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.

That doesn't in anyway answer the question, you know.

Are you saying that there needs to be alternatives to alcohol that do the same thing as alcohol? If so, I don't think you've actually thought that through at all, have you?

That doesn't in anyway answer the question, you know

I was pointing out how daft your equivalency was.

You didn't point it out at all.

Do you actually know what you are talking about, can you answer my simple question or not?

DB drinks too much and it causes many issues between him and DW. I was in M&S looking for birthday cards for her,, they are all matronly cards with flowers, or they are jokey cards about alcohol... literally every one.. all the " I can't go another step without gin".. etc. It really brought it home to me

Do you actually know what you are talking about, can you answer my simple question or not?

I think I know why you are confused, you obviously didn't read the initial post properly. I answered your question there. Feel free to go back and have another go.

Yes. Frankly, these piss me off

I was booze was the answer or a good idea but for me it’s not.

Alright Tess, whatever. That's obviously a no to my question. Maybe you need a drink and you'll get there eventually.

peppapigwouldmakelovelyrashers

I am genuinely baffled by your confusion.

I linked a video and explained that it compared the harm of all drugs including alcohol (which is a drug and not just a fun alternative to tea).

I then said that the person on the video offered the opinion that as we accept and encourage alcohol as a society we should offer safer alternatives. The implication is very clear as the context was drugs (it was right there in the first sentence).

It was two lines.

Yes, clearly you are baffled, but I am not in any way confused. You made a silly statement, probably you did not say what you meant to, but that is for you to clear up, not just insist that your point is a good one and be rude to people who pointed out your daftness.

It said exactly what I meant it to.

I have now written two paragraphs further clarifying.

I also linked a video explaining it.

I am not sure how much clearer you need me to be.

No, actually you haven't. But never mind pet, we're not all good at the words.

No, actually you haven't. But never mind pet, we're not all good at the words

Wow, I really wound you up eh?

Honestly though don't let that put you off engaging in the issue. The video is excellent, you should watch it. Professor Nutt is better at words and all that.

Didn't someone in authority say it would be class A if introduced now?

To move things on a bit, how does one begin to address the issue? Lots of people have suggested making the sale and advertising of alcohol similar to tobacco products so that it becomes more and more socially unacceptable (less glorified would be a good start ...).

But on a personal level, how far can you go? Most of us would say we were realistically able to assess our own drinking, even if we wouldn’t necessarily discuss our thoughts openly, but what do you do about the friends and family who clearly are drinking at dangerous levels? Who should be the ones to step in and at what point? For example I used to be close to a group of friends who drink heavily - upwards of ten bottles of wine a week each. I don’t see them anymore because I don’t enjoy drinking that much and their nights revolve around it, but who should be the one to say something? The point about normalisation is important, it has become a habit for them over the long term to the extent that one bottle a night is normal, two on a night out, 3-4 perhaps if it’s over the course of a day and night. How do o even begin to talk to them when it seems to be the glue that keeps their friendship together?

Not even slightly. You still haven't made the slightest sense, I'm not wasting my time on watching your video!

peppapigwouldmakelovelyrashers

Yeah you seem really chill about the whole thing.

Fruitboxjury

Well as somebody said up thread we were fairly successful in making smoking socially unacceptable. I don't think that would work though and I am not sure I would want it to. I honestly think we should be looking at why we have just this one mind altering substance (more or less) freely available and completely acceptable and not others.

But yeah, I don't have any answer to your question. Just more questions.

Didn't someone in authority say it would be class A if introduced now?

Probably. But as they say, or used to say, in German: If my grandmother had wheels she'd be a bus.

We have to live in the real world where alcohol has been used and sometimes mis-sued in every society since the year dot and none has ever been able to forbid it effectively.

Even though I dislike alcohol and have negative experiences of it badly affecting the people I know, I don't think alcohol should be banned. I don't think tobacco should be banned. I don't think drugs should be banned. I think each individual should be able to make up their own minds up about what they put in their body.

The problem is, I don't think people do completely make their own minds up - I think they are gently pushed. Through advertising, through the media and through society. Drinking is normal, not drinking is abnormal and antisocial. Anyone that never drinks can see this, drinkers can't.

Fruitboxjury: no, no one needs to 'have a word with them', and if you try it they would not be unreasonable to tell you to fuck right off.

We need a bigger culture of people leaving each other the fuck alone. Too many social problems come from grasses, meddlers, finger-pointers and fuckwits who can't stop pestering other people to 'be more like MEEEEEE'.

Too many social problems come from grasses

I just had to quote this.

It reminds me of subway tunnel graffiti.

Grasses ? Is your dog called wellard and do you think that makes you important, or indeed worthy of oxygen?

Anyway, I'm all for leaving drunks alone. Gutter or river, fine with me. Is that what you are advocating?

'but who should be the one to say something? '

Um, no one. You leave adults who are engaging in legal behaviour alone and if their behaviour doesn't suit you, you walk away.

'Anyway, I'm all for leaving drunks alone. Gutter or river, fine with me. Is that what you are advocating?'

What else is there to advocate? Unless an adult is behaving in an illegal manner, they have the right to go about their business unmolested.

"who should be the one to say something?"

I agree that spending time with people who have alcohol problems/drink very heavily can be uncomfortable. I don't see it as my role to say anything (unless I'm very close to them); in this situation I just keep drinking slowly/moderately and refuse offers of more alcohol. Or just go home early and leave them to it!

reanimated I wish I could give you a round of applause! Totally agree.