'Should Cheap Booze Be Banned?' poll discussion

naturally_2

Banning cheap booze won't solve anything while we still have a culture of people who want to get legless. Be it for the kicks or for escapism, we have a society who likes to get away from reality, either through drink or drugs. What happens if you take away somebody's ability to be able to afford alcohol, if they still wish to drink it in excess? Best case scenario they cut back in other areas to be able to fund the booze, say care of places like MSE that can show them about how to reduce their grocery or heating bills for example. Otherwise Mr. Drunk would get himself into debt to continue to drink, (just what the banks need right now, bad debtors), or what I suspect would happen would be that he and many other people would discover the joys of homebrew, causing a higher burden on the NHS from people who didn't calculate their brews correctly and end up poisoning themselves. Maybe he'd turn to recreational drugs instead, because they're now a much more attractive way of getting off his face than binge drinking.

Whichever way, the desire to "get off his face" hasn't stopped, the method of doing so has simply changed - and the negative impacts on society still exist.

Change the culture, not a symptom.

Hooda_Thunkit

Change the culture, not a symptom.

That's what I was suggesting, but found myself pooh-pooh'd by some posters...
It's easy to criticise others suggestions, but to be constructive takes thought...
I'll go now!

Katie-Kat-Kins

No don't ban cheap booze, increasing the cost of petrol didn't stop us driving (not even the boy racers who ruise around the block pointlessly on a saturday night) so why would it stop us drinking whether we are quiet social drinkers or problematic binge drinkers???

Having said that a lot of "problem" drinkers as an earlier poster said drink alcopops and premium lager, for two reasons, because they do the job quickly and because alcopops taste like pop not alcohol!

If we are going to introduce restrictions etc lets target the alcopops and the high strength lager not the real ale, fine wines and malt whiskey.

In Spain you can buy a litre of table wine for a euro and no one binge drinks, they don't have these problems in France or Italy either where wine is much cheaper so it is clearly a cultural issue.

It would be preferable to either restrict the strength of the various classes of drink, or to make it an offence to consume alcohol anywhere other than licenced premises or private property. Drinking on the street should never be acceptable. I believe both these restrictions work fairly well in Canada.

Gavin83

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.

Then thats their problem for charging too much for their alcohol. If their business is no longer effective then they need to find a way to change it, be it through the lowering of prices or another alternative method. They shouldn't expect the law to be changed just because they charge too much. Besides, I think the problem is to do with more issues than just the price of drinks.

I don't particularly think banning it from supermarkets will help either. In my experience supermarkets tend to enforce the checking of ID more than off licences or pubs. Most violence generally stems from a number of drunks being in one place, for example a pub or club. There are also problems with kids drinking on the streets but they can't buy it anyway. I can only presume they get older people to buy it for them or steal it from their parents. If this is the case then this solution won't make a difference. For the same reason increasing the age limit won't make a difference either.

Banning it altogether is also a bad idea. Prohibition rarely works; where there is a demand there will be a supply, regardless of if its legal or not. We've got a massive drug problem in this country despite it being illegal. This would also exclude those who drink responsibly. This is probably the worst solution the Government could take.

In regards to drinking on the streets, I thought this was illegal already? You certainly can't drink on the streets around here, or is it only certain areas you can't drink? I can see this becoming a law in the next few years anyway and it's actually quite a good option.

As for ending drink promotions, it's fairly obvious it won't make a difference. Our drinking culture is actually a hard problem to shift and Im quite interested to see how the Government deal with it.

malc_b

I morn the demise of the public info adverts. These used to mock bad drivers and as kid/teenager these stuck. Since the "weaver bird" advert left TV I now see that almost nobody on the motorway signals to change lane - coincidence? As a new driver your mates would jump at mistakes as a chance to rib you. Such things stick and make for good habits.

So my suggestion would be adverts that mock those who get blind drunk and generally are such pathetic examples of Homo Sapiens. Same for bad drivers. Far more effective than serious adverts that show accidents which people just ignore.

airheadgreg

HelzBelz wrote: »

It's the same as everything else the government legislates against, they penalize the majority because of the actions of the minority

I couldn't agree more. If the dreaded identity cards are introduced we could make them even more intrusive by having a swipe system in all shops to prove your age and also their could be a system where by the police can mark a card so that off lincences know if a person has caused trouble due to alcohol related incidents on several occasions and they could chose to refuse service...but that's just if we feel like Big Brother would be a fun idea :rotfl:

dillydilly

malc_b wrote: »

I morn the demise of the public info adverts. These used to mock bad drivers and as kid/teenager these stuck. Since the "weaver bird" advert left TV I now see that almost nobody on the motorway signals to change lane - coincidence? As a new driver your mates would jump at mistakes as a chance to rib you. Such things stick and make for good habits.

So my suggestion would be adverts that mock those who get blind drunk and generally are such pathetic examples of Homo Sapiens. Same for bad drivers. Far more effective than serious adverts that show accidents which people just ignore.

er, they do...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uZtwRqRyEN0

malc_b

dillydilly wrote: »

er, they do...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uZtwRqRyEN0

Too subtle and there is no label like weaver bird else how can it be used to rib someone. It needs a catch name, say Sally Slag, so that it enters common use. Really it needs to start in the playground. Whether anything will change grown up is hard to say. Certainly everyone ignores health warnings.

gonon

why not put the price of everything up beyond everyones reach that will keep us all :beer:out of harms way

busta1

Most people who enjoy cheap booze don't do anyone else any harm. You'll still get people fighting and drinking to excess with expensive booze, but then everybody suffers.

Look at cigarettes - really expensive, banned indoors and yet you still see smokers standing outside pubs in the rain.