The UK rate of hospital admissions because of alcohol was higher than among users of any other drug cited in the report apart from heroin, and consumption of alcohol was much more widespread, with 94% of people in UK saying they had drunk alcohol in the last year, compared with 2.3% who had used heroin.
Err, 50 times safer than heroin at least.
He the government to stand up to the alcohol lobby and introduce mandatory health warning labels and minimum pricing, and lowering the drink-drive limit.
Winstock said: “These are all incredibly sensible things that have been recommended by several commissions, but have been ignored in the face of resistance from the alcohol lobby.”
Fuck off matey.
’… exposing them to acute harms such as accidents, trauma and suppression of their immune system (a particular worry during Covid).’
Ding ding ding! Found the Covid angle! C’mon, there’s got to always be one now, it’s like the law, or something…
“incredibly sensible things”
Odd phrase. If something appears sensible, why would it seem incredible?
The Guardian go on to say in their story:
“Only 7% of Scottish and English people surveyed reported not having been drunk at all in the past 12 months.”
Last survey I saw had 32% of Londoners teetotal. I think we can put this story down to the Guardian’s refusal to think when a pressure body makes up a story that fits their agenda.
Always reassuring to hear we’re good at something.
This should be treated as advance warning of the dangers of letting fanatics make the rules!
Definitely not before my dentist finishes drilling my broken tooth. Half a bottle was just what I needed after that.
Or as Tim put it, ‘Fuck off matey.’
Richardr
x 10
Seeing the source, you know it is going to be, at best, highly distorted spin, if not downright lies, but I’m afraid this sort of finger-waggery is manna to a disgracefully high proportion of journalists.
p.s Whatever happened to ‘reporters’? Can we get them back and ditch these ‘journalists’?
83% of statistics are made up.
@mc – surely you mean 83.27%? Got to make to look accurate (and not provide tolerance values)
“Only 7% of Scottish and English people surveyed reported not having been drunk at all in the past 12 months.” I despise people who can’t hold their drink.
The last time I felt my limit approaching was forty years ago and I was still well enough to cycle a couple of miles home safely. The last time I was drunk – experiencing The Whirling Pit when I went to bed – was undergraduate days. I don’t know about slurring my speech; more likely I sang a bit. I have never been drunk enough to fall down or need to support myself by grimly hanging on to things.
The last time I was merry with drink, at a neighbour’s party, he took it into his head to pose me the most difficult problem from the Maths Scholarship Exam at St Jim’s that he’d set in 1970-something. I only half heard it amongst the brouhaha. And I solved it. Forty years too late admittedly. Advice to aspiring Maths students: make your exams a party. You know it makes sense.
The last drinks party I went to I didn’t drink much – my pills, you know. I had a wonderful time, though, falling in love with the hosts’ West Highland terrier.
1930s Chicago: “Hey, why not just outlaw it completely, while yer at it?”
“Only 7% of Scottish and English people surveyed reported not having been drunk at all in the past 12 months.”
“with 94% of people surveyed in the UK saying they had drunk alcohol in the last year”
So 1% of people getting drunk without touching alcohol? Even by the innumerate standards of modern journalism, you’d think they would spot that error.