Britain's drink problem correcting itself?

[David98uk]

I'm in my 30s had a varied life and lived all over the country, served in the military etc etc.. Drink has always been a big part of things.

"Getting hammered.."
"Friday Saturday night yay!"
"Coming down for sesh?!"
"having a few pints down the pub"
"watching the game (few pints obv)"

I've given up booze for the most part, i'll only drink on holiday abroad now

I've witnessed pubs close down in my local towns and villages for the last decade and it's still continuing. The people who frequent what is left are basically old men, some down and out dole types on universal credit, and people on disability spending their allowances. Elderly day drinkers are dying off and nobody is replacing them.

The young people that i work with (hospitality) are not really into it either, the lads are into gaming and going to the gym, and the girls are saving up to "go traveling"

Drugs are more popular than ever with young people. So, although some don’t indulge in alcohol for the sake of their health, in a lot of cases, it’s because booze simply isn’t their choice of vice.

Humans have enjoyed getting high for millennia. Nothing has changed. Human nature doesn’t evolve that quickly!

Is it more so than in the 1990s and 2000s?

Are there different drugs around now? In my day it was mainly mdma or ecstasy for clubbing. Coke sometimes but that often went hand in hand with drinking.

And whilst there are overlaps I think clubbing culture is quite different from pub culture. I guess this thread is about pub culture and how drinking is less prevalent in the younger crowd now… but also interested to know what the clubbing / party drug trends are these days.

I’m not challenging you on this but genuinely keen to understand what makes you say this?

People drink at home more, whereas my parents would have gone to the pub at the weekend and rarely drank at home - DH and I will enjoy a bottle of wine with dinner a the weekends and maybe even a G&T. This is typical of most people I know.

I think drugs are certainly a huge issue, cocaine use is a big problem with plenty of functioning users around.

I've witnessed pubs close down in my local towns and villages for the last decade and it's still continuing. The people who frequent what is left are basically old men, some down and out dole types on universal credit, and people on disability spending their allowances

Perhaps that's because you live in a place where those 'types' are the majority of the population. Ever thought of getting out and living somewhere better aligned with your sense of moral superiority?

The professionals I work with now drink at home, usually a couple of glasses every night once the DC are in bed. So whilst the pub culture prevalent in yesteryear slowly dwindles, the ‘Netflix and a bottle’ habit picks up.

People may be more aware of their fitness but let’s not forget many who drink chemical laden energy drinks, smoke or use vapes and think nothing of a few lines of coke on a Friday night.

One of my secret vices is watching Police Interceptors and Traffic Cops on 5. According to those drug driving is very much on the increase. Drugs (esp cannabis) stay in the system longer than alcohol and can impair judgment just as much

In 2022, the number of roadside drug wipes increased on previous years (6,273 in 2022 compared with 4,668 in 2021) with 53.6 per cent (3,361) of those drivers testing positive. 52,667 roadside breath tests were undertaken with 10.2 per cent (5,352) of motorists testing positive, failing the test or refusing to undertake the test.
Nationally 79 per cent of offenders who tested positive for drink or drugs were male and 77 per cent were 25 years old and over.
A total of 66,014 vehicles were stopped during this period

And as the police on the programmes point out, those are just the ones they caught.

https://news.npcc.police.uk/releases/nearly-9-000-drivers-caught-drink-or-drug-driving-in-six-week-police-operation

My DC said they would rather go and have Nando's and a couple of drinks , or get pizza and a case of beer and game on the computer with mates . I think as a nation we have become more home centered as we have gaming, Netflix , films , large screens to watch it all on. Many years ago people went to the pub out of boredom, and overcrowding , plus there were fewer cars about so people didn't have to worry about drink driving .

I think there's a bit of a north / south divide. We live in a large village in Yorkshire which still has at least eight pubs. One or two have closed in recent years but two new bars have opened. Mostly they are rammed on a Friday night. It's partly because there is still more of a pub-going culture here, and partly because the overheads are much lower. In the SE it's really hard to keep a pub afloat if you don't basically turn it into a restaurant.

Agree with the popularity of drugs with younger people, I have a colleague currently on the dating scene and she said it’s depressing how many people take drugs as a form of recreation. She’s not into spending her days off on a come down and for many it’s a thing. Having a dealer is a thing too.

Cannabis use amongst young men who don’t drink alcohol whether for personal or religious reasons is high in my locale (no pun intended).

Walking along Deansgate in Manchester on a Saturday night makes you realise there’s still plenty out there getting drunk, although you can tell most are from towns outside the city simply by how they’re dressed so perhaps the excessive drink culture is more of a suburbs thing? The city dwellers don’t tend to get dressed up to the nines to go out anymore.

I went to Boomtown this summer- one of the youngest and most hedonistic festivals on the circuit- and saw the sum total of one casualty - a man throwing up against a fence, and he looked to be in his forties. I think the festival has inadvertently killed its own booze culture by insisting that you can only buy drinks with credits that you've pre loaded onto a wristband- I certainly couldn't be arsed to do that, and judging by the lack of queues at the bars I wasn't alone. I overheard lots of chat about nitrous oxide and ketamine, but I guess you just don't end up in such a bad state if you don't mix them with booze.

I also went to a one day festival in Bristol, with a similar lack of casualties. Again, £6 pints and not allowing booze from outside probably helped. At the end of the evening we were sitting on the grass, and there was an unconscious man (looked to be in his forties) next to us. About three sets of people stopped to see if he was OK, and the last ones made him get up and walked him off, presumably to the first aid point. I was slightly dumbfounded, because back in the day your average festival would have been full of unconscious casualties at that time of night and you would have just left them to it! Definitely a positive advancement.

I'm in my late 40s, grew up in a hard drinking/ party culture, and although the occasional night of uninhibited hedonism is still fun, this has been recently tempered by knowing someone of that age who never grew out of those habits and is now fucked and probably going to die prematurely. They always say that in every hard drinking 90s friendship group there is one who kept going for far too long...😥

YABU to blame drinking on "dole types" and disabilities etc. Who do you think you are! Basically stuck up with no clue about reality.

OP you are right, young people drink less now. I’m 28 and my generation definitely drink less on average than our parents’. It’s not to do with money being tight and we’re not drinking at home instead of the pub/club - there are things I’d rather spend the money on than a couple of bottles of wine a week though (like travelling, as you say).

There is more awareness of alcohol’s impact on health (personally I’d rather not increase the risk of breast cancer) and mental health and also we just don’t need it to relax/have fun (I find that it sad when people say that’s why they drink).

On the other hand probably also a lot more people are on SSRIs now than the past so some are avoiding alcohol due to those as well.

I totally agree with the North/ South divide. None of my dc drink...town in the south east. However my dc's partner who is from the North west drinks fairly heavily and frequently as do the rest of their family! Its a different culture.

@Uggghhhh for some reason, I’m not able to reply to you directly but this link contains worrying research by youth charity, The Mix, on the rising stats: https://cdn.themix.org.uk/uploads/2022/10/Drug-and-alcohol-usage-amongst-young-people-2022.pdf

My son is 19 and his girlfriend is 20. He has no interest in drinking neither does she. None of his friends do either. He thinks people who vape are idiots. There is a different mentality out there from when I was younger. Not many pubs. No clubs ( which is where I did all of my drinking ) Also price it used to cost me )2.50 to get into the clubs and drinks were much cheaper.

It’s defo less trendy now. You g people go to the gym/ track their food and drink a lot less. (Not all but in general.)

it’s a good thing!

I'm in my mid 30's and the majority of people I know who are my age drink very little, or nothing at all, despite being regular "out out" at the weekend types.

I think it will depend on the social group norms and location - but DH is a lecturer and says his students do drink much less and more are completely teetotal.

IL were heavy drinkers - but the pub culture where they are has been dying past decade. They did for while do more drinking at home with friends but that died back. It's price - and less people they know out - were as once they'd be out Fri, sat and quick pint Sunday - they'll do hour or two FIL having halves and then head back. DH mates from back home go out less and less as well. They all do much more eating in pubs than they once did.

Our teens seem less interested than DH or even me - I've never been a big drinker. GPs always used to seem flummoxed as I'm not teetotal but have weeks and often months between alcoholic drinks suspect that's more normal now.

I keep hearing that young people just aren't in to drinking but that's not what I see.
I live in a studenty area which has a famous pub crawl. Every day of the week there are crowds of students drinking. It's always heaving!

£7.50 a pint at my local. I can get a bottle of wine or a 6 pack at the supermarket and enjoy it with my friends at home with good music.

Drinking out costs too much

BIL works on building sites and says it's drugs now are the vice of choice among the young labourers and lads in trades. The traditional pint after work has been replaced by whatever else they can get hold of and it is a big issue as they also use during their work days.

Class thing. DPs family are very much working class. None have been to uni but that’s not to say they are poor, far from it. Several are self employed tradesmen and raking the money in. They all without exception love a good party, their social life revolves around alcohol to some extent or another. Saying that there are massive alcohol addiction problems (and increasing rates of liver disease) amongst the older middle class types too who can afford expensive bottles of wine most nights.

Drugs. I work with quite a few youngish folk (20s). Weed is a big thing, also typical clubby ones. Out most weekends leaving the DC with their parents, complaining of hangovers the next day. Again fairly working class but these are young women with decent disposable income living up north.

Neither of my older teen/early 20s DCs drink or smoke/vape. Both say they never will but both know peers who do. One friend of DS1 started drinking at uni as he experienced freedom he’d never had before. I guess it’s all individual in the end.

It sounds like you're spending a lot of time in your local pubs op if you've got to know the regulars well enough to know what disability benefits and universal credit they are claiming and drinking away in the pubs.

I agree. This seems to be a MN perpetuated myth. If you go into town on a Friday/Saturday night the pubs are heaving with young people and they're not all drinking water or sipping on a kale smoothie.

As a parent of two late teens - parties, drinking - totally the norm, moreso for my daughters friends than my sons - but the boys (for whatever reasons) are more likely to be dabbling with the drugs rather than alcohol. And this is in a very affluent town, not a student town either. Yes, they go the gym but they're still just as likely to be totally shitfaced on a Saturday night.

Also agree with drugs. Very commonplace now.