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Alcohol Abuse


The Riff-Raff Element
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Given the not-infrequent threads that appear on drinking in France -vs- drinking in the UK (with particular reference to the binge drinking culture), this program on M6 tonight at 20h50 could be of interest. Its been trailed for the last week on various radio stations. Summary below:

ZONE INTERDITE - Mag - Société

Date : 20/11/2005

Horaire : 20H50 - 23H55

Durée : 185 mn

Showview : 23171049.

Au sommaire: «Des jeunes en quête d'ivresse». Pour nombre de jeunes, l'alcool permet de mieux faire la fête et d'intégrer plus rapidement un groupe. - «L'alcool au travail». Alors que deux millions de Français souffrent d'une dépendance à l'alcool, il n'est pas anodin de constater que vingt pour cent des accidents du travail sont causés par l'alcool. Cinq millions de jours d'arrêt-maladie trouvent leur explication dans une consommation abusive. - «Les femmes et l'alcool». Reportage dans un centre spécialisé du sud de la France où l'on accueille les femmes alcooliques ayant un enfant. - «L'alcool pendant la grossesse: attention danger!». L'absorption d'alcool par la mère enceinte est devenue la deuxième cause de retard mental chez les enfants
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There was a bit on BBC Breakfast this morning about the relaxation of the licensing laws in the UK.

They interviewed a French journalist who has lived in London for 10 years, and mentioned the usual things about the French getting drunk at home and rarely on the streets, and drinking usually with food, but there were obviously problems such as more drink driving in France.

There was some comments from viewers on the BBC website,  among them this from Connor Hickey in Brixton ( sounds like an Irishman):

 

It is a red herring that 'Europeans' drink 'with restraint' and Britons do not. In hard working areas of Europe, like Northern Italy, Northwest Spain and the Germanic & Scandinavian countries the drinking culture is exactly the same. Of course, the French have plenty of time to drink slowly, but then, they don't have much to do

and this one:

I regularly go to France and you can go into any restaurant in any town or village and see lots of French people having lunch each day. In with the meal is a bottle of wine. It is always drunk fully (of course!). But then you see these people get back into their cars and rive away from the restaurant, or get into their vans and go back to work - as building site workers, electricians, plumbers - all sorts of things that we British would find unacceptable for health and saftey grounds alone!

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Alcohol affects all ages here in France. You only have to go round the back of the church some mornings to see what the youngsters have been drinking the night before and in the village supermarket,there is always some wine-smelling alcy buying a supply for the evening. We've had a lot of suicides round here over the years fuelled by drink and many many accidents too. In France people tend to be more private and get drunk indoors rather than in the street. Drinking in public is also against the law and every summer the local mairies place warnings in the paper reminding visitors and locals about this.
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When my husband was working in a small village about 45 minutes drive away from where we lived, he used to stop off half way through have a coffee when he started early in the morning. Once, starting later, he stopped at the same cafe at about 10am. The owner was very surprised that he still wanted coffee at that time, as the rest of the clientele were all on the white wine already!
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The following was culled from the BBC website. Read past the headline (which is UK orientated) and a more European picture is presented. Personally, although I drink, I find the consumption figures and the estimates of the costs incurred horrifying. For reference, the French Dept. of Health estimate that alcohol was responsible for 23,000 deaths in the country in 2004.

Quote:

UK alcohol sales 'buck the trend'

Alcohol sales are rising in Britain while the French and Germans are buying less, a report says. The 5% rise in sales from 1999 to 2004 was fuelled by demand for wine as UK overall consumption broke through the 8bn litre-mark, Mintel said. Some 88% of Britons drank alcohol in the last year, ahead of the French at 86% and the Germans at 70%, the consumer research group study showed.

Alcohol Concern said the rise was harming health and causing violence.

The report comes just a week after Office of National Statistics figures showed the number of alcohol-related deaths in England and Wales has risen by nearly a fifth in the last four years. Last year the French bought just under 6bn litres of alcohol, down 6% over the five year period, while in Germany sales dropped by 8% to just under 12bn litres.

The UK alcohol market also enjoyed the biggest rise in value, with sales estimated at £38bn - up 15% since 1999. French spending on alcohol increased by 7% to £28.5bn, while the German market fell by 4% to £32bn.

Wine sales in the UK rose by 23% in the same five-year period, while in Germany there was a slight rise and in France a small drop - although the French still consumed the most wine, almost three times as much as Britons.

Beer sales also fell in Germany and France, while the UK market remained stable. Men were the biggest drinkers in all three countries, but there were differences in the age ranges, the report said. In Germany, 20 to 24-year-olds were the biggest drinkers, while in contrast younger French adults were the least likely to drink alcohol.

Drinking was spread evenly across all age groups in the UK.

Drinking habits

Senior consumer analyst Hanna Kivimake said the growing popularity of wine in the UK was down to rising incomes, more "aspirational" drinking habits and the popularity of wine with female drinkers.

"There is a new cosmopolitanism that has helped drive what has been perhaps the most outstanding feature of the UK drinks markets since the 1990s - the rise and rise of wine consumption."

Alcohol Concern said the increase in drinking was harming health.

"As a consequence, we have seen an increase in the amount alcohol-related harm, including a massive increase in the number people developing liver cirrhosis at an earlier age.

"With up to 22,000 deaths linked to alcohol a year, as well as 1.2 million incidents of alcohol-related violence, it is clear that problem drinking has to be tackled if we are to reduce the harm it does to our society."

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hi ,how can you tackle alcohol abuse,its a fact of life,its been going on since time began and will allways be with us,you can educate people to the dangers,and treat them when they are ill, but you wont stop or change people from wanting to get***** faced

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Some scary figures in the latest (French) report, cited in the Guardian today:

The French government has been urged in a report to "snap out of its state of national denial" and take urgent steps to "denormalise drinking".

Hervé Chabalier, a leading journalist and former alcoholic who wrote the report, said: "In this country we have always, culturally, looked at alcohol through a magnifying glass: we just see the good side, never the fact that ... drink is the third greatest cause of avoidable deaths in France."

Mr Chabalier presented his report, Alcoholism - The Simple Truth, to health minister Xavier Bertrand yesterday. He said alcohol was directly responsible for 23,000 deaths a year in France, and indirectly responsible for a further 22,000.

"A third of all custodial sentences in this country, half of all domestic violence, a third of all handicaps are due to alcohol," he said. "One French person in 10 is ill as a result of alcohol, and every day five French people die after an accident linked to alcohol."     He said 5 million drank too much, and 2 million were dependent on alcohol.

The healthcare system was incapable of dealing with the plague. In greater Paris there were 245 hospital beds in specialist departments for alcohol-related problems, compared with more than 550,000 confirmed alcoholics, he said. But he acknowledged the "enormous strength and economic clout" of the alcohol lobby, where MPs leap to the defence of an industry that employs 500,000 people.

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Ah but, french women will often say a very polite non,or just take a little to drink when in company. However, it is acknowledged that Madame chez elle, is not adverse to having a secret tipple and some ladies have a problem with it. It is the who that intrigues me.

I am neither being cynical or snide.

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another percentage, only 2 percent of reformed alcoholics stay reformed.hope im one of the few,been without la booze  for just over four years now.i dried out in a clinic,about 70  percent male but an ever increasing number of females,and young people of both sexs
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[quote]Just shows how the drinking patterns are so different. I often wonder just how many ladies who refuse or take very little to drink at table will actually have a tipple when alone.[/quote]

Could not agree more about the ladies. A glass of watered down wine would not pass their lips in public; at home they drink Banyuls like Prohibition starts tomorrow!
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[quote]another percentage, only 2 percent of reformed alcoholics stay reformed.hope im one of the few,been without la booze for just over four years now.i dried out in a clinic,about 70 percent male but an...[/quote]

I know someone who works in a reception centre for drug and alcohol addicts in the UK, and a far greater proportion of public money is allocated to help the drug addicts, even though most of the clients are alcoholics. 

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hi pat and thanks for the encouragment.i think ive got the booze beaten,most of the time.but wont really be sure till they put me in the ground,i dont think i will ever touch a drink again but look at goerge bests very moving funneral the other day,some people say he wasnt worth the new liver he got but i know the demons he fought most his life and its not an easy fight.

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