To think the government should do more about alcohol?

[GiraffeTastic]

Smoking cigarettes has been targeted by successive governments to improve public health, now you can't even see packs on display in shops, massive warnings on packets etc.

However, alcohol, which is another drug linked to cancer, heart disease etc is freely viewable in supermarkets, comes in pretty bottles and the manufacturers advertise it and seem to have made wine a regular product for many people. I know that cigarettes carry passive smoking risks, but what about all the lives destroyed by alcohol problems?

Aibu to think both should be treated in a similar way by the government? I'm not suggesting banning them, but if cigarettes are in plain packets shouldn't wine and spirits be also?

[BluePitchFork]

yanbu at all

[diaimchlo]

Totally agree with you. YADNBU.

[Birdsgottafly]

I worry about how we're going to find anything, without the tax on cigarettes and alcohol, tbh.

Although, that might be why we're now bringing in sugar taxes.

Wine labels don't look that different, as it is and most are dark, so to change the labels, would be ridiculous.

Wine is bottled the way it is, for a reason, not so that it looks pretty.

Spirits and beer etc are liquid, so again, they come in bottles.

[Birdsgottafly]

Fund, not find.

[WorraLiberty]

Dear god, do you really want to live in such a nanny state?

Unlike smoking, alcohol isn't necessarily bad for you in moderation...much like everything else really.

So once they've started selling wine and spirits in plain packaging what then?

Sweets? Chocolate? Cakes? Crisps? Burgers?

It's time people started to rely on themselves to moderate what they eat/drink/smoke, instead of automatically relying on the state to wipe their arses for them.

[WorraLiberty]

I worry about how we're going to find anything, without the tax on cigarettes and alcohol, tbh.

I know you meant 'fund', but I'm worried about how we're going to find anything in the future, as if some people have their way, it'll all be sold in plain packaging and hidden from public view

[GiraffeTastic]

Those who say yabu, what about all the marketing of wine in recent years that have made it so popular? It's now an accepted thing to 'have a glass of wine' in the evening for many people, you wouldn't say the same about special brew etc, people would recoil in horror 😄 So the alcohol firms have been very successful. I don't understand why they are allowed to do this vs cigarettes.

[EveryoneElsie]

Why is it ok to want to have the govt interfere in every area of life? A sugar tax? offs.

Many of us can make adult choices for ourselves, thanks anyway.

[AndNowItsSeven]

A small glass of red wine every evening is healthy for most people Yabu.

[VestalVirgin]

The advertising should be banned. And being drunk in public should be illegal.

I don't think anyone would really stop drinking alcohol, but perhaps children wouldn't start without all the advertising.

And if it wasn't allowed to be drunk in public, then the alcohol consumption of those who choose to consume it wouldn't affect anyone else negatively.

Many of us can make adult choices for ourselves, thanks anyway.

Yeah, but a lot of people obviously can't. Or I wouldn't be molested by drunk men when I am in town after midnight.

[Stratter5]

I hate alcohol.

I hate what it does to people, how they act, that they drink drive, that it releases inhibitions and makes abuse more likely.

I'd totally ban it if I thought it was entirely possible.

[madein1995]

The drunk men who molest women are twats, and they're twats when they're sober too. Alcohol doesn't cause them to attack/hassle women etc, they do. I know lots of men who would never think of doing anything like that to a woman when drunk, because they respect women. Alcohol cannot be blamed for how the individual acts - if they know they turn into an arse when they drink, well they can choose not to drink. Suggesting that the government should do more and it is all alcohol's fault is taking the blame away from the individual imo, and it wrong.

I don't think advertising has much of an impact really, it's less advertised than before and I think the only time I really see adverts for alcohol specially (as in not the usual supermarket saying whats on special offer) is at Christmas. I would resent there being a higher tax placed on it; why should the majority suffer because of the action of the few? Supermarkets are already careful about not selling to underage, or those who are intoxicated, so I think the next step is to make sure bars don't sell to obviously intoxicated people. I know the law says they shouldn't but I don't think it's that well implemented from my experience.

I really would hate this country to become more of a nanny state. The people adverts etc are targeted at are adults, who have their own minds, free will and intelligence. Babying adults won't do any good. I do see that alcohol causes problem but raising the tax or changing the labels won't do much - it won't make much of a difference to those who don't abuse it, and those who do abuse it don't care what colour bottle it comes in and will find a way to afford it regardless. Instead of spending money on that, I for one think it would be better if there was more services available for people with drug and alcohol issues.

[MitzyLeFrouf]

The thing with alcohol is if it was banned lots of people would just brew their own (super strength) booze at home. Much more difficult to grow one's own tobacco plants.

YABU.

[EveryoneElsie]

Prohibition doesn't work. I brew my own anyway.

[Room101isWhereIUsedToLive]

www.alternet.org/if-alcohol-were-discovered-today-would-it-be-legal
YANBU

[madein1995]

Agreed everyoneelsie, just look how well prohibition worked out for America! If we had prohibition over here it'd just cause more problems - growth of gangs/criminals smuggling alcohol, people making own alcohol which would lead to a bigger strain on NHS as would have to contend with people poisoning themselves by having no clue how to make alcohol.

[MitzyLeFrouf]

Look how well banning heroin has worked out.

[BluePitchFork]

the op is on about making alkoholic drinks less atractive, not banning them.
that would be impossible given how easy it is to make beer/wine.

and with that I wholeheartedly agree.

[Stratter5]

Oh I'm not saying it would work, I know full well it wouldn't. But I'm still allowed to hate it, and to wish that it could be banned.

And yes, they are twats, but they are even more of a twat with a drink inside them.

[Quiero]

I don't necessarily agree that alcohol should be prohibited in the same way as cigarettes are but I do think alcohol advertising/promotions are very irresponsible.

My local Morrisons constantly have promotions encouraging you to buy wine because it's summer/Father's Day/Christmas/Wednesday etc.

If you are pathetically weak willed like me you can do without the extra encouragement

[Alisvolatpropiis]

I don't think it would hurt for special offers and so on to not be advertised on television.

Mind, Sweden has very strict laws re selling alcohol, sold in government run shops only. People just brew their own and get just as drunk.

[IHeartKingThistle]

Totally agree OP

Alcohol kills more people so why are they allowed to market it the way they do? It's working for them too - heard on the newsthe other day that alcohol sales are up for the third year running after years of decline. Enough alcohol was bought last year for every adult in the country to have something like 460 pints of beer if you think about all the people who don't drink.

I teach a recovering alcoholic at the moment. He's in a brilliant programme with supported housing and been clean for 3 years. But apparently 7 out of 10 people who start that programme fail. He's seen some of them die. He just says ' it's so hard. It's everywhere'.

[EveryoneElsie]

Banning alcohol wont be any more effective than banning weed or heroin.
Making peoples lives less stressful and shit would go a long way to cutting down misuse.

[Tiredofsummer]

Yadnbu this has been getting to me for a while... I have read the nhs is spending more on alcohole related problems then they are smoking related problems per year yet the goverment puts more money into stop smoking campaigns then alcohol.

I smoke and drink sporadically but even I think it's rediculous.

[Jelliedeels]

Omg so stop cigarettes
Stop drinking
Stop sugar
Stop fatty foods
Then it will be
Ban Xbox
Ban tv

Fuck off if you don't like it don't do it. Leave the rest of us to enjoy ourselves