Drinking

Spotting this on the BBC this morning:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7598288.stm

...and was delighted. I've been saying this for a few years now - that the attitude we have towards drinking is partially formed by the media. Quite often you hear a DJ tell us how they had a "big" night last night - and this is heard by many 16/17 year olds who then believe this is what they should do.

From the report

"...and a hangover as a marker of a good night out. "

It's spot on - and Radio 1 is undoubtedly the worst of the lot for promoting this.

Unless we address issues such as this, such what type of bars we license and where we allow them to be - we will never change the attitude and culture towards drinking. Increasing the price of alcohol of changing licensing hours will have no effect the amount we drink or how we behave after we have drunk it.

We have to be aware that it's not something we can change in a few months (it'll take years) but unless we start we'll never get there.