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There is not doubt that alcohol holds a unique place in our society.
It is used:
- in religious ceremony
- to celebrate
- in everyday social behaviour
- to help people relax and have a good time.
BUT it is also responsible for illness, violence, social disorder (fighting
and rioting) and death. For many people alcohol is part of everyday
life and is not given a second thought. But there is no doubt that regular
heavy drinking creates serious social problems.
In the early 1990s a new product came on the market, which seemed to
be designed to appeal specifically to the under-age market.
ALCOPOPS
Alcoholic lemonades and fruit punches appeal to the under eighteens
because they taste like soft drinks, they aren't bitter like beer or
lager, and unlike vodka or gin you can't taste the alcohol. In some
of these drinks, the fruit flavour is designed to disguise the alcohol
content.
So:
- it is very easy to drink alcopops quickly
- it can be easy to forget you are drinking alcohol at all.
By the mid 1990's the media had worked itself into a frenzy, reporting
on public outrage that the appearance of alcopops seemed to coincide
with a rise in underage drinking.
BUT
The problem didn't lie in the content of the drink themselves. After
all a bottle of Hooch is only similar strength to a bottle of strong
lager and no stronger than a short of the same quantity (for example,
vodka and orange). In fact, it may be that young people who only drink
alcopops will drink less alcohol than those who swig from bottles of
gin and vodka.
Teenagers are far less likely to dilute vodka and gin than adults are.
The problem was that teenagers who wouldn't normally have started drinking
so young, were attracted to alcopops.
However, there is another view that must be considered and that is,
that having accepted and perhaps liked the taste and effect of alcohol,
taken in attractively packaged form, that the teenager who will eventually
progress to a young adult will then accept more easily other forms of
acohol freely available in supermarkets, off licenses and bars. Let
there be no doubt about this. Alcohol has, and will, cause devastation
to many families when abused.
This is a problem because:
- drinking is especially likely to cause depression in young people.
- it has been shown that alcohol abuse is a factor in male teen suicide
(Lancet 8/8/98).
- the younger you start drinking the more likely you are to have problems
in later years. (The Economist 19/9/98).
Binge Drinking
Many young people are aware of the dangers of long-term boozing but
don't realise that it is possible to overdose on alcohol in the same
way as you can on heroin or crack cocaine.
It is possible to kill yourself with drink in just one evening.
Remember:
- the more you have to drink the less you will be able to think clearly.
- the more you have to drink the more difficult it will be to make
your own decisions.
- you may end up drinking far more than you want to just because your
friends encourage you.
- you may end up snogging someone you wouldn't normally touch with
a barge pole.
When drunk you are far less likely to be able to make important decisions
about sex:
- whether to have it at all
- who to have it with (see above)
- whether to use a condom.
By far the most popular reason given by teenagers who have had sex
without using a condom is that they were drunk at the time. If you are
going to drink BE CAREFUL:
- know your own limits and stick to them
- if you are going to drink in the open air, stick together
- don't let anyone fall asleep outside.
- Drunk people are especially susceptible to hypothermia as they don't
feel the cold and when asleep their body temperature drops.
Remember: Alcohol is a strong addictive drug no matter how attractive
the packaging or innocent the taste.
You will be interested to know that in February 2001 it was reported
by an European survey, that British children in their mid teens are
3 times more likely to be regular smokers than their Italian counterparts.
Three times as likely as their Russian counterparts to get horribly
drunk and twice as likely as the French to have drugs. Surely you would
not consider increasing those statistics.
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