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?

[madein1995]

I don't deny alcohol causes problems, but I think changes to bottle design won't make any difference to those we want to affect and the best way to make a difference is the provision of services for addicts. Government intervention can only go so far - people need to want to change or it won't happen, so tax can be raised sky high but that won't have a huge impact on the amount of alcohol drunk.

Likewise, I would resent living in even more of a nanny state. I am an adult, can make my own decisions and do not need the government deciding what is bad for me and trying to stop me doing it by charging more - adults have a certain amount of free will and freedom providing it is legal, and I do not think myself, or most other adults, needs nursemaiding. If all things that are considered bad for you are banned/made difficult to get hold of then you will end up with a nation of adults unable to regulate themselves. Providing I am not committing a crime, it is not the goverments concern what I choose to do with my life - I feel they should focus on providing help for those who want it rather than implementing measures which I feel which would be counter prductive

[glueandstick]

If you want to smoke, smoke
If you want to drink, drink
If you want to take drugs, do so

It's about free choice. People will always take it to excess. If the don't affect others then let it be. It's when their actions cause problems for others it is a problem.

I'm off to have a gin.

[madein1995]

I couldn't agree more glue

[TheNaze73]

I think YANBU. Imagine the uproar if the done thing to do, was to kick back & snort a line. Same thing I think

[exWifebeginsat40]

there's a school of thought that says if alcohol was 'discovered' now it would be banned. it is technically poison. however, i will defend to the death your right to get pissed.

i loved booze, me. as a raging alky i haven't touched a drop for over 2 years.

[caroldecker]

Vote to leave the EU and Scotland will introduce minimum pricing on alcohol.

[ChablisTyrant]

YANBU. We need to do more to treat alcoholism. Huge burden on NHS emergency care. I lay in bed in A&E one afternoon last week waiting to get admitted and I reckon 80% of the people being admitted were drunk.

[OwlinaTree]

What! Most of the population would be single with no booze around! We Brits need our Dutch courage!😉

[madein1995]

Changing the designs of bottles won't make a difference to alcoholism IMO, and I say this as someone's who's had alcohol problems in the past - alcoholics, or anyone with alcohol issues, don't normally care what the bottle looks like as long as it gets them drunk

[IPityThePontipines]

I think alcohol is far too easily available in this country and that there is a lot of turning a blind eye to people who are problem drinkers.

While my thoughts on alcohol are in line with Stratters, I would like to have alcohol for sale in restaurants and off-licenses only.

I particularly think that having pubs in train stations and airports isn't very wise. It's odd that drinking cans of beer on the bus is frowned upon, but it's ok on an aeroplane.

As for cries of "nanny state", people in this country, clearly can't regulate their drinking, extended licensing hours have been a disaster here.

[Wolfiefan]

I did jury service last year. All the stories (assaults) started with people going out and getting pissed.
I'm not sure putting alcohol in plain bottles makes it less desirable.

[BillSykesDog]

Alcoholics are not going to forget to be alcoholics because booze isn't advertised.

If we want to cut down the amount of alcohol people drink we would be better off looking at the way our society as a whole operates. Long working hours, little leisure time, non-alcoholic leisure activities (like the cinema, bowling) being prohibitively expensive, people spending so much on housing that they have almost no budget for leisure, poor mental health support leading to self medicating with booze. All of these things contribute.

[expatinscotland]

'Vote to leave the EU and Scotland will introduce minimum pricing on alcohol.'

Yeah, that's a real reason to take such an idiotic vote.

[LegoCaltrops]

Room101 - I was going to mention that - I'd read somewhere that alcohol probably wouldn't be legal if discovered in modern times.

And it doesn't just affect those who drink it - what about people getting attacked by drunks, smashed glass all over the pavement every weekend, the stink of wee in certain secluded corners & having to explain it all to young children. What about the strain on the NHS, already at breaking point, apparently most weekends the A&E dept is full of alcohol related injuries & illness.

I am aware I'm biased - my dad is an alcoholic & occasionally slapped me when I got in his way when he wanted a drink. It absolutely does not just affect those who drink.

[Floods123]

You are BY. For Christ's sake leave subtler want a drink alone! I love my wine, and if it takes a few years off life then the he'll with it! I don't want to live in the grey boring world you do! I don't get drunk and cause problems I just love a glass or two 3 or 4 days a week. Never more than a bottle a day. And yummy cider in hot weather! So go away and don't drink if you don't want do but leave us alone that do!

[GiraffeTastic]

I agree that banning alcohol wouldn't work and I think people should be able to buy alcohol. It seems wrong to me that smoking is hounded by the government but drinking isn't. Banning alcohol advertising would surely be a good idea?

[GoodbyeBoleyn]

Personally i think that alcohol probably kills as many people passively as smoking, i used to work in motor claims and drink drivers killing or injuring people is still a regular occurance.

I don't think prohibition is the way forward, however I think that going back to strict licencing laws where only pub/nightclubs and off licences were allowed to sell alcohol would solve a lot of binge drinking problems.

A little alcohol isn't a problem and alcoholics will always be able to get it, but a lot of people would drink less of that couldn't pick it up in the supermarket with their weekly shop.

[madein1995]

Banning advertising would be ok, but I doubt it'd affect the root of the problem because advertising doesn't have much of an affect on alcoholics, the only people it'd affect are those who can take it or leave it. I'm saying those people wouldn't be benefited by drinking less, but it wouldn't solve all the problems, especially the social ones, associated with drinking. A lot of crimes committed related to drinking are when the perpetrator has been out drinking, notin the home so I think the best strategy to reduce those problems is to target bars and clubs.

I've nothing against banning advertising, but it seems that the government is taking more responsibility and the individual less. Adults are responsible for their own actions, and they shouldn't be stopped from buying alcohol because who am I, or Mr Cameron, to tell someone how they should live their life? Let them drink, let them do what they like, provide services for when they want help but don't pamper them. They're adults, not babies, and while good intentioned it could support some people's view that it's up to other people to stop be drinking, it's not up to me. We all need to take responsibility for our own lives because we can't be paddied by the government forever.

(Apologies if have been getting on my soapbox during this thread lol)

[TooMuchMNTime]

my mum agrees with you OP
I'd rather they cut back on demonising smokers though, I think it's gone OTT and I don't smoke.

[Andrewofgg]

It's not just America, a society which could be considered to be under the rule of law, which could not enforce Prohibition.

The Tsarist government banned alcohol in 1914; the Mensheviks maintained the ban; so did the Bolsheviks when they took power in 1917.

And in 1924 they gave it up as a bad job and taxed drink instead. The Mensheviks may have been ineffectual; but the Tsarist and Bolshevik governments were police-state dictatorships where the government generally had its own way. But alcohol, and the wish of the Russian people for alcohol, defeated them.

As for plain packaging: who is going to tell the countries where most of our liquor comes from to package it differently for the British market? And if they won't (and they won't) who is going to tell the electorate to make do with home-grown hooch?

It's all absurd, except taxing it highly.

[PlentyOfPubeGardens]

No you can't do that. It's not like smoking. Middle class people drink and they'd get upset.

[IPityThePontipines]

There seems to be this idea that there are alcoholics on one end of the spectrum, with everyone else who can "take it or leave it" on the other side, with no one in between, when it's more complex than that.

[araiba]

you dont see weed, cocaine, e etc advertised yet people still do drugs

[7DaysAWeekWorker]

We already have the age restriction. If parents didn't educate their child to be responsible you can't just say he government should do more. Have some parental accountability?

[glueandstick]

In Sweden you buy alcohol from government run shops.

You see alcoholics queuing up with bankers, students, housewives and homeless. All sectors of society. It changes nothing. (And the swedes really know how to drink) Alcohol is also expensive but that stops no one.