To rant about alcohol and the way it's normalised?

[CheapSausagesAndSpam]

It's EVERYWHERE and it's poisonous. People normalise it..."Oh...wine o'clock already tra la la!"

And all that shite.

It's responsible for thousands of deaths and injuries and trauma every year and yet it's the first thing people think of when they want to celebrate something.

Get this

3 May 2017: New figures released today show that hospital admissions due to alcohol are at their highest ever levels.

The data, summarised in a release from NHS Digital, shows that alcohol-related hospital admissions in England have increased by 64% over the last decade, with an extra 430,000 people being admitted due to alcohol-related causes in 2015/16 compared with 2005/06.

This takes the total number of alcohol-related hospital admissions to over 1.1 million in 2015/16.

And this

Alcohol is linked to over 60 illnesses and diseases, including heart disease, liver disease and cancer. Figures from the local alcohol profiles for England show that admissions due to liver disease have gone up 57% over the last decade, and that the number of people diagnosed with alcohol-related cancer has increased 8%.

How is this a lovely drink? How is this something that is ok to do in front of children and even to allow children to partake of?

People on MN often say "Oh I let my 12 year old have half a glass of wine...it's a good way to introduce it!"

WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO!?

And new research points to the fact that it causes irreversable damage to stem cells, scrambling DNA and eventually causing cancers.

www.theguardian.com/science/2018/jan/03/alcohol-can-cause-irreversible-genetic-damage-to-stem-cells-says-study?CMP=fb_gu

Think about it. Society is not doing itself any favours.

NameChanger22

"Not everyone has a problem with alcohol, but many people do. Those people aren't being helped by our drinking culture."

Depends how you define many, doesn't it? It's certainly not the majority and the behaviour of a minority should not be allowed to negatively impact on the majority of responsible drinkers.

"Alcohol is a poison, food isn't."

Don't be ridiculous. Everything can be a poison in high enough doses. You can die of drinking too much water.

Alcohol is perfectly fine to consume in moderate quantities. The human body is able to metabolise it safely.

This is a really interesting video about the evidence base of various drugs including alcohol.

The argument he puts forward is that in a society that normalises and encourages alcohol consumption there is a duty to provide access to less harmful alternatives.

Oh it's Professor Nutt btw.

NameChanger - You ask "Any stats on that?" about my comment:
Most people who enjoy alcohol are not addicted to it.

I'll be happy to provide some as soon as your prove your ridiculous claim I replied to, which was:

Alcohol starts off as fun in a young person's life, but hardly ever ends up that way.

Bravo professor Nutt👍

It is my understanding that the ability to safely metabolise alcohol varies widely, also the ratio of toxicity relative to its capacity to intoxicate is far worse than many other intoxicating substances used by humans

Bravo professor Nutt

It's an hour long but well worth a watch, I watched it a couple of years ago.

it's so refreshing isn't it to hear someone speak rationally and matter-of-factly about drugs
And so telling that the government just couldn't tolerate that and they had to sack him

Yes, Nutt was very good. He spoke truth about drugs and got fired for his troubles. I hope at least some of the ignorant public heard what he was saying and questioned the party line, though.

Everything can be a poison in high enough doses. You can die of drinking too much water.

That doesn’t make water a poison. Sure it’s dangerous, but not a poison.

"NameChanger - You ask "Any stats on that?" about my comment:
Most people who enjoy alcohol are not addicted to it. "

Stats on that should be easy to find. Percentage of population that drinks - very high, percentage that are alcoholics - very low. Percentage who cause problems and go to A&E - higher than it should be, but still not the majority of drinkers by far.

I hope at least some of the ignorant public heard what he was saying and questioned the party line, though
They may have but I think that especially for those who are anti drugs it's a very emotive topic .....people respond emotionally and that interferes with their ability to look at things rationally and objectively.

My guess would be that those who are already sympathetic to professor Nutts message would have their beliefs reinforced and perhaps deepen their knowledge.
On the other hand those with a negative and stereotype view of drugs view of drugs would very likely just take notice of the things that reinforce their existing viewpoint... Ie the government sacked him so he must be wrong

Licensing laws don't work. I live in Northern Ireland and our licensing laws are medieval and we have quite a high rate of alcoholism and alcohol related problems.

The only thing licensing laws Kill is pub culture, there wouldn't be a strong pub culture here compared to the rest of the UK

You can die of drinking too much water

That's how Leah Betts died.

Funnily enough it's not what the campaign her death launched focused on.

Drinking too much water whilst using MDMA at a rave
Was it the water or the rave or the MDMA?

She wasn't at a rave. She was in her house and felt ill so she thought she must be dehydrated as that was the kind of thing people were warning about in relation to ecstacy. She drank 7 litres of water in 90 minutes and the cause of death was water intoxication.

People die from drinking too much water even when no drugs were involved. See here

"That doesn’t make water a poison. Sure it’s dangerous, but not a poison."

Yes. Same as alcohol.

Unless anyone is about to argue that people die from a glass of wine?

yes, recovering alcoholic for 34 years,?you may know me !! 😆

People die from drinking too much water even when no drugs were involved

Indeed, sorry if I wasn't clear. The reason Leah Betts drank all that water (as far as we know from witness accounts) was because she thought it was the right thing to do due to information she had prior to taking the ecstasy. Not as a direct effect of the drug. There was a suggestion that the ecstasy may have had some effect on her ability to urinate but it's flimsy to say the least.

Yes. Same as alcohol
Nope. Alcohol is a toxin.

Because you say so?

I had a glass of wine last night and was not harmed. Your theory is disproven.

Besides, you don't seem to know what the word 'toxin' means. It refers to poisons produced by living organisms.

The argument he puts forward is that in a society that normalises and encourages alcohol consumption there is a duty to provide access to less harmful alternatives

What now? Society has a duty to provide access to less harmful alternatives to alcohol? Because at the moment, alcohol is the only liquid available to humans?
This doesn't make even the first notion of sense!

This doesn't make even the first notion of sense!

Of course it doesn't when you are being obtuse.