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.

A lot more harm is caused in the world by people trying to control others and dictate what they can and cannot do. I choose to help by being kind to others and offer positive support - rather than judge them and try and change them.

A lot more harm is caused in the world by people trying to control others and dictate what they can and cannot do.

Rubbish. Sounds good, but absolute rubbish.

Not RTFT, but what struck me after moving back to the UK, was the number of people in business attire cracking open an alcoholic drink on their solitary commute home. I mean, seriously - is it normal to not be able to wait until you've got home/are in the pub? Until then, I'd associated solitary public drinking with people who had an alcohol addiction e.g. the oft portrayed 'drunken tramp' on the streets.

Rubbish. Sounds good, but absolute rubbish.

Tell that to the starving citizens of North Korea

Tell that to the starving citizens of North Korea

Oh please 😂

You probably admire that regime? At least no ones getting pissed and wasting hospital resources eh?

You probably admire that regime? At least no ones getting pissed and wasting hospital resources eh?

Oh yes. You got me there!

And yet many types of alcoholic drinks also carry health benefits. It's really not as simple as you make it out to be and entirely about moderation. I'm not a drinker myself but I'm not about to assume that all people who drink make bad decisions re alcohol consumption.

I'm not a drinker myself but I'm not about to assume that all people who drink make bad decisions re alcohol consumption.

Fortunately I don’t think anyone has said that.

What confuses me is the ANGER displayed around alcohol....dare to question it and people get so defensive and angry.

I don't get angry when people say "bacon's not good for you" I think...no...it's not....oh well, I don't eat loads of it"

Why the anger?

Grinch health benefits? So do apples. They don't make people sick though.

Thing is cheap I think it’s you and the militant non drinkers who sound angry.

You’re sort of shouting and berating everyone then aggressively accusing them of being angry. It’s weird

Gwen gosh I am not talking about the people in this thrread. I have no idea who you are and how much you drink and how. And I do not care one bit either.
I am prob thinking about the people I know and I wouls not call the alcoholics at all.
As I said I do not speak individually, I am observing a cultural trend that it is prob easier to do having grown up in a different culture in which, like Leiha points out, alcohol does not feature in te same way. And the difference is outstanding. And I am a bit concerned because of my children going through that teenage years where you must get pissed to have fun and be happy and be socially capable. I am a bit concerned when in most occasion wveryone drinks and if you don't the night is not so much fun for the simple fact that tipsy people are not as funny as the people (let alone drunk ones etc).

I also get that you won't get it as this is all you know and it appears the norm.

And I like a drink and see the benefit etc. I do not want to ban it or anything. But I do not associate a drink with a good time necessarily.

And comparing cheese with alcohol is ridiculous in the same way that comparing it with a cigarette is.
Having said that people are addiccted to choc and cakes and sugars and their phones and even the gym.

Of course the UK has a problem with alcohol. It’s got ridiculous in the last 20 or so years and costs the NHS and police, court system etc millions of pounds.

The denials remind me of the smokers who defend smoking. I actually really don’t mind if people want to drink too much but it effects me and my taxes, so I am allowed an opinion.
Successive govts will do little about it as they want to keep the population always slightly pissed or thinking about being slightly pissed. The Govts did the same to the Comminust bloc for decades. (Vodka was as cheap as chips during the communist era.)

Coincidence that only yesterday I was [shocked] at alcohol themed lip balm at a popular high street fashion store - gin and tonic, mint mojita, and strawberry daiquiri. Yup it's only a "joke" but it hit a raw nerve.

I've seen far too many people's lives wrecked through the pervasive influence and easy availability of cheap alcohol in the major supermarkets and people getting tanked up on cheap booze even before they go out for the evening. Sad.

To people saying that "humans were drinking alcohol for centuries...". Just keep in mind WHY they were drinking beer or wine.
Because it was safer than most available drinking water! Not because they preferred it that way.
Water was often contaminated due to poor hygiene.

Just keep in mind WHY they were drinking beer or wine.
Because it was safer than most available drinking water!

While I believe that to be true drinking alcohol and taking drugs does seem to be a constant across history and cultures.

Humans seem to like to get a lil bit high.

“Humans seem to like to get a lil bit high.“

Of course they like it, they also like sugar but that doesn’t mean people shouldn’t be advised that too much is a bad thing.

"they also like sugar but that doesn’t mean people shouldn’t be advised that too much is a bad thing"

But do you think sugar should be banned?

"Just keep in mind WHY they were drinking beer or wine.
Because it was safer than most available drinking water! Not because they preferred it that way."

Really? Can you go back into your time machine and ask all those ancestors of ours if they really hated every drop of alcohol they drank?

Alcohol was relatively more expensive then than it is now to wages. They wouldn't waste money they could hardly spare.
Drugs were often used to help with food shortages. Again - different context to how drugs are used now.
"taking drugs does seem to be a constant across history and cultures" - but for different reasons and not as heavy use as it is now

I do love a good alcohol thread on Mumsnet. I've lived in 3 countries in different parts of the world with wildly different drinking cultures, but I have never, ever come across the kind of pearl clutching about alcohol that I see on this site.

""taking drugs does seem to be a constant across history and cultures" - but for different reasons"

At least some were taken recreationally, as we do today. American Indians' "peace pipes" and peyote among native Mexicans, for example.

recreationally or as a part of sacred ceremonies?