Interesting Links for 22-02-2012

[andrewducker]

• Scotland, independence and the EU - what are the possibilities?
  (tags: eu scotland independence )
• 10 radical solutions to binge drinking. I like #10 the best.
  (tags: alcohol uk )
• Anticipating the medical care needed by vulnerable people brings benefits to patients and saves money
  (tags: healthcare )
• Ways the singularity could fail to happen

Comments

[spacelem]

One of the suggestions to improve drinking behaviour is "Raise the legal drinking age".

Really? That seems to be a terrible idea in America, where people first get to experience alcohol (legally) at university, and go nuts. I'd have thought "lower it, and encourage children to drink with their parents from an early age" would be a much better idea (as in most of Europe). Demystify it, make it routine. That pretty much rules out "Not in front of the children" too.

Here's a novel idea: "stop charging the fuck out of people who want to drink softies" Really, sometimes it can cost more to have a non-alcoholic drink, and there isn't even the excuse of tax!

[spacelem]

Oh yes, "make alcohol more expensive". So now poor people who want to drink still get drunk, only they have less money. Brilliant.

[danieldwilliam]

I agree about the cost of soft drinks.

I once had a conversation with the manager of a cafe my mates and I used to hang out in when we were underage. We'd head down and sit and drink coffee. We asked the manager if he minded. He didn't mind. He made more money selling us coffed than he did selling beer.

As for the age limit - I think it depends on what policy objective we have. Do we want to stop people getting very drunk in public and being violent? Do we want to stop people getting acute alcohol damage from binge drinking at home? Do we want to stop people getting liver damage or just fat from drinking steadily slightly too much than is good for them.

Tricky.

[andrewducker]

I agree. I was raised on moderate levels of alcohol (starting off with the occasional taste of a parent's drink and working up from there) and it seems to have left me and my brothers with a (mostly) sensible attitude towards alcohol.

[channelpenguin]

My parents were very moderate drinkers when I was young, but as kids we had some of the Friday night bottle of lambrusco (it WAS the 70's!), and the odd sip of beer... all the sensible stuff that's suggested.....but I still turned out to drink *massively* for a large proportion of my life (until giving up totally over 7 years ago).

My sister, I think is a pretty average UK drinker (i.e. often too much at once but not doing that all that often).

[spacelem]

I remember it took a long time for me to figure out what I could or couldn't handle. I didn't drink much at home, so most of that was at uni (along with all the fun that goes along with getting it wrong).

That said, my parents did give me some alcohol when I was younger, I could just never drink much of it because I didn't like the taste back then.