TOPIC:

I believe if it was up to pubs and clubs to pick there own hours you wouldn't have the problem of people piling loads of drink in at last orders, ya know the whole its last orders so i'l get 2 or 3 pints and down them in a half hour thing! and secondly it would stop everyone ending up out on the street at once.

Mabie if excise was raised on drinks that are only sold as shots such as aftershock could help

But i do think its not drink thats the main problem for example in temlple bar where you would have loads of fights and troble is mostly people doing more than just drink but blaming drink is much easyer than going after the drugs and in the city centre you see a lot more drugs around
I think this because I mainly stick to my local and you see people having loads of drinks but there is never or very rarly fights or any trouble and theres not many who do be on drugs there.

So mabie just mabie the focus should be on drugs not alcohol!!

I would very much agree with the phasing in of allowing younger people (says a geriatric late 40's so and so!) at certain ages access to buying certain drinks, i.e. beer/wine upto say 21 and then allow access to spirits then. The main thing as said is a change of attitude and openness at home. I agree the idea of openness and sampling at home and treating alchol as something to enjoy and not abuse is paramount. I think also change in licencing rules for nitclubs, e.g. ban red bull and not allow any double or treble spirits. If breaking this rule immediate closure for two weeks for example!!!! If a club is mainly under 21 clientele allow no spirits at all. Maybe I am dreaming!!

As well alcohol is not the only problem. The whole drugs situation and lack of amenities for young people, ie.. youth clubs, youth cafes etc need to be addressed in a meaningful fashion as well.

As said early no one magical solution. I would like to think we all have a more balanced atitude to alcohol now than we had when we drank first and try to pass this on to the next generation as well.

"Ger Cork":2to8zx5v wrote: I think also change in licencing rules for nitclubs, e.g. ban red bull and not allow any double or treble spirits. [/quote:2to8zx5v]
They have this rule somewhere I was, possibly NZ or Oz. as usual there's a very simple workaround.
punter:"Double vodka & coke please"
barman:"Sorry can't serve doubles"
p: "Right so, 2 single vodkas, one coke please"
bm: "There ya go"
p: "Thanks, don't need this extra glass though" (pours one vodka into another. Nothing the barman can do.)

Yes, but that [i:kmddypjv]should[/i:kmddypjv] be covered by the fact that the publican can be prosecuted for serving drink to someone who is drunk. But it's such a hazy area it's always going to be difficult to police.

Of course, one easy way to reduce binge drinking is to alter the parameters that define binge drinking.

I can't say I have even seen a consistent definition of binge drinking.

Normally, a binge is defined by the people taking a survey or writing a report. I have seen anywhere from 2 – 5 drinks defined as a binge. Such definitions are necessary for any statistical analysis, but then people take this definition, assume that it actually has some medical facts to back it up, apply it to their (or more often, other peoples) lifestyle and viola, a statistician has decided what a healthy level of drinking in a single sitting is, by choosing an arbitrary figure which seemed reasonable.

Has anyone seen any studies which define what a binge is from a medical standpoint?

I heard somewhere (radio? hearsay?) that the whole "21 units a week" thing was made up in the 80s or 90s by some medical council (britain?) out of thin air - just seemed like a nice round number - 3 units a day.
Not sure if it's true or not though.