Alcohol ban

With the increasing attention being given to how dangerous drinking alcohol can be, should the government implement a ban on alcohol? Do you think that all the publicity of the dangers of drinking is just hype? Should the government change the legal age limit for drinking? Should pubs do more to stop binge drinking?

There is no way that any government will ever make alcohol illegal, despite the fact that was recently found to be the fifth most dangerous drug, only behind heroin, cocaine, barbiturates and street methadone, because of the enormous profits being made from it and the revenue from taxing it. The alcohol lobby is extremely powerful, and so would block any attempt to stop them making their profits.

Despite the alcohol lobby itself, the public would be unlikely to be happy if the government tried to ban alcohol, not to mention the MPs themselves (who are fairly infamous for their love of a drink or two).

No matter how dangerous alcohol is found to be (and it after all a class one poison), and no matter how many people it may kill, the profit made from it will always outweigh the cost in lives.

There will be all kinds of more politically acceptable reasons given for why alcohol would remain legal, but the bottom line will always be that so long as someone can make such huge profits from it, it will always remain legal, no matter what.

I don’t believe that the dangers of drinking are just hype in any way, I have seen how an alcoholic dies and it is horrifying. I know the damage that it does to the liver and kidneys and what it does to the mental processes of alcoholics. However we have a long history in the UK of completely ignoring the dangers to health of any product that makes enough profit for the economy.

I would support an increase in the legal age to drink to maybe 21, but once again, the alcohol lobby would block such a proposal because they make too much money from the 18 – 21 market.

With regards to pubs or the industry itself trying to tackle binge drinking, laws have been in place for this for years. It has always been illegal for any landlord to serve more alcohol to anyone that is already drunk, but no landlord really takes any notice of this legal requirement (unless it suits their purposes for other reasons) because they would lose money in doing that. So seeing as they’ve always had the legal requirement to prevent it, why on earth would we expect them to do anything about it now? We are talking about an industry that came up with the inspired idea of mixing a dangerous drug and class one poison into such a way as to encourage young children to drink as many alcopops as possible. These are high profit margin products for them, so what should they care that they are doing everything they can legally get away with to encourage underage drinking without actually putting it into their hands directly.

Ration it

I do think the age could be lifted like in a couple of years to 30 when i turn it I think far too mny people get away with buying alcohol and it really should be stopped somehow. I also think crime statistics would lower aswell. It wouldn't solve it, but a lot of violent crimes are committed under the influence of alcohol. Also, probably less people killed by drivers.

I don't disagree with any of the points made above, which rightly point out the dangers of alcohol and the way profits come before health. Both individuals and brewers/publicans/shops share the responsibility for sensible drinking. I don't think that an alcoholic is justified in blaming providers of alcohol for a drink problem, nor do I think that brewers/publicans/shops can just say 'we're providing a service to people who want it'. As with cigarettes, if the public is aware of the health problems, sales are restricted to adults and support is available to those with a problem, then society has done all it can. Of course, this isn't the way things are in the real world!
The way alcohol is glamourised on TV makes me feel uneasy. Also, I think it's sad the way that many people think that they need to get as drunk as possible to make a night out 'good' (although I've often been guilty of this myself!). For many (all?) regular heavy drinkers, though, alcohol isn't really the problem - it's other areas of their life that they feel they need alcohol to escape from.
Maybe raising the legal drinking age would help improve the situation. To me, 18 seems too young and 21 seems too old.

people drink for many reasons and restricting the age will not make any difference at all.if the world wasnt so "cupped" then no one would feel the need to blot it all out with alcohol.

oh my god what a depressing subject......whers my wine.