Drinking less - part 3

Following on from the previous post - I've been thinking more about changing attitude to drinking.

We ate in a well known Pizza restaurant last Saturday where I observed an interesting phenomenon. There was a group of youngish people, of whom some may have been over 18 but most looked about 16/17. They were all, as you would expect, drinking.

In fact, it's something that I remember doing when I was that age. You knew that:
a) In a restaurant you were more likely to get served
and
b) There was some loophole in the law (which at the time none of us knew the details of) that meant it must be legal.

Anyone who has watched the Inbetweeners may be familiar with this concept:


So what's the point of all this?

Well they weren't causing any trouble. They were sitting down, talking, and of course eating (which we all know is a very sensible companion to drink). In my view the perfect conditions for younger people to drink.

In a few months when they're all over 18, they'll be standing up, downing drinks to "move on", shouting, and skipping dinner because it costs money and takes time (and calories). And that's where it all goes wrong.

So surely we can learn something from this?

Why not change the law to allow 16 and 17 year olds to also consume beer and wine in restaurants as long as they're seating at a table with a full meal. Then, in addition, up the age you can drink in pubs & bars to 21.

It may seem like a radical idea at first, but once you think about it a bit more it achieves our objectives of changing the culture and attitude to drinking. It desensitises the excitement of drinking. After all, by the time you're old enough to drink in a pub you'll have had 4 years of doing it in restaurants and there'll be very little to be too chuffed about.

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.