Britain seeks an answer to crisis of binge drinking
Source: Agencies |
May 15, 2012, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE girls slumped in wheelchairs look barely conscious, their blonde heads lolling above the plastic vomit bags tied like bibs around their necks.
It's an hour to midnight on Friday, and the two girls, who look no older than 18, are wheeled from an ambulance to a clinic set up discreetly in a dark alley in London's Soho entertainment district.
They're the first of many to be picked up on this night by the ambulance, known as a "booze bus," and carried to the clinic - both government services dedicated to keeping drunk people out of trouble, and out of emergency rooms.
Binge drinking has reached crisis levels in Britain, health experts say, costing the cash-strapped National Health Service 2.7 billion pounds (US$4.4 billion) a year, including the cost of hospital admissions related to booze-fueled violence and longer-term health problems. Unlike all other major health threats, liver disease is on the rise in Britain, increasing by 25 percent in the past decade and causing a record level of deaths, according to recent government figures.
Doctors believe rising obesity is combining with heavy drinking to fuel the spike in liver disease, which is hitting more young people than ever.
"Undoubtedly professionals are seeing more (patients) in their late-20s to mid-30s, which would have been unusual 20 years ago," said Chris Day, a liver disease specialist at Newcastle University.
On the streets of Soho, most people are too busy drinking to notice passed-out partygoers. Streets lined with pubs and nightclubs are just beginning to get rowdy: Men chase each other and shrieking like teenagers; women stumble, falling over in too-short skirts and heels. Soon sidewalks are littered with empty beer bottles and reeking puddles.
Such public displays of extreme drunkenness are inexplicable and shocking to many foreigners living in Britain, even those from heavy drinking cultures.
Prime Minister David Cameron has declared binge drinking a national "scandal," and the government is seeking to curb the excess by introducing a minimum price for each unit of alcohol sold. Scotland, which has long struggled with a dire alcohol abuse problem, announced yesterday it wants to set a minimum price of 50 pence per unit - which would mean an average bottle of wine could cost no less than about 4.70 pounds.
The proposals have sparked lively debate - not least because of the unusually interventionist stance of the Conservatives. More to the point are questions about whether higher prices will cut excessive indulgence.
It's an hour to midnight on Friday, and the two girls, who look no older than 18, are wheeled from an ambulance to a clinic set up discreetly in a dark alley in London's Soho entertainment district.
They're the first of many to be picked up on this night by the ambulance, known as a "booze bus," and carried to the clinic - both government services dedicated to keeping drunk people out of trouble, and out of emergency rooms.
Binge drinking has reached crisis levels in Britain, health experts say, costing the cash-strapped National Health Service 2.7 billion pounds (US$4.4 billion) a year, including the cost of hospital admissions related to booze-fueled violence and longer-term health problems. Unlike all other major health threats, liver disease is on the rise in Britain, increasing by 25 percent in the past decade and causing a record level of deaths, according to recent government figures.
Doctors believe rising obesity is combining with heavy drinking to fuel the spike in liver disease, which is hitting more young people than ever.
"Undoubtedly professionals are seeing more (patients) in their late-20s to mid-30s, which would have been unusual 20 years ago," said Chris Day, a liver disease specialist at Newcastle University.
On the streets of Soho, most people are too busy drinking to notice passed-out partygoers. Streets lined with pubs and nightclubs are just beginning to get rowdy: Men chase each other and shrieking like teenagers; women stumble, falling over in too-short skirts and heels. Soon sidewalks are littered with empty beer bottles and reeking puddles.
Such public displays of extreme drunkenness are inexplicable and shocking to many foreigners living in Britain, even those from heavy drinking cultures.
Prime Minister David Cameron has declared binge drinking a national "scandal," and the government is seeking to curb the excess by introducing a minimum price for each unit of alcohol sold. Scotland, which has long struggled with a dire alcohol abuse problem, announced yesterday it wants to set a minimum price of 50 pence per unit - which would mean an average bottle of wine could cost no less than about 4.70 pounds.
The proposals have sparked lively debate - not least because of the unusually interventionist stance of the Conservatives. More to the point are questions about whether higher prices will cut excessive indulgence.
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