All aboard the booze bus!

Do you think that binge drinking is a problem in the UK?

More and more adolescents are taking to the bottle as drinking statistics rise in the UK and the costs to the NHS are becoming even more traumatic. Alcohol misuse costs the NHS £3.5 billion a year, estimating to £120 for each taxpayer, but the main question asks who is to blame? Is it the shops selling the alcohol, the clubs encouraging the drinking, the council allowing it or simply the adolescents consuming the alcohol themselves?

Did anyone watch the ‘Party Paramedics’ binge drinking programme last year on Channel 4? It was just one example of how today’s binge drinking culture is portrayed, not to mention the programmes that followed this including ‘Bouncers’ which showed the negative side effects young drinkers experience when they’ve had one too many. ‘Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents’ a TV show that follows young Brits on their non-stop drinking and partying holidays abroad also gives the UK its bad name for young, drunk and out of control citizens.

A large number of these out of control youngsters are made up of University students, whose main aims, when not studying, are to drink as much as possible on every imaginable occasion. For these students there are no limits. With this culture comes weeks on end of Freshers, pound a pint drink deals and unlimited fun. But how far is too far? Do students know their limits and when to stop? I’m not sure…

Carnage is a prime example of a typical student’s binge drinking culture. Closer magazine featured an article about the young students of Southampton going wild on this night out, with comments such as “City ‘carnage’ as students get crazed on cheap booze” and “the focus of the night is definitely getting p****d and pulling”. In this article featured statistics of the night including that there is a 40% rise in the number of ambulances needed and comments from paramedics stating “Carnage nights are getting out of control”.

 

When is enough, enough? The health risks caused by binge drinking are phenomenal, the anti-social behaviour is disgraceful and at the end of the night it’s the NHS who are left picking up the pieces whether this be from stomachs being pumped or wrapping up the wounds of those fighting. But is this seen as a problem in the UK? Where do the publics’ morals lie when deciding if it really has got too much; does it take a beaten up friend or a hospitalised son or daughter to put a stop to binge drinking, or is it merely not considered as a problem?

I would like to know where your ethics lie; do you think the current youth have a problem with binge drinking today? And what are your views on the effect this has on society, particularly to the NHS?

 

Thanks for reading,

C