I seriously hope we don't see smoking ban type or laws for alcohol... Alcohol is as destructive to worldwide health as smoking and high blood pressure, doctors have claimed Three international experts said alcohol consumption was linked to more than 60 different medical conditions including breast cancer and heart disease. Overall, four per cent of the global burden of disease was attributable to alcohol, 4.1 per cent to tobacco and 4.4 per cent to high blood pressure, they wrote in the Lancet medical journal. The report was published as pubs, off-licences and clubs across Britain prepare for all-day opening under legislation which will come into force on Monday. The experts, led by Prof Robin Room, from the Centre for Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs at Stockholm University, Sweden, assessed the options for alcohol control. They said studies had shown that raising the price and reducing the availability of alcoholic drinks could lower consumption and save lives. An estimated 10 per cent increase in alcohol prices in Britain would cut cirrhosis deaths by seven per cent for men and 8.3 per cent for women, it was claimed. Great, I hope we don't get taxed more on drinks just because some morons want to drink like fishes. This sucks. Full story here.
At least when people smoke they don't become violent and agressive. I hope they ban this too, but they won't. It'd be like prohibition, and Political suicide. Two words: SOCIAL. CRUTCH.
When I drink I don't. Should my occasional enjoyment of alcohol be forbidden because some arse-hats drink themselves practically to death and have personality problems to go with it? I'm not convinced that there's a link with longer opening hours either. The problem people already drink until they collapse so what does it matter that pubs and clubs are open longer? Edit: this bit gets to me too. "They said studies had shown that raising the price and reducing the availability of alcoholic drinks could lower consumption and save lives." Just as raising the price of transport beyond affordability reduces fuel consumption and saves lives. Fewer road-traffic accidents right?
The problem with this type of statistic, whether it's for tobacco, alcohol, or some other useful medication now found to have harmful side-effects, is they're meaningless. Nobody's going to live forever. If liver cirrhosis, a heart attack or lung cancer don't get you, something else will, it's just re-arranging the causes of death until we end up all dying of boredom. Let's have some figures for life-expectancy, so we can judge whether or not to have that one more for the road, to keep taking the tablets. Besides, these things normally shorten life at the top end. A worse killer is the motor car. It kills or cripples many thousands of people annually. Many are innocent bystanders. And most often they're in the prime of life, fit and healthy, a few score years left to look forward to. Not waiting for god in some Old Folks Home. Ban the Automobile!
This is old news, 6th graders learn this in health class people. And, it is as destructive as high blood pressure? It causes high blood pressure! Again, this thing that high blood pressure stands alone. Alcohol, along with ancestry and obesity, are the major causes of high blood pressure, followed by smoking and stress. How much does a beer cost in Britain? Is another euro going to matter if you buy one or not? And will it matter? Cigarretes cost almost 10 bucks a pack in the US, people still inhale the cancer... the only benefit I see of raising the price is to boost sales revenue in the beverage industry, because the difference in a $10 beer and an $11 beer is just about nil to most people I know. This seems like a redundant study, and it's findings, although they may invoke new legislature, are not new. Everything in that post is simply reiterating everything doctors from the past have stated in other studies. This is old news. EDIT:removed some ranting.
It is old news yes, but now because its in the papers again we will most likely end up being taxed more for it, because it cripples our NHS system, but, at the same time, our NHI taxes go up anyway, because....of all the smoking & alcohol related patients. Yup, that's the way it works over here EDIT: Why doesn't the Government just introduce a 'penalty' for drunk patients - £50 charge for using up NHS resources because they can't use their brain and drink like a normal person?
Erm... isn't that the situation with illegal drugs? Doesn't seem to work there... What all these simplistic studies ignore is that alcohol consumption (like smoking, and other drugs) isn't a rational behaviour. It's addictive, it creates a dependency. So simplistic logic (raised prices = lower consumption) doesn't apply. It doesn't apply with fuel either, by the way, because of a dependency of a different kind: there simply is no viable alternative to get around the place in a reasonable fashion. Anyway, what else is new...
The fact is that people NEED something to be dependant on. Alcohol is the most common after caffeine because it makes you feel good. A lot of people turn to drugs because they're even better and it's not until you're screwed that most people stop. I'm sure caffeine does huge damage to your body but, again it's so ingrained to our society that we can't lose it. People have been smoking and drinking for thousands of years and we're just like any other species - we're pleasure seekers. As long as we're happy at the time, we'll keep on going until we get a problem.
Simple Anybody so drunk they get arrested or end up in hospital should pay the charges. Let's see how many people get wasted then. As far as smoking, who the hell likes stinking of smoke after getting home, having there eyes scream in pain from the smokey conditions, and generally make you choke. I suspect nobody. Yet, people still do it without a care for others. Welcome to the 20-21st century.
i love it seriously though, raising prices won't really reduce problems. alcohol is big business, and if the pubs went too far with their prices i reckon the sales of cheap super strength lager and cider from offlicenses would skyrocket. viva la tennents supar and white lightning <3 drinking at home is where the bigger problem lies imo, 'ten pints down the pub', or 'a crate of 24 cans at home'... the problem is when people don't know when to stop. and the availability at home would be far greater than the availability when out and about.
