'Should Cheap Booze Be Banned?' poll discussion

steveomcg

iamgetting_annoyed wrote: »

For example if the supermarkets said that you had to spend at least £20.00 on groceries in order to buy alcohol the majority of people would be unaffected as they would buy the drink alonside their weekly shop. However, this would make it much more difficult for young people to get hold of cheap drink.

And if your having mates round for a game of poker and some beer you have do your weekly shop at the same time :rotfl:

Honestly its this years problem TM, in a few years the problem will still exist but we'll be more worried about hyrdogen cars blowing up our neighbourhood. The media needs something to blow out of proportion and politicians need to be seen to be doing some thing TM.

As has been wonderfully shown by the cost of fuel, taxing does nothing to slow demand and only extreme price can curb it in any way.

Idiophreak

steveomcg wrote: »

, in a few years the problem will still exist but we'll be more worried about hyrdogen cars blowing up our neighbourhood.

No kidding, if the new Bond's anything to go by, I *well* don't trust these fuel cells

gelmo

In addition to other agreeing with other comments which aim to alter the" acceptabilty " of getting smashed, might I suggest the following as an idea to reduce binge drinking and the associated antisocial behaviour.
Instead of adding cost to the alcohol, why not add cost to the container which holds the alcohol?The ( Re)Introduction of deposits on bottles and cans - only redeemable to over 18 year olds- may act as a deterrent to park and street drinking - but would not bother the sensible home drinkers who would return the case/cans and bottles. It seems to work in other countries- and would help reduce the cans and broken glass which litter our streets and open spaces.

Ego_Shredder

kaya wrote: »

All booze should be banned full stop.
How our future families will laugh when they read in the history books how we used to drink poison with our meal and binge on it at weekends, the idea being who can consume the most poison every saturday night and not die.
There is a reason you need a license to sell it, its a class d poison

Well said and from my own experience, alcohol has caused devasting effects on my life and I don't even drink it! I'm talking about home drinking neighbours from hell, or my alcoholic father that ruined my education prospects due to the instability, violence etc. I'm also refering to the many so called 'friends' who wasted years of my life and caused a lot of hassle in general, i.e. on one occasion one idiot would have been arrested and spent the night in a cell if it wasn't for my intervention. We were at a concert which I had been looking forward to for ages and he ruined it by hurling drink over the audience etc. I could list many more stories but this post would become too long and over personal.

So yes I am in favour of at the very least the banning of alcohol from supermarkets and also drinking in the streets. Home drinking is a grey area and I while I despise home drunkards, I think there are many more respectable home drinkers who simply like a glass of wine with their meal, or a nice sip or two of a liqeour.

As for pubs, I find they at least keep the noise and yob behaviour away from the suburbs......for a short while at least.

I cannot understand the abnormal fascination with alcohol or getting drunk. If I were to spend all week working to earn a wage, to then throw it all away on toxic awful tasting liquid.....well I would feel ashamed of myself and also feel bad about wasting my hard earned wages. There is simply no sense to it!

Ego_Shredder

Hooda_Thunkit wrote: »

Not so long ago, it was "socially acceptable" to drink and drive, until some very clever campaigns changed the public attitude toward that practice. Now drink-drivers are seen a social pariahs who are to be shunned.

The same sort of campaigns and change of attitude is required toward binge drinking; it is the curse of todays society, costs the country millions in the problems it causes, and if not stopped will eventually be the ruin of the great british way of life.

Bring on the folks who did the DD campaigns, and let them loose on this problem.

My response to that would be, how can you shame the shameless? Around 90% of our society is rough with bad breeding along with substandard upbringings from their 'parents'. There are solutions to this but they would be very unpopular to those in question!

Idiophreak

Ego_Shredder wrote: »

Well said and from my own experience, alcohol has caused devasting effects on my life and I don't even drink it! I'm talking about home drinking neighbours from hell, or my alcoholic father that ruined my education prospects due to the instability, violence etc. I'm also refering to the many so called 'friends' who wasted years of my life and caused a lot of hassle in general, i.e. on one occasion one idiot would have been arrested and spent the night in a cell if it wasn't for my intervention. We were at a concert which I had been looking forward to for ages and he ruined it by hurling drink over the audience etc. I could list many more stories but this post would become too long and over personal.

Surely all of these things were caused by alcohol abuse, not alcohol.

I read that someone stabbed their partner with a butter knife...should we all be eating with plastic sporks by now?

You can't ban something, especially something that's been "proven" (as much as anything is these days) to help people's health in moderation, just because a minority of people can't control themselves.

Ed_Zep

I voted yes. Not sure how it would work but pubs are going out of business. I think something should be done.

Was surprised at what the poll is showing. I thought it would be more even.

I went teetotal for 2008. Just for this year, I'm not drinking.
Now I think why do people bother with it? I don't miss it at all.

Ego_Shredder

You cannot stop idiots from over drinking and ruining the lives of others, but if good people stand and do nothing because it seems pointless to them, well the problem will get worse and worse. Doing something is better than doing nothing surely?

Idiophreak

Ed_Zep wrote: »

I voted yes. Not sure how it would work but pubs are going out of business. I think something should be done.

Why is pubs going out of business actually a problem, though?

Seems to me a lot of the reason they are is on account of the high cost of booze these days...So, maybe if the government scrap cheap store-bought booze, off licenses and corner shops etc will start closing - is that a problem?

I'm_With_Stupid

captainjoe1979 wrote: »

It seems to me that countries with high alcohol prices tend to have heavy drinking habits take Sweden its not worth having a drink unless you are going to get off your face!!

And people take to drinking a half bottle of vodka before they get to the pubs because it's so expensive to drink in pubs.