This illegal alcohol market is larger in size than the total illegal market in Ireland for drugs such as heroin," he added.

He warned this was of particular concern because of emergency studies showing alcohol could damage the teenage brain.

"The earlier someone starts drinking, the more likely they are to develop a dependence on alcohol as an adult.

"I am seeing people who start drinking at 13 years. That gets boring and they move to drugs at 16 and 18 years," he said.

"Alcohol is a gateway drug -- my advice to parents who don't want their children to have drug problems is to delay their introduction to alcohol."

The report highlighted how Irish children are exposed to high levels of alcohol advertising and sponsorship.

Currently, only a voluntary code of advertising exists for drinks ads -- no company is sanctioned if they breach the code. There is just an "illusion that something is being done", Dr Smyth said.

Abuse

"There are no drug dealers at the table when the social partners are discussing how to tackle drug abuse. So why is the alcohol industry at the table? They would do anything to protect their profits. Meanwhile, hundreds of lives are being lost."

But the psychiatrists dismissed the code as an "exercise in public relations" with the "goal of allaying public concern rather than the required public health intervention".

In relation to sports sponsorship, the report points out that nearly all sports are now linked to alcohol products.

The report sets out how it is possible to change drinking habits across a country and said there has been dramatic reduction in consumption in France over the past 30 years. This followed a range of measures, including restrictions on alcohol promotion.

"The drinks industry has vigorously contested these advertising restrictions in a multitude of legal battles, but the right of the French government has been upheld in the European court," the report stated, adding that "adolescent drunkenness is now rare in France".

Commenting on a report from the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland that there has been a major decline in alcohol consumption this year, the psychiatrist said they would view such figures with scepticism.

The drinks group said an analysis of excise receipts from the Revenue Commissioners revealed that alcohol sales were down 7pc in the first eight months of the year.

But the doctors said even with an 8pc fall, Irish people would still be the heaviest drinkers in Europe.

Independent ie

Rhodes University students’ poor academic performance has been linked to the high alcohol consumption rate on its campus.

This was one of the findings of a study on alcohol consumption by students on campus compiled by the university’s dean of students, Dr Vivian de Klerk, and head of counselling Dr Charles Young.

The report, titled Patterns of Alcohol Usage on a South African University Campus, found that the student’s drinking patterns were harmful and hazardous .

One finding was that patterns differed according to faculty, with pharmacy students reporting drinking behaviours that were less dangerous than students from other faculties.

One possible reason for this difference, the report said, was that pharmacy students were more aware than other students of the harmful effects of substance abuse and therefore drank more cautiously.

The data was collected over two weeks in October 2007, with 2049 students completing the survey.

This represented a little more than a third of all registered students.

The average age of respondents was 21 years and three months.

Only 227 respondents – slightly more than 11 percent – do not drink at all, with the remainder drinking at least occasionally and many excessively.

“It is of great concern that half of the respondents to this survey report drinking patterns that are hazardous, harmful or alcohol dependent,” the report noted.

According to the report, apart from the deleterious effect of such behaviour on health and safety, it was also associated with absenteeism and poor academic performance.

“It is in the interests of institutions of higher learning to take note of levels of alcohol consumption amongst their students, and devise strategies to counteract such trends when necessary,” the report added.

Of concern was that the high prevalence of excessive drinking was likely to influence the behaviour of new students.

Senior students were likely to exert strong pressure to make them conform.

Yesterday De Klerk said peer pressure and the false sense of security that comes from living in a small town were contributing factors to the students’ excessive drinking.

“Anecdotal evidence from lecturers across the institution suggests that attendance of early morning lectures, practicals and tutorials are markedly down on Thursday mornings after the traditional Wednesday night party,” she added.

De Klerk said they educated all residence leaders, as well as incoming first-year students, about the dangers of substance abuse, including alcohol, during Orientation Week.

She said they had promulgated the results of their survey widely and encouraged critical discussion.

This training is followed with a week-long anti-alcohol abuse campaign and two separate competitions (one per semester) to encourage alcohol-free events.

The university had had encouraging results from these initiatives.

They had also devised and confirmed a new “responsible drinking policy”, she added.

Earlier this year, the Daily Dispatch reported that Rhodes students were opposing a Makana Council decision to regulate alcohol trading hours at all drinking outlets.

In their submissions, the students urged the municipality not to impose a “blanket by-law” on all establishments selling liquor.

Daily Dispatch

Few places have a worse reputation for binge drinking than a college campus. Just think about Greek life for a minute, and what comes to mind? Keg parties and drinking competitions, perhaps? Or what about those big rivalry games? Isn't it safe to say that tailgating festivities and victory celebrations are anything but sobering events?

Sure, stereotypes and exaggerations taint these perceptions. But the unavoidable truth is that the college years are teeming with temptations not only to drink, but to drink to excess.

"The peer pressure is real. It totally exists," said Mallory Kinney, 21, who leads orientation sessions at Purchase College, SUNY, aimed at encouraging smart decisions. "No matter how much you learn about it, it still is very powerful."

Binge drinking is defined as five drinks in two hours for men and four drinks in two hours for women. But some researchers have seen the trend spike upward, with men drinking an average of a dozen drinks and women an average of nine - a phenomenon they have loosely labeled "extreme drinking."

What's particularly worrisome about this culture of extreme drinking is that it can lead to far worse than just a hangover.

Last month, 23-year-old Ed Trapasso died from excessive drinking after he had friends over to his Valhalla home to celebrate his graduation from Loyola College in Baltimore.

He's one of about 1,700 college students ages 18 to 24 who die each year from unintentional alcohol injuries, according figures from to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

From a party to the ER

Local doctors say they have noticed emergency room visits for alcohol poisoning rising in recent years, with friends bringing friends in unconscious, sometimes unable to control their bowels or their breathing.

Assault, accidents, unprotected sex, rape and property damage are also common byproducts of such behavior, experts say.

Efforts to curb excessive drinking run the gamut, from working with local coalitions to looking at lowering the drinking age. Yet studies have shown that binge drinking is a tough trend to reverse.

Researchers with the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study, for instance, found that over eight years, a remarkably similar proportion of students -44 percent -were classified as binge drinkers.

Dr. Michael Skelly, an emergency department physician at Phelps Memorial Hospital Center in Sleepy Hollow, said he thought he was treating more young people with alcohol poisoning.

To test his theory, he recently gathered data on the number of young people treated for alcohol poisoning. The results were startling: The number treated at Phelps more than doubled between 2003 and 2007.

"I was stunned - really horrified by the jump in the numbers," Skelly said. "People aren't coming to the emergency room because they are a little intoxicated. They are coming here because they are near death."

Doctors and nurses monitor pulse and breathing when patients come to them in this state because excessive alcohol often affects the part of the brain that controls those functions. They put alcohol-poisoning patients on fluid drips to hydrate them and, depending on severity, have had to put them on ventilators.

"The last kid I saw was a 16-year-old girl who drank an entire bottle of vodka," Skelly said.

A new area for researchers who study binge drinking is the tradition of drinking 21 shots to celebrate a 21st birthday. At these celebrations, men typically drink an average of a dozen drinks and women drink an average of nine, researchers at the University of Texas-Austin say.

The Texas study also found that 78 percent of students cited ill effects, including hangovers (54 percent). Of the 44 percent who had blackouts, 22 percent later learned that they had sex; 22 percent got in a fight or argument; and 39 percent didn't know how they got home.
Feelings of regret

Drinking shots to celebrate a birthday is a major part of the problem, said Dr. Abby Wasserman, a psychiatrist at St. Vincent's Hospital Westchester, a drug, alcohol and mental-health treatment center in Harrison.

The center treats about 500 people ages 18-25 annually for substance abuse, including alcohol, Wasserman said. They are referred to her from local hospitals.

After a binge-drinking episode, most patients are regretful, often sorry, Wasserman said.

"They usually say they were stupid," she said. "Any episode when you've flirted with death is very traumatic. They see the effect it has on their family and friends and don't feel good about it."

Trying to make changes

Colleges in many respects are on the front lines when it comes to tackling binge drinking, but they are by no means alone.

Throughout the Lower Hudson Valley, college officials have united to rein in excessive drinking, forming the Westchester Colleges Consortium on Alcohol and Other Drugs.

The consortium is part of a larger Westchester Coalition for Drug and Alcohol Free Youth. The coalition is an umbrella group made up of law enforcement, community organizations, schools and other associations.

Purchase College is one of the most active institutions in confronting drinking on campus. The outreach begins before a student even starts classes, with a freshman orientation session addressing drug and alcohol abuse, in addition to other weighty topics such as sexual violence, diversity, depression and nutrition. Student orientation leaders run the sessions.

A video shown this year to incoming freshman about drugs and alcohol packed a powerful lesson. The video involved a telephone call between a student and her older brother.

The student tells her brother about her "roommate," who sleeps all day and parties all night. The partying started with drinking until she vomited on herself and passed out, then progressed to marijuana, stimulants and LSD.

Saying that he, too, had fallen onto tough times while at college, the brother credits his friends for confronting him about his problems and helping to yank him from the hole he was sinking into.

After hanging up the phone, the story ends with a twist and it becomes clear that the sister is actually the one with the problem.

"It can be tempting to go that route, especially when you're trying to be popular and make friends," said Fritzgerald Polax, 18, a sophomore orientation leader from Queens.

"The pressure's there to party, but I don't feel I have to go out and get hammered every night," said John Comitale, 22, a junior orientation leader from Albany. "I see what it does to people. It's just destructive behavior."

The college also requires students to take an online course, AlcoholEdu, which aims to empower students to make smarter decisions about drinking. It is confidential and personalized, offering items such as a blood-alcohol calculator and tips for helping friends in trouble.

"We don't preach to students. They've had enough of that," said Regina Abdou, director of wellness at Purchase College. "We give them the information and let them make their own decisions."

Lowering the drinking age

Another tactic being pursued by some colleges may be surprising: to "rethink" the drinking age and consider lowering it to 18 again.

The Amethyst Initiative, which is leading the dialogue, began in July and has gained 130 signatures from colleges and universities, including Purchase and Manhattanville colleges.

The initiative has met its share of resistance, however, with opponents saying that raising the drinking age to 21 has saved thousands of lives. Some cite a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistic that nearly 25,000 lives had been saved by the end of 2005, and that the number of young people killed each year in crashes involving drunken drivers younger than 21 has dropped by half since the early 1980s.

A 1984 federal law said any state with a drinking age of younger than 21 would have its annual highway funding cut by 10 percent. The law setting the minimum drinking age at 21 took effect in New York in 1985.

There is no one way to address the problem of binge drinking.

But studies have found that the more collaboration among interested parties, the better the outcome.

The Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study tracked full-time students at the same 119 four-year colleges in 1993, 1997, 1999 and 2001.

Though the rate of binge drinking remained around 44 percent, the study found that underage students attending colleges in states with extensive drinking laws were less likely to binge-drink.

For example, policies such as keg registration, mandatory training for beverage servers and a crackdown on unlicensed alcohol sales all were found to curtail binge drinking.

"I like to describe underage-drinking and drug-abuse prevention as a puzzle, and there's many pieces to the puzzle," said Tom Meier, director of drug prevention and STOP-DWI for Westchester County and co-chair of the Westchester Coalition for Drug and Alcohol Free Youth. "There isn't a silver bullet that's going to stop underage drinking or binge drinking."

Journal News

For some women, girl power means widening the crack in the glass ceiling by enrolling in engineering or some other predominantly male domain.

For others, it’s drinking like a man — lots and frequently.

Men still drink more often than women. But women are no shrinking violets when it comes to tossing back the booze, according to Health Canada’s recently released Canadian Addiction Survey.

Almost 40 per cent of women aged 18 to 19 reported downing five or more drinks in a typical session, compared to 46 per cent of men in that age group. And while more than half of women over 15 said they drink lightly and infrequently, 17 per cent of women engage in heavy monthly boozing.

It may have once been considered an incredible social faux pas — never mind a complete turn-off to the opposite sex — for a woman to over-imbibe. Now, at least in certain circles, a woman drinking herself legless is hardly remarked upon.

“I think we’re seeing way more of it because we’re seeing so much of it in popular culture,” says Dawn Johnston, who teaches popular culture at the University of Calgary.

“The entertainment media both celebrates and excuses bad behaviour in a way that makes (young people) think that a) this is expected of them and b) they will bounce back.”

The grim truth is that people die every year from alcohol poisoning. They literally drink themselves to death.

Last month, a 20-year-old Burnaby, B.C. man died after he reportedly consumed 10 beer and guzzled down most of a 26-ounce bottle of whiskey on a bet.

And last week, the RCMP announced they have charged a bartender in Calmar, Alberta, with manslaughter in connection with the death of a 22-year-old female bar patron who died from alcohol poisoning last October.

The bartender and his boss, who owns the bar, have also been charged with criminal negligence causing the death of Tammy Kobylka.

The circumstances surrounding her death will have to wait for the trial. But here’s a general image that’ll take your breath away. A woman who weighs about 154 pounds, or 70 kilos, would have to consume about 20 drinks within a couple of hours to die from alcohol toxicity, notes Martin Davies, of the University of Alberta’s department of pharmacology.

That anyone would think it’s cool or sexy to get that dangerously blotto is frightening. This is party culture with lethal consequences.

“Usually when somebody dies from it, they’ve ingested it so quickly that they haven’t had a chance to throw it up ... and that’s when it gets to be really dangerous,” Davies says. “You basically go into a coma and you stop breathing and that’s if you don’t choke on your vomit as well.”

Boozing It

Expecting a server to gauge how much someone has had to drink can be an unfair burden because the patron may have been boozing it up before arriving at the bar and people have different tolerance levels, Davies adds.

Thankfully, people rarely die of alcohol poisoning, but the uptick in binge drinking in recent years is troubling. The 2004 Canadian Campus Survey identified about one-third of undergrads as having harmful drinking patterns.

As well, about one-third of the students reported at least one indicator of dependent drinking such as being unable to stop or needing a drink the first thing in the morning.

“All these things are telling us that this is an issue that needs a lot more attention,” says Robert Mann, a senior scientist with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

In the movies, the worst thing that happens after binge drinking is you wake up with a bad hangover and a tattoo, says Johnston, of the University of Calgary.

Tragically, in real life, some hard-drinking partiers never wake up again.

Portage Daily Graphic

For some women, girl power means widening the crack in the glass ceiling by enrolling in engineering or some other predominantly male domain.

For others, it’s drinking like a man — lots and frequently.

Men still drink more often than women. But women are no shrinking violets when it comes to tossing back the booze, according to Health Canada’s recently released Canadian Addiction Survey.

Almost 40 per cent of women aged 18 to 19 reported downing five or more drinks in a typical session, compared to 46 per cent of men in that age group. And while more than half of women over 15 said they drink lightly and infrequently, 17 per cent of women engage in heavy monthly boozing.

It may have once been considered an incredible social faux pas — never mind a complete turn-off to the opposite sex — for a woman to over-imbibe. Now, at least in certain circles, a woman drinking herself legless is hardly remarked upon.

“I think we’re seeing way more of it because we’re seeing so much of it in popular culture,” says Dawn Johnston, who teaches popular culture at the University of Calgary.

“The entertainment media both celebrates and excuses bad behaviour in a way that makes (young people) think that a) this is expected of them and b) they will bounce back.”

The grim truth is that people die every year from alcohol poisoning. They literally drink themselves to death.

Last month, a 20-year-old Burnaby, B.C. man died after he reportedly consumed 10 beer and guzzled down most of a 26-ounce bottle of whiskey on a bet.

And last week, the RCMP announced they have charged a bartender in Calmar, Alberta, with manslaughter in connection with the death of a 22-year-old female bar patron who died from alcohol poisoning last October.

The bartender and his boss, who owns the bar, have also been charged with criminal negligence causing the death of Tammy Kobylka.

The circumstances surrounding her death will have to wait for the trial. But here’s a general image that’ll take your breath away. A woman who weighs about 154 pounds, or 70 kilos, would have to consume about 20 drinks within a couple of hours to die from alcohol toxicity, notes Martin Davies, of the University of Alberta’s department of pharmacology.

That anyone would think it’s cool or sexy to get that dangerously blotto is frightening. This is party culture with lethal consequences.

“Usually when somebody dies from it, they’ve ingested it so quickly that they haven’t had a chance to throw it up ... and that’s when it gets to be really dangerous,” Davies says. “You basically go into a coma and you stop breathing and that’s if you don’t choke on your vomit as well.”

Boozing It

Expecting a server to gauge how much someone has had to drink can be an unfair burden because the patron may have been boozing it up before arriving at the bar and people have different tolerance levels, Davies adds.

Thankfully, people rarely die of alcohol poisoning, but the uptick in binge drinking in recent years is troubling. The 2004 Canadian Campus Survey identified about one-third of undergrads as having harmful drinking patterns.

As well, about one-third of the students reported at least one indicator of dependent drinking such as being unable to stop or needing a drink the first thing in the morning.

“All these things are telling us that this is an issue that needs a lot more attention,” says Robert Mann, a senior scientist with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

In the movies, the worst thing that happens after binge drinking is you wake up with a bad hangover and a tattoo, says Johnston, of the University of Calgary.

Tragically, in real life, some hard-drinking partiers never wake up again.

Portage Daily Graphic

Mothers, take note. If you really want to curb your teens' chances of using alcohol, help them develop a self-view that doesn't include drinking. According to a new Iowa State University study, the power of positive thinking by moms may limit their children's alcohol use. But beware. The opposite is also true.

"When mothers overestimated their teens' future use of alcohol, the teens developed the self-view that they were likely to drink alcohol in the future, which ultimately led them to drink more," said Stephanie Madon, an ISU associate professor of psychology and lead author of the study.

Madon collaborated on the study with ISU graduate students Ashley Buller, Kyle Scherr and Jennifer Willard; Max Guyll, an assistant professor of psychology; and Richard Spoth, director of the Partnerships in Prevention Science Institute at Iowa State. They analyzed data obtained from a series of interviews with nearly 800 Iowa mothers and their children over three to five years.

Their paper, "The Mediation of Mothers' Self-Fulfilling Effects on Their Children's Alcohol Use: Self-Verification, Informational Conformity, and Modeling Processes," was recently published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, a professional journal of the American Psychological Association.

Previous research found self-fulfilling prophecy link

The team's previous research had found a link between a mother's belief about her child's likelihood of using alcohol and her child's actual use in junior high school and high school.

"We previously found that mothers' beliefs about their teen's future use of alcohol were about 50 percent correct and 50 percent incorrect, and that the incorrect portion of mothers' beliefs created a self-fulfilling prophecy -- teens behaved like their mothers had incorrectly expected them to," Madon said.

Their latest study builds upon those results.

"What we were trying to do in this paper was understand the mechanisms involved in the self-fulfilling prophecy process," Madon said. "We know that mothers have self-fulfilling effects on their kids' alcohol use through the past work that we've done. What we wanted to do here was understand 'How is that happening? What are the mechanisms that are creating that?'

"We derived our hypothesis from three large, well-known theories in the social/psychological literature -- self-verification theory, research on conformity and social learning theory as it pertains to modeling processes," she said.

According to Madon, self-verification theory proposes that people are motivated to confirm what they already believe to be true about themselves. The study found strong evidence that a mother's beliefs regarding her child's likelihood of using alcohol altered her child's self-view in either a positive or negative direction. The child then validated that new self-view by acting consistently with it later on.

"What people believe ultimately has an impact on what actually occurs," Madon said. "But it's not just because they believe it. It's not magic. When we believe something -- even if we're wrong -- when we believe it's true, we act as though it is. And sometimes when you act as though something's true, your behaviors will cause the belief to become true.

"So I think the moral here is to help children develop positive and pro-social self-concepts about themselves, because children are likely to make choices that match how they view themselves," she said.

Kids model their friends' drinking behavior

The study also found some evidence that modeling -- a tendency for people to learn by watching others -- may alter a child's alcohol use. Madon says they had a little bit of support for modeling as it related to friends' alcohol use.

"We hypothesized that mothers may influence who their children are friends with and that children may learn how to behave by watching what their friends do," she said.

But there was no evidence that children conformed their own belief to their mothers' on how acceptable it was for adolescents, in general, to use alcohol.

"How acceptable children thought it was for adolescents to drink alcohol was explained by their own self-views, not by their mothers' beliefs about them. And that's not surprising given that what you think about yourself is going to be strongly tied to what you think is acceptable behavior," Madon said.

She says that it's still a good idea for mothers to instill in their children the belief that adolescent alcohol use is unacceptable, since the study did show a direct effect of teens' perceptions regarding the acceptability of alcohol use on their own drinking.

"The more acceptable teens believed adolescent alcohol use was, the more alcohol they tended to drink themselves," Madon said.

Iowa State University

It is Northern Ireland's drug of choice, but our relationship with alcohol can be problematic.

BBC presenter William Crawley has taken a look at the unique drink culture in the television documentary Dying For A Drink.

Made by Doubleband Films, director and producer Brian Henry Martin outlines the challenge set to the presenter.

As an experienced documentary filmmaker for Doubleband Films, I have made films over the past few years on many big and powerful subjects, everything from the Normandy landings on D-Day to the Heysel stadium disaster.

But no subject has daunted me more than what I faced in Dying for a Drink, this society's strange and obsessive relationship with alcohol.

Firstly, the question was where to begin?

From the outside, alcohol is this society's drug of choice, it lubricates every part of our lives. And then secondly, where to stop with such a huge subject?

Ultimately, the answer for our documentary Dying For A Drink lay in the approach.

We wanted to take the issue of this society's relationship with alcohol out of the daily news, out of the tabloid headlines and take a more measured approach. But is our drinking already out of control?

The use and abuse of alcohol is a rapidly growing problem in Northern Ireland.

We have doubled the amount of alcohol we drink in 20 years, the number of alcohol related deaths has also doubled in the same period and we have cut the price of alcohol, so that it is now cheaper in some cases than water.

In this timely, authored documentary, William Crawley sets out on a personal journey to explore our curious and frequently unhealthy relationship with alcohol and to consider the impact that it has on us all - as individuals and as a society.

William meets people from all sides of the alcohol debate, who talk frankly about how alcohol has affected their lives.

These are ordinary people with extraordinary attitudes towards drink; people like young teenage pioneers taking the pledge never to drink alcohol for the rest of their lives; people like the chronic alcoholics of a wet hostel whose drastic drinking habits reveal a lifetime's addiction and people like the sophisticated drinkers at a social wine tasting who drink alcohol not for the affect but for the taste.

Along with leading medical experts in Northern Ireland like Dr Neil McDougall, Consultant Hepatologist at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Dr Cathal Cassidy from the Royal College of Psychiatrists and Professor Mahen Varma, Consultant Cardiologist, at the Erne Hospital, these range of people with very different experiences and opinions provide the film with a revealing perspective on our relationship with alcohol.

It was important for me as a filmmaker, to set William a personal challenge over the course of the film.

His challenge was to abstain from alcohol for one month; five completely dry weeks.

We wanted to see what happens when someone in our society completely removes alcohol from their lives. The challenge proved to be more difficult and life changing than William first thought.

For the month long booze free challenge William recorded his own tee-total video diary at home with both surprising and compelling results.

And at the end of the abstaining challenge - and the film - William has the choice to drink alcohol again or not.

On the final day of filming, when William was poured a pint of the finest Hilden Brewery beer, we genuinely did not know what decision he was going to make.

For me, the biggest revelation from this journey to the bottom of the bottle - was this society's all or nothing attitude towards alcohol.

We are one of the largest consumers of alcohol in Europe with an ever increasing binge drinking problem, but also with a record number of teetotallers, people young and old completely abstaining from alcohol.

It would appear that the middle ground, which some of us may have witnessed abroad, responsible, enjoyable, healthier drinking (maybe even with food around the family table!) has passed most of us in Northern Ireland by.

Dying For a Drink is a documentary that will touch the lives of practically all viewers, as it is about the role that alcohol has in all our lives.

We want this film not to be the end of the discussion, but to be the starting point for a debate about our relationship with alcohol.

BBC News

The Rochester Community Coalition for Alcohol and Drug Prevention was awarded a $1.25 million federal grant from Drug Free Communities, and will receive $125,000 a year over the next 10 years.

Nicole Bandera, who has been involved with the coalition since the nonprofit organization was established in December 2005, said the group found out it was awarded the grant at the end of August. The Northern Strafford County Health and Safety Council has been acting as the coalition's fiscal agent and will continue in that role until the coalition achieves tax-exempt status, Bandera said.

The coalition targets four areas for youths — underage drinking, marijuana use, over-the-counter and prescription drugs, and tobacco.

The grant money will go toward funding a full-time coalition coordinator position, who will help to run the day-to-day affairs and put on events, Bandera said. She also said the coalition is looking for "Youth Coalition Leaders" at the middle school level, and a licensed alcohol and drug abuse counselor for Spaulding High School.

Bandera said the coalition is hoping to hire a coordinator by the end of October, but they are not going to rush the decision.

"Whoever fills this position, we want them to be able to hit the ground running and have a strong community development background. We really want to hold out for just the right person," she explained.

One of the broad goals of the coalition is "developing and strengthening" relationships with groups throughout the community, including the school, the Police Department, local businesses and other nonprofit organizations, Bandera said.

Another goal, Bandera explained, is "Providing more educational and drug-free events for the community, and just really trying to pool the resources of the community."

She anticipates the funds will be received on Oct. 1.

"As long as we are meeting our goals, we are eligible to receive those funds every year," she added.

Mayor John Larochelle stepped in to serve as president, as former president Deb Houle resigned. Larochelle commended Houle for her efforts in working on the grant application and expressed his appreciation.

"We thought we would give it a shot, but we were not expecting it," the mayor said. "My reaction to it is, I am delighted. We hope to hire a coordinator and that will help with our efforts in dealing with drugs and alcohol (with youths)."

Fosters

Edmund has won the toughest battle of his life. The 50-year-old citybased marketing professional has finally overcome alcoholism that was making his life a living hell for many years. He is one of the bravehearts of 'dry' Gujarat, which has an alarmingly large number of addicts. "Initially, it started with social drinking sessions. First, it was once a fortnight, then twice a week and finally a routine affair," he recounts.

He could not think of a day without alcohol. He would take leave from office saying he was unwell and go on a drinking binge. The bottle ruined his career and harmed personal relationships too.

But now, he has been a teetotaller for last two-and-a-half years. The miracle was worked by becoming a member of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). "Alcoholism is a disease and people need to accept this and not treat addicts with stigma. My joining AA three years ago changed my life," he says.

"On an average, we get two to three cases of serious alcoholism coming to us for counselling. Many addicts don't approach us due to fear of stigma or of police," says Puja Pushkarna, clinical psychologist.

Though the number of alcoholics in the city is very high, there are only about 250 AA members. Unfortunately, the problem is growing among youngsters. "Around 10-15 per cent of members are in their 20s. They are from all sections of society. Twelve addicts have kicked their drinking habit after joining us," says AA member, Roger.

The main problem with alcoholics is they are usually in denial mode. The biggest challenge is convincing them they have a problem. "We know there are many who are seriously in need of help and we have to help them kick the habit," he adds.

Times of India

This past Saturday marked the one year anniversary of the death of University student Jordan Shirey. The cause of his death: alcohol poisoning. It was his 21st birthday.

The tragedy did not result in any change to University policy, but binge drinking still remains a hot button issue within the University community.

"Our policy is pretty consistent with many universities across the country," Director of Public Safety James Wiegand said. "I mean, is there alcohol on campus? Yes. If you look at the blotter, you see numerous young people who are cited for underage under the influence, we just try to take action when we see a violation."

Wiegand said he knows that there are some underage students on campus who use and abuse alcohol, but that they are the minority.

The biggest concern on campus is when students play "21 drinks" on their 21st birthday, Wiegand said.

"Our systems are not set up to consume that much alcohol," Wiegand said.

The University is now set up to try to prevent games such as this taking place.

Associate Dean of Students Michael Ginsburg said the University sends out a birthday e-mail to students on their 21st birthday. He said the purpose is to warn them of the dangers of binge drinking and over-consumption.

"There are always going to be individuals who choose to drink," Ginsburg said. "When they do, they can show behaviors that don't represent themselves or the University."

Ginsburg said his office is responsible for dealing with students who are referred to student discipline for drinking-related matters.

He agreed with Wiegand about underage drinking occurring regardless of the efforts made to stop it and noted that repeat offenses of documented cases can result in suspension from the University.

"Students who choose to drink underage are breaking the law and there are consequences to that," Ginsburg said.

When students are sent through the discipline process for alcohol-related offenses, they are typically sent to one of two classes run through the University's Wellness Connection in Student Health Service.

The first class, View Points, is for first-time offenders and is used as a way to try to get students back on the right track, said Carrie Arndt, an alcohol and drug counselor at the Wellness Connection. The class is conducted by a trained graduate student and focuses on how alcohol is impacting the students' lives.

The second class, Perspectives, is for students who have been charged by the city for alcohol-related crimes or students who have previously been through the View Points program. The class focuses on how drinking is affecting the students' decision-making process, Arndt said.

"Aside from the two programs, the University also offers an individual counseling and are free and confidential to any student," Arndt said.

It is important for students to get the help they need if they feel there is a problem because the consequences of not doing so go far beyond a hangover the next morning, she said.

"There could be long-term repercussions to your liver and alcohol poisoning can be fatal; you can drink yourself to death," Arndt said.

Alcohol poisoning is a very serious and potentially dangerous situation, she said.

Some University students are also worried about the drinking habits of the University community.

Senior Jason McGee said he doesn't believe there is a drinking problem, however, some students do take things too far.

"I don't think [students drinking] is so bad, but to others, drinking is like a right of passage," McGee said.

He feels to some people, drinking is a matter of pride and people will sometimes drink themselves sick to try to impress their friends.

McGee said he learned responsible drinking habits from his father, who used to have maybe a few beers when he drank and didn't over consume.

The classes mandated by the University are not so much meant to punish students for drinking, but to educate them, Arndt said.

"The problem is people are more worried about getting themselves or their friend in trouble than getting the help that they need," Arndt said.

The other worry is students could potentially develop an alcohol addiction while in college that might be hard to break, she said.

Students who are starting to feel like they might be developing an addiction should look for several important signs, including a higher tolerance to alcohol, withdraw symptoms when going without alcohol for a period of time and when drinking starts to take more importance than other activities.

BG News

He knew something was in the air the minute he walked into his home after work. Waiting for him in the living room along with his wife, Shirley, were three co-workers and two substance abuse workers.

They were there to do business and before the evening was over, David knew the writing was on the wall - make the choice between sobriety and losing his family. In his case, the "intervention" process of Alcoholics Anonymous was successful, and subsequently David stepped out on the road to sobriety - a journey that has lasted for the past 20 years.

David began drinking while still in high school. "I wanted to do what the older kids did and to fit in the older kids," he said. His drinking accelerated when he was in college and didn't let up over the years when he began his long-time professional career.

"Right from the beginning, I don't think I ever drank just to have one at the end of the day," David said. "I drank to get drunk."

While dating her future husband, Shirley, who has been married to David for the past 45 years, said she never realized the extent of his alcohol problems.

"Even when people tried to tell me, I didn't believe it," she said. "I never saw him drink and I thought the persons who said he drank too much were just making it up."

It wasn't very long into her marriage that her eyes began opening to see a serious flaw in her new husband's character.

"He went out every so often with one of our neighbors, but every time he went, he came home drunk," she recalled. "It really began troubling me."

David described himself as a "happy drunk" and the "life of the party." Even his coworkers, outside-family members and friends weren't aware that his drinking had already become a problem.

"They never had a clue," he said. "When I drank, I never staggered. Never had slurred speech. I was always coherent. I once drank a half gallon of booze in eight hours and never showed any signs. I knew I drank a lot, but I felt I was a functioning alcoholic. My drinking - at least in my mind - never interfered with putting food on our table or a roof over our heads. Most people didn't know the difference between a drunk David and a sober one."

But David's happy-go-lucky attitude didn't last very long once he returned home to his family.

"I could tell there was a problem," Shirley said. "He was becoming increasingly more difficult to live with and increasingly more negative." Shirley said she did her best to make sure the couple's two children stayed out of his way as much as possible.

When Shirley learned about Alanon, a support program for spouses and other family members of alcoholics offered through Alcoholics Anonymous, she decided to give it a try.

"Actually, I didn't go for myself in the beginning," she said. "I took a friend that I thought needed it and it wasn't long before, deep inside, I knew I needed to go for myself."

Shirley said she attended Alanon meetings for about a year before her husband even became aware that she was going. During that time, she attended a noon meeting that met while her husband was at work.

"Joining the group changed everything, including me," she said. Like many spouses of alcoholics, Shirley was looking for ways to change her alcoholic husband and get him to quit drinking. "But that's not the purpose of Alanon. The person who was changed was me. I had to learn that I have no power over his drinking. I couldn't change him. The only thing I could change was the way I responded to his drinking."

Shirley said she grabbed onto the teachings of the Alanon program and began learning from them.

"I was like a sponge taking it all in," she explained. "One person did a lot of talking and I thought to myself, 'Are they living at my house?' I learned that saying to the alcoholic, 'Can't you see what you're doing to your family?' doesn't work. I did everything I was told to. Whenever David went looking to start a fight, I refused to fight with him. I read religiously and whenever I had trouble coping, I went into the bathroom and read some more. He began to notice that his behavior wasn't working any more."

David said he wasn't oblivious to the damage his drinking was causing to his family but this revelation only compounded the problem.

"I could see what I was doing and that I wasn't being a good parent, but the truth is that I didn't know how to be a good husband and father," David explained. "That only gave me more reason to drink."

Although his drinking didn't affect his job performance, David said his co-workers began to notice that he was becoming more and more difficult to get along with. But that was their problem, not his, David reasoned.

After three years in the Alanon program, Shirley felt her husband needed to be confronted about his alcoholism. She sought the help of David's co-workers and substance abuse specialists to begin the intervention process.

"It took about six months of preparation," she said. "First you have to take care of your own issues before you begin, but when the time came, I knew exactly what had to be done and how to do it."

The day was chosen, and when David walked through the door they were ready. Each one, in turn, had the opportunity to express their feelings about David's drinking. They also told him how much they cared about him and how much they wanted him to change. For David to enter a treatment program was their only option.

"I was furious," David recalls. "I had just enough sanity to argue 'How can you do this to me?' and 'If you really cared, you wouldn't do this to me.' The last thing I wanted was to go off to some hospital for treatment. I felt I was being bullied. My first reaction was to storm out, but somehow I knew if I did, I wouldn't have a family to come home to."

Shirley nodded her head in agreement. "The intervention wasn't a threat; it was a fact," she said. "I had already sought an attorney to get a divorce."

David relented.

"I was more afraid of losing everything than going to a hospital," he said.

Prior to entering a six-week detoxification program in Wisconsin, David said he underwent a physical to see if there were any physical effects from drinking for so many years, and he said he was surprised at the abuse his years of drinking had inflicted on his body.

Although he agreed to enter treatment, David said his road to sobriety didn't start out smoothly. When his family came for visits, his feelings were mixed.

"Of course I was glad to see them, but I still felt resentful, confused and mad," he said. "But like all alcoholics, I had to come to the place where I realized that there is a power greater than myself that's intervening. I had to give up the notion that I was in control and that my drinking is manageable. It's part of the insanity. I had convinced myself that I was in control of my drinking. But it's not the 10th drink or the 12th drink that drives you over the edge. It's the first drink. Admitting that I'm an alcoholic is ego deflating. I have to admit I'm not in control. I had to accept the fact that I am an alcoholic."

Even with the revelation ingrained during the treatment process, David said he was nervous about coming home to his wife, friends and co-workers.

'I thought 'Now they all know,' but I didn't know who 'they' were," he said. "It never occurred to me that everyone who really knew and cared about me already knew I was an alcoholic. I had to come to the realization that if I give up 'me' to please 'you,' there's no more 'me.' I had to learn who I am and go from there. When I began drinking as an adolescent, I never became a man. I was always a drunken adolescent no matter how old I was."

Shirley nodded in agreement.

"Maturity stops when you start drinking," she said.

As part of his quest for sobriety, David began attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings on a regular basis. Shirley continued in the Alanon program. Since he began in AA 20 years ago, David said he has not relapsed. He admits, however, that he's just one drink away from going back into a life as a drunk.

"Some people come to AA thinking they can learn how to drink responsibly," he said. "That's someone with a head full of AA and a stomach full of alcohol. I may think I have everything under control, but all I have to do is go to the next meeting to remind me of what I am."

Does David shy away from attending social functions where drinking is involved?

"I used to think everybody got drunk at wedding receptions, but, guess what? Eighty percent of the people there don't get drunk," he said. "I recently attended my high school reunion and had a wonderful time. I can't be resentful of those who can drink 'normally.' I am not cured of being an alcoholic. I was an alcoholic yesterday. I'm an alcoholic today. And I'll be an alcoholic tomorrow."

Daily Press

A friend sent me the following reflection from one of his parishioners, who asked not to have his name attached. Well worth reading:

I am an alcoholic. I can say that now and know what it means- that was not always the case. When I first started coming to the rooms of AA I couldn’t say it. I would introduce myself by name but would refuse to say I was an alcoholic… An alcoholic was someone who was homeless and begging for money to drink on, an alcoholic was someone older, someone who drank in the morning, someone who drinks and drives- I did many of those things but that isn’t what makes me alcoholic. I thought maybe alcoholism was “the result of”- the result of bad parenting, or the result of my obsession with my lover, or the result of always feeling different- not smart enough, not good looking enough, not coming from the right part of town (etc), I thought it might be because of mental illness or depression… but my problems aren’t what make me alcoholic- what makes me an alcoholic is that I used alcohol as the solution to those problems.

I love alcohol, it gave me the power to do or say anything to anyone. It allowed me to dance, it made me feel attractive and smart- but most of all it silenced all the noise and chatter that ran through my head. All my fears and resentments were suddenly gone and all I focused on was the next drink. To some it’s a beverage- something to compliment a meal perhaps, a way to socialize after a long days work… to me to was the key to making me a whole person- The solution to the problem of being me. I chased that sensation until I had just about killed myself, I didn’t even care… I was constantly hurting the people around me- always accompanied with countless apologies or justifications and it never stopped.

I’m not really sure what I was looking for when I came to AA. I knew I wanted to stop hurting my loved ones, and I new I was going to die, but I just couldn’t imagine a life with out drinking. They told me that I was suffering from a disease- a disease that meant I had a body that couldn’t tolerate a single drink, a mind that wouldn’t leave it alone, and a spiritual condition that put me and my problems at the center of the universe. Always playing the victim I had the attitude that “if you were going through what I was going through then you would drink too!” Another personal favorite was “Life sucks now and will suck later so I may as well be drunk!” They told me I needed to live my life in a way that wasn’t full of pain and misery, that I needed to live my life in a way that meant I wasn’t in charge… I needed a higher power.

If I could have figured out a way around it I would have. I hated God and I was convinced that God hated me. My first sponsor told me to pray- I said I didn’t believe in God, they said “I didn’t ask you if you believed in God I asked you to pray!” It had been years since I had prayed… There had been lots of “Please God get me out of this one!” but not an actual prayer. I think my first prayer went something like this “Who ever is out there I don’t like you and I bet you don’t like me but help me to not pick up!” It was enough. I had made contact. Suddenly I had something I hadn’t in a long time: hope. Hope that I could get better, hope that there could be a life with out alcohol, hope that if I just let God do what God does I could be happy. Hope turned in to willingness and willingness turned into action. Its been almost nine years with out a drink.

God has given me so many gifts I’m almost moved to tears writing this- but far and away the most important I have received is usefulness. My experience, once my greatest handicap has now become my principle asset. When I see someone wasting away into alcoholism I can offer them a solution today. I’ll finish with a story that sums it all up for me: I was newly sober I was talking to an old timer Ed, and I very melodramatically told him that “life as I knew it was over!” He looked me square in the eye and said “With God’s help that might just prove true”

Commonweal

A compound with fewer side effects offers hope that alcoholism could one day be cured by a pill

More than 15 million Americans drink too much, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. New research on rats may help them curb that addiction.

At present, there are three approved drugs for battling alcoholism, none of which work very well. Among them: naltrexone, which is effective for some alcoholics (as well as opiate addicts) because it blocks a pain pathway in the brain associated with the pleasures of drinking.

In an effort to boost its effectiveness, neuroscientist Selena Bartlett of the Ernest Gallo Clinic & Research Center at the University of California, San Francisco, and her colleagues chemically manipulated naltrexone so that it cut off a related pleasure pathway in the brain. Their findings, published in the journal Biological Psychiatry: rats (trained to crave alcohol) given the new compound, dubbed SoRI-9409, consumed half as much hooch. In addition, there were fewer side effects. Researchers say that unlike naltrexone, this drug did not diminish the animals' desire for water and other nonalcoholic beverages, such as sugar water. "It is much more selective in its effect on drinking," Bartlett says.

Rats given the drug for 28 days refrained from heavy drinking for another four weeks after they were taken off the drug. "That is currently the biggest challenge in alcoholism treatment," which relies primarily on rehabilitation centers, Bartlett notes. When people return home, they typically also return to drinking. "Drinking stays down without the drug in place. It's done something to permanently change and reduce the drinking."

Efficacy trials in humans are already ongoing for another drug known as varenicline, which, in addition to curbing smoking, also cuts drinking. But SoRI-9409 might prove more specifically focused on alcoholism as well as free of some of the side effects reported by those who use varenicline to stop their craving for nicotine.

"We've got a pipeline of different medications targeting different aspects of the disease," Bartlett says. "It's an exciting time for people that suffer from this disease as there are more treatments coming through. Once upon a time, this wasn't really considered possible."

Scientific American

When Julia Brown adopted, she was aware that her new baby daughter had problems.

For several years medics went through possible diagnoses.

The suggestions included autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and dyspraxia - a movement disorder.

"Her diagnosis ran to two or three lines. It was always 'she has this with this'," said Julia.

Brain damaged

It wasn't until her daughter was five or six that doctors established that she had in fact been brain-damaged in the womb by her natural mother's drinking, and she was diagnosed with Foetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder (FASD).

Julia has come to terms with her daughter's disabilities, but says the early years without an accurate diagnosis made things difficult.

"We knew that we were adopting a child with some sort of difficulties, but we had no-one to compare her with," she said.

"Then, when she went to nursery, we noticed that she had poor balance, poor spatial awareness and inattention.

"We had very little support and very little awareness of it - we had to put two and two together.

"Her mother was not an alcoholic, but we knew that she had had alcohol during the pregnancy."

However Julia, who lives in Oxfordshire, has no way of knowing how much she drank.

Support centre

Her daughter is now nine, but is at the same developmental stage as the average four-year-old.

She has a catalogue of health problems relating to the womb damage, including a squint, repeated ear infections and poorly developed teeth, and finds tasks such as doing up buttons very difficult.

The girl has no sense of danger and a lack of impulse control, meaning that if she wants something she takes it.

Now the UK's first centre has opened in London to support children who were affected in the womb by their mother's drinking.

Its aim is to research and establish the needs of the 7,000 such children living in the UK.

Parents for Children (PfC) is the only adoption charity in England dedicated to finding homes for children with disabilities, including those with FASD.

It set up the centre in response to the growing number of children affected by alcohol in the womb, who are being put up for fostering and adoption.

Some local authorities are reporting that up to 70% of children with a disability who need adoptive families have drugs and alcohol in their background.

Once children have been assessed, they and their families can be offered a package of care, support and advice, tailored to their needs, to help the child reach their full potential.

Dr Eddie Brocklesby, director of PfC, said there needed to be better awareness of FASD.

"Courts, social workers, teachers, health experts and prospective adoptive parents are making decisions about these children's future, without realising the full implications FASD can have on their long-term development," he said.

"As FASD is so little recognised, it makes it difficult for parents and teachers to understand these children's needs. Our centre hopes to help redress this."

Tell-tale signs

Mary Mather, a community paediatrician who works for the centre, said it was often very difficult to tell at the time of adoption which children might be affected.

"Alcohol misuse in pregnancy causes a hidden, but very real disability in the affected child," she said.

"The child may not have the facial features which allow the problem to be recognised and diagnosed.

"These features - smaller eyes, flatter cheeks and a less well developed groove between the nose and lip - only occur if alcohol is misused when the face is forming at the start of pregnancy."

But she said the damage, which can cause very severe emotional and behavioural problems, can occur at any stage in the pregnancy.

She said large amounts of alcohol had been known to have serious effects, but that it was not known whether there was a "safe" level. She said the only advice could be not to drink alcohol at all.

"If you don't drink, there is absolutely no risk."

Recent government advice says pregnant women and those trying for a baby should avoid alcohol completely.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists says there is no evidence that a couple of units once or twice a week will do any harm to the baby, although it agrees abstinence is the safest course.

BBC News

On any given night, a University of Central Florida student can drink without a lot of money, difficulty or limits.

Bars on the outskirts of campus offer “Two-dollar Tuesdays,” “Wasted Wednesdays,” “Bombs Away Fridays” or even specials challenging students to slam down 60 shots of beer in 60 minutes.

“We’re out four times a week, at least,” said Alex Bozinta, 21, who ordered three drinks at a popular bar recently so she wouldn’t have to fight the crowd as often. “We drink and drink. As long as you get drunk, it’s fun.”

As classes and football games began for a new season, UCF and universities throughout Florida have been creating more stringent rules that attempt to curb underage drinking, as well as its dangerous counterpart: binge drinking.
“The problem isn’t when you start drinking, it’s how much you start drinking,” said Tom Hall, UCF’s director of alcohol and other drug-prevention programming. “When you have a culture that supports excessive alcohol use, you have a problem.”

College campuses around the country are challenged as studies and experience show students above and below the legal age guzzling unprecedented amounts of alcohol.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism estimates that 1,700 college students between ages 18 and 24 die of alcohol-related causes each year, while about 600,000 suffer from alcohol-related injuries.

Nearly 25 percent of all college students report academic consequences of drinking, including missing class, falling behind, doing poorly on exams or papers and receiving lower grades overall, the study found.

For UCF’s part, the school banned alcoholic beverages at Knights football games. Anyone caught drinking can be ejected from the stadium, and underage drinkers may be arrested. Tailgate drinking, however, is permitted in parking lots from 7 a.m. until game time.

But college leaders agree campuses can’t be the only place students are punished for alcohol abuse. Universities are pushing parents, students, vendors and community groups to help young drinkers understand their limits.

“There are so many sources and so many places where students get ideas about alcohol,” said Chris Franzetti, assistant director of health promotion for Florida State University. “Whether it’s easy access, inconsistent laws and policies or behaviors learned from home, we all have a part in it.”

At the University of Florida in Gainesville, named the nation’s No. 1 party school, the problem might be at its worst.

Trustees there are poised to approve a ban on drinking games, kegs and “beer balls,” which hold the equivalent of 55 beer cans. Other Florida universities have similar policies.

UF spokeswoman Janine Sikes said the school had four or five alcohol-related deaths several years ago, which prompted the school to revise the student code with changes that likely will take effect this fall.

“That was a wakeup call that we need to do something,” Sikes said.

One new policy bans activities that encourage alcohol abuse: Drinking games, kegs and the beer balls would be prohibited.

Last week, University of South Florida officials banned daytime drinking at a new on-campus bar and grill. Students and employees were found drinking between classes and during lunch.

In July, more than 100 university presidents — including leaders at Duke, Johns Hopkins and Ohio State — signed a proposal to support lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18.

“A culture of dangerous, clandestine ’binge-drinking’ often conducted off campus has developed,” the open letter said. It asks the national university system to begin a public debate on the drinking age.

“Alcohol education that mandates abstinence as the only legal option has not resulted in significant constructive behavioral change among our students,” the letter also said.

The initiative has caused a roar of controversy from opposing groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving, which counters that lowering the drinking age won’t solve problems on campuses. Many experts agreed that lowering the legal age won’t fix a college culture that accepts binge drinking as the norm.

The majority of students believe binge drinking is a rite of passage, UCF’s Hall said. But his research at the school found that 20 percent of students aren’t drinking.

Those students, however, believe they’re among an even smaller minority, about 5 percent.

“That’s one of the myths about college drinking,” Hall said. “Nationally, about 23 percent of students are the extreme drinkers, so the notion that ’everyone is doing it’ isn’t accurate. But 23 percent is still too big of a number.”

Students gathered in loose lines outside a bar near UCF, waiting for muscled bouncers to place wristbands on the legal drinkers. For a $10 cover, they would be drinking without limit until midnight.

They headed to the bar where plastic cups were filled with cheap beer and liquor mixed in various concoctions.

Some students played “beer pong” on a side table. Other students moved against one another on a makeshift dance floor.

Richard Devoss, 21, lit a cigarette and leaned back on his barstool while talking with a handful of buddies from the Orlando-based Marine Mechanics Institute.
He sipped vodka mixed with water and lime juice.

“We went out last night, and we came out tonight,” Devoss said. “When I leave, I’ll be stumbling.”

Devoss estimated that by closing time at 2 a.m., he would have 12 drinks. His friends vowed to drink about the same, some as many as 15 in one sitting.

Calvin Serviss, 22, a fifth-year UCF senior, said he wouldn’t be out so often if it weren’t for the specials.

“They make the bars much more popular,” Serviss said as he sipped from a beer. “Obviously, I wouldn’t be here if they didn’t have them. I couldn’t afford it.”

Some believe bars near campus, which offer all-you-can-drink specials every night of the week, are a big part of the problem.

But in many cities, businesses have signed “responsible retailing” pacts designed to curb underage and excessive use by limiting or ending the daily specials.

Orange County is attempting to create a similar agreement using a task force of students, law enforcement and retailers. Teams are focusing on education, health and retailer responsibility.

“We’ve always done this from an enforcement side, but now we need help from community partners,” Hall from UCF said. “The biggest thing is targeting advertisements.”

Carol Burkett, who sits on the task force and directs Orange County’s Coalition for a Drug Free Community, said binge drinking is more accepted and younger students are drinking more.

“In the ’70s, you didn’t have high-risk drink promotions,” she said. “Now, media advertisements tell students that drinking is acceptable, sexy, fun: It looks like the place to be.”

But Mike McCoy, Orange County public safety director and co-chairman of the underage drinking task force, said attitudes about what’s unsafe could change. At one time, for example, many people refused to wear seat belts.

“Back then, we thought we couldn’t do anything, but I think we will pass beyond that,” he said. “You will see the generation saying it’s so senseless, and we can do things about it.”

Pensacola News Journal

Almost half of the pregnant women in the Western Cape drink alcohol, and the incidence of foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) in the province stands at 7,5 percent of all babies born.

A plan is now being devised to have all prospective mothers screened and counselled about the dangers of excessive drinking, Health MEC Marius Fransman said.

"Our message needs to be clear, frank and even ruthless. Alcohol causes foetal alcohol syndrome when consumed while pregnant. If you are drinking during pregnancy, you are killing your child, period.

"My department has finished the second draft of the Western Cape Provincial Policy on foetal alcohol syndrome. All sexually active women who consider having children will be screened and counselled about the dangers of drinking to their health and that of their unborn child.

"We will offer diagnostic services, including one free ultrasound to all pregnant women before 24 weeks of gestation. We will have foetal growth monitoring and provide counselling where necessary. We are going to have physical examinations of the neonates for birth defects and refer mothers for counselling and medical care if foetal alcohol syndrome is diagnosed," he said on Thursday.

Fransman said a survey at antenatal clinics in the Southern Cape, West Coast and the Cape Metropole, showed that almost half (42,8 percent) of all women consumed alcohol during pregnancy.

"We have one of the highest incidence of foetal alcohol syndrome with over 7,5 percent of children (mostly) in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas being affected. Historically this problem has been prevalent in the Stellenbosch, Boland region, but it has now been reported to spread to other areas," he said.

Women On Farms director Fatima Shaboodien said any programme aimed at tackling FAS should also address alcoholism in disadvantaged communities. "Alcoholism, which is a disease, is physical and must be treated. Alcohol abuse is much higher among the poor.

"Rich people have the resources to treat their addiction. It is the socioeconomic conditions of poor communities that must be addressed. There is a direct link between alcohol addiction and sexually-motivated crimes, HIV infection and domestic abuse.

"We still wait to see the (liquor) industry take some responsibility, but today we are excited about the moves the Health Department is making and hope it will result in a comprehensive programme," she said.

Cape Times

Pregnant Taranaki women are ignoring the toxic effects of drinking alcohol -- and some medical advisers are condoning their actions.

The results of new Taranaki research mirror those of a similar Otago study, which found as many as a third who were drinkers before getting pregnant were continuing to drink.

As such, they were putting their babies at real risk of irreversible neurological disorders caused by alcohol.

"I find that quite shocking," lead researcher, Taranaki District Health Board paediatrician Raimond Jacquemard said.

He and co-researcher, paediatric registrar Reena Ho, point the finger at New Zealand's permissive boozing culture, saying health warnings are being ignored.

While the majority of the Taranaki mothers surveyed said they either stopped or cut down their drinking once pregnant, 28% continued to drink throughout pregnancy.

A total of 7% did not change their habits at all, while 4% continued to drink to dangerous levels and 9% reported binge drinking.

The two doctors say the message to pregnant women cannot be any clearer: no amount of alcohol is safe throughout pregnancy. However, developing foetuses are most at risk during the first three months.

"Compared with other recreational drugs, alcohol is by far the most toxic to babies," Dr Jacquemard said.

"Alcohol is the only one that gives a recognisable syndrome in babies. With other drugs there is no such pattern."

The effects could range from fullblown foetal alcohol syndrome, which was seen in the face, through to mild defects in neurological processing, such as poor memory and ADHD, he said.

"From the results, we can say that in New Zealand there is a real risk of Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder," Dr Ho said. While the information had been available for many years, women were ignoring the message.

"Nothing has changed. We are losing the battle."

It was also of major concern that some doctors and other health professionals were continuing to tell pregnant women a couple of drinks would not do any harm, she said.

"Some healthcare workers say a little is OK, a drink a day doesn't matter, but that is the wrong message. We are failing our children."

The doctors had surveyed almost all new Taranaki mothers (104) over a two- month period in 2006 a day after they gave birth. The anonymous survey asked the mothers how much alcohol they drank before they were pregnant, how much they drank during their pregnancy, and at which stage of their pregnancy they either stopped drinking or cut down.

Many had only stopped after they found out they were pregnant, leading to hazardous drinking during unplanned pregnancies. The researchers advise that anyone who has concerns should contact their GP.

* Child health provider Manaaki Oranga Ltd maternal alcohol and drug nurse Deeanna Ritai said yesterday the group headed a successful awareness event at Puke Ariki attended by about 60 families.

The launch of the international awareness day, at 9.09am on the ninth day of the ninth month 2009, was celebrated first in New Zealand and successively throughout the world. DRINK PROBLEMS

Effects of foetal alcohol syndrome

* Face flattened and eyes wide apart.

* Heart and kidney defects.

* Hearing and sight impairment.

* Moderate to severe intellectual impairment.

* Lesser effects: trouble learning, controlling impulses, thinking abstractly, paying attention, remembering and making good judgments.

* MOH recommendation: Total abstinence from alcohol by pregnant women or those planning pregnancy or at risk of becoming pregnant, and those who are breastfeeding.

Daily News

Bristol is sitting on an alcohol “timebomb” which will destroy lives and break up families.

That’s the stark warning from health professionals who claim that there are 10,000 alcoholics and a further 50,000 men and women who either binge drink or consume more than their recommended daily amount.

To add to this dangerous cocktail, Bristol has only one specialist NHS bed in the city to treat anyone suffering from drink-related problems.

Health professionals are concerned that, unless attitudes to alcohol change, they will struggle to cope with the results of the alcohol timebomb in a few years.

The sole bed for alcoholics at Callington Road mental health hospital in Brislington is for drinkers with the most serious long-term health problems, such as seizures, and it is always occupied.

Meanwhile, normal hospital beds in Bristol are increasingly taken up by patients coming in with alcohol-related problems.

Illness due to alcohol is costing the National Health Service £1.7 billion a year, with up to 22,000 deaths and 150,000 hospital admissions each year.

Bristol Primary Care Trust had the highest number of admissions in the South West for alcohol-related conditions, at 2,302 last year – more than six cases a day.

Peter Walker, director of the Addiction Recovery Agency in King Street, Bristol, issued the stark warning and claimed disproportionately more money is being spent on the treatment of the estimated 6,500 Class A drug addicts than alcoholics.

Bristol Drugs Project received £5.3 million from the Government this year for its drug treatment programmes for about 3,000 drug addicts each year.

This compares to the £1m spent by Bristol PCT on treating alcoholism, which does not include the cost of treating alcohol-related illnesses such as cirrhosis.

Mr Walker said: “If you are an alcoholic or drug addict and you want to get into a detox unit and rehabilitation, you have to have a community care assessment, which is carried out by social services or another agency.

“Needs are assessed against specific criteria. In some areas where the criteria are strictly adhered to, only people who are very severely ill benefit. People who are that ill may not get the best out of rehabilitation.

“For example, if they have brain damage due to drinking, their ability to engage with others may be limited.”

He said treatment and funding for alcoholics depends on where they live.

“Most of the money in the Bristol area is focused on drug misuse because of its link with crime,” said Mr Walker. “There is a huge disparity in the funding available for alcohol and drug misuse. Compared to the scale of the problem, it doesn’t make sense.”

In a survey by the Government’s Information Centre for Health and Social Care, one in four men and one in eight women in the South West admitted to drinking every day for more than five days in the week before they were questioned. One in eight men in the region said they drank up to eight units and more than a third drank four units on at least one day that week.

Nearly one in every eight women in the survey drank eight units on at least one day leading up to the survey – the safe daily limit for women is up to three units.

The long-term effects are devastating and are seen every day at the Wild Goose coffee shop run by Crisis Centre Ministries in St Paul’s. All the customers are homeless and many have a drink or drug problem, often both.

The staff do their best to help, directing those who want to stop drinking to the treatment agencies and charities in Bristol.

The Addiction Recovery Agency has been offering help for drug and alcohol misusers for 21 years and last year helped 2,250 people. It has an alcohol misuse service, but there are just 18 places and most are allocated to drug addicts.

For the ordinary person who thinks they might have a drink problem, their GP is the first port of call. But recognising there is a problem in the first place is part of the issue.

Assistant director of public health for Bristol, Barbara Coleman, said: “A lot of people who would be deemed to be harmful drinkers – those who drink every day or binge drink – do not recognise their drinking is harmful.

“Our long-term goal is to double the provision but in the meantime we have to raise awareness of the long-term effects.”

This Is Bristol

Biggest barrier often mother's guilt over drinking alcohol during pregnancy, says woman with affected son

Alone and grieving the deaths of three close friends, Annette Cutknife drank for all nine months of her pregnancy.

A college student at the time, she didn't care what would happen, but the moment her son was born, she knew something was badly wrong.

Daniel was too quiet. He had permanent brain damage and couldn't walk until he was three.

Now, Cutknife works hard to make sure others don't make the same mistake.

"I was really, really selfish, I just didn't care," Cutknife said Tuesday, after leading 130 people on a march through the community of Hobbema to raise awareness about fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

Nationwide, researchers estimate that between three and 10 of every 1,000 children born each year have fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

The disorder -- brain damage caused by alcohol exposure in the womb -- affects victims' judgment and ability to understand consequences and make good decisions. Though it can't be cured, different teaching methods can help children cope.

But after the damage is done, the second problem is to get parents to admit to drinking and agree to get their children diagnosed.

During Cutknife's pregnancy, she told her doctor she wasn't drinking. She made similar denials to four doctors who asked during nearly 50 hospital visits in the first few years of her son's life. But she could see Daniel was not right. He couldn't sit up by himself until he was one, couldn't walk until he was three.

When Daniel started kindergarten, the teacher confronted his mother.

"She said, 'I think you have an idea what's wrong with him. Get him assessed so we can get him some help.' "

The shame and guilt that comes with having a child affected by the disorder took Cutknife years to deal with -- years of counselling and ceremonial sweat lodge ceremonies.

Now, telling her story helps her heal, but she says guilt keeps many parents from coming forward.

Staff at Samson Cree's family health branch says about 100 children and adults have been formally diagnosed out of a membership of 6,500.

They estimate at least four times that number of cases go undiagnosed.

"We try to reach (their families); they always hang up on us," said Stephanie Saddleback. "They're afraid their kids are going to be taken away. But they need to be treated."

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder comes with no outward signs or facial features, and children don't necessarily act out in class. They might have normal intelligence, but don't learn the same way their classmates do.

At Edmonton's Glenrose hospital, Dr. Gail Andrew works with a team of a doctors, occupational therapists, speech pathologists and psychologists to evaluate each child.

Raising a child with the disorder takes a "huge amount of effort," Andrew said, but if support isn't given, the child is at a much higher risk of getting involved in crime or ending up homeless. "They are very vulnerable to being victimized by others."

At Hobbema's march on Tuesday, walkers said they hope to get more people talking about the issue.

"Make people open their eyes," said Bruce Lee, who works for Health Canada as a mentor for a home visitation program."

"Some of the (mothers) don't care," said Nathan Cardinal, a policing student with four healthy children. "They don't think they're going to make it past 18 around here anyway. It's pretty dangerous."

"A lot of parents don't want to admit they have a problem," said band counselor Larron Northwest. "It's certainly a battle against addiction. But Daniel, he's an example of it not being a hopeless issue."

Cutknife's son finished Grade 12 last year through a remedial program. He plans to repeat the grade this year to learn more life skills, then attend a job training program out of Wetaskiwin.

His mother said she is past the guilt now. "My biggest fear was to be judged. I grow from each presentation I do, because you know you're helping somebody."

Alberta Children and Youth Services announced five new regional networks and an additional $12.5 million to counter fetal alcohol spectrum disorder on Tuesday.

Edmonton Journal

A drinking den could be set up in Perth to keep alcoholics off the streets during the day.

It is against the law to drink alcohol in the streets, parks and other public places in the town but some people with severe drink problems break the rules.

Councillors are concerned they give a bad impression of the area to visitors and can be frightening to local people.

They are revisiting the idea of setting up a "wet house" where alcoholics could drink in a safe place.

Similar plans have been proposed at various times over the last 10 years but have never got off the ground.

Councillor Willie Robertson, convener of the community safety committee, said public drinking was happening in fairly obvious places.

"It can be frightening for people on their own - ladies on their own walking past and finding people who are intoxicated and perhaps harassing them for money," he said.

"So it's a social problem that has to be dealt with."

He added that the drinkers themselves also needed to be protected.

"Someone who is severely under the influence of alcohol is both a risk to themselves and a risk to others," he said.

"They do get harassed by the police because people don't want them hanging about outside their shops, or outside their homes, or in the parks, so the police are constantly trying to move them on.

"If too much drink is taken and they fall unconscious, they're liable to be robbed or assaulted.

"If there's somewhere they can go and be safe and be monitored I think that would be a much better way of doing it."

Mr Robertson added that if the plans were to progress they would work to find a place for a drinking den which the public did not object to.

BBC News

The Department of Health is drafting legislation to make mandatory the labelling of all alcohol products with warnings about the dangers of drinking while pregnant. The labels will also have information about how many units of alcohol are in the product.

The news comes as Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI) repeated its call for such labelling, to coincide with Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Day which falls today.

Director of the group Fiona Ryan said women had the right to know how their health and that of their unborn child was affected by drinking while pregnant.

"Exposure of the foetus to alcohol during pregnancy increases the risk of damage to the baby which can have long-term behavioural, social, learning and attention difficulties for children and teenagers, and at the most severe end of the spectrum a child's height, facial features and nervous system can also be affected."

Also today, Minister of State for Health Mary Wallace is warning pregnant women not to drink.

"I know that expectant mothers want to do everything possible to protect their baby," Ms Wallace said. "Everyone is aware about the advice not to smoke, but there is much less awareness about the advice not to consume alcohol during pregnancy."

A report last year - The Coombe Women's Hospital Study of Alcohol, Smoking and Illicit Drug Use, 1988-2005 - found most pregnant women had drunk alcohol.

The study showed that one woman in 10 reported drinking more than six units of alcohol a week in pregnancy and that this pattern was more pronounced in younger women.

A spokeswoman said Drinks Manufacturers Ireland had agreed last year to label all alcohol products with information about units of alcohol in the products and about alcohol and pregnancy. "We agreed the measure at partnership talks last year, so we are now waiting on the legislation."

A department spokesman said there was not yet a clear date for the legislation's introduction.

Irish Times

Portland's drunk tank is painted in blue-and-gray shades so self-consciously somber that they almost vanish into the background like a mortician at a wake.

What catches the eye: neat, white stacks of plastic -- packets of salt crackers and cups for soup to help settle the stomachs of dozens of drunks that cops and cabbies bring to David P. Hooper Center's Sobering Station each day.

Some are what the staff calls "weekend warriors," blustering businessmen and cocky college kids who pass a few hours to sleep off a weekend binge. Looking through a scrim of booze, they see the secure doors and cement floors and often think they're in jail. Few are glad to be here.

"In the world, there are happy drunks, but we never see them," said Steve Mattsson, the center's manager. "Those are the ones that get taken home."

Other visitors grin and greet the staff by name. Month by month, the staff tracks these chronic drunks and drug users, urging them to move upstairs into a 54-bed detox program, where nurses and a doctor shepherd alcoholics through the life-threatening shakes and seizures of detoxification.

"For a lot of these folks, this is their best shot at regaining their lives," Multnomah County board Chairman Ted Wheeler said.

For 35 years, Hooper's small staff of medics and ex-addicts has offered a second chance to boozers bent on drinking themselves to death. The detoxification center is named for David P. Hooper, "the last chronic street inebriate who died in the old county jail," according to Ed Blackburn, executive director of Central City Concern, the nonprofit that runs Hooper.

Forget your TV image of Otis Campbell snoozing off his drunk in the Mayberry jail. When hard-core alcoholics go too long without drinking, their brains whip into overdrive. Their hearts race more than 100 beats a minute; they grow anxious, sweat and vomit. About a day after their last drink, they may hallucinate or suffer grand mal seizures. Some chronic inebriates risk seizures if their blood alcohol level drops below 0.25, Mattsson said, three times the legal limit for drunk driving.

Police and metro-area governments realized they had a greater medical crisis than a legal one. Hospitals were a possible answer. But area emergency rooms see more drunk patients than they want, especially because chronic alcoholics often have no insurance or income to pay the $500 to $1,000 bill for a visit. That's why local health systems have pledged $600,000 over two years to help cover recent cuts in Multnomah County's funding for the sobering station.

Multnomah County started the Hooper Center in 1973 to give police another place to take inebriates to sober up safely rather than let them bug downtown businesspeople, pick fights or wander into traffic.

More than 100,000 people have passed through in 35 years, Blackburn said. With so many regulars, Hooper staff have watched people sober up a half-million times, including more than 12,500 times last year alone.

The sobering station sits in a discreet building off East Burnside. Most people arrive in a police cruiser or the CHIERS van, Central City Concern's transport program, though one or two people a day usually come in under their own steam. They enter through a back door, walk down a ramp -- designers wisely avoided stairs -- and plop on a row of gray-painted benches.

Hooper's emergency medical technicians help take off shoes and belts and empty pockets. Possessions sit in worn plastic bins for safe-keeping while their owners sober up.

Medics take a pulse rate, look at pupils and smell breath. They ask people what they're high on. So many are wrecked on a mix of drugs or have perpetual levels of booze in their veins that medics don't bother checking alcohol levels.

People pass into one of three rooms, with worn wood tables bolted to cement floors that slope toward a central drain. Men and women go into separate rooms, with the third room generally reserved for difficult drunks and, on weekends, the two-too-many crowd.

The staff have no restraints, no weapons, no way to deal with angry drunks except to talk them down. But folks who spin too far out of control wind up in one of four small "safety rooms," steel-doored cells with no furnishings but a toilet bolted to one wall.

"Then," Mattsson said, "it's tincture of time."

People eventually settle down and sometimes pass out. The weekend warriors have healthier livers and sober up sooner, often in a few hours. Cabs, friends or angry spouses ferry many back home.

Chronic addicts are sicker and take longer to regain their senses, four or six hours. The staff sees them with a mix of affection and frustration, Mattsson said. Workers long to see the addicts enter Hooper's medical detox program, then graduate into other social services -- 12-step meetings, job assistance and housing for the homeless, the main mission of Central City Concern.

But it's hard to get in the medical detox unit. About 30 people want to enter every day, Mattsson said; 20 are turned away. So the chronic addicts usually leave. Too often they come back, too soon.

And if you ever find yourself passing through the sobering station, Mattsson does have some advice: "Never sleep between your buddy and the drain."

The Oregonian

For the thousands of families and individuals affected by substance abuse and addiction, asking for help and finding treatment is essential to getting back to a healthy, fulfilling life through recovery.

Recovery Month is a nationwide celebration of people in long-term recovery from substance use disorders, and is supported by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The 2008 theme is “Join the Voices for Recovery: Real People, Real Recovery” and celebrates those in recovery and their families, as well as the treatment and recovery support providers who help them achieve and sustain lasting sobriety.

The Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services (ODADAS) is proud to join Ohio Governor Ted Strickland in supporting September as “National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month” in Ohio. The Governor recently signed a resolution marking the national recognition of the month in Ohio.

“By assisting those in need of treatment onto a path of recovery, we not only aid them in regaining their lives, but also can help their families on a path of their own recovery from addiction’s impact, which benefits the entire state,” ODADAS Director Angela Cornelius Dawson said.

Highlights of Ongoing Treatment Efforts

ODADAS strives year round for access to treatment for Ohioans. The Department oversees 50 county boards responsible for alcohol and drug addiction or mental health services, more than 600 treatment sites, 150 prevention providers, and outreach and intervention programs throughout the state. In FY07, ODADAS served more than 99,300 men, women and youth in our alcohol and other drug treatment agencies.

In the past six months, ODADAS has applied for six federal grants totaling approximately $17 million that would benefit 14 counties in Ohio.

Deaf Off Drugs

Wright State University will be working for the next couple of years with ODADAS to administer a first of its kind grant in the country for substance abusing individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing. The three year $1.5 million grant is called, “Deaf off Drugs and Alcohol” (DODA). These grant funds for treatment and recovery provide “e-therapy,” group and individual counseling and case management via video conferencing and videophone technology.

Access to Recovery

ODADAS is in its first year of a $13.9 million three year grant aimed at providing substance abuse treatment and other recovery support services for former prisoners heading back into their communities. The federal grant “Access to Recovery” currently serves four counties in Ohio: Mahoning, Cuyahoga, Stark and Summit. It began in February 2008, and to date has impacted approximately 780 Ohioans. Participants can choose from faith-based and community-based providers through a voucher system which allows them to choose from a host of treatment and recovery services including transportation and childcare assistance, literacy and education programs, job training and housing options.

Think Outside the Stigma Public Awareness Campaign

In May 2008, ODADAS and the Ohio Department of Mental Health received bipartisan Congressional recognition for its Think Outside the Stigma public awareness campaign.

There are a few core messages that are a part of the campaign which is aimed at chipping away at the stigma around the issue of addiction and mental illnesses and who is impacted by the diseases.

The four key Think Outside the Stigma elements of the campaign are:

• Alcohol and other drug addictions and mental illnesses are brain diseases.

• Alcohol and other drug addictions and mental illnesses can affect anyone.

• Alcohol and other drug addictions and mental illnesses are treatable.

• Individuals with brain diseases should not be discriminated against.

ODADAS maintains that treatment services are available to all Ohioans and that treatment helps individuals accept responsibility for their actions and begin a successful path of recovery.

“Treatment for substance use disorders is effective and necessary to sustain a healthy and productive society,” said Director Dawson. “Addiction exacts an enormous toll on our state and it is time that we support those who need our help. Real people in our state are affected by substance use disorders. The renewed hope that springs from long-term recovery truly can make a difference in helping more families get healthy. We want Ohioans to know that we are here to help.”

Wilmington News Journal

Investigators from the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission stopped dozens of college students from obtaining alcohol last weekend in a statewide crackdown on underage drinking.

On Sept. 4, commission investigators found more than 56 minors possessing alcohol, 33 people who bought or attempted to buy alcohol for minors, and six people with fake identification in Brighton, according to a statement released by investigator Ted Mahony. Statewide numbers were not available yesterday because the investigation - dubbed Operation Safe Campus - is ongoing.

Investigators also confiscated 48 cases of beer and 22 bottles of other kinds of alcoholic beverages in Brighton, according to a statement from the commission.

The underage students were not arrested, but their parents and respective colleges were called, Mahony said. Most of those students will not face legal action, he said, because authorities believe schools and parents can better address the issue.

"We found that it's far more effective to have an immediate contact with the young person's parents, let them know they were drinking alcohol," Mahony said. "That allows the parents to speak about this issue with their kids."

People over 21 who bought or attempted to buy alcohol for minors will probably face criminal complaints, Mahony said.

The students confronted by investigators in Brighton came from schools including Newbury College, Lesley University, Boston University, Boston College, Suffolk University, Northeastern University, and Emerson College, Mahony said.

The enforcement program, activated at the beginning of each academic year since 2004, was staged Thursday at Blanchard's on the corner of Brighton Avenue and Harvard Street and at Reservoir Liquors in Cleveland Circle, Mahony said.

Investigators acted as store clerks at the two liquor stores. The stores assisted and were "very cooperative," Mahony said.

The drinking age in Massachusetts is 21, meaning many students will spend most of their college careers without being able to drink legally.

"By preventing alcohol from getting into the hands of underage individuals, we are preventing tragedy before it strikes," said Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill, who oversees the commission.

Local college officials said students are aware of the possible consequences of underage drinking.

"It's a message that we tell students from the very first time they come on campus for orientation," Boston University spokesman Colin Riley said. "We've told them that there are consequences for their actions."

Violators have to meet with a judicial affairs officer and discipline is determined on a case-by-case basis, Riley said.

Some local students said they were glad to see the state working to stop underage drinking, which leads to thousands of deaths nationwide each year.

"It's nice to know that people are finally cracking down on this, because underage drinking is such a big issue," said Bridget Kelleher, a 20-year-old junior at Boston University. "I think underage drinking has a lot of harmful effects."

Boston Globe

It happens on campuses during fall weekends and has the power to rile up students and fans alike.

But it's not football.

Whether it's for possession of a fake ID or open beer can, universities in the Southeastern Conference have their own way of dealing with alcohol-related arrests. But what happens after an arrest differs in Auburn than it does in Athens.

As underage drinking is a prevalent concern on college campuses, many schools have policies that promote education, assistance and punishment to tackle the problem. A recent analysis conducted by The Red & Black of SEC schools' alcohol policies indicated the University's policy was similar to what many SEC schools use.

The University's policy states for first offenses of underage alcohol possession or consumption, minimum consequences include a six to 12-month probation and an alcohol education course; a second violation could warrant a suspension. Other sanctions may be added to the minimum consequences, such as community service or rehabilitative programs.

The University policy, which went into effect last year, differentiates between consumption and possession of alcohol, includes a standard probationary period and requires parental notification after a student's first offense. The changes came after concern for recent drug and alcohol-related incidents, such as the 2006 death of University freshman Lewis Fish. Fish was found dead in his Russell Hall dorm room, and an autopsy determined a combination of heroin, cocaine and alcohol was in his system.

"Ultimately, the judicial process is fundamentally an educational and administrative process. We want students to learn and grow so they don't get a second offense," Alan Campbell, associate dean for Student Affairs, said. Though many factors make it difficult to determine the process' impact on each policy violator, "some students that do go through that experience report being motivated in changing behavior," Campbell said.

The Student Government Association has studied the alcohol policies of other schools and has gauged student response about the University's policy, SGA president Connor McCarthy said by e-mail.

"I think everyone was pleased with those changes that differentiated possession from consumption," McCarthy wrote. "And those changes that standardized the probationary period, both of which have undoubtedly benefited students."

"We still hear, though, that the 'punishment doesn't fit the crime' or that rulings are 'one-size-fits-all,'" he said.

Ole Miss follows a similar policy in which a second alcohol-related offense may lead to a student's suspension, according to the school's Web site. Others, such as Mississippi State, Tennessee and Florida, determine punishments based on individual cases, but consequences usually range from probation to suspension or expulsion.

The University of Arkansas, LSU and Vanderbilt follow a prescribed list of sanctions in which multiple offenses garner stricter consequences. For example, a minor in possession at Vanderbilt could warrant a reprimand and an educational program, but a third alcohol-related offense could mean suspension, Bridget Williams Golden, assistant director of the Office of Student Conduct and Academic Integrity at Vanderbilt, said by e-mail.

In addition to its consequences, Arkansas looks at a collaborative approach that includes education, counseling and support such as safe ride programs for students who do drink.

"We're articulating what we believe is the appropriate educational response to inappropriate use in hope to get students to drink less," said Daniel Pugh, associate vice chancellor/dean of students at Arkansas, who also used to work in Athens. "It goes back to mature management. If you're 18 and walking down Lumpkin Street with a beer in your hand, that's not a really mature decision."

Police collaboration

Many SEC schools - such as the University, Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi State - expect students to follow university policy off campus, and have agreements with local law enforcement to report student alcohol offenses that happen in the surrounding town or county.

"It is reasonable to assume that some behaviors exhibited by students, even off campus, might have a negative impact on the health, safety, or welfare of the campus community," Todd Borst, associate director of Judicial Affairs at the University of Alabama, wrote in an e-mail. "This section of the Code affords the University the opportunity to act to protect the broader interests of the students and the University."

Auburn and Florida look at serious off-campus offenses, such as DUIs or alcohol-related violence. "If it's an underage drinker at a bar or an apartment, that's under local jurisdiction," said Chris Loschiavo, assistant dean of students at the University of Florida.

South Carolina will not only accept local arrest records, but also those of students' hometowns, Jerry Brewer, associate vice president of Student Affairs at South Carolina, said.

Parental notification and medical amnesty

All SEC schools have a parental notification policy to alert parents of their student's drug or alcohol-related offense or emergency. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 allows schools to waive a student's privacy to their educational records if a student violates school drug and alcohol policies.

Under the University's policy, parents are notified after a student's first alcohol-related offense to allow parents to be aware of and help the student address the behavior. Later notification also could jeopardize health insurance, because many plans may deem a student ineligible if the student has been suspended from college, Campbell said.

The role of medical amnesty varies by university. If a university offers medical amnesty, students who seek assistance for an alcohol-related emergency for themselves or a friend may not face university judicial action for coming forward. The University and others, such as Vanderbilt and Mississippi State, have official medical amnesty policies.

Florida has an emergency room policy that determines whether students should go through an educational program, counseling or treatment after their hospital stay, Loschiavo said.

South Carolina handles alcohol-related emergencies on an individual basis, Brewer said. "[Getting help] is a sign, at least in situations that I've been in, that someone is doing the right thing, because you are in a better situation," he said. "It's not a 'get out of jail free card,' but it's also not a punishment."

At Mississippi State, a "Good Samaritan" policy allows officials to have the discretion to waive disciplinary action if it hinders students from helping a student in need, Bill Kibler, vice president for Student Affairs at Mississippi State, wrote in an e-mail. "Students who are deemed publicly drunk by [Miss. State University Police] usually have two options … they go to county jail or they go to the emergency room."

The University of Kentucky does not have medical amnesty, but it is up to the officer who responds to the situation, said Andrew Smith, director of the Alcohol & Health Education office at Kentucky. "We do promote the importance of keeping our students alive and safe in these instances."

So whether University students have been arrested for fake IDs or consuming beer, chances are their counterparts - from Oxford, Miss. to Gainesville, Fla. - may be facing a similar education process.

Red and Black

Many young people say they like happy hour promotions and the easy availability of alcohol but also understand concerns about their health

Units of alcohol are a complicated matter, cheap drinks are welcomed and throwing up is a humiliating but accepted part of growing up. But while teenagers believe they could be better informed about the dangers of alcohol, the sociable side of drinking still holds undisputed appeal.

Young people in the UK, among the heaviest drinkers in Europe, are the target of both government and industry campaigns to tackle binge and under age drinking - so the Guardian went out onto the streets of Britain to speak to them about their experiences with alcohol.

Outside a bar called Cuba Libre in Islington's Upper Street in north London, where the bars are wall to wall and happy hour - lasting three conventional hours - is just finishing, Zoe Spittle, 18, says there was "no downside" to cheap drinks offers. "If there wasn't happy hour, we could go to Tesco to get drinks. But it's better to be in a bar where it's more sociable," she says.

Happy hour

Her friend Charlotte Peel, 18, agreed that restricting happy hours "just drives people into their homes to drink." But, she says: "Club nights [in Tottenham Court Road] where it's £1.50 for a shot, encourage binge drinking. I think the answer is more police and more security."

Matt Quinton, 19, from Norwich, agrees that happy hours have no effect on alcohol consumption. "I don't think happy hours make any difference to the way people drink: if there wasn't a happy hour, we'd go to Wetherspoons or buy ourselves vodka from Tesco," he says.

Matt says that on an average night out in Norwich, he'll buy alcohol and drink with friends before going out. "Otherwise, you can spend £30 to £40 on a night out," he says. "I could never get drunk in a club: I'd be broke."

Warnings not taken seriously

In Nottingham, Grace Ennis, 18, who drinks once a week at most, agrees binge drinking needed tackling. She says: "Warnings about binge drinking help, but they're not taken seriously by people because it's a lifestyle - and when people see the news they don't think it's about them."

But telesales worker Alex Wilby, 19, from Beeston, who drinks six or seven pints on a Friday night, is conscious of how much he drinks. "I think it will affect my health more because I'm young," he says. "I think people should be shown the long-term consequences more to discourage them from drinking."

Krishna Owen, 18, also from Nottingham, drinks about five pints when he goes out with friends. "If I went out more I may be concerned about my health, but as it is I'm not worried, though technically, I could be described as a binge drinker," he says. "But I think beer should be labelled with units alongside alcohol percentage: I don't know how many units are in a pint".

Another teenager who agrees the system is complicated was Emma Davies, 18, from Boston Spa in north Yorkshire, who drinks Strongbow at the weekends: "I don't understand units," she says, while Lucy Birge, 19, who lives in Sheffield, says: "People think in pints and half pints, not in units." She says while she has had a couple of embarrassing experiences, she now knows her limits. "When I was 14, I shared a bottle of Jack Daniels with a friend. We ended up in a car park and couldn't move for hours because I was throwing up. It's pretty grim looking back; I wouldn't get into that state now. I'm sure I will throw up again but hopefully not in such a humiliating way."

In Leeds, Holly Makin, 20, is a banker who drinks vodka and coke, was recovering from a house party. "There's a big drinking culture here," she says. "There's a club night every night, and house parties all the time. If I wake up with a hangover, I wonder why I drank so much but then go out and do the same again." She says there is pressure to drink: "It's considered the norm. I have a teetotal friend who is constantly being offered alcohol by friends."

Mikey Harrington, 21, from Leeds and a barman, says peer pressure decreases with age. "When I was young I wanted to drink at dinner like my dad. There's pressure to drink at a young age: it's seen as a sign of maturity and adulthood. Now, I just drink because I want to."

He thinks alcohol education in schools needs improving. "Kids should be taught responsibility and how to deal with alcohol properly," he says. Alex Ford, 19, from Leeds, a singer in a post-punk band, agrees. "People should be taught the importance of knowing their limits: it's reckless to get drunk to the point of being paralytic," he says.

Under-age drinkers

Among under-18s, who mainly drink in parties at each other's houses, there was a consensus that "almost everyone drinks." Henry Willmore, 16, lives in north London and drinks beer occasionally with friends - or vodka or Malibu if he's trying to get drunk. "There's no peer pressure to drink, but there's definitely a drinking culture. At parties, everyone's doing it, so some people probably feel left out if they don't drink." Alcohol can help with confidence. "I think it's more if you feel shy or nervous around girls. But I don't feel nervous."

Buying alcohol is no problem, says James Burton, 16. "It's easy to get fake ID that works in off licenses, though not in big pubs or clubs. Fake ID off the internet isn't very good - there are better places to buy it," he says. Lilit Batikyan, 16, from Camden, agreed it's easy to get alcohol. "Older friends supply it, or there are some off licenses in Camden that sell to underage people." Lilit rarely drinks. "Getting smashed is terrible," she says. "It's embarrassing - you lose all sense of co-ordination and awareness. I've seen friends get so drunk they don't remember what's happened the night before."

In contrast, Lana Rowlett, from Hackney, is enthusiastic about the joys of drinking. The 19-year-old Stella and cocktail drinker, who works with children with learning difficulties, says: "During the holidays I drink more than 50 drinks a week. I know I can stop drinking so it doesn't worry me; it's socialising for me. But if I was still doing this in a few years, I'd have a problem."

Bhavika Patel, 22, from Tottenham, is studying medicine and is very aware of the long-term health implications of drinking excessively. "Some of my friends drink too much and too regularly," she says. "I don't think they realise what they are doing."

Social event

Over at the Camden Head, also on Upper Street, Jenny Atkins, 19, says health was a slight concern of hers. "I'm aware that I shouldn't be drinking as much as I do. I make the excuse that I'm young, and I won't drink so much when I'm older."

Both she and her friend, Bella Riza, 19, from Islington, says drinking culture is more about socialising than drinking. "Nowhere else in the world has such a good pub culture: it's so relaxed and you can sit in a pub chatting to friends for hours," Bella says.

Louis Ruscombe-King, 18, from Devon, agrees. "I go for a pint after work, but don't drink excessively. Going out drinking is more a social event than anything else."

The Guardian

President Ian Khama has challenged the private sector to be 'proactive rather than reactive'.He was speaking at the 10th National Business Conference (NBC) going on at Tati River Lodge in Francistown where he conducted the official opening and devoted some time to the topic of alcohol.

He said the private sector was late in its recent interest in the challenge posed by alcohol abuse.

"Your concern is somewhat belated but nonetheless welcome. One cannot help but wonder why the private sector has been silent on this issue all along and only spoke when the introduction of the levy was being considered," he said. Khama said that he has received proposals from the private sector.

"I have received proposals to address alcohol abuse and your submission is receiving due attention and the decision will be ready by Wednesday," he said. Alcohol seems to have become one of Khama's top priorities. As he spoke most people in the audience had already predicted that he would at least touch on it but not even two minutes into his speech he had addressed the issue. Khama said that alcohol abuse poses a multi faceted challenge to the nation with multiple negative effects.

"...that can truly undermine all our efforts to build a better country which includes an enabling environment for a more prosperous and productive nation," he said.

The President went on to say that alcohol abuse is a challenge which has been with the country for quite some time, and it contributes to things that are a threat to the nation.

"We have long been aware of its role in promoting the spread of HIV and AIDS. We are all aware of its contribution to rising statistics of violent crime, including sexual assault, drunken driving and other forms of anti-social, risky and criminal behaviour," he stated.

Khama went on to complain that Batswana are all aware of the ill effects of alcohol abuse on productivity at the work place.

"It is common cause that an alcohol dependent nation can never be a productive nation," he stressed. He further said that continued alcohol abuse would certainly reverse all the developmental gains the country has so far made.

"It is therefore imperative that we conduct a large scale educational campaign to sensitise our population, especially the youth, about the ill effects of alcohol abuse and thus help those needing rehabilitating and restore their dignity," he added.

Mmegi Online

Binge drinking, or “heavy drinking,” is defined generally as having more than five alcoholic drinks for men, and four alcoholic drinks for women, over a one- to three-hour period. These figures may vary among individuals depending on weight and other relevant factors. Binge drinking is related with the intention of getting highly intoxicated.

The article “The Relationship Between Recent Alcohol Use and Sexual Behaviors: Gender Differences Among Sexually Transmitted Disease Clinic Patients” was written by Heidi E. Hutton, Mary E. McCaul, Patricia B. Santora, and Emily J. Erbelding.

It is based on their research from the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Medicine, at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Hutton, McCaul, and Santora) and the Baltimore City Health Department (Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.) (Erbelding).

They state in the abstract to their paper, “Binge drinking is associated with risky sexual behaviors and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Few studies have investigated this by gender or in an STD clinic. This cross-sectional study examined the association between binge drinking and risky sexual behaviors/STDs among patients attending an urban STD clinic.”

The researchers used 671 STD clinic patients, of which, 349 were females and 322 were males. Each patient was tested for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). They were also asked about their recent alcohol and drug use, along with any “risky sexual behaviors” that they had recently participated in.

The results of the tests and self-administered interviews were analyzed to see if there was an association between binge drinking and sexual behaviors, specifically the acquisition of STDs. The data was adjusted based on age, employment, drug use, and other relevant factors.

The Johns Hopkins researchers found that 30% of the women and 42% of the men reported binge drinking. Men did not differ in the amount of anal sex (a contributor of STDs) they participated in, when related to the amount of alcohol consumed.

However, it was found that women had more anal sex with increased alcohol use.

In fact, women who binge drank engaged in anal sex more than twice the rate than women who modestly drank alcohol but did not binge drink, and over three times the rate than women who did not drink alcohol at all.

The researchers stated, “Having multiple sex partners was more than twice as common among women binge drinkers than women abstainers. Gonorrhea was nearly 5 times higher among women binge drinkers compared to women abstainers. The association between binge drinking and sexual behaviors/gonorrhea remained after controlling for drug use. Among men, rates of risky sexual behaviors/STDs were high, but did not differ by alcohol use.”

They concluded, “Rates of binge drinking among STD clinic patients were high. Among women, binge drinking was uniquely associated with risky sexual behaviors and an STD diagnosis. Our findings support the need to routinely screen for binge drinking as part of clinical care in STD clinics. Women binge drinkers, in particular, may benefit from interventions that jointly address binge drinking and risky sexual behaviors. Developing gender-specific interventions could improve overall health outcomes in this population.”

The article “Binge drinking women often engage in risky sex,” which appears on the website of News-Medical.Net, states, ”Dr. Hutton says that both binge drinking and risky sexual behaviors are more hazardous to women than men and when women and men consume the same amount of alcohol, women will have a higher concentration of alcohol in their system, and substantially greater alcohol-caused impairment than men.”

The article continues, “Also anatomical differences mean women are at a greater risk than men of contracting some sexually transmitted infections - men transmit some infections to women more efficiently than women do to men - men are eight to 10 times more likely to transmit HIV [human immunodeficiency virus] to a female partner through repeated, unprotected sexual intercourse than women are to transmit the virus to men.”

It concludes by saying, “The researchers say the gender-specific association between binge drinking and risky behaviors shown in the study calls for more research and they suggest that STD clinics routinely screen for binge drinking.”

iTWire

Some people drink to forget, but scientists have found that anyone who binge drinks is more likely to forget only the worst experiences of being drunk – which is why alcohol is such an addictive drug.

Alcohol has been found to affect memory in a selective manner. Drinking makes it easier to remember the good things about a party but harder to recall the bad things that happen after having too much.

Studies into the memories of people engaged in heavy drinking have shown that it is the inability to remember the worst excesses of a night out – while remembering the happy things that led up to them – is one of the main causes of repeated binge drinking.

"The effects of alcohol on mood are known contributors to its use and abuse. It is less known how its effects on memory and inhibitory control add to alcohol being and addictive drug," said Professor Theodora Duka of Sussex University.

"Material acquired in an intoxicated state is less effectively retrieved in a sober state. Thus people who abuse alcohol forget the consequences of intoxication during periods of abstinence," Professor Duka said.

Alcohol is well known to affect mood. It reduces anxiety, induces elation and pleasure, while removing inhibition, making people feel more in control compared to when they are sober.

But the effect of alcohol on memory is one of the least-understood aspects of alcohol abuse, yet it could be one of the most important in terms of explaining why the drug is so powerfully addictive, Professor Duka told the British Association's Science Festival at Liverpool University.

"The effect of alcohol to weaken control processes intuitively appears to be the most important contributor to the development of alcohol addiction, since alcohol addiction is perceived to be an inability to control drinking," she said.

"Alcohol facilitates memories for emotional events experienced before intoxication – mostly positive – and impairs memories for emotional events experienced after intoxication – often negative – biasing memory to positive effects of alcohol, and support [for] further drinking."

Memory tests on volunteers who were shown emotion-laden images before, during and after a bout of drinking found there was a clear degradation in memory as the alcohol began to build up in their bodies.

"Alcohol facilitated memory for material seen after its administration. More importantly, under the influence of alcohol, emotional images seen before alcohol consumption were recalled more whereas emotional images seen after alcohol consumption were recalled less," she said.

Further studies found alcohol also increases the risk of making wrong judgements and impulsive decisions, especially in women. This is another reason why drinking can increase the risk of further bingeing by affecting the brain's control process, Professor Duka said. "Social heavy drinkers who binge drink show inability to withhold an inappropriate response when sober. They also are worse in planning than their counterparts that do not binge drink," she said.

The Independent

Every state has a minimum drinking age of 21, and the vast majority of college students are younger than that. Yet drinking, and in particular drinking to get drunk, remains a major health and social problem on campuses. Car crashes and other accidental injuries, sexual assaults, fights, community violence, academic failure and deaths from an overdose of alcohol are among the consequences.

College students spend about $5.5 billion a year on alcohol, more than they spend on books, soft drinks and other beverages combined. Alcohol is a factor in the deaths of about 1,700 college students each year.

The consequences can be particularly severe when people binge drink, a drinking pattern adopted by 44 percent of college students, national surveys have shown. Binge drinking is defined as consuming five or more drinks for men or four or more for women in a row, usually within two hours.

“Most alcohol-related harms experienced by college students occur among drinkers captured by the five/four measure of consumption,” Henry Wechsler of the Harvard School of Public Health and Toben F. Nelson of the University of Minnesota wrote in July in The Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

A petition circulating among college presidents seeks to lower the drinking age to 18 on the theory that it would reduce the number of students who binge drink beyond the boundaries of college campuses. But opponents say there is no hard evidence for this belief and a better plan would be to change the drinking culture on campus.

About half of college binge drinkers arrive on campus having engaged in similar behavior in high school; an equal number acquire this behavior in college, Elissa R. Weitzman of Harvard and colleagues reported.

Every year, tens of thousands of college students wind up in emergency rooms suffering from the life-threatening effects of alcohol intoxication. And every year, about a dozen students, including some of the best and brightest and most athletically talented, die from acute alcohol poisoning. In one study of students who suffered alcohol-related injuries, 21 percent reported consuming eight or more drinks in a row.

Although Greek houses, which have the highest rates of binge drinking, are infamous for a free-flowing alcohol culture, studies have found that student athletes and sports fans are also among the heaviest drinkers, often gathering to drink to oblivion after an athletic event.

A Community Approach

A concerted effort has been made in the last decade to define the factors that prompt binge drinking on campuses and devise effective methods to combat it. What has become most obvious to researchers is that colleges cannot achieve this on their own.

“Basically, having programs to reduce binge drinking on college campuses in the absence of broad-based community interventions to do likewise may be a bit like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic,” said Dr. Timothy S. Naimi of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study, which began in 1993, has identified several environmental and community factors that encourage binge drinking. Dr. Wechsler, who directed the study, said in an interview that high-volume alcohol sales, for example, and promotions in bars around campuses encourage drinking to excess.

“Some sell alcohol in large containers, fishbowls and pitchers,” he said. “There are special promotions: women’s nights where the women can drink free; 25-cent beers; two drinks for the price of one; and gut-busters, where people can drink all they want for one price until they have to go to the bathroom. Sites with these kinds of promotions have more binge drinking.

“Price is an issue,” he added. “It can be cheaper to get drunk on the weekend than to go to a movie.”

Although it is a college’s duty to educate students about the effects of alcohol and the risks of drinking too much, “education by itself doesn’t work,” Dr. Wechsler said. “You must attack the supply side as well as the demand side.”

More than half the alcohol outlets surrounding colleges that participated in the Harvard study offered promotions with price discounts, and nearly three-fourths that served alcohol on the premises had price discounts on weekends.

The study found that the sites of heaviest drinking by college students were off-campus bars and parties held off-campus and at fraternity and sorority houses.

Strong Policies Work

Among the factors associated with lower levels of drinking were strong state and local drunken-driving policies aimed at youths and young adults, as well as state alcohol-control policies like keg registration and laws restricting happy hours, open containers in public, beer sold in pitchers and billboards and other types of alcohol advertising.

“College sports events should not be sponsored by alcohol purveyors,” Dr. Wechsler said.

Community measures that helped to curtail binge drinking during the eight-year course of the study included a limit on alcohol outlets near campus, mandatory training for beverage servers, a crackdown on unlicensed alcohol sales and greater monitoring of alcohol outlets to curtail under-age drinking and excessive consumption by legal drinkers.

Campus practices that resulted in small but significant reductions in binge drinking included greater supervision of fraternities and sororities and more stringent accreditation requirements for Greek houses, policies to notify parents when students have trouble with alcohol, an increase in substance-free residence halls and more alcohol-free activities like movies and dances, especially on weekend nights.

But, Dr. Wechsler said, “college presidents can’t do it alone. They need help from legislative and community leaders. Alcohol is sold and consumed in the community. Residents need to get together to get it under control.”

What Parents Can Do

Dr. Wechsler urged that parents “put pressure on schools.” They should ask officials at the schools their children attend, or plan to attend, what they are doing to control drinking — especially binge drinking. When visiting schools, parents should check out the quality of life in the dorms. If they detect problems suggestive of heavy drinking, like excessive noise or vomit in the bathrooms, “they should demand that these issues be addressed,” he said.

Of course, he added, “parents should talk to their kids about drinking. Parents shouldn’t think that if it’s a beer and not a drug it’s of no consequence. Beer kills more people than drugs.”

Parents might also make it clear to students that they are expected to perform admirably outside the classroom as well as within it. Studies have shown that there is less drinking by students concerned about their grades, but also by those involved in volunteer work and other activities on and off campus.

New York Times

About 7 percent of first-year students at University Park did not complete AlcoholEdu for College in the first year of Penn State's adoption of the program, designed to combat dangerous drinking.

But unlike some other universities that require AlcoholEdu, that 7 percent won't face any consequences -- unless they're cited for an alcohol violation, university officials said last week.

Incoming students who did not complete AlcoholEdu, required for all first-year students, were notified by e-mail and given a week to complete the program, University Health Services Associate Director of Educational Services Linda LaSalle said.

Students who still did not complete the program were notified their names would be forwarded to Judicial Affairs for record keeping, LaSalle said.

If a student who did not complete the program is cited for an alcohol violation in the future, the fact that they did not take AlcoholEdu may play a role in the level of consequential educational programs they must complete, Interim Director of Judicial Affairs Bill Huston said.

"They would have to basically make up the information ... they would have received in the AlcoholEdu program," Huston said.

"Our focus is purely educational and informational, not punitive."

Otherwise, the students who did not complete the program and do not commit alcohol violations will not face any consequences for failing to complete AlcoholEdu, Huston said.

Some universities that also use AlcoholEdu have stricter consequences for students who don't complete the program, LaSalle said.

"Some institutions hold registration for spring semester. Some universities put a hold on student records. There's a wide range," she said. "Our approach to having students do the program is really embedded in this notion that it's an educational process."

Though some of the 93 percent of students who took AlcoholEdu raised complaints about the program's length, they said they didn't have a problem taking the course, designed to combat dangerous drinking, rather than all drinking.

"Overall, it's a good thing," Stephanie Keiser (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) said. "I don't think it changed my mind about whether I would drink or not, but maybe the amount I would drink if I decided to drink -- and maybe to drink in a safer way."

Pavel Karavayev (freshman-aerospace engineering) said that while he doesn't drink alcohol, he found AlcoholEdu useful.

"It was lengthy," he said of the course that takes about two-and-a-half to three hours to complete. "But I guess it helps to understand some of the facts."

LaSalle said she hasn't heard feedback on AlcoholEdu from any freshmen, but parents' responses have been positive.

It's too early to tell whether or not the program has had any effect on the freshmen class, LaSalle said.

However, other universities have seen alcohol-related emergency room visits drop since requiring AlcoholEdu.

At the University of Iowa, which just started its third year with the program, 29 first-year students visited the emergency room for alcohol-related incidents in the fall of 2006, said Angela Reams, Iowa's AlcoholEdu administrator. In the fall of 2007, after taking AlcoholEdu, seven first-year students visited the emergency room for alcohol-related incidents.

More than 500 campuses use AlcoholEdu, and more than 500,000 freshmen were set to take the program this summer, said Erika Tower, the director of communications at Outside the Classroom, the corporation that produces AlcoholEdu.

Penn State spokesman Bill Mahon said the university will monitor this year's freshmen class for data on how well AlcoholEdu has worked, adding the program will help address a crucial problem at Penn State.

According to data on Penn State Live, 444 students visited the emergency department for alcohol-related issues during the 2006-07 school year.

Daily Collegian

Pregnant Woman in Scotland are to be told to abstain completely from drinking as medics warned that the nation has a huge and hidden population of sufferers of Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS).

The government has severely underestimated the numbers of children born with the syndrome in Scotland and may be ill-equipped to deal with the real number of cases, according to Scottish drug and alcohol experts.

Research into the actual numbers of cases of children born with FAS or Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), which is less severe, is expected to start later on in the year and experts expect it will reveal more cases than ever previously recorded.
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Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders cause a wide range of symptoms, including stunted growth, poor cognitive skills, bad memory and damage to the nervous system.

Shona Robison, minister for public Health, is behind the drive to stop young women damaging their babies. She said: "Advice from the Scottish government is clear: women who are pregnant or trying to conceive should abstain from drinking alcohol to minimise the risk of their baby developing Foetal Alcohol Syndrome.

"Scotland's rate of many alcohol-related conditions is rising in direct correlation to consumption and we could be storing up a health timebomb for the future."

The warning about the large and hidden numbers of sufferers of the sysndrome coincides with the announcement of a new campaign to persuade pregnant women to completely abstain from alcohol.

Dr Maggie Watts, of the Scottish Association of Alcohol and Drug Action Teams (SAADAT) has already done work on measuring the numbers of cases of FAS in Ayr. She found that Ayr's population of suffers was equal to the number of suffers thought to be in Scotland as a whole. This proves, she says, that methods used to assess patients are inadequate.

She said: "We don't have a robust method of identifying Foetal Alcohol Syndrome. My gut instinct is that we are going to find more children when we start looking, but I don't think we can start looking until we have services in place to help the sufferers we find."

She added: "Currently, health services are not required to diagnose it and often it is misdiagnosed, meaning that children are coming through who aren't able to maximise their potential because they're not being given the appropriate level of therapy."

The study, done under the auspices of the government's Alcohol Evidence Group, closes this week. Medics hope to identify the effects alcohol has on babies at different stages of pregnancy.

Alcohol Focus Scotland has also announced its plans for a campaign to warn women of the dangers of drinking during pregnancy. The campaign will start later on in the year.

Jack Law, chief executive, said: "It is concerning that women's drinking has been rising over the past decade and this trend has clear implications for women who become pregnant.

"The prevalence of Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and Foetal Alcohol Syndrome in Scotland is still unclear. The number of recorded cases is low but this may be because health professionals are either not recognising or misdiagnosing the disorder."

One 30-year-old sufferer, who asked us not to reveal his name, urged women to watch how much they drink. He is currently unemployed, after being forced out of his job by bullies who verbally and physically abused him, and has extreme difficulties in relating to people, meaning he can't forge friendships.

He said: "It's something that stays with your child for life. It will give you all kinds of problems."

Sunday Herald

A Project to reduce harmful drinking in Tyneside has helped more than 950 people since it was launched 15 months ago.

GPs, practice nurses and other health professionals have been trained to take part in a screening process to identify patients attending the surgery who are putting their health at risk by drinking too much.

These could be people whose drinking is affecting other conditions and who otherwise could go undetected and not be aware that their drinking could be harming them.

The patients identified are offered structured advice, alcohol unit calculators and other leaflets. Project lead and local GP Dr Dave Tomson said: "It is about picking up on some of the many hundreds of people in North Tyneside who are drinking in risky ways.

"It is not about people who have clearly got alcohol problems such as alcoholism. It is about people who don't think they have a problem but are harming themselves without knowing about it.

"They might be binge drinkers who put themselves at risk of physical harm or regular bottle of wine drinkers who get depressed and sleep badly."

Director of public health Prof Vivien Hollyoak said: "We are aware that more work is needed if we are to promote a safe, sensible drinking culture in the borough."

Evening Chronicle

This summer, I signed the Amethyst Initiative, a statement from university presidents that invites public discussion on how Americans deal with alcohol. It proposes that America has developed a culture of dangerous binge drinking, particularly on college campuses. The signatories call on elected officials and the public to weigh all the consequences of current alcohol policies and invite new ideas on how best to prepare young adults to make responsible decisions about alcohol use.

More than 120 college and university presidents have signed in support of initiating this discussion. Some support the current 21-year-old drinking age; others may want to change it. But they are united in their concern about the effects of binge drinking.
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Binge drinking is a cultural pattern that differs from past approaches to alcohol. Let me offer my own story: I did not drink until I was in college at a time when the drinking age in Massachusetts was 18. I was introduced to the graciousness of a sherry hour. Wine or beer was served as part of a semester-end get-together at a professor's house. After church, parishioners would invite students to their homes to discuss the sermon over spaghetti and Chianti. Drinking was part of a larger culture of sociability and community.

That's not true today. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cites a report saying that 70 percent of binge-drinking incidents occur among adults over 24. People ages 14-24 are 15.5 percent of the population but account for 30 percent of binge-drinking episodes.

I applaud the efforts of organizations such as MADD in raising awareness that drinking and driving do not mix. But while the current 21-year-old drinking age may have helped discourage drinking and driving, it has not stemmed the incidence of young people who drink. We have taken drinking, particularly for traditional college-age students, and driven it underground. While fewer people between 18 and 21 are dying from alcohol-related accidents, more students are binge drinking and getting drunk before attending an event. More are victims of alcohol poisoning and alcohol-related date rape. More drink to get drunk.

Unlike when I went to college, there is no similar opportunity today to educate students about drinking because it is against the law for faculty, staff and off-campus adults to serve alcohol to students under 21. Responsible drinking is a learned behavior. We know that the overwhelming majority of college-age students drink, but we cannot model what responsible drinking is like.

Over the years, colleges have seen an increase in students coming to us with binge-drinking habits that began in high school. At Butler, we offer alcohol-education programs from the first day students arrive on campus. We remind students of the law and the dangers of drinking to excess. We issue citations for alcohol violations.

Butler has had success in reining in binge drinking, but all universities deal with this issue. It is not enough to preach abstinence, sanction offenders and pick up the pieces after a student has been a victim of alcohol abuse. There must be education about alcohol from childhood through adulthood. That's what the Amethyst discussion is all about.

Indy Star

Police are patrolling Christchurch Hospital's emergency department (ED) to prevent drunken patients abusing and assaulting medical staff.

The patrols on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights are a bid to combat abuse from drunken patients taken to the emergency department after fights or accidents.

The hospital estimates there is one serious incident of verbal abuse and resistance a week and about three assaults on medical staff a year.

Drunken abuse was a daily occurrence, but physical assault was rare, Christchurch emergency physician Dr Scott Pearson said.

"You get people who are intoxicated and have got into a bit of a scuffle and they can get a bit rowdy and cause everyone a bit of angst," he said.

"The older people waiting for treatment get upset and it makes the whole atmosphere unpleasant.

"You only need a few people for that to happen.

"Assault is a rare occurrence, but we get a lot of verbal abuse as a daily occurrence.

"It usually happens when patients are under the influence of alcohol. If we could get rid of alcohol, my life would be a lot easier," Pearson said.

Pearson welcomed the foot patrols as a way to keep emergency staff safe.

Canterbury police district commander Superintendent Dave Cliff said the patrols acted as a strong deterrent against alcohol-fuelled abuse in the emergency department.

"Dog-handlers do a walk-through to show a police presence and calm things down," he said.

"You often find that the drunken individual who has fallen over in the street can get into the ED and become abusive, and that upsets the staff."

District operations commander Inspector Craig McKay, who is in charge of the patrols, said dog-handlers would visit the hospital during down-time at least once a night at weekends.

"Alcohol is a significant aggravator of crime," he said.

"It is quite an eye-opener.

"On a Thursday, Friday and Saturday night you get a lot of people coming into our care who are affected by alcohol, and that flows through to ED.

"If police officers are out there being seen, it is a huge deterrent."

McKay said the patrols had had "fantastic feedback" from hospital staff.

Police dog-handlers were chosen as they had spare capacity on some nights to patrol the emergency department.

The dogs were not allowed into the hospital and remained in the police vehicle.

Stuff NZ

Teen drinking and drug statistics show an "alarming" rate in Fairfield and across the state, but Fairfield City Schools officials said they are not giving up the "battle."

According to a 2007-2008 Pride survey of students in grades seven to 12, nearly half of Fairfield students reported using alcohol in the past year and nearly a quarter reported using tobacco and illicit drugs. The average age students reported their first usage of drugs and alcohol was around 13.

Doug Hall, president of Pride Surveys said the anonymous standardized surveys given every two years in Fairfield, are an accurate depiction of students thoughts on drugs, alcohol and safety.

"There are honesty filters built into the questionnaire that eliminate those that are obviously dishonest answers," he said.

Bill Miller of Fairfield's curriculum department said the district's Wellness Committee has been digesting the numbers and will present the data to administrators, who will be able to better target students with programs.

"The data gives you an area of awareness so you can address up front areas of concern, so you can become proactive," he said.

Fairfield High School Nurse Nina Rose said the data is similar to other districts across the state, but slightly lower than inner-city schools.

She said students understand the risks of drugs and alcohol more in this survey than years past, but they are still using them.

Based on the data that showed students are drinking mostly on the weekends, she said the theme this year for Students Against Destructive Decisions is "Party drinking and weekend driving."

"We've got to promote thinking," she said.

Journal News

Women who binge drink are far more likely to catch sexually transmitted diseases and agree to risky sex acts they would otherwise avoid, warns a new study.

Those who drank more than five alcoholic drinks in one session were most at risk, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University in the US.

Binge drinking increases the risk of women contracting gonorrhea and participating in sex acts - such as anal sex - to which they would not usually consent, the study found.

The study, to be published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, monitored patients of an STD clinic over 13 months. They interviewed 671 people being treated for STDs, most of whom were heterosexual.

Women binge drinkers were five times more likely to contract gonorrhea than other women. They were also three times more likely to have anal sex, and twice as likely to have several partners compared with teetotal women.

"Binge drinking results in a decreased ability to make clear decisions and can enable individuals to engage in behaviours that they would not if sober," said Geetanjali Chander, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins.

"Regardless of why they choose to drink, many people do not perceive the potential risk or harm that may result from binge drinking," Professor Chander said.

The director of the Centre for Adolescent Heath, in Melbourne, Susan Sawyer, said the study results were not surprising.

"This reinforces the need to think seriously about not just youth patterns of alcohol consumption, but adult patterns of drinking," Professor Sawyer.

"One of the changes over the past few years is women drinking at much higher amounts than previous generations.

"Of equal concern is that we know when young people are extremely drunk they are at much greater risk of sexual assault and other behaviours that normally they'd view as regrettable."

The Age

Every dollar spent on alcohol and drug treatment could save taxpayers at least $5, say experts.

They warn of a "pandemic waiting to happen" if the country's addiction problems are not addressed.

A paper released by the National Committee for Addiction Treatment (NCAT) yesterday revealed what one member called "horrifying" statistics, detailing devastation wrought by alcohol and drug addicts.

It also cited a 2005 United Kingdom study, which found that money spent on standard treatment therapies for alcohol problems saved about five times that amount in expenditure on health, social and criminal justice services.

National Addiction Centre director Doug Sellman said the difference was even more marked for drug addicts, where $8 could be saved for every dollar spent.

The statistics included:

89 per cent of serious offences are committed under the influence of alcohol and drugs.

Between 75 per cent and 90 per cent of weekend crime is alcohol-related.

Up to 50 per cent of men who physically abuse their partners have substance-abuse problems.

Alcohol plays a role in 30 per cent of fatal car crashes.

70 per cent of Emergency Department admissions are caused by alcohol abuse.

This happened in an environment where only 22,000 of New Zealanders with addictions accessed treatment services in any given year, leaving an estimated 138,000 unaided, NCAT co-chair Christine Kalin said.

Treatment costs ranged from $80 for an intervention for a low-level problem to more than $8000 for months of residential treatment.

Kalin, who released the paper at the Cutting Edge Addiction Treatment Conference in Christchurch, said staff in the sector were sick of turning away people who needed help.

"Anecdotally, I know that there are services that have waiting lists. Rather than building prisons, having health budgets overspent, having police resources stretched, let's put some of that money into services at the front end rather than the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.

"At a very minimum, we need to have the capacity to treat the 160,000 who we know need special help, and help now," she said.

Alcohol Healthwatch director Rebecca Williams said the problem was probably worse than it appeared because people who could not access services were likely to be incorrectly recorded.

"This is a sort of pandemic waiting to happen ... I think services, if they were actually presented with all of the cases that needed help and support, they would simply not be able to cope."

Experts warned that turning people away often meant the window of opportunity to help them was missed.

Kalin said investment in the sector could take the form of community-based treatment options, aimed at specific high-risk groups such as schools and prisons.

Only one third of alcohol or drug addicts were thought to receive treatment while incarcerated, she said.

Associate Minister of Health Damien O'Connor, who addressed the conference yesterday, said the Government had increased its spending from $65 million in 2001 to $94m last year.

National health spokesman Tony Ryall said the party also recognised it was an issue, particularly for families of drug-affected young people, and would address it in its health policy.

Stuff NZ

Tonight, thousands of young men and women in Scotland will gather at a friend's flat to let their hair down.
Some will cut rock star poses while playing Guitar Hero on the PlayStation. Others will dance themselves silly to the White Stripes, Franz Ferdinand or even Abba.

More still will bring round a curry and a DVD, or simply gather on the sofa to watch the international football highlights.

The common factor that will link the vast majority of these little gatherings, from Lerwick to Dumfries? Alcohol.

A trip to the "offie" en route to party venues will be an essential part of their evening. Some will enjoy no more than a couple of glasses of wine over a meal. Others will raise their sights a bit higher, drinking for the sole purpose of having a good time and, well, getting drunk.

But a radical proposal from the Scottish Government would put paid to this rite of passage, or at least seriously curtail it.

Ministers want to raise the legal age limit for purchasing alcohol in off-licences and supermarkets from 18 to 21, as part of a crackdown on Scotland's "booze culture".

Other measures under consideration include setting a minimum price for alcoholic drinks, slapping a "social responsibility" surcharge on supermarkets and banning drink promotions such as "three-for-two" offers.

A consultation on the proposals ends next week, after which it will be decided which to include in the new Criminal Justice and Licensing Bill announced earlier this week by Alex Salmond, the First Minister.

Ministers claim that raising the age for off-sales of alcohol, with better enforcement, will reduce "excessive" consumption among young people.

There is little dispute that excessive drinking in Scotland is a massive social ill. Alcohol misuse in Scotland is estimated to cost £2.25 billion a year – £500 for every adult.

Alcohol-related visits to Scottish hospitals have increased by almost 50 per cent over the past decade. The link between alcohol and crime, particularly knife crime, is also indisputable. Almost half of Scottish prisoners last year said they were drunk at the time of the offence.

Despite the obvious scale of the problem, no single SNP policy has attracted as much criticism, with the possible exception of the local income tax.

A coalition of critics has formed to brand the proposal an unjustifiable infringement of civil liberties. The sheer breadth of the opposition has forced ministers to think long and hard about whether this is a sensible proposal to reduce binge drinking among young people, or an unjustifiable invasion into personal freedom.

A petition against it on the Scottish Parliament's website has attracted 3,200 names, including most university student associations, the Scottish Youth Parliament and trade bodies such as the Scottish Grocers' Association.

A group on Facebook, the social networking website, set up to oppose the ban has attracted more than 3,000 members.

Opposition politicians are largely united against the move. Tory leader Annabel Goldie said: "We will continue to lead the opposition to the ludicrous plans to criminalise a responsible, 20-year-old adult who wants to buy a bottle of wine to take home and celebrate the birth of his baby."

Police faced with the consequences of binge-drinking on Friday and Saturday nights largely support the plan.

But speak to officers individually and they recognise civil liberty concerns shared by so many.

Chief inspector Micky Collins, from Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary, told The Scotsman: "We have no problem with enforcing this law if it comes about. But I think there might difficulties on a society level. Do we really want to prevent a 19-year-old from buying a whisky gift-pack for his dad's birthday?

"The bigger problem we have is underage drinking at the moment."

A crackdown by his force over the summer led to "vast" amounts of alcohol being recovered from children as young as 12, he revealed.

Not surprisingly, the student community is up in arms at the idea.

Liam Burns, deputy president of the National Union of Students Scotland, says the measure will unfairly penalise the many young people who drink responsibly.

"The vast majority of young people who drink don't cause any anti-social behaviour problems," he says.

Mr Burns claims the image of students getting routinely "wasted" on cheap booze, to the detriment of their education and health, is an outmoded stereotype.

"Most students simply can't afford to drink all the time. Nor do they have the time. The average student is also working 20 hours to pay their way through university."

Rather than target 18-21-year-olds, there should be better enforcement of existing laws, he adds.

Some supermarkets are taking action by requiring people who look under 21 to provide ID to prove they are old enough to buy alcohol.

Putting civil liberties issues to one side, would the alcohol sales ban actually achieve its objective?

Government sources claim a number of pilots schemes have delivered "spectacular" results.

In the Fife town of Cupar, calls to police about antisocial crimes such as vandalism dropped by around 60 per cent, while the number of offences, including assaults, fell by nearly 45 per cent during a four-week experiment.

The scheme, under which every town trader agreed not to sell under-21s alcohol after 4pm on Fridays and Saturdays, was modelled on a similarly successful pilot in Armadale in West Lothian.

It was particularly aimed at stopping over-18s buying alcohol for underage drinkers.

One Edinburgh parent, who has a 15-year-old son, told The Scotsman that banning alcohol to under-21s would make it that bit harder for children to buy drink in corner shops and supermarkets.

"Children can easily get their hands on fake ID on the internet," she says. "The current ban simply isn't working."

However, studies have shown that binge-drinking remains high in other countries that have adopted a minimum drinking age of 21.

The USA's National Survey on Drug Use and Health in 2006 showed that about 10.8 million persons aged 12 to 20 (nearly 30 per cent of the age group) reported drinking alcohol in the previous month, and approximately 7.2 million (19 per cent) were binge drinkers

Even Alcohol Focus Scotland, an ardent fan of the Scottish Government's binge-drinking crackdown, believes other steps would be more effective.

Jack Law, chief executive, says: "Alcohol Focus Scotland gives its support to this proposal but there are other proposals in the government's paper, particularly minimum pricing and improved enforcement of existing age limits, which could achieve the same goals and have stronger evidence bases and we would support these as the highest priority measures."

The Scotsman

An Alcoholic who died in a public toilet with the highest blood alcohol reading in a woman a doctor had seen was "a dreadful warning to us all," a coroner warned.

West Dorset coroner Michael Johnston made the comments at the inquest into the death of Julie Elisabeth Beckett.

Mrs Beckett, 43, was found slumped in the public toilets in Trinity Street, Weymouth, with an almost empty litre- and-a-half bottle of cider next to her, the inquest was told.

Mr Johnston recorded a verdict that she died of accidental excessive intake of alcohol.

A toxicology report from Dr Peter Astley said that Mrs Beckett's blood sample showed an alcohol reading of 478mg in 100ml of blood which he noted was "as far as he can remember the highest reading we have had in a woman".

Mr Johnston said that Mrs Beckett, of Ranelagh Road, Weymouth, had sought help for her alcoholism and received support and detox treatments before she went back to drinking again.

PC Robert Doyle, of Dorset Police, told West Dorset Coroner's Court that he had found Mrs Beckett's body in the disabled toilet on May 30.

He said that she did not seem to have a pulse or be breathing but officers carried out chest compressions and mouth to mouth resuscitation until paramedics arrived and pronounced her dead.

A statement from Doctor Rachel Turberville Smith, of The Bridges Medical Centre, Weymouth, said that Mrs Beckett had been suffering from depression since 2002 and was prescribed with anti-depressant medication.

Dr Turberville Smith described Mrs Beckett as having a "long history of alcohol abuse" and that in 2002 she ended up in hospital after she had been submerged in water after she had been drinking.

The inquest was told that after completing a detox in June 2007 she relapsed a few months later but cut her drinking levels by December 2007 when she started to work as an admin assistant.

Dr Turberville Smith added that by April this year Mrs Beckett was back to drinking two litres of cider a day. She last saw her on May 20 when she booked her on to a detox programme for June.

Two drugs workers, Jackie Webb from Genesis and Joseph Olubodun from the Exeter Drugs Project, described in statements how Mrs Beckett went in and out of drug programmes and that they had concerns over her relationship with an alcohol-dependent man.

Mr Johnston said that Mrs Beckett died as a result of poisoning by alcohol.

He added: "It is clear from reports that this poor lady had suffered for some time from chronic alcoholism.

"I read today that 96 per cent of GPs are dealing with people with alcohol problems. There is a saying that alcohol is a good servant but a poor master. This really is a dreadful warning to us all."

This is dorset

Cannabis-flavoured gin, beer bottles featuring women with scratch-off clothing and a drink called Shag. Sound familiar? If not, it's not surprising - these products have all fallen foul of the Portman Group's Code of Practice for responsible alcohol packaging and marketing.

The Portman Code was established in 1996 following the arrival of alcopops. These drinks caused controversy when concerns grew that many were targeting under-aged consumers. Childish brand names, packaging designs and illustrations made them hard to distinguish from soft drinks, and the government demanded a solution.

However, in July of this year, ministers warned the sector to act more responsibly or face new laws governing the sale and the packaging of alcohol. The Department of Health consultation, which closes on 14 October, threatens alcohol producers with legislation that could force them to display mandatory health warnings on packaging by the end of the year.

Portman Group chief executive David Poley argues that its voluntary code is sufficient. The Portman Group’s code of practice covers the naming, packaging and merchandising of alcoholic drinks and states that the alcoholic nature and strength of a product should be clearly communicated, and products should not suggest any association with bravado, enhanced mental or physical capacity, illicit drugs or sexual or social success. In addition, products must not have particular appeal to under-18s.

The original motivation for the code was the protection of under-18s, and this is still the most common theme of complaint, explains Poley. For example, fcuk Spirit from Matthew Clark was found to be in breach of the code after a complainant alleged its packaging design too closely resembled that of fashion retailer French Connection’s clothing line, fcuk. They argued the brand was popular among teenagers and that the product’s alcoholic nature was poorly communicated in small, insignificant print.

Small amendments

The Portman Group’s independent panel found the product’s labelling clearly communicated the alcoholic nature and strength of the product in terms of colour, style of lettering and field of vision. It also didn’t think the brand name suggested sexual success. But it did believe the fcuk brand appealed to under-18s and, on that basis, part of the complaint was upheld. Matthew Clark swiftly withdrew the product from shelves.

In some cases an upheld complaint only needs a small amendment, explains Poley. For example, the alcoholic nature of the drink might be unclear and the size of the print will simply have to be increased. But on other occasions there are more fundamental changes that need to be made, and in extreme cases the product must be withdrawn altogether.

However, Martyn Hayes, design director at Elmwood, which handles wine packaging for Asda, does not believe the blame lies solely with the drinks producers. For underage binge drinkers it is all about getting pissed. They will buy anything they can get their hands on. It’s often down to the retailers. It wouldn’t matter what a product looked like if youths couldn’t get hold of it.

All packaging has a degree of influence and can entice people to buy a product, he adds. Asda takes under-age drinking very seriously and follows a code to make sure products aren’t youth focused. As far as packaging goes, the industry learned a lot from the mistakes that were made with alcopops.

Poley adds that there should be a realistic approach to the amount of information that can be featured on packaging. If manufacturers put too much information on alcoholic drinks consumers will be overloaded. Although the code is strict in parts, it allows a degree of marketing freedom.

He explains: Packaging design depends on context. The code doesn’t have any particular provisions as we can’t create an exhaustive list. Adult or discreet cartoons that are not prominent are not necessarily going to be a problem.

In July, Saucy Suckers, marketed as ‘alcolollies for grown-ups, was launched. The packaging for one flavour of the alcoholic ice lollies features a voluptuous lady sunbathing. Design agency Pearlfisher’s creative partner Karen Welman, also a partner in the alcololly venture, defends the design, stating: The whole concept is based on offering adults a palette-cleansing refreshment when they want to take a break from alcoholic drinks.

Jolly lollies

Welman says the saucy theme and imagery is based on 1930s cartoon-style postcards, and invokes nostalgia rather than promoting sexual success. In addition, the 5% ABV products are only supplied at over-18 music festivals. We make sure the products are not perceived as popsicles, as this might make them more attractive to a younger market. We want to stay as clear of that audience as possible, says Wellman.

Last year, Anne Hempstock launched Cream Cutie into the cream liqueur market. There are a lot of brands in this sector that look similar and so the product had to be different, says Hempstock. In fact, she was so confident with her drink and unique packaging featuring a cartoon woman, cat and love hearts, that she took her product on to BBC1 show Dragons’ Den. Although she didn’t get the cash backing, Hempstock still argues the product is a winner.

Each bottle costs £2 and is smaller than the average cream liqueur, to prevent wastage rather than promote down-in-one shots, Hempstock explains. The drinks are made from fresh ingredients and are aimed at the sophisticated lady. If there was a problem with the packaging the Portman Group would have come down on me like a tonne of bricks.

The Portman Code of Practice might be voluntary, but it remains a powerful force. If a complaint is upheld by its independent panel an alert bulletin is issued to retailers, published in trade press and sent to licensing officials and trade associations. It has widespread observation and is abided by across the board, says Poley. The alerts have always resulted in a product being withdrawn, he says.

But by protecting the consumer, alcoholic drink manufacturers and packaging designers are protecting the industry. If the government began enforcing regulations then it would be much more restrictive, says Poley. We prefer self-regulation over legislation as you can be flexible about how it is interpreted.

The code works to assist the drinks industry rather than placing all the blame for irresponsible alcohol consumption on it. In terms of consumer behaviour, the industry is not wholly to blame for irresponsible drinking, says Poley. Media influence, peer pressures, pub discounting and parenting all play their part. Any drink is capable of being misused. It doesn’t automatically put the manufacturer at fault.

When the code was first established, the Portman Group received around 40 complaints a year. This has since been cut in half. In a recent assessment of 500 products picked at random, carried out by PIPC on behalf of the group, only 3% of drinks packaging was found to be questionable. However, government threats of tighter controls on alcohol packaging and labelling are still looming.

The Portman Code

The Portman Code seeks to ensure alcohol is promoted in a socially responsible way. It covers the naming, packaging and promotion of drinks and states that:

• The alcoholic nature and strength of a product should be clearly communicated
• Products should not promote bravado, enhanced mental or physical capacity, illicit drugs or sexual or social success
• They should not encourage binge-drinking or appeal to under-18s
• The code was established in 1996
• It is voluntary
• Complaints go through an independent panel
• It is funded by nine major drink companies, accounting for around 60% of the industry, and has a further 130 retailers and manufacturers signed up
• It has received around 150 complaints since it was founded
• A free advisory service is provided for guidance on packaging

Packaging News

A U.S. study says women who have more than five alcoholic drinks at one sitting are at increased risk of having unsafe sex and contracting sexually transmitted diseases.

Researchers at John Hopkins University medical school in Baltimore looked at the correlation between binge drinking and risky sexual behaviours in women. They interviewed patients at an urban clinic for sexually transmitted infections to explore the link.

In their study, which will be published in the November issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, the researchers found that women who binge drink are at increased risk of practising unsafe sex, including having multiple partners and engaging in anal sex, leading to high rates of gonorrhea.

"The link between binge drinking and risky sexual behaviour is complex," said Heidi Hutton, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at the medical school and an author of the study.

"We wanted to examine one component of that relationship, whether binge drinking increased the risk of engaging in sexual behaviours and having STDs. We found ... that binge drinking increased STD risk for women."

Binge drinking was defined as having more than five drinks at one time.

Not surprising

Geetanjali Chander, assistant professor of medicine in the general internal medicine division at the school, said the results are not entirely surprising.

"Binge drinking results in a decreased ability to make clear decisions and can enable individuals to engage in behaviours that they would not if sober," she said.

"Initially, some individuals may drink with the expectation of decreasing inhibitions, or some may drink because they are anxious or depressed, and they expect alcohol to alleviate their symptoms. Regardless of why they choose to drink, many people do not perceive the potential risk or harm that may result from binge drinking."

The researchers asked 795 patients who were being evaluated or treated at the urban clinic for sexually transmitted infections whether they would be interested in being interviewed. Of that number, 671 agreed to answer questions about their recent alcohol and drug use and risky sexual behaviours.

The respondents included 322 men and 349 women, though the research focused on the women. Ninety-five per cent of the respondents were African-American. Their answers were analyzed to examine the link between binge drinking, sexual behaviours and sexually transmitted infections.

The researchers also took into consideration the age, employment and drug use of the respondents.

Hutton said the results are worthy of further study and she recommends that staff at STD clinics routinely screen for binge drinking.

"While it is standard practice in most STD clinics to discuss behavioural factors for STD risk, binge drinkers may be harder to identify than alcohol-dependent individuals because the latter have more obvious impairment of function."

CBC News

New plans to tackle alcohol-related violence in Northamptonshire have been revealed as experts claim the effects of binge drinking cost the county £200m each year.

Health professionals, police and alcohol counsellors attended the Tackling Alcohol Related Harm conference yesterday to discuss the best ways forward in dealing with drinking.

A report by The University of Northampton concluded that each time a bottle or glass was used in an assault in the town centre, it cost between £16,000 and £21,000 in policing and health care expenses.

Sgt Mark Worthington, who led the campaign to introduce polycarbonate plastic glasses in Northampton, said he hoped the next step would be plastic bottles.

He said: "It's in the very early stages of planning but plastic bottles are the next step.

"The perception is that many drinks cannot be provided in the plastic bottles, but the vast majority of things youngsters are drinking in bars in town are.

"Lava & Ignite, one of the biggest clubs in town, only has four drinks in its range which are not available in plastic and they are de-stocking those, so soon they will 100 per cent plastic.

"We have seen that assaults involving bottles or glasses in the leisure zone have fallen from a peak of up to 10 a month to just five a month since we introduced polycarbonates."

Terry Pearson, alcohol strategy director of the Drug and Alcohol Action Team (DAAT), said not enough was being done to warn people of the health dangers of drinking, and announced a new Home Office pilot for the county.

He said: "Alcohol is a far, far bigger problem in Northamptonshire than drugs.

"I'm very pleased to announce that Northamptonshire has been named as a pilot area by the Home Office for new alcohol arrest referrals.

"This will mean workers can be put into every custody centre in the county and make referrals if someone needs help with an alcohol problem after they have been arrested.

"We are aware that re-offending is a big problem and other areas have shown that alcohol arrest referrals can stop as many as one in eight offences. This can make a big difference."

The conference, which took place at Whittlebury Hall, also involved presentations from Northamptonshire PCT, Northamptonshire County Council and The University of Northampton.

Northampton Chronicle and Echo

There will doubtless be calls for the revamped Nicholson Square to be designated a no drinking zone. Without doubt, drawing on the Hunter Square experience would be effective in ridding it of drunken vagrants. But where to?

One of the difficulties of dealing with such behaviour is that there is no easy or apparent solution. Such is the availability of cheap alcohol that it is impossible to control abuse. Even those on limited incomes can afford damaging amounts and raising the price will do little to curb this abuse and may in fact lead to those who are of a mind to ingest far more damaging substances to feed their addiction. Ban a persistent drunk from one shop and he will simply find another or use a drinking buddy to obtain supplies.

A city-wide ban on public drinking is an option. But would the police have the manpower to enforce it effectively and would they have the accommodation to lock up those that breached it? And do they not have better things to do than act as social workers to those with severe drink problems or to punish the thousands who can enjoy an al fresco tipple without becoming comatose?

It would be naive to think that the drunk tank plan which was shelved last year after the council and NHS Lothian decided not to spend £200,000 setting it up would have eradicated the problem, but it would have been a start. Taking drunks off the streets for a night might only have brought some temporary relief but the benefit may have been in giving professionals the opportunity to offer help to those that might be interested. The city's former drink and drugs tsar, Tom Wood, thought it was a good idea and blamed 30 years of under- investment for perpetuating the problem.

It will be interesting to see if his successor, Peter Gabbitas, will use his experience in social work to tackle the issue from a different direction.

One of the other problems is that the geographical location of accommodation for the homeless gives the issue a high profile. Most hostels in Edinburgh are located in or around the city centre and the majority of residents when they leave in the mornings tend not to stray too far from their accommodation. Thus, those that abuse alcohol tend to form social drinking clusters in busy areas and thus attract public attention.

Experience has also shown that imposing a drinking ban on a specific location – like Hunter Square – is not an effective solution. Yes, it reduces complaints from that locality but merely moves the problem on to another area. And it does nothing to address the root cause of what is a much wider social issue. Perhaps what is needed, as Mr Wood had suggested prior to his departure, is intervention and not displacement. Experience should have shown by now that the latter only moves the problem into someone else's front yard.

Edinburgh Evening News

Although society as a whole is drinking less and approaching alcohol consumption with more moderation, a study of the last 50 years of drinking patterns in the United States shows that alcohol use disorders have not declined at all.

According to the study, beer drinking has declined significantly, wine drinking has increased and the consumption of hard liquor has remained fairly constant.

Yuqing Zhang of the Boston University School of Medicine studied 8,000 records of the Framingham Heart Study, the longest population-based study of American adults ever conducted, to measure alcohol consumption over 50 years.

This study shows that, on the whole, the American population is moving in a healthier direction, according to Zhang. However, despite more favorable patterns of drinking, risk of alcohol dependence did not show a decrease over the 50-year period.

Despite Less Drinking, Alcoholism Constant

The number of people who developed alcohol-related disorders, such as alcoholic cardiomyopathy or alcoholic cirrhosis remained nearly constant across all age groups, Zhang said.

"The findings in this study may be considered encouraging in many ways: the average amount of alcohol has decreased in more recently born cohorts, the percentage of the population exhibiting 'moderate' alcohol intake has been increasing steadily, and the percentage reporting 'heavy' drinking has decreased over time," Zhang said. "While these data suggest the development of more favorable patterns of alcohol consumption over the latter part of the 20th century, that also show that, at the same time, the cumulative incidence of alcohol use disorders has not shown a decrease, and continuing efforts at preventing them are warranted."

About

Police are blaming a new generation of drink-drivers for yet another rise in the number of people caught intoxicated behind the wheel.

Police statistics show that the number of drink-drivers charged by police in the Canterbury police district has risen steadily over the past four years, and jumped 19.7 per cent for last financial year, while the Tasman police district increased 10.8 per cent.

The Tasman district's road policing manager, Inspector Hugh Flower, said the statistics mirrored a worrying national trend.

Of the 731 people charged with drink-driving in the Nelson Bays police area during the financial year ended June 31, it was those in the 17-20 age bracket who caused the most concern, he said.

A total of 234 drivers in that age group were charged, compared with 171 the previous year.

"We've got another generation coming through who don't have the same values as the previous ones, and they choose to drink and drive," Flower said.

The statistics also show the highest breath alcohol levels recorded last year, by age group.

For those aged under 20, the highest reading was 1114 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath. The legal limit is 150mcg. For those over 20, the highest reading was 1560mcg. The legal limit for drivers aged over 20 is 400mcg.

Canterbury's road policing manager, Inspector Derek Erasmus, said not only was there an increasing trend for younger people to be involved in drink-driving, but they were drunker.

"Drink driving is an increasing problem, but we have to remember the majority of young people don't drink and drive.

"It's still an abhorrent minority however an increasing minority within that age group."

Drink-driving was a problem across all age brackets with police "falling over" drink-drivers during weekend nights, Erasmus said."There are that many of them out there. Alcohol on our roads is unfortunately an issue we have not got control of."

For the last financial year there were 3508 people prosecuted for drink driving in Canterbury compared with 2815 for the previous financial year.

Alcohol was a contributing factor in 545 crashes for the last financial in Canterbury compared with 538 for the previous financial year.

Flower said more needed to be done to educate young drivers.

Extensive campaigning like that done 20 or 30 years ago needed to be continued to change driver attitudes, he said.

Stuff NZ

Binge drinking can increase the chances of dementia in middle age

A generation of young binge drinkers are increasing their risk of developing dementia in middle age, experts have warned.

Psychiatrists found poor balance, staggering and confusion, all familiar symptoms of binge drinking, can also be indicators of brain damage.

The findings are being discussed at a two-day conference in Stirling on dementia.

Researchers found the toxic effect of alcohol could lead to brain damage.

They also discovered that brain damage was more likely as a result of accidents or assaults where alcohol played a part.

Improving care

Conference speaker Dr Mehrdad Khorsand said brain damage was also linked to poor nutrition associated with heavy drinking, which could lead to syndromes like Wernicke's or Korsakoff's.

He said: "Korsakoff's is a chronic condition which affects the ability to absorb new information, and a quarter of patients make a good recovery, but Wernicke's is an acute form of delirium which can prove fatal if not treated promptly."

Studies have shown that Glasgow has the highest incidence of both conditions in the world, with people in their 30s affected.

The conference, hosted by the Dementia Services Development Centre at the University of Stirling, will also focus on ways of improving care for those with dementia.

Health professionals have predicted the numbers of people with dementia in Scotland could reach 120,000 within 30 years.

BBC News

In what Law Commission president Sir Geoffrey Palmer describes as "a substantial pulling back from the liberality that has characterised the law in recent times", the Government has signalled the most far- reaching review of the drinking laws since the Sale of Liquor Act in 1989.

The signs indicate that a prolonged trend toward more liberal licensing laws, beginning with the first licensed restaurants in 1961, may be coming to an end amid concern over the social impact of teenage binge drinking, 24-hour bars and the proliferation of liquor outlets in areas such as South Auckland.

Wellington lawyer Alastair Sherriff, an authority on the licensing laws, says the pendulum is swinging back. But he expresses reservations that the proposed law changes perpetuate a tradition of piecemeal tinkering and fail to resolve some existing anomalies.

In a two-stage revamp, a bill now before Parliament will overhaul aspects of the present laws while the Law Commission simultaneously launches a longer-term review that could result in more comprehensive changes.

Associate Justice Minister Lianne Dalziel said in a press statement that the bill she introduced to Parliament last month does three important things: "It allows liquor licensing authorities to take social impact into account when making licensing decisions; it gives communities greater say in liquor licensing decisions by requiring licensing authorities to give effect to local alcohol plans; and it provides the closest this country has come to having a drinking age, making it an offence for adults to supply alcohol to minors without their parents' consent.

"These are very important steps in putting the power for controlling the availability of liquor back where it belongs – in the hands of local communities and parents."

The bill also introduces a zero alcohol limit for drivers under the age of 20 who do not hold a full driver's licence and a "three strikes and you're out" provision for any liquor outlet manager prosecuted for supplying alcohol to minors.

The local alcohol plans referred to in Ms Dalziel's statement will introduce a new layer of control to the licensing laws. The plans, to be drawn up by city and district councils after public consultation, will lay down rules on opening hours, density of liquor outlets and proximity to public amenities such as schools. District licensing agencies will be required to act in accordance with the plans when issuing liquor licences and imposing conditions.

Councils won't be required to have local alcohol plans but Ms Dalziel expects they will be introduced in areas where liquor availability is an issue, such as Manukau and Christchurch. Some councils have plans now, but the present law does not require licensing authorities to take them into account.

In an interview, Ms Dalziel expressed frustration that the bill has been widely interpreted as a kneejerk reaction to recent liquor-related crime in South Auckland.

She said the proposed changes arose from a Ministry of Justice review in 2006 and had been in the pipeline for some time. She was also irritated by the media's focus on the proposal that dairies of less than 150 square metres would be prohibited from selling liquor other than in exceptional circumstances (for example, where there is no supermarket or liquor store within 10 kilometres).

BUT while the crackdown on dairies was just one "tiny" aspect of the bill, Ms Dalziel defended it by saying Parliament never intended, when it liberalised the Sale of Liquor Act in 1999, to allow wine and beer sales in dairies.

The liberalisation was intended to apply only to supermarket and "genuine" grocery stories such as Four Square outlets, but because grocery stores had not been adequately defined, dairies had been able to exploit a legal loophole.

That loophole was now being closed and dairies would be given a three-year transitional period in which to adjust.

A second reason Ms Dalziel gave for barring liquor sales in dairies was that controlled purchase operations – police "stings" using under-age customers – showed dairies were consistently the worst offenders for selling liquor to minors. Concern over under-age drinking is also reflected in a provision that makes it unlawful to supply alcohol to a minor without the permission of the minor's parent or guardian.

Ms Dalziel says that, contrary to popular belief, under present law there is no minimum drinking age. Existing law relates only to the purchasing of liquor and requires proof that alcohol has been bought with the intention of supplying it to a minor. "This [bill] is the closest we have come to a drinking age," she says.

Meanwhile the Law Commission has begun what Sir Geoffrey describes as a "root and branch" review of the regulatory framework for the sale of liquor. In a recent speech he said there was increasing concern about the extent of alcohol- related harm and communities seemed frustrated by their inability to manage that harm.

Sir Geoffrey also called for an end to the traditional MPs' conscience vote on liquor issues, suggesting it was one of the reasons New Zealand had been unable to achieve a coherent and rational framework for dealing with alcohol. Ms Dalziel agrees, saying Parliament's decisions should be based on evidence rather than conscience.

Sir Geoffrey traced the conscience vote back to the prohibition era, when Parliament was often a battleground between liquor interests and the temperance lobby. Liquor has traditionally been one of the most contentious issues in New Zealand politics and remains divisive.

In the last big showdown, in 1999, Ms Dalziel voted against the bill that allowed beer as well as wine to be sold in supermarkets and still doesn't like supermarkets selling liquor – one of the reforms introduced in 1989.

Mr Sherriff, co-author of a legal text on the liquor laws, says the latest proposed changes to the law take New Zealand "forward to the past" and signal a return to community power over alcohol sales. "Local communities are starting to flex their muscles."

But he said the bill represented more piecemeal changes to laws that were already a mess – an observation that appears to be at least partly supported by Sir Geoffrey, who says amendments to the Sale of Liquor Act since 1989 "have not always added to its coherence or tidiness".

Mr Sherriff doubted the bill would affect teenage binge drinking, much of which happened away from licensed premises, and he questioned why the Government had introduced the bill now rather than waiting till the Law Commission's "first principles review" was finished. Ms Dalziel's answer is that the review may take two and a half years and it would be wrong to wait that long.

Ms Dalziel rejects the suggestion that the bill represents more ad hoc lawmaking in an area that already generates lucrative work for lawyers. "The bill gives the community what it has asked for, which is to have more say over the issue of licences where they live."

The Dominion Post

Parents of young children are being warned about their drinking habits after a poll found their consumption had reached worrying levels.

The survey of nearly 2,000 people found half of 25 to 44-year-olds drank due to stress - the highest of any age group.

Experts said they were particularly vulnerable at the moment with the holiday season drawing to a close and children returning to school.

The poll was done for the government's Know Your Limits alcohol campaign.

It found 42% of all drinkers - 45% of men and 40% of women - drank to cope with stress.

But in the over 55s age group just 30% cited this reason, compared with 51% of 25 to 44-year-olds.

Overall, two thirds drank at least once a week with a quarter hitting the bottle at least four times a week.

The research coincided with a separate poll of 3,000 mothers by the Netmums website. It found that 49% of mothers drank at home at least three or four nights a week.

Of those that drank more than government guidelines - two to three units a day - 81% did so to wind down from a stressful day.

Experts pointed out that a bottle of wine contained about 10 units which if shared between a couple would put both over the recommended daily limit.

Siobhan Freegard, of Netmums, said: "The extent to which this research showed modern mums are drinking really surprised us.

"It shows many mums and dads are developing a 'bottle a night' habit without really thinking about the health consequences.

"Getting used to juggling work and home life again after the summer break can be stressful for parents, but it's important not to allow yourself to slip back into the routine of relying on alcohol to help you unwind."

And Dr Sarah Jarvis, a GP who is involved in the joint Home Office and Department of Health Know Your Limits campaign, added: "If you're returning to work, turning to the bottle can actually increase your stress levels.

"Try exercise or a nice warm bath to unwind instead. Regularly exceeding the guideline alcohol limits can increase your risk of several forms of cancer, heart disease and stroke."

BBC News

In an irony of sorts, over 50 per cent of liver failures in the state are caused by alcoholism often claiming many lives in ‘dry’ Gujarat every year.

Doctors concede that alcoholism is indeed the leading cause of liver failure in the state - which is one of the few to continue embracing prohibition.
“Alcohol abuse accounts for 50 per cent of liver failure cases in the state,” says gastroenterologist Dr Nilay Mehta.

Alarmingly, it is not just the old who have risked their lives due to alcohol consumption, but the young are also increasingly getting addicted to it. In fact, doctors say that they get cases of 22 to 25-year-olds with chronic liver diseases due to their obsession of Bacchus.

"I currently have a 22-year old patient admitted in the hospital with liver failure due to alcohol abuse. He had started drinking when he was juts fifteen years old," says gastroenterologist at VS Hospital Dr Kaushal Vyas.

Dr Vyas says that most of the patients having liver problems due to alcoholism are in the age group of 20 to 45 years. These days, the middle and upper-middle class people take to drinking at the age of 20 years, while in the lower socio-economic classes, one can see teenagers taking to drinking.

Doctors say it takes an average seven to 10 years of constant alcohol abuse for the liver to first impair its function, leading to its enlargement , cirrhosis and later even cancer of the organ.

In the case of 42-year-old Vijay Patel , who succumbed to liver failure last week, doctors had warned him of grave health crisis. However, he continued to binge and ended up in the hospital with severe bleeding from mouth. All his internal organs had started bleeding, which led to his death. He is survived by two schoolgoing children. Alcohol abuse in the state cuts across all socio-economic lines, with the rich and the poor falling prey to the addiction alike.
These people later find it extremely difficult to kick the habit, which ultimately takes a toll on their health. "Most of the cases that come to us are those of rich patients, who get into the habit of bingeing either due to peer pressure or prevailing alcoholism in the family. I have a 35-year-old patient, who got addicted to drinking since his father had the habit of drinking regularly. The family is quite wealthy, but due to his addiction he is now divorced and is having liver problems. He says that he wants to kick the habit, but the lack of commitment had made life difficult for him," says Dr Nilay Mehta. "Not just liver failure, alcoholics also suffer from pancreatitis in the state," says leading gastroenterologist Dr Sudhanshu Patwari.

Type of drink doesn't matter

Doctors say it does not matter whether you consume country liquor or IMFL. Nor is it important if it is beer, wine, whisky or rum. Alcohol abuse in any form can lead to liver disease.

How much is excess?

Doctors say that a medium peg of 30 ml of whisky has 10 gm of alcohol. People who end up with liver disease consume an average quantity between 40 and 80 gm.

About 60 to 70 per cent of alcohol abusers end up having an enlarged liver.

About 20 per cent alcohol abusers go on and off alcohol as and when they get health problems.

About 10 per cent alcohol abusers are never able to kick the bottle despite battling with health problems.

How does one kick the bottle?

Doctors say that family support is essential to help alcoholics kick the bottle. Over 60 per cent alcoholics are never able to kick the habit despite suffering from severe diseases. This is primarily because people in the state are extremely shy to discuss about their addiction problem, approach organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous or approach a psychiatrist to help them get over the habit.

Times of India

Youngsters aged 15 and under have been admitted to hospital suffering with alcohol poisoning, shock new figures have revealed.

Following a Freedom of Information request, Morriston Hospital has confirmed that in total 17 youngsters under the age of 18 were found to have the condition after being admitted in the past 12 months.

Twelve patients were between the age of 16 and 17 years old.

Even more alarmingly, five youngsters aged 15 and under were also found to have alcohol poisoning when they turned up at hospital with other conditions.

The Evening Post was unable to discover just how young patients in the under 15 category were, as a hospital spokeswoman said this would breach patient confidentiality due to the small numbers involved.

Among those who had just reached the legal age for drinking, there were nine 18-year-olds diagnosed with alcoholic poisoning as a secondary condition.

Dr Annie Delahunty, public health director for Neath Port Talbot LHB, said the figures were likely to be just the tip of the iceberg.

"The big concern is if we have got that number coming forward there will be a lot more who are drinking to dangerous levels, but not enough to go to hospital", she said.

Dr Delahunty pointed out that drinking to such excessive levels exposed youngsters to a number of dangers.

"It makes them more prone to accidents and injuries", she explained.

"They are also more likely to be involved in violence".

She added that the responsibility for tackling the problem lay with society as a whole.

"Schools are doing what they can to educate the children but their families and shopkeepers also have a big role to play", Dr Delahunty said.

Chris MacDonald, Swansea area manager for the West Glamorgan Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (WGCADA), said they had teenagers as young as 13 coming into the centre for information.

"There are more and more young people coming through the door for advice", she said.

Ms MacDonald added that they also visit schools to give talks on alcohol and drug education.

She said their approach was to present youngsters with facts.

"We do not want to go around scare- mongering", she said. "We give young people the right information so they can make decisions responsibly."

This is Swansea

By including illnesses and injuries indirectly caused by excessive drinking, such as car accidents and assaults, the new study has attempted to give a fuller figure of the impact of heavy drinking on the NHS.

Statistics released by the North West Public Health Observatory, show that 53,844 people under 25s were admitted to English hospitals due to alcohol related problems in 2006-07 in comparison with 32,928 under the old methodology for the same year.

Last month The Daily Telegraph revealed that more than 800,000 people need hospital care each year because of conditions caused by excessive drinking.

In the past, statistics have focused on alcohol poisoning, liver disease and alcohol related mental and behavioural disorders, but ignored many categories of alcohol related injuries.

Now the Department of Health has begun to measure a total of 44 conditions which research shows are caused by or strongly associated with alcohol consumption including road collisions and drink-related violence.

Doctors at Leeds General Infirmary deal with more than 100 drunk people on average every weekend in what the describe as "carnage" in the Accident and Emergency room.

One doctor told BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat: "Drunk people can wander in front of cars or buses. They can get in to fights when they wouldn't normally be the type of person to. They can fall off balconies in nightclubs or fall down stairs. A pretty good word for it would be carnage, I suppose.

"We are using our doctors and nurses to look after the drunk people when we should really be looking after people who are in pain, who are injured through no fault of their own... You don't need masses more alcohol if you are already feeling drunk, you need to set yourself a limit and stick to it."

It is estimated that the NHS in England alone spends £2.7 billion per year on alcohol-related hospital admissions.

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

Six per cent of all NHS admissions are in some way caused by drink. And the rate of visits to hospital over alcohol-related problems is rising by 10 per cent every year.

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

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

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

Telegraph

Despite massive public education and awareness efforts, alcoholism continues to wreak havoc on families, communities and health-care systems.

One of the primary reasons is that developing alcoholism is generally a long process and loved ones often fail to see or confront the issue until it is a serious one.

There is no set image for an alcoholic; they do not share the same problems or begin their drinking patterns in the same way.

Not all alcohol abusers look or behave the same way.

Alcoholics are not necessarily disabled. Many are high achievers who work every day.

It isn’t always easy to detect an alcohol abuser by how much or how often the person drinks among company, or by how intoxicated he or she seems to be.

People with drinking problems often show at least one of these danger signs:

Tolerance: The need to drink increasingly greater amounts to get the same effects of pleasure or noticeable disability (“I can hold my liquor.”)

Withdrawal: Symptoms, ranging from mild hangovers with nausea and headache to severe shaking, that develop soon after drinking stops and can continue for several days.

Loss of control: Showing an inability to control drinking behaviour or having obsessive thoughts about drinking.

Concern by others: Problems reported by co-workers or friends.

Health, family and legal problems: Examples include repeated injuries, driving citations and chronic lateness.

According to Health Canada, the likelihood of developing a drinking problem depends on several factors:

Psychiatric disorders: Anxiety or depression may make a person more vulnerable to addiction.

Family history: Alcoholism may have a genetic basis, causing people with parents or siblings who have alcohol addiction to have a risk of alcoholism that is three or four times the usual risk.

People who have a family history of alcoholism but are adopted to other families still have high rates of alcoholism.

Age: If a person gets intoxicated for the first time at a young age, this person will have a higher risk of later developing alcoholism.

If you or someone you know has a problem with alcohol, don’t wait.

Seek help right away.

You may want to start with a call to your family doctor who can give you a medical evaluation and treatment information and refer you to community services that can help.

Or you can contact the mental health team of Interior Health who are responsible for overseeing alcohol and drug treatment programs.

Find out where Alcoholics Anonymous meets and get started on the rest of your life.

BC Local News

The ladette culture is being blamed for a massive rise in drink-drive convictions among North women.

Shock figures obtained by the Sunday Sun reveal that the number of females stopped over the legal drink- drive limit has more than doubled in some areas over the past decade.

Police in North Yorkshire recorded a 177 per cent increase in offences from 1999 to 2007 . . . nearly four times more than the national average rise of 46pc.

High levels of binge drinking and bigger glasses of wine are thought to have fuelled the shocking rise, which has prompted some police forces and motoring groups to urge the Government to launch a drink-drive campaign targeted specifically at women.

Over the same period, the number of male drink-driving convictions in the region has actually fallen . . . in some areas, such as Durham, by as much as 27pc.

Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act also revealed that Cleveland Police reported 91 female drink-driving convictions in 1998, but this dramatically increased by 67pc to 160 in 2006. Durham Police also recorded a rise.

Although men still make up the vast majority of drink-drive offenders, it is thought that their female counterparts are mirroring their drinking habits . . . both on and off the road.

Road safety charity Brake said something needs to be done to hammer the message home to women about the dangers of drinking and getting behind the wheel.

A spokesperson said: “The increase in convictions for female drink-driving in the North is incredibly worrying.

“Across the board, there is more binge drinking among women. Wine glasses are larger and drinks are stronger and these are major contributing factors.”

The ladette culture also means the number of women suffering from alcohol-related illnesses has soared.

The spokesperson added: “The number of young females admitted to hospital for liver-related diseases is increasing.

“We are calling on the Government to implement a ‘not a drop’ policy for the drink-drive limit because no one can ever know exactly how many units they are drinking, and different amount affect people differently.”

And they added: “We need to be hammering the message home that drink-driving is not acceptable.”

The shock figures follow a study last year by the Association of Public Health Observatories, which concluded that the North East has the biggest alcohol problem in the UK.

National agency on alcohol misuse, Alcohol Concern, say the rise in female drink-drive convictions highlights the need for the Government to lower the legal limit.

It wants it reduced to 50mg, which would bring the UK in line with many other European countries.

Sunday Sun

By 6:30 p.m. every stool at the bar is taken. It's a Thursday night at the White Horse Tavern, a well-worn watering hole in the shadows of lower Manhattan's financial district, and the regulars have found a refuge.

All that depressing news about the economy—job cuts, spiraling inflation, the mortgage mess—you don't need to tell these folks. But the offer of $3 pints is good until 8, and with the television at the end of the bar tuned to the ninth race at Louisiana Downs instead of the stock market wrap-up, the world is on hold.

So what does this scene tell us?

a) When people are under financial stress, they're more likely to frequent bars.

b) When economic times are tough, people drink more alcohol.

c) In a downturn, folks will cut back first on other purchases before they give up booze.

d) Maybe we're more complicated creatures than conventional wisdom suggests.

A tough economy ratchets up the pressure to rethink spending decisions. Food, clothing and shelter are essential. But when it comes to the extras, grim new realities set out some straightforward choices between needs and things we can live without.

Then there's booze.

In the past few weeks, scattered reports have noted that alcohol sales are up in some places, despite—or maybe even because of—the downturn in the economy. The new figures have revived the thinking that when Americans are taking it on the economic chin
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they keep a firm grip on the bottle.

In Pennsylvania, for example, officials reported that sales of wine and liquor are up 4.7 percent for the 11 months ending in May, to $1.63 billion. In Connecticut, the state reports that the taxes it collects on sales of alcoholic beverages also are up 4.7 percent for the fiscal year that ended in June.

A closer look, though, shows in those states and others, the rise in alcohol sales merely follows on past increases. The most recent increases are, in some cases, smaller than what has been seen in the past. Still, the fact that they're increasing says something.

"Beverage alcohol really is only mildly affected by the economic factors," says Danny Brager of The Nielsen Company, which tracks consumer purchasing decisions. "A lot of consumers would still consider alcoholic beverages as an affordable indulgence."

But the psychology of alcohol consumption is far from simple, and very different from many other economic choices.

When gas rises by $1 a gallon, choices are limited to driving less or using a different vehicle. But there's no immediate, easy alternative to gas.

It's the same with cigarettes, the purchase most regularly compared to alcohol. True, you can quit or cut back, and there's a limited selection of cheaper smokes. But the bottom line remains that if you want a cigarette, you have to pay the price.

Alcohol is different. If high-end European vodka is too expensive, you might try the stuff distilled in Wisconsin. If that's too much, how about a beer? Don't have enough for an import, try a domestic. If the bar tab is too much to handle, stop off at the store and bring a six-pack home.

"It's essentially a portfolio the industry presents to the customer so that if there's a problem in income, you can still drink and they can still sell," says Paul Gruenewald, scientific director of the Prevention Research Center, a federally funded non-profit in Berkeley, Calif.

"People are very rational over all. They're doing what makes sense. They still want to sit down after work and have a beer, and OK, it won't be a Heineken. They'll have a Budweiser."

When Nielsen asked consumers in May whether the economy was affecting their alcohol spending, nearly half said not at all. More than 80 percent said they're spending the same amount they were a year ago, or more.

But individual decisions about alcohol can be very nuanced. In the short term, it's clear consumers are going out to eat less and drinking more at home, Brager said.

In a persistent economic downturn, though, drinking habits can change significantly over time.

"A lot of people think that when times are bad people will drink more. The evidence is pretty clear that, at least in terms of alcohol sales, that that's not true, that people will drink less," said Christopher Ruhm, a professor of economics at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Gruenewald agrees, but makes an interesting observation. When the economy tanks, the wealthy can afford to keep drinking. Poorer consumers—often stereotyped as the ones with drinking problems—are the first to cut back, he says.

But just because overall consumption may dip, doesn't mean everyone behaves that way, says Thomas S. Dee, a professor of economics at Swarthmore College.

"Someone might cut back on the expensive bottle of wine but spend that same amount of money on quite a bit of high alcohol whiskey or liquor and they could engage in much more serious binge drinking," says Dee. His analysis of data, culled from surveys taken between 1985 and the late 1990s, found that a 5 percentage point increase in the unemployment rate is linked to a 8 percent increase in binge drinking.

That conclusion is based on what is now old data. At the White Horse—one of two bars in Manhattan with that name—folks are living in the here and now and there's little agreement on just what this economy means to the drinking crowd.

News Times