Now Mr Duncan-Smith has come up with another great idea. Alcoholics (and drug addicts) on benefits will be given a credit card that will only allow them to spend their benefits on essential items.
I have some news for you: for addicts of any persuasion essential items include the substance of abuse
Mr Duncan-Smith and his Government have planned on cutting millions of pounds from vital treatment programmes in favour of a pay by success scheme run by private enterprise. He genuinely believes that by restricting money supply you will prevent addiction.
Quite frankly Mr Duncan-Smith you are a fool. An addict will do whatever it takes to get to their addiction unless some kind of intervention helps them change their behaviour
And that intervention does not mean remove their money supply.
If you remove the money supply then without psychological and physiological support all you do is drive the person to seek an alternate source of money, legally or illegally. The addict will not care where the money comes from they will simply seek to source the money.
In the 6 months following my mother's death my father pissed £60000 against a wall to feed his habit!
I am open and frank about the destruction that addiction brought to my family. It has cost me many things in my life that I hold dear but in the cold stark light of the morning sun it cost my family everything.
You cannot dictate to people how they spend their benefits unless you are prepared to incarcerate those people and force them into treatment programmes. As far as I am aware addiction is not a sectionable illness under the Mental Health Act and unless you change that law and bring back the asylum mentality of the Victorians it never will be.
Mind you Mr Duncan-Smith if you play your cards right then the addicts will break into farmers homes. Farmers who have shotguns who will be able to shoot the intruders. Two problems solved at once then!
Sunday 14 October 2012
Tuesday 11 September 2012
And should these lands in Ancient Times....
Interesting title scary subject.
None of us like talking about old age, everyone has a secret fear of death because we don't know what is going to happen. Even those who have absolute faith will at this time of life harbour some doubt and this is perfectly normal. Some however find dealing with the passing years more difficult, particularly those who are either long term single without children or those who have lost a dearly loved, possibly life long companion.
And unfortunately it means that some of us drink too much as we live out our daily lives.
The real question is does it really matter if you enjoy a tipple in these twilight times?
Professor Ian Gilmore commented about chronic disease in the elderly caused by alcohol on BBC Breakfast last Friday. I did radio interviews yesterday on the same subject. Yet we differ on one important factor. The chronic illnesses will not start generally in elder years they are a legacy of heavy or inappropriate drinking in those younger and middle years!
Stopping the elderly will stop acute drinking problems however the long term history is the real and present danger for not just our present generation of elderly but generations to come,
If someone wants to have a little tipple in their sixties onwards then we should not berate them for it. What we should do if we are worried about them is talk to them.
One of the most difficult things that children and grandchildren face is discussing a delicate subject with elders particularly if the younger generations exhibit the same behaviour. In my family as a student at university coming home and talking to my father about his alcoholism was a non starter. Talking to my mother was even worse. After all he was Scottish Protestant she was Irish Catholic.
It was only after mum was dead and dad had disappeared that my grandmother and I discussed the situation. It was enlightening and yet tragic how we as families do not really talk about those problems.
My take on the subject is quite simple.
If you are worried, if you think it's a problem, if you don't know what to do then open your mouth and talk about it. If not with the person then with someone else you trust. Don't hide it and don't brush it under the carpet because I can assure you from bitter experience it will destroy your family ............and may be your life.
None of us like talking about old age, everyone has a secret fear of death because we don't know what is going to happen. Even those who have absolute faith will at this time of life harbour some doubt and this is perfectly normal. Some however find dealing with the passing years more difficult, particularly those who are either long term single without children or those who have lost a dearly loved, possibly life long companion.
And unfortunately it means that some of us drink too much as we live out our daily lives.
The real question is does it really matter if you enjoy a tipple in these twilight times?
Professor Ian Gilmore commented about chronic disease in the elderly caused by alcohol on BBC Breakfast last Friday. I did radio interviews yesterday on the same subject. Yet we differ on one important factor. The chronic illnesses will not start generally in elder years they are a legacy of heavy or inappropriate drinking in those younger and middle years!
Stopping the elderly will stop acute drinking problems however the long term history is the real and present danger for not just our present generation of elderly but generations to come,
If someone wants to have a little tipple in their sixties onwards then we should not berate them for it. What we should do if we are worried about them is talk to them.
One of the most difficult things that children and grandchildren face is discussing a delicate subject with elders particularly if the younger generations exhibit the same behaviour. In my family as a student at university coming home and talking to my father about his alcoholism was a non starter. Talking to my mother was even worse. After all he was Scottish Protestant she was Irish Catholic.
It was only after mum was dead and dad had disappeared that my grandmother and I discussed the situation. It was enlightening and yet tragic how we as families do not really talk about those problems.
My take on the subject is quite simple.
If you are worried, if you think it's a problem, if you don't know what to do then open your mouth and talk about it. If not with the person then with someone else you trust. Don't hide it and don't brush it under the carpet because I can assure you from bitter experience it will destroy your family ............and may be your life.
Thursday 19 July 2012
For Goodness Sake It's the Dippy Dippy Take
I really enjoyed being interviewed today by Mark O'Donnell for the BBC because although a little tongue in cheek he made a valid point.
Why are the advertising campaigns of the anti-booze group so ineffective?
The answer is simple:
Because if they were good and people stopped drinking who would the groups wishing to abolish alcohol have to beat up on?
The reality is that the anti-alcohol lobby is reliant on the alcohol lobby being good at their jobs so there is reason for their existence.
If we want to make people change their drinking habits so as to reduce health and crime problems then we have to change their psyche. It really is that simple. That change can not be brought about by shocking people it has to be brought about through education and psychology of persuasion. We have to make people want to change.
It reminds me of the old joke about the psychiatrist and the light bulb:
How any psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?
Only one but the light bulb has to want to change!
And right now Great Britain doesn't want to change it's relationship with alcohol because it sees no reason to change that relationship. It is a little the battle against tobacco, we are in the same scenario. It's a legal drug that would probably be a Class A status drug if discovered today.
Please remember that I don't want people to stop drinking I want people to stop drinking in a harmful way.
That can only be achieved by consistent, loud and informed education.
Help me achieve that. Follow this blog if you have a genuine interest in alcohol, retweet me if you are on twitter and link it on Facebook and Google+.
Informed decisions start with debate and discussion. Do not hide from the question embrace it, grow with it and remember:
Enough small drops make a tidal wave!
Why are the advertising campaigns of the anti-booze group so ineffective?
The answer is simple:
Because if they were good and people stopped drinking who would the groups wishing to abolish alcohol have to beat up on?
The reality is that the anti-alcohol lobby is reliant on the alcohol lobby being good at their jobs so there is reason for their existence.
If we want to make people change their drinking habits so as to reduce health and crime problems then we have to change their psyche. It really is that simple. That change can not be brought about by shocking people it has to be brought about through education and psychology of persuasion. We have to make people want to change.
It reminds me of the old joke about the psychiatrist and the light bulb:
How any psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?
Only one but the light bulb has to want to change!
And right now Great Britain doesn't want to change it's relationship with alcohol because it sees no reason to change that relationship. It is a little the battle against tobacco, we are in the same scenario. It's a legal drug that would probably be a Class A status drug if discovered today.
Please remember that I don't want people to stop drinking I want people to stop drinking in a harmful way.
That can only be achieved by consistent, loud and informed education.
Help me achieve that. Follow this blog if you have a genuine interest in alcohol, retweet me if you are on twitter and link it on Facebook and Google+.
Informed decisions start with debate and discussion. Do not hide from the question embrace it, grow with it and remember:
Enough small drops make a tidal wave!
Wednesday 27 June 2012
Alcohol the ultimate Atkin's diet
What a strange day it has turned out to be thanks to this story
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/329161/Heart-attack-risk-in-dieting
Strange because I've been teaching this for the last 25 years, well in a round about way that is. You see alcohol is a carbohydrate that doesn't work like a carbohydrate and effectively your body enters Atkin's mode when you live purely off booze. This is why extreme alcoholics are thin.
Yes I know you get a beer belly but that is because normal drinkers continue to consume normal food amounts alongside their normal drinking and a pint of beer holds between 180 and 300 empty calories per pint on average.
So I am really glad that this study has finally come out and shown what we've all really known about but were too scared to talk about in public for fear of masses of litigation by the massive dieting industry. It's simple really carbohydrates are required in your diet so get used to that idea. You don't need loads but you do need them and if you really want to lose weight well it's all about cutting down slightly across the spectrum of food that you eat, not targeting a food area, and exercising slightly more.And it takes time there are no quick fixes! Simples really!
On a second note you are probably aware that I have no love of this sociopathic government in power particularly the way in which the poor and needy are going to suffer as a result of benefit changes in a time when there is no serious alternative for lots of people. This is particularly true in the area of mental health called addiction. However I'm going to blog about this at a later date for in this part of the blog I actually am going to praise David Cameron.
You see there has been a massive outcry over the fact he left his young child at the pub. As a parent I can not throw any stones here because the same happened to me with my beloved youngest son when he was four and we were on a trip to Disneyland Paris. One minute he was there the next he wasn't as everyone had assumed that someone else had taken responsibility. Luckily the fantastic Disney staff had him whisked him away to the security of lost children where we found him happily drawing away after he had been found queuing for a ride! So I don't blame the Prime Minister for that aberration although I do wonder about the security team. No the reason I am talking about this is because he took his children to the pub. By taking this action he has done what any European parent knows Don't mystify alcohol! However I can't help having a dig because if he doesn't help educators like myself work to educate the body politic then his Government is doing exactly that.
Come on Dave be brave and admit that you need people like me. People who are serious about effecting change and not about creating a diversive society!
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/329161/Heart-attack-risk-in-dieting
Strange because I've been teaching this for the last 25 years, well in a round about way that is. You see alcohol is a carbohydrate that doesn't work like a carbohydrate and effectively your body enters Atkin's mode when you live purely off booze. This is why extreme alcoholics are thin.
Yes I know you get a beer belly but that is because normal drinkers continue to consume normal food amounts alongside their normal drinking and a pint of beer holds between 180 and 300 empty calories per pint on average.
So I am really glad that this study has finally come out and shown what we've all really known about but were too scared to talk about in public for fear of masses of litigation by the massive dieting industry. It's simple really carbohydrates are required in your diet so get used to that idea. You don't need loads but you do need them and if you really want to lose weight well it's all about cutting down slightly across the spectrum of food that you eat, not targeting a food area, and exercising slightly more.And it takes time there are no quick fixes! Simples really!
On a second note you are probably aware that I have no love of this sociopathic government in power particularly the way in which the poor and needy are going to suffer as a result of benefit changes in a time when there is no serious alternative for lots of people. This is particularly true in the area of mental health called addiction. However I'm going to blog about this at a later date for in this part of the blog I actually am going to praise David Cameron.
You see there has been a massive outcry over the fact he left his young child at the pub. As a parent I can not throw any stones here because the same happened to me with my beloved youngest son when he was four and we were on a trip to Disneyland Paris. One minute he was there the next he wasn't as everyone had assumed that someone else had taken responsibility. Luckily the fantastic Disney staff had him whisked him away to the security of lost children where we found him happily drawing away after he had been found queuing for a ride! So I don't blame the Prime Minister for that aberration although I do wonder about the security team. No the reason I am talking about this is because he took his children to the pub. By taking this action he has done what any European parent knows Don't mystify alcohol! However I can't help having a dig because if he doesn't help educators like myself work to educate the body politic then his Government is doing exactly that.
Come on Dave be brave and admit that you need people like me. People who are serious about effecting change and not about creating a diversive society!
Tuesday 5 June 2012
What a Carry On
I'm sat here with the TV on half listening to a program on the late, great Kenneth Williams and it has got me to thinking about the latest headlines appearing in the Daily Mail this week.
Firstly the Oxford study claiming that 3 in 100 lives will be saved by reducing alcohol intake when looking at the 11 most common reasons for death in the UK.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2152424/Dont-drink-quarter-pint-DAY-Oxford-study-claims-slashing-official-alcohol-limit-save-4-500-lives-year.html
However this commentator thinks that this is a rather strange comment to focus upon when the reality is that the other 97 people in that 100 will still die prematurely. Look let's face it we drink too much in the UK. We're not as bad as some in the world who consume more but we are the worst in the world in the way in which we consume the alcohol.
It is Binge Drinking that really causes the problem in this country. Our bodies are simply not designed to cope with large amounts of alcohol in short spaces of time.
Physiologically speaking the group of enzymes that control the degradation of alcohol, the alcohol dehydrogenase family, are in limited supply in the human body. We know only a little about how they work and we cannot reproduce them on mass in tablet form. Put simply they are a miracle of nature that nature doesn't want mankind to make artificially. So nature has actually designed a defence mechanism against alcohol in small quantities but not for large quantities in a short space of time.
If you drink 24 units in 3 hours, roughly the equivalent of 7 to 8 pints of an average lager or cider in the UK, compared to drinking the same evenly over a 24 hour period then you cause about 33 times more damage to your body. Do it on a regular basis and you're storing up trouble for the future. If nature had not designed us to deal with small amounts of alcohol then no mechanism of coping would have ever evolved.
Now the second thing that caught my eye was a piece on Professor David Nutt. Now I like this guy and I think he is misrepresented a lot of the time but he doesn't understand the nature of drinking and driving if he thinks that putting an alcohol immobiliser in all cars will stop drinking and driving and change our national drinking habits as a byproduct.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2152586/Alcohol-sensors-cars-compulsory-says-controversial-professor-claimed-Ecstasy-safer-drink.html
A quick look at the internet tells anyone that a child of five with the right inexpensive kit can run around even the classiest of immobilisers. A serious drink driver will soon find a way around such a device and then where will we be left. If all cars have such a device then the police would have no idea who may or may not be under the influence. Before he starts talking about a world he simply has no real experience in he really needs to talk to those of us who do, and that means me. So if you want to drop me a line Professor please feel free.
The key to drinking and driving, and I've said this repeatedly, is a six fold plan that can only be implemented by Government action. It involves technology, yes, but that without effective public transport, effective education, a public psyche change to social intolerance, effective policing and effective punishment, it would not work.
Alcohol professionals in the UK well matron it really is a carry on.
Firstly the Oxford study claiming that 3 in 100 lives will be saved by reducing alcohol intake when looking at the 11 most common reasons for death in the UK.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2152424/Dont-drink-quarter-pint-DAY-Oxford-study-claims-slashing-official-alcohol-limit-save-4-500-lives-year.html
However this commentator thinks that this is a rather strange comment to focus upon when the reality is that the other 97 people in that 100 will still die prematurely. Look let's face it we drink too much in the UK. We're not as bad as some in the world who consume more but we are the worst in the world in the way in which we consume the alcohol.
It is Binge Drinking that really causes the problem in this country. Our bodies are simply not designed to cope with large amounts of alcohol in short spaces of time.
Physiologically speaking the group of enzymes that control the degradation of alcohol, the alcohol dehydrogenase family, are in limited supply in the human body. We know only a little about how they work and we cannot reproduce them on mass in tablet form. Put simply they are a miracle of nature that nature doesn't want mankind to make artificially. So nature has actually designed a defence mechanism against alcohol in small quantities but not for large quantities in a short space of time.
If you drink 24 units in 3 hours, roughly the equivalent of 7 to 8 pints of an average lager or cider in the UK, compared to drinking the same evenly over a 24 hour period then you cause about 33 times more damage to your body. Do it on a regular basis and you're storing up trouble for the future. If nature had not designed us to deal with small amounts of alcohol then no mechanism of coping would have ever evolved.
Now the second thing that caught my eye was a piece on Professor David Nutt. Now I like this guy and I think he is misrepresented a lot of the time but he doesn't understand the nature of drinking and driving if he thinks that putting an alcohol immobiliser in all cars will stop drinking and driving and change our national drinking habits as a byproduct.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2152586/Alcohol-sensors-cars-compulsory-says-controversial-professor-claimed-Ecstasy-safer-drink.html
A quick look at the internet tells anyone that a child of five with the right inexpensive kit can run around even the classiest of immobilisers. A serious drink driver will soon find a way around such a device and then where will we be left. If all cars have such a device then the police would have no idea who may or may not be under the influence. Before he starts talking about a world he simply has no real experience in he really needs to talk to those of us who do, and that means me. So if you want to drop me a line Professor please feel free.
The key to drinking and driving, and I've said this repeatedly, is a six fold plan that can only be implemented by Government action. It involves technology, yes, but that without effective public transport, effective education, a public psyche change to social intolerance, effective policing and effective punishment, it would not work.
Alcohol professionals in the UK well matron it really is a carry on.
Thursday 24 May 2012
Janus is here
Janus is the famed Roman God with two faces facing in opposite directions. Mythology states that this is all about beginnings and transitions. Well that's what is happening today by the look of things.
Let me start with Mr Duncan-Smith's idiotic plan to cut the benefits of alcoholics and drug abusers. I'm just wondering where all the funding is going to come from to deal with all this addiction therapy because it is going to cost an awful lot more than the benefits that are handed out. Or perhaps it's going to be all those kind volunteers (sorry workplace trainees) that will be giving out the therapy for free. Secondly as drug or drink rehabilitation is a long and very complex program then where will the addicts get their money from to live? Well watch out the crime rate will rise because of the lossof those police officers laid off by the kindly Mrs May just to help out the lifelong criminals. Funnily enough they're not likely to stop drinking (current therapy success rates run at about 40 percent in a very good environment) so what part of the Private Health Service (Sorry Mr Lansley I know you're still calling the National Health Service) will be there to help them out?
Do I sound cynical in my old age? Quite possibly but that is the reality of the plans being proposed by an already discredited Work and Pensions secretary responsible for the wholesale destruction of the fundamentally needy in the United Kingdom. Disabled or ill people, we don't need them anymore do we? Well not according to the Government. So the good news is that new improved Ethnic cleansing has arrived in the UK and guess what we don't need to even buy the bullets we can just let them starve to death!
And so to the second news of the day to do with alcohol, Luke McCormick, the ex Plymouth Argyle goalkeeper involved in the fatal car crash because of his drinking and driving. The word is that he is being released from prison and that Swindon Town are going to offer him a trial. Jeremy Wray the Swindon Chairman has acknowledged he is ready for the backlash., for backlash there will certainly be, but not from this commentator.
Let me make something perfectly clear. I have nothing but sympathy for the Peak family. Losing their children in such an horrific way doesn't even bear thinking about for this father and it was absolutely right that Luke McCormick went to jail. Arron and Ben Peak should not be forgotten ever but this story should not be about vengeance it should be about hope. Hope that we can move on, hope that we can take this terrible situation and turn it into something positive.
Before people start to castigate me I want you to ask yourself a very important question.
Could I have been in Luke McCormick's position?
Well the answer to that is simply yes. Reaching twice the drink drive limit (McCormick's reading) can be a simple as drinking just TWO PINTS of Stella Artois or Blackthorn. Now think on that. You see pretty much anyone of the 22000 plus people I have worked with over the last 15 years who have been convicted of Drink Driving could have been in his position. And so could you!
Nothing will bring back Arron and Ben but with positive education to prevent things like this happening maybe just maybe this will bring the focus back to drinking and driving rather than all the baloney that is being talked about drugs and driving.
1 in 3 people in the United Kingdom drink and drive on a regular basis, that's 10 yes 10 million drivers.
9 out of 10 drivers have done it at some point in their lives
Jeremy Wray, I wish you well and in many ways I salute you. If you need my help you know where to find me.
Let me start with Mr Duncan-Smith's idiotic plan to cut the benefits of alcoholics and drug abusers. I'm just wondering where all the funding is going to come from to deal with all this addiction therapy because it is going to cost an awful lot more than the benefits that are handed out. Or perhaps it's going to be all those kind volunteers (sorry workplace trainees) that will be giving out the therapy for free. Secondly as drug or drink rehabilitation is a long and very complex program then where will the addicts get their money from to live? Well watch out the crime rate will rise because of the lossof those police officers laid off by the kindly Mrs May just to help out the lifelong criminals. Funnily enough they're not likely to stop drinking (current therapy success rates run at about 40 percent in a very good environment) so what part of the Private Health Service (Sorry Mr Lansley I know you're still calling the National Health Service) will be there to help them out?
Do I sound cynical in my old age? Quite possibly but that is the reality of the plans being proposed by an already discredited Work and Pensions secretary responsible for the wholesale destruction of the fundamentally needy in the United Kingdom. Disabled or ill people, we don't need them anymore do we? Well not according to the Government. So the good news is that new improved Ethnic cleansing has arrived in the UK and guess what we don't need to even buy the bullets we can just let them starve to death!
And so to the second news of the day to do with alcohol, Luke McCormick, the ex Plymouth Argyle goalkeeper involved in the fatal car crash because of his drinking and driving. The word is that he is being released from prison and that Swindon Town are going to offer him a trial. Jeremy Wray the Swindon Chairman has acknowledged he is ready for the backlash., for backlash there will certainly be, but not from this commentator.
Let me make something perfectly clear. I have nothing but sympathy for the Peak family. Losing their children in such an horrific way doesn't even bear thinking about for this father and it was absolutely right that Luke McCormick went to jail. Arron and Ben Peak should not be forgotten ever but this story should not be about vengeance it should be about hope. Hope that we can move on, hope that we can take this terrible situation and turn it into something positive.
Before people start to castigate me I want you to ask yourself a very important question.
Could I have been in Luke McCormick's position?
Well the answer to that is simply yes. Reaching twice the drink drive limit (McCormick's reading) can be a simple as drinking just TWO PINTS of Stella Artois or Blackthorn. Now think on that. You see pretty much anyone of the 22000 plus people I have worked with over the last 15 years who have been convicted of Drink Driving could have been in his position. And so could you!
Nothing will bring back Arron and Ben but with positive education to prevent things like this happening maybe just maybe this will bring the focus back to drinking and driving rather than all the baloney that is being talked about drugs and driving.
1 in 3 people in the United Kingdom drink and drive on a regular basis, that's 10 yes 10 million drivers.
9 out of 10 drivers have done it at some point in their lives
Jeremy Wray, I wish you well and in many ways I salute you. If you need my help you know where to find me.
Monday 7 May 2012
Junkies of the world unite
There are different classes of drugs and different schedules of drugs, legal drugs are used illegally and prescription medications are taken incorrectly by millions of people.
With the new proposed law on drug driving and the hype surrounding it then I see a lot of pensioners and disabled people being forced from the roads. Why? Because we are about to go down the same route as we did in 1967 with drinking and driving where a political solution was a half baked badly thought out compromise with no real long term strategy,
Let's get one thing straight there is a law on the statute books that allows the prosecution of drug drivers right now. By setting a political not a physiological or psychological limit we are making drug driving as idiosyncratic as drink driving.
I do not want to see drug driving to be seen as okay but I want to turn around the whole idea of substance abuse and driving full stop. And as the person who has personally worked with more offenders than anyone else in the United Kingdom who fall into this category then it would seem wise of the Government to at least take my views into account!
Unfortunately that is unlikely to happen because this government is not a government of substance it is a government of sound bites. A government that has more cracks in it than the Giants Causeway, And it sees this as a way of gaining good publicity.
I am passionate about preventing death and serious injury on the road and those who know my story know that I will stop at nothing to change our society's perception of what is and what isn't safe when related substance abuse and driving but I do not want to see a few scapegoats.
I WANT REAL, DEFINITIVE AND POSITIVE CHANGE
And to do that we need a strategy based around investment in our future, Education, Public Transport, Cultural Intolerance, Effective Policing and appropriate punishment. Not a policy based around allowing a poorly trained police force and an uneducated public come face to face in a stand off where there can be only one loser......Society
With the new proposed law on drug driving and the hype surrounding it then I see a lot of pensioners and disabled people being forced from the roads. Why? Because we are about to go down the same route as we did in 1967 with drinking and driving where a political solution was a half baked badly thought out compromise with no real long term strategy,
Let's get one thing straight there is a law on the statute books that allows the prosecution of drug drivers right now. By setting a political not a physiological or psychological limit we are making drug driving as idiosyncratic as drink driving.
I do not want to see drug driving to be seen as okay but I want to turn around the whole idea of substance abuse and driving full stop. And as the person who has personally worked with more offenders than anyone else in the United Kingdom who fall into this category then it would seem wise of the Government to at least take my views into account!
Unfortunately that is unlikely to happen because this government is not a government of substance it is a government of sound bites. A government that has more cracks in it than the Giants Causeway, And it sees this as a way of gaining good publicity.
I am passionate about preventing death and serious injury on the road and those who know my story know that I will stop at nothing to change our society's perception of what is and what isn't safe when related substance abuse and driving but I do not want to see a few scapegoats.
I WANT REAL, DEFINITIVE AND POSITIVE CHANGE
And to do that we need a strategy based around investment in our future, Education, Public Transport, Cultural Intolerance, Effective Policing and appropriate punishment. Not a policy based around allowing a poorly trained police force and an uneducated public come face to face in a stand off where there can be only one loser......Society
Monday 23 April 2012
Morning All
I recently saw a piece on BBC Breakfast about the morning after in relation to drinking and driving. Well about time too.
It makes absolutely no difference if you are a certain level at 9am or 9pm the alcohol will have the same impact upon your body.
1. Sleeping does not speed up the time taken to remove alcohol from your body! So when you're told to sleep it off it's not to speed up the rate of removal of alcohol it's because the person having to deal with you is fed up of playing nanny to you!
2. Drinking water will not speed up the rate of removal of alcohol but it will help you stay hydrated and lessen the impacts of the diuretic nature of alcohol
3. Drinking black coffee or heavily caffeinated energy drinks will not make the slightest of difference and actually in the long run likely to make you feel worse because of the diuretic effect of caffeine. And by the way you do not derive energy from caffeine it merely stimulates the brain and the heart and gives a false sense of energy.
4. You are less dangerous when you've had a sleep. Nonsense the level of risk is not associated with sleep it's associated with the level of intoxicant in your body and the consequential shutdown of the nervous system.
We do not talk about the morning after EVER and that potentially is a fatal mistake. It's not just about driving it's about all walks of life. People have not a clue at the rate of elimination of alcohol from the human body. This whole one unit per hour thing is total and utter nonsense. There is no physiologist,yet, on this planet who is able to precisely tell how fast any individual removes alcohol from the body. It is all about smoke and mirrors again.
Please enjoy your evening out but as Winston once famously said:
"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail"
The morning after is not just about the pill!
It makes absolutely no difference if you are a certain level at 9am or 9pm the alcohol will have the same impact upon your body.
1. Sleeping does not speed up the time taken to remove alcohol from your body! So when you're told to sleep it off it's not to speed up the rate of removal of alcohol it's because the person having to deal with you is fed up of playing nanny to you!
2. Drinking water will not speed up the rate of removal of alcohol but it will help you stay hydrated and lessen the impacts of the diuretic nature of alcohol
3. Drinking black coffee or heavily caffeinated energy drinks will not make the slightest of difference and actually in the long run likely to make you feel worse because of the diuretic effect of caffeine. And by the way you do not derive energy from caffeine it merely stimulates the brain and the heart and gives a false sense of energy.
4. You are less dangerous when you've had a sleep. Nonsense the level of risk is not associated with sleep it's associated with the level of intoxicant in your body and the consequential shutdown of the nervous system.
We do not talk about the morning after EVER and that potentially is a fatal mistake. It's not just about driving it's about all walks of life. People have not a clue at the rate of elimination of alcohol from the human body. This whole one unit per hour thing is total and utter nonsense. There is no physiologist,yet, on this planet who is able to precisely tell how fast any individual removes alcohol from the body. It is all about smoke and mirrors again.
Please enjoy your evening out but as Winston once famously said:
"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail"
The morning after is not just about the pill!
Friday 6 April 2012
Here we go again, from the mouth of who?
A recent report from the world of dentistry suggests that dentists should be the people who quiz you about your alcohol intake and then teach you how not to drink too much.
Well to be precise to get dental nurses and hygienists to teach you.
Here we go again, walking down the only road I've ever known.
It feels like the classic Whitesnake song because I seem to have trod this path before. These people have simply no training about alcohol apart from the stuff that is in mouthwash of course. How on earth can dentists truly believe that this is the way forward. And half the time the people you are trying to reach don't go to a dentist anyway because they can't get one on the NHS!
Alcohol education should be left to the professionals, not the amateurs. It needs to be carefully manged otherwise all the old wives tales will just keep coming back, and back and back again. A bit like plaque really.
Whilst I believe that education in alcohol should be as consistent as brushing your teeth the education has to be correct in the first place. It is true that dentists search for mouth cancers etc but it is only really spirit drinkers that are at real risk of these type of cancers.
If you drink 5 units of neat spirits per day on average then the chances of you developing an upper GI cancer is increased by 80%. Now that is stunning however two things needed to be pointed out.
Firstly the incidence of upper GI cancer in the UK is far less than lower GI (bowel) cancer and it is hard enough persuading people, especially men, to get checked for this. If they are going to be quizzed by the dentist then there is a very high chance of denial. Secondly the number of neat spirit drinkers in the UK is nowhere near as high as those from say Russia or Japan where we see high rates of oesophageal carcinomas. Now the problem is that the majority of these carcinomas are lower in the oesophagus and no dentist would be able to spot them by observation. And on a further point smoking actually causes a bigger problem in this type of cancer yet I cannot ever remember being asked about my smoking habits or being educated by a dentist about this. OK you say I don't smoke which is correct but I would still like to have seen some articulation about the dangers.
Whilst I am glad that dentists appear to be joining the fight I wonder in these times of austerity is it some more smoke and mirrors.
Real education now from real educators!
Well to be precise to get dental nurses and hygienists to teach you.
Here we go again, walking down the only road I've ever known.
It feels like the classic Whitesnake song because I seem to have trod this path before. These people have simply no training about alcohol apart from the stuff that is in mouthwash of course. How on earth can dentists truly believe that this is the way forward. And half the time the people you are trying to reach don't go to a dentist anyway because they can't get one on the NHS!
Alcohol education should be left to the professionals, not the amateurs. It needs to be carefully manged otherwise all the old wives tales will just keep coming back, and back and back again. A bit like plaque really.
Whilst I believe that education in alcohol should be as consistent as brushing your teeth the education has to be correct in the first place. It is true that dentists search for mouth cancers etc but it is only really spirit drinkers that are at real risk of these type of cancers.
If you drink 5 units of neat spirits per day on average then the chances of you developing an upper GI cancer is increased by 80%. Now that is stunning however two things needed to be pointed out.
Firstly the incidence of upper GI cancer in the UK is far less than lower GI (bowel) cancer and it is hard enough persuading people, especially men, to get checked for this. If they are going to be quizzed by the dentist then there is a very high chance of denial. Secondly the number of neat spirit drinkers in the UK is nowhere near as high as those from say Russia or Japan where we see high rates of oesophageal carcinomas. Now the problem is that the majority of these carcinomas are lower in the oesophagus and no dentist would be able to spot them by observation. And on a further point smoking actually causes a bigger problem in this type of cancer yet I cannot ever remember being asked about my smoking habits or being educated by a dentist about this. OK you say I don't smoke which is correct but I would still like to have seen some articulation about the dangers.
Whilst I am glad that dentists appear to be joining the fight I wonder in these times of austerity is it some more smoke and mirrors.
Real education now from real educators!
Saturday 31 March 2012
Addiction brings Addiction, Suffer the Little Children
Well I never the charity Addaction have made a startling statement.
1 in 4 children have parents with drug or alcohol problems and they are SEVEN yes 7 times more likely to develop the same problems as those parents.
This is not new news but 2.6 million children in the UK living with a hazardous drinker is a time bomb waiting to happen. And the study claims that a third of social workers have no understanding of this. A third! they're being generous I think. I have reviewed Social Work training in the UK and to be quite frank there appears to be no mandatory training in undergraduate courses on substance abuse. Lots on the law and Social Work, lots on reflective writing but virtually nothing as far as I can see on alcohol abuse.
I am absolutely convinced and I shall be always convinced that if you want to change the culture of any society then you have to make that society want to change and that starts with an individual being educated. Simply telling people to change is not going to work you have to inspire change.
With the government looking at a minimum pricing strategy as it's focus on dealing with alcohol challenges it shows how little they listen. Even their own MP, David Burrowes who chaired the commission looking at this would appear to be saying it's about treating the cause of the problem not the treatment post problem that matters.
What you do with addicted parents if you drive up the price of that addiction is make them poorer or drive them into crime and ultimately make their children suffer as you do not stop the addiction. David Cameron's minimum price strategy is therefor likely to see a detrimental effect on nearly three million children and what will that do for the long term health and wealth of the United Kingdom?
We can make a change and we can make a difference but for goodness sake get the politicos out of the loop. They are only interested in the next election, not the next generation. Help us who work tirelessly to educate and make a difference by providing us with the resources and we shall show you change. It will not be in an election cycle it will be generational but if we don't start now we cannot hope to protect those children. Stop thinking about votes and start thinking about people.
Inspiration not castigation, education not thought control.
1 in 4 children have parents with drug or alcohol problems and they are SEVEN yes 7 times more likely to develop the same problems as those parents.
This is not new news but 2.6 million children in the UK living with a hazardous drinker is a time bomb waiting to happen. And the study claims that a third of social workers have no understanding of this. A third! they're being generous I think. I have reviewed Social Work training in the UK and to be quite frank there appears to be no mandatory training in undergraduate courses on substance abuse. Lots on the law and Social Work, lots on reflective writing but virtually nothing as far as I can see on alcohol abuse.
I am absolutely convinced and I shall be always convinced that if you want to change the culture of any society then you have to make that society want to change and that starts with an individual being educated. Simply telling people to change is not going to work you have to inspire change.
With the government looking at a minimum pricing strategy as it's focus on dealing with alcohol challenges it shows how little they listen. Even their own MP, David Burrowes who chaired the commission looking at this would appear to be saying it's about treating the cause of the problem not the treatment post problem that matters.
What you do with addicted parents if you drive up the price of that addiction is make them poorer or drive them into crime and ultimately make their children suffer as you do not stop the addiction. David Cameron's minimum price strategy is therefor likely to see a detrimental effect on nearly three million children and what will that do for the long term health and wealth of the United Kingdom?
We can make a change and we can make a difference but for goodness sake get the politicos out of the loop. They are only interested in the next election, not the next generation. Help us who work tirelessly to educate and make a difference by providing us with the resources and we shall show you change. It will not be in an election cycle it will be generational but if we don't start now we cannot hope to protect those children. Stop thinking about votes and start thinking about people.
Inspiration not castigation, education not thought control.
Sunday 25 March 2012
A few more drops
For those who know me they know my motto:
Enough small drops together make a tidal wave.
This particular part of my blog I would like to dedicate to all those people who have helped in making a difference in peoples lives when it comes to alcohol.
You cannot make someone change but you can support them as they effect the changes they have decided upon.
It is that support that is vital. Alcoholism is a lonely place. No where in this world are you more in a crowd yet eerily isolated from that crowd. You could shout all day and all night but the chance of someone hearing you is slim.
So I would like to pay tribute to those that I have known who work so tirelessly, and selflessly to help others. And to that crowd of people I would like to welcome someone new, my twitter friend Mike Andrews. Here is someone with no knowledge of the world of pain that alcohol brings who saw someone on the street and decided to get involved. He made a courageous decision because most people would have walked on by. He chose not to and although I have counselled him at great length of the pitfalls that he faces he still took that first awesome step to help someone else.
Please read Mike's blog (he's new to this as well) http://helpbarney.blogspot.co.uk/ and offer him the encouragement that he will need. For the task he has undertaken is a tough one. He knows that I am there to support him in anyway that I can but the more drops we can bring together the greater the impact.
One thing I love about the ability to blog and to tweet in an invisible world is the power that has to bring together so many people with so many skills who can help move things forward.
If we are truly going to effect some kind of culture shift when it comes to alcohol then it cannot be done by minimum pricing, prohibition or the drunk tank. It has to be done by people coming together, learning together, supporting each other and moving the goalposts.
Enough small drops together make a tidal wave.
This particular part of my blog I would like to dedicate to all those people who have helped in making a difference in peoples lives when it comes to alcohol.
You cannot make someone change but you can support them as they effect the changes they have decided upon.
It is that support that is vital. Alcoholism is a lonely place. No where in this world are you more in a crowd yet eerily isolated from that crowd. You could shout all day and all night but the chance of someone hearing you is slim.
So I would like to pay tribute to those that I have known who work so tirelessly, and selflessly to help others. And to that crowd of people I would like to welcome someone new, my twitter friend Mike Andrews. Here is someone with no knowledge of the world of pain that alcohol brings who saw someone on the street and decided to get involved. He made a courageous decision because most people would have walked on by. He chose not to and although I have counselled him at great length of the pitfalls that he faces he still took that first awesome step to help someone else.
Please read Mike's blog (he's new to this as well) http://helpbarney.blogspot.co.uk/ and offer him the encouragement that he will need. For the task he has undertaken is a tough one. He knows that I am there to support him in anyway that I can but the more drops we can bring together the greater the impact.
One thing I love about the ability to blog and to tweet in an invisible world is the power that has to bring together so many people with so many skills who can help move things forward.
If we are truly going to effect some kind of culture shift when it comes to alcohol then it cannot be done by minimum pricing, prohibition or the drunk tank. It has to be done by people coming together, learning together, supporting each other and moving the goalposts.
Friday 23 March 2012
Reflections on a Friday Night
Well today has been long and involved. First of all 6 hours of lecturing followed by various interviews about alcohol followed by catching up with some of the stories on the news.
The Government apparently is going to consult about the minimum price of alcohol. I doubt that very much. This policy has been rushed out to avoid the obvious embarrassment that the so called Granny Tax has caused in Georgey Boy's budget. Also it is an olive branch to the hospitals and physicians who were castrated by the health bill.
Here's a question. How many OAP's enjoy a bottle of sherry or wine at home? Are they down the pub? So add the extra price created my minimum pricing onto the already frozen personal allowances and rise in fuel duty, couple that with the loss in disability benefits and the rising cost of home care and you hit pensioners every which way.
Now what about those raging alcoholics? If they can no longer afford their drinks will they steal, or will they turn to meths again? Or hand wash in the hospitals?
And the young ones. Why spend £20 on two or three pints when Johnny drug dealer will sell you a line of coke for that price?
This minimum price of alcohol was designed to get people thinking away from the budget. Does the Prime Minister really think that we are stupid. I said that the Government would claw back the losses through alcohol and I think I am going to be proven right. After all I'm long enough to remember when we doubled the rate of spirit duty to pay off the loan we had from the IMF back in the early eighties.
This Government no more wants to consult about alcohol as I want to go skinny dipping in a pool of crocodiles. This Government thinks it is bigger than the electorate. If it believed Labour was using nanny state policies then this is the biggest of them all.
Education now to our children, education now to our parents and inspire people to give up binge drinking for prohibition never worked.......unless of course you were Al Capone!
The Government apparently is going to consult about the minimum price of alcohol. I doubt that very much. This policy has been rushed out to avoid the obvious embarrassment that the so called Granny Tax has caused in Georgey Boy's budget. Also it is an olive branch to the hospitals and physicians who were castrated by the health bill.
Here's a question. How many OAP's enjoy a bottle of sherry or wine at home? Are they down the pub? So add the extra price created my minimum pricing onto the already frozen personal allowances and rise in fuel duty, couple that with the loss in disability benefits and the rising cost of home care and you hit pensioners every which way.
Now what about those raging alcoholics? If they can no longer afford their drinks will they steal, or will they turn to meths again? Or hand wash in the hospitals?
And the young ones. Why spend £20 on two or three pints when Johnny drug dealer will sell you a line of coke for that price?
This minimum price of alcohol was designed to get people thinking away from the budget. Does the Prime Minister really think that we are stupid. I said that the Government would claw back the losses through alcohol and I think I am going to be proven right. After all I'm long enough to remember when we doubled the rate of spirit duty to pay off the loan we had from the IMF back in the early eighties.
This Government no more wants to consult about alcohol as I want to go skinny dipping in a pool of crocodiles. This Government thinks it is bigger than the electorate. If it believed Labour was using nanny state policies then this is the biggest of them all.
Education now to our children, education now to our parents and inspire people to give up binge drinking for prohibition never worked.......unless of course you were Al Capone!
Thursday 22 March 2012
Smoke and Mirrors
So David Cameron is to announce a minimum pricing strategy for alcohol in the UK.
Fool if he thinks it's over.
Essentially this is just a way of George Osborne recouping the money he so called gave away by raising the income tax thresholds and lowering the upper limits. No Government truly reduces the tax burden on it's people they just hide it better.
Two things happen with minimum pricing:
1. People will not stop drinking but will look for ways of reducing cost, e.g. The Booze Cruise. In Sweden where alcohol is expensive it is very easy to nip across to Denmark where it is relatively cheaper! Home Brewing always rises in the UK when prices become unmanageable. The classic argument is that we're winning the war on smoking by increasing prices. Absolute nonsense nicotine is 1000 times more addictive than heroin and the rise in black market sales of tobacco have made it HMRC's number one target due to loss of revenue to the Treasury. In reality the number of smokers in the UK has started to climb again particularly in young females. The law of supply and demand will win out over the law of the land always.
2. Young people will look to get high. In the 1980's and 90's when alcohol was relatively more expensive there is no coincidence that there was a rise in the use of drugs such as ecstacy. It is an absolute truth that the young will do it as cheaply as possibly and if drugs become relatively cheap then this will happen all over again.
The way that you win the battle against serious health damage is by serious education.
And as the alcohol industry is key to the economy of the United Kingdom then this is not going to be done!
Fool if he thinks it's over.
Essentially this is just a way of George Osborne recouping the money he so called gave away by raising the income tax thresholds and lowering the upper limits. No Government truly reduces the tax burden on it's people they just hide it better.
Two things happen with minimum pricing:
1. People will not stop drinking but will look for ways of reducing cost, e.g. The Booze Cruise. In Sweden where alcohol is expensive it is very easy to nip across to Denmark where it is relatively cheaper! Home Brewing always rises in the UK when prices become unmanageable. The classic argument is that we're winning the war on smoking by increasing prices. Absolute nonsense nicotine is 1000 times more addictive than heroin and the rise in black market sales of tobacco have made it HMRC's number one target due to loss of revenue to the Treasury. In reality the number of smokers in the UK has started to climb again particularly in young females. The law of supply and demand will win out over the law of the land always.
2. Young people will look to get high. In the 1980's and 90's when alcohol was relatively more expensive there is no coincidence that there was a rise in the use of drugs such as ecstacy. It is an absolute truth that the young will do it as cheaply as possibly and if drugs become relatively cheap then this will happen all over again.
The way that you win the battle against serious health damage is by serious education.
And as the alcohol industry is key to the economy of the United Kingdom then this is not going to be done!
Wednesday 14 March 2012
A little more time, a little more knowledge
This time of year is difficult for me. Although Mother's Day changes from year to year it will always be ingrained in my memory as the day my dad died.
Now those of you who follow this blog or read it from time to time know that my father was an alcoholic. It was the discovery of this that started me upon my journey of knowledge. Discovering at the age of 13 that your father loved a whisky bottle more than you was devastating. Discovering the first name off his lips was Johnnie or Grant rather than Tracy was as if I didn't exist. Why was I even there? The pain of the realisation of your own insignificance was to say the least traumatic.
The journey I have taken could fill a thousand volumes of my favourite book, the Encyclopedia Britannica, and one day maybe I will write it all down rather than give you snippets in blog form. Yet this Mother's Day for the first time I really think that I will remember my father with fondness. It is almost like a veil has lifted. My own struggles with life, love, children and health have taught me many important things. Not least of all I am normal.
I decided a while back that it was time to let the resentment go, time to remember the man for who he wanted to be and ultimately underneath who he truly was. Only then you see would I gain release from the trauma of the past. I always kept blaming myself you see, thinking that it was somehow my fault that my father didn't love me, but that was the wrong way of looking at it. I was really blaming myself for the helplessness I felt at my inability stop my father drinking.
The professional in me knows that the person has to want to change and change cannot be forced upon someone, the son in me was just missing his daddy.
So if you find yourself out there in a world of misery due to alcohol either from over drinking or from seeing yourself over drinking please remember that change is inevitable. Sooner or later people begin to understand that when alcohol is in the bottle you have total control yet when it goes into your throat it starts to control you. People are not bad because they drink however they are foolish if they do not learn about what drink really does to you.
On Mother's Day this year I ask you to remember that the faults of our parents are not the fault of the children yet the children must seek to understand, and forgive, the faults of the parents else they teach their children to be their parents.
Peace and Happiness to you all.
Now those of you who follow this blog or read it from time to time know that my father was an alcoholic. It was the discovery of this that started me upon my journey of knowledge. Discovering at the age of 13 that your father loved a whisky bottle more than you was devastating. Discovering the first name off his lips was Johnnie or Grant rather than Tracy was as if I didn't exist. Why was I even there? The pain of the realisation of your own insignificance was to say the least traumatic.
The journey I have taken could fill a thousand volumes of my favourite book, the Encyclopedia Britannica, and one day maybe I will write it all down rather than give you snippets in blog form. Yet this Mother's Day for the first time I really think that I will remember my father with fondness. It is almost like a veil has lifted. My own struggles with life, love, children and health have taught me many important things. Not least of all I am normal.
I decided a while back that it was time to let the resentment go, time to remember the man for who he wanted to be and ultimately underneath who he truly was. Only then you see would I gain release from the trauma of the past. I always kept blaming myself you see, thinking that it was somehow my fault that my father didn't love me, but that was the wrong way of looking at it. I was really blaming myself for the helplessness I felt at my inability stop my father drinking.
The professional in me knows that the person has to want to change and change cannot be forced upon someone, the son in me was just missing his daddy.
So if you find yourself out there in a world of misery due to alcohol either from over drinking or from seeing yourself over drinking please remember that change is inevitable. Sooner or later people begin to understand that when alcohol is in the bottle you have total control yet when it goes into your throat it starts to control you. People are not bad because they drink however they are foolish if they do not learn about what drink really does to you.
On Mother's Day this year I ask you to remember that the faults of our parents are not the fault of the children yet the children must seek to understand, and forgive, the faults of the parents else they teach their children to be their parents.
Peace and Happiness to you all.
Sunday 26 February 2012
The Big Questions
I have been watching The Big Questions today on BBC and I am in all too familiar territory with what has been said.
Let me deal with some of the issues that came about from that and other questions that have been posed
1. Drinking hours are too long and our pubs open too late
During the The Great War David Lloyd George and the government brought in a law that restricted drinking hours in the United Kingdom. Much has been written about this and much of it is nonsense however this was a compromise act to prevent those in Lloyd George's own circle from pushing full blown prohibition upon the British society. The military were acutely aware that if soldiers were denied alcohol whilst on leave that it could lead to a rise in those deserting or mutinying, or even worse revolutions occurring as in Russia in 1917. Many will know of his Welsh connections however Lloyd George was born in England but raised in Wales and influenced heavily by Chapel. It is this connection like the religious right in the US that were pushing for all out bans on alcohol. Now we know that prohibition didn't work but neither really did the idea of restrictions. It was common place at last orders for several pints to be lined up upon the bar and downed quite quickly in the 'supping up' time. The restriction on drinking also contributed to the speed at which we consume alcohol. The average Briton consumes around 3 pints per hour in rate of drinking and this has come about from the direct regulation of drinking time. The argument that pubs closing earlier would prevent all night drinking is unfounded because in the 'Good Old Days' drinkers would fill up before they left the pub and then head on down to the night clubs where drinking could continue to around 2am. It is interesting to note that where drinking times are most liberalised throughout the world then least trouble occurs except where the British are visiting.
2. Minimum pricing is bound to stop alcoholism
The law of supply and demand is one of the oldest economic realities in this world. The only reason why alcohol has become so relatively cheap in the UK supermarkets is because of the booze cruise. In the 1980's and 90's it was quite a common sight to see the ferry terminals at Dover and Folkestone crammed with vehicles on day trips to Calais and Boulogne hoping to buy cheap wine, beer and spirits. At the time both Tesco and Sainsbury's opened up stores at the French ports so as to hopefully catch the British trade. European law means that it is not illegal to import alcohol into the UK if it is for personal use. The loss leading spirit's promotions by the big retailers are merely a knock on effect of this. If you increase the price then someone will supply at a cheaper cost. That is the reality. The only way that minimum pricing would work in our society now is by a complete pull out of Europe preventing a move back to wholesale booze cruising. Even then this is only going to hit the moderate drinker because as I have clearly articulated on this site many times a true alcoholic will not consider money a barrier to alcohol just as a heroin addict will do anything to pay for the next injection.
3. Ban alcohol advertising
The term soap opera came about because of the great soap wars in the United States between Unilever and Proctor and Gamble. Each would sponsor a rival daytime television drama so as to push their own form of soap powder on the unsuspecting US public. Product placement as it was known was banned in Britain so generic advertising took place by setting UK ongoing dramas (I know the producers hate the word soaps) around the public house. It is noticeable that Doctors, Casualty and Holby City dramas that fit into this category of TV do not often get rewarded at the awards ceremonies yet the big guns of Coronation Street, Eastenders, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks do. Whilst I am a great lover of conspiracy theories this seems odd to me. Could it be that the former are set around hospitals but the latter around pubs? One survey about the popularity of branding in the UK asked people to name common brands of beer. Whilst John Smiths came out as the most well known brand Newton and Ridley came second. It is ironical to think that if Boddingtons' the brewery close to the Coronation Street set were to brew an ale called Newton and Ridley they would probably outsell their own famous yellow brand. Banning advertising will have some impact upon recognition of brand but until we demolish the Rovers Return, Queen Vic, Woolpack and Dog on the Pond then the likelyhood of preventing alcohol problems this way is limited.
4. Culture Shift
Love him or hate him but the only one who really was talking sense on The Big Questions was Lembik Opik. The way to stop alcohol problems is to bring in culture shift and this is not an overnight solution. I have talked long and hard on this blog about culture shift in relation to alcohol and that really only comes back to one thing, education. We need to inspire our children not to take up the ways of our elders and we need to show them that there is a better solution for happiness that necking 20 alcopops or a bottle of vodka before they eve reach the pub. Culture shift will never come about through restriction all that ultimately leads to is revolution. We want to live in a grown up society but are we capable of living in a grown up society. I like to think that we are. And that doesn't come from ticking boxes and having everyone on the same page at the same time education that comes from true inspirational education. There is a hole in our society and it needs to be filled.
So I say to those who would lead us, grow up, grow a set and stop bickering and start communicating. Inspire us to be different by action rather than words. If you fight with each other then our children learn to fight. If you get hammered as a routine then our children learn this is the way.
There is a better way and I will fight as long as I live to bring it to the attention of the people in this world
Let me deal with some of the issues that came about from that and other questions that have been posed
1. Drinking hours are too long and our pubs open too late
During the The Great War David Lloyd George and the government brought in a law that restricted drinking hours in the United Kingdom. Much has been written about this and much of it is nonsense however this was a compromise act to prevent those in Lloyd George's own circle from pushing full blown prohibition upon the British society. The military were acutely aware that if soldiers were denied alcohol whilst on leave that it could lead to a rise in those deserting or mutinying, or even worse revolutions occurring as in Russia in 1917. Many will know of his Welsh connections however Lloyd George was born in England but raised in Wales and influenced heavily by Chapel. It is this connection like the religious right in the US that were pushing for all out bans on alcohol. Now we know that prohibition didn't work but neither really did the idea of restrictions. It was common place at last orders for several pints to be lined up upon the bar and downed quite quickly in the 'supping up' time. The restriction on drinking also contributed to the speed at which we consume alcohol. The average Briton consumes around 3 pints per hour in rate of drinking and this has come about from the direct regulation of drinking time. The argument that pubs closing earlier would prevent all night drinking is unfounded because in the 'Good Old Days' drinkers would fill up before they left the pub and then head on down to the night clubs where drinking could continue to around 2am. It is interesting to note that where drinking times are most liberalised throughout the world then least trouble occurs except where the British are visiting.
2. Minimum pricing is bound to stop alcoholism
The law of supply and demand is one of the oldest economic realities in this world. The only reason why alcohol has become so relatively cheap in the UK supermarkets is because of the booze cruise. In the 1980's and 90's it was quite a common sight to see the ferry terminals at Dover and Folkestone crammed with vehicles on day trips to Calais and Boulogne hoping to buy cheap wine, beer and spirits. At the time both Tesco and Sainsbury's opened up stores at the French ports so as to hopefully catch the British trade. European law means that it is not illegal to import alcohol into the UK if it is for personal use. The loss leading spirit's promotions by the big retailers are merely a knock on effect of this. If you increase the price then someone will supply at a cheaper cost. That is the reality. The only way that minimum pricing would work in our society now is by a complete pull out of Europe preventing a move back to wholesale booze cruising. Even then this is only going to hit the moderate drinker because as I have clearly articulated on this site many times a true alcoholic will not consider money a barrier to alcohol just as a heroin addict will do anything to pay for the next injection.
3. Ban alcohol advertising
The term soap opera came about because of the great soap wars in the United States between Unilever and Proctor and Gamble. Each would sponsor a rival daytime television drama so as to push their own form of soap powder on the unsuspecting US public. Product placement as it was known was banned in Britain so generic advertising took place by setting UK ongoing dramas (I know the producers hate the word soaps) around the public house. It is noticeable that Doctors, Casualty and Holby City dramas that fit into this category of TV do not often get rewarded at the awards ceremonies yet the big guns of Coronation Street, Eastenders, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks do. Whilst I am a great lover of conspiracy theories this seems odd to me. Could it be that the former are set around hospitals but the latter around pubs? One survey about the popularity of branding in the UK asked people to name common brands of beer. Whilst John Smiths came out as the most well known brand Newton and Ridley came second. It is ironical to think that if Boddingtons' the brewery close to the Coronation Street set were to brew an ale called Newton and Ridley they would probably outsell their own famous yellow brand. Banning advertising will have some impact upon recognition of brand but until we demolish the Rovers Return, Queen Vic, Woolpack and Dog on the Pond then the likelyhood of preventing alcohol problems this way is limited.
4. Culture Shift
Love him or hate him but the only one who really was talking sense on The Big Questions was Lembik Opik. The way to stop alcohol problems is to bring in culture shift and this is not an overnight solution. I have talked long and hard on this blog about culture shift in relation to alcohol and that really only comes back to one thing, education. We need to inspire our children not to take up the ways of our elders and we need to show them that there is a better solution for happiness that necking 20 alcopops or a bottle of vodka before they eve reach the pub. Culture shift will never come about through restriction all that ultimately leads to is revolution. We want to live in a grown up society but are we capable of living in a grown up society. I like to think that we are. And that doesn't come from ticking boxes and having everyone on the same page at the same time education that comes from true inspirational education. There is a hole in our society and it needs to be filled.
So I say to those who would lead us, grow up, grow a set and stop bickering and start communicating. Inspire us to be different by action rather than words. If you fight with each other then our children learn to fight. If you get hammered as a routine then our children learn this is the way.
There is a better way and I will fight as long as I live to bring it to the attention of the people in this world
Friday 24 February 2012
Measure for Measure
Of government the properties to unfold
Would seem in me t'affect speech and discourse
And so starts the play, but not on a Shakespearean stage, no not there I say. This was set on the greatest stage of all in the mother of all Parliaments.
With around 20 bars in the Houses of Parliament, none requiring a licence I may add, it is of little surprise that we will get the odd bar brawl. Churchill after all was once famously slated for being drunk in the Commons by a female member, to which his reply was allegedly 'Madame in the morning I shall be sober, you however will still be ugly!"
Well Winston and I may have been born on the same day and sometimes I have the ability to say the odd great one-liner however his drinking habits were more akin to those of my father. Unfortunately though many of our MP's have drinking habits akin to Winston's. Add this to all the journalists, who of course are known for their sobriety, and the lobbyists attempting to add undue influence and we have potentially an explosive mix greater than that of a Molotov cocktail.
And here lies the problem.
Fairly soon we are going to see the launch of the Government's new alcohol strategy yet these sad individuals cannot keep their own house in order so how can they possibly lecture us?
With power comes responsibility and I seriously doubt that the circus that surrounds the Houses of Parliament get anywhere near to understanding that. Well one politician did at least. Knowledge is Power and so speaketh Karl Marx. And yes I have a take on this too.
The knowledge of alcohol and it's properties allows us to have power over it and removes power from the booze and those who would drown us in it!
Education is fundamentally the only way that we can hope to change the society in which we live. That education has to start with those that would be King. Government cannot seriously hope to change our nations relationship with alcohol if they do not even understand their own relationship with the brewers, distillers and lobbyists who work for them.
In this sixth national alcohol free week I ask why is one drunken MP getting more headlines than an alternate way of enjoying life.
So I say to our MP's
I shall desire you, sir, to give me leave
To have free speech with you; and it concerns me
To look into the bottom of my place,
A power I have, but of what strength and nature
I am not yet instructed,
Educate through inspiration, show the world there are alternatives and show the world that responsibility is within you and therefor us all
Thursday 16 February 2012
Baby Robert, the New Baby P
Today I sit and shed another tear for another baby's life cut short as a result of neglect and incompetence.
Baby Robert, for that is his official name was found dead next to his highly intoxicated mother on a sofa having been abandoned by the Southend Council's protection teams. You may find the word abandoned harsh but that is the reality of what has happened. A serious case review concluded that local health services had become desensitised to the problems of alcohol and drug abuse due to high numbers of patients.
This is wrong, plain and simple.
Desensitisation comes about through two things, firstly an overexposure to the same horrific stimuli and secondly by a lack of training and education on how to overcome the signs and symptoms of desesitisation.
In the case of alcohol abuse as is what apparently happened here it is clear that that lack of education is a fundamental part of the problem. I can name one official agency who has explained to people under it's care that human beings have two stomachs, one for food and one for alcohol and drugs.
Baroness Newlove's £1 million pound scheme will not scratch this surface, especially as it would appear that 1/10th of that has already been allocated to one town. We need serious changes of attitude and we need them now.
I have been campaigning for education in the subject of alcohol for years. I am no killjoy and I enjoy a glass of wine or a pint of beer, and yes I had wild times as a youngster too, but the reality is the fundamental lack of knowledge is driven by a smoke and mirrors attitude of a society determined to be it's own worst enemy.
We need true inspiration and education to stop our decline into destitution and yesterday I yet again challenged the Prime Minister to meet with me.
Here is a message I give to our society.
I will go door to door if I have to, become more annoying than any double glazing salesman or preacher but I will fight till the day I die for proper true and unbiased information for the public with regards to alcohol. Proper education NOW! for the bodies are already starting to pile up.
http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/9532964.Why_was_tragic_baby_Robert_left_in_the_care_of_an_alcoholic_mum_/
Baby Robert, for that is his official name was found dead next to his highly intoxicated mother on a sofa having been abandoned by the Southend Council's protection teams. You may find the word abandoned harsh but that is the reality of what has happened. A serious case review concluded that local health services had become desensitised to the problems of alcohol and drug abuse due to high numbers of patients.
This is wrong, plain and simple.
Desensitisation comes about through two things, firstly an overexposure to the same horrific stimuli and secondly by a lack of training and education on how to overcome the signs and symptoms of desesitisation.
In the case of alcohol abuse as is what apparently happened here it is clear that that lack of education is a fundamental part of the problem. I can name one official agency who has explained to people under it's care that human beings have two stomachs, one for food and one for alcohol and drugs.
Baroness Newlove's £1 million pound scheme will not scratch this surface, especially as it would appear that 1/10th of that has already been allocated to one town. We need serious changes of attitude and we need them now.
I have been campaigning for education in the subject of alcohol for years. I am no killjoy and I enjoy a glass of wine or a pint of beer, and yes I had wild times as a youngster too, but the reality is the fundamental lack of knowledge is driven by a smoke and mirrors attitude of a society determined to be it's own worst enemy.
We need true inspiration and education to stop our decline into destitution and yesterday I yet again challenged the Prime Minister to meet with me.
Here is a message I give to our society.
I will go door to door if I have to, become more annoying than any double glazing salesman or preacher but I will fight till the day I die for proper true and unbiased information for the public with regards to alcohol. Proper education NOW! for the bodies are already starting to pile up.
http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/9532964.Why_was_tragic_baby_Robert_left_in_the_care_of_an_alcoholic_mum_/
Wednesday 15 February 2012
It was Christmas Eve in the Drunk Tank, an open letter to the Prime Minister
So the Prime Minister is on the treat them mean and make them clean bandwagon now.
How foolish thou art sir.
I challenged you on live radio to meet with me to discuss the problems that we face regarding alcohol and I still await a response.
Now I know I don't have a fancy title like Baroness Newlove or Sir Ian Gilmore but I've been working quietly in the field of alcohol for over 30 years since discovering that my father a highly respected professional in his field was drinking three bottles of scotch or vodka per night. I have, since being seriously injured in a car crash caused by a drink driver, worked with over 20000 people convicted of drink driving in the UK to help prevent re-offending and I have dedicated my life to bringing the education of alcohol to the attention of as many people as I can.
You sir talk about a big society and about ordinary people making a difference yet you will not speak to me and that tells me one thing
You like to make sound bites about dealing with the scourge of alcohol but you are only paying lip service to it because you are fully aware that in our difficult economic times you cannot truly afford to take alcohol by the scruff of the neck for fear of damaging the treasury intake.
If you start on draconian measures such as the drunk tank where you leave people in potential danger in the hands of untrained police officers you will eventually end up with people dead in the cells. Or are you actually going to make the obvious next step and train police officers to paramedic standards and make them a real emergency service? I doubt it and I doubt the Police Federation would want that either.
Raising a minimum price on alcohol will not stop people from drinking, it will not stop binge drinking, it will not stop children drinking but it will bring in more money to the treasury.
Your government, like governments before on all sides of the political divide are so far in bed with the alcohol industry that like tobacco you have no control.
And that sir is the point. You cannot control the problem by legislation. You need to educate inspire and use the power of psychology to bring about effective change.
Once again I challenge you to meet with me but I say that with hope rather than expectation. I am serious about education to remove irresponsible behaviour from our attitudes to alcohol. I do not want to destroy the alcohol industry I want to change our relationship with it.
The real question is are you serious about it too?
Tuesday 14 February 2012
Newlove or old story
On Valentine's Day it is perhaps important that a Baroness carrying the title Newlove should come to the fore. Her call to arms on education in alcohol will probably go further than my 30 years of nagging at the edges but so what we need to educate and we nee to educate now. But seriously £1 million, that's like trying to crack a tank with a pea shooter. And most of that will go on silly administrative schemes that will make no difference.
If I had that million pounds not one penny would be spent on anything other than direct educational resources for young people. But I worry that most of it will be frittered away paying for anything but. And that is my point.
Big Alcohol, like Big Tobacco, is a multi-Billion pound industry that can afford to spend vast amounts on armies of PR consultants to fight the good fight. The opposition can muster nothing. It's like the Polish army riding on their horses to fight the slaughter of blitzkrieg. And what is worse than that, there is a spy in the camp giving away the family secrets, and that is the very Government that seeks to make you believe it cares about tackling the ravages of booze.
There is a way to make things happen that is cost effective and will get powerful education to the children and it doesn't involve shocking them. I have a solution but I doubt if I will get a call.
So is it a new love on Valentines Day or the same old disappointment?
If I had that million pounds not one penny would be spent on anything other than direct educational resources for young people. But I worry that most of it will be frittered away paying for anything but. And that is my point.
Big Alcohol, like Big Tobacco, is a multi-Billion pound industry that can afford to spend vast amounts on armies of PR consultants to fight the good fight. The opposition can muster nothing. It's like the Polish army riding on their horses to fight the slaughter of blitzkrieg. And what is worse than that, there is a spy in the camp giving away the family secrets, and that is the very Government that seeks to make you believe it cares about tackling the ravages of booze.
There is a way to make things happen that is cost effective and will get powerful education to the children and it doesn't involve shocking them. I have a solution but I doubt if I will get a call.
So is it a new love on Valentines Day or the same old disappointment?
Friday 10 February 2012
The streets are paved with......
In the thirty plus years I have worked in the alcohol field there is one thing that I have come to understand beyond anything and that is this: Alcohol is as unpredictable as a Great White Shark.
Now the shark experts will tell you that I'm being unfair in demonising the Great White however when it comes to alcohol we are talking about one of the greatest predators known to man. It tracks you, it creeps up on you and it finally eats you alive. And that is what happens with those who are addicted. And if you suddenly remove their final life support system in one go there can only be one end.
And why is that important? Well the idea that the Mayor of London has had in following the pattern of the US in having sobriety sentences could actually lead to the death of someone. Why? Because if you go cold turkey on booze when you are completely physically dependent upon it your system cannot physically cope with the withdrawal symptoms and shuts down.
So I'm afraid if we start using this new wonderful system then we may, albeit unwittingly, pass a death sentence on an individual for merely shouting their mouth off.
I welcome new ways of thinking about how to deal with the scourge of alcohol but I am seriously concerned that enforced sobriety may cause more harm than good. Without education and proper knowledge of how alcohol works and why it does the things it does we need tough minded individuals and organisations prepared to really take a difficult situation and use the Gandi method of change.
It is not about control it is about inspiration!
Now the shark experts will tell you that I'm being unfair in demonising the Great White however when it comes to alcohol we are talking about one of the greatest predators known to man. It tracks you, it creeps up on you and it finally eats you alive. And that is what happens with those who are addicted. And if you suddenly remove their final life support system in one go there can only be one end.
And why is that important? Well the idea that the Mayor of London has had in following the pattern of the US in having sobriety sentences could actually lead to the death of someone. Why? Because if you go cold turkey on booze when you are completely physically dependent upon it your system cannot physically cope with the withdrawal symptoms and shuts down.
So I'm afraid if we start using this new wonderful system then we may, albeit unwittingly, pass a death sentence on an individual for merely shouting their mouth off.
I welcome new ways of thinking about how to deal with the scourge of alcohol but I am seriously concerned that enforced sobriety may cause more harm than good. Without education and proper knowledge of how alcohol works and why it does the things it does we need tough minded individuals and organisations prepared to really take a difficult situation and use the Gandi method of change.
It is not about control it is about inspiration!
Monday 6 February 2012
Alice through the Looking Glass
Gok Wan is someone who, when I first came across his shows, I thought was a typical fashionista with very little going on. How wrong can first impressions be. Having thought more deeply and having listened to him more often here is a man who really does care about other people. Particularly people with challenges, mainly deep rooted psychological challenges. His latest television project will without doubt have some people in real throes of emotion as they see their own lives being played out on the television in someone else's body.
I see many young people like this who often use the escape mechanism of alcohol or drugs to overcome the negative effects psychological and physical bullying has upon them. The fact that alcohol reduces inhibitions means that it allows the inner self to come out. It can manifest in chronic depression it can manifest in outlandish stunts or it can manifest in violence towards another as the Mercurial flip takes place from what the game face presents to the wider world.
Alcohol is very dangerous in this situation because the sheer nature of the neurophysiology behind the poison interacting with overload of negativity from external sources will often lead to over compensation as our inhibitions are removed.
However it is a false image when we talk about overcompensation for what actually happens is the release of the safety catches holding on the society developed game face allowing the real you to come forward. This masking of emotion that we put out to the world is now revealed and we become even more vulnerable.
So when we see young people behaving in an abnormal way because they are intoxicated it is actually young people showing their true inner self to the world. Why do we find that ugly sometimes, well it is because we as a society are not very good at investing in our young people's psychological health and we have helped create this challenge and now we don't like it. Divorce, money worries, lack of time due to work commitments, lack of extended family support often mean that we do not support our children as effectively as we think we do. Children not wanting to upset the apple cart will often blame themselves and in doing so start to build barriers and act in a way that is 'expected'. They then use alcohol as a way of coping and returning to the way of wanting to show the world how they feel. The world just sees that as trouble or booze causing the problem and in doing so they miss the point.
What Gok Wan is doing is a good thing because in helping people to be themselves, in other words allowing them take off their game face and feel confident to reveal who they are, in a safe space, then hopefully it will help some teenagers and young people to not seek solace in the bottom of a vodka bottle.
Bless you Gok, may you continue to shine.
I see many young people like this who often use the escape mechanism of alcohol or drugs to overcome the negative effects psychological and physical bullying has upon them. The fact that alcohol reduces inhibitions means that it allows the inner self to come out. It can manifest in chronic depression it can manifest in outlandish stunts or it can manifest in violence towards another as the Mercurial flip takes place from what the game face presents to the wider world.
Alcohol is very dangerous in this situation because the sheer nature of the neurophysiology behind the poison interacting with overload of negativity from external sources will often lead to over compensation as our inhibitions are removed.
However it is a false image when we talk about overcompensation for what actually happens is the release of the safety catches holding on the society developed game face allowing the real you to come forward. This masking of emotion that we put out to the world is now revealed and we become even more vulnerable.
So when we see young people behaving in an abnormal way because they are intoxicated it is actually young people showing their true inner self to the world. Why do we find that ugly sometimes, well it is because we as a society are not very good at investing in our young people's psychological health and we have helped create this challenge and now we don't like it. Divorce, money worries, lack of time due to work commitments, lack of extended family support often mean that we do not support our children as effectively as we think we do. Children not wanting to upset the apple cart will often blame themselves and in doing so start to build barriers and act in a way that is 'expected'. They then use alcohol as a way of coping and returning to the way of wanting to show the world how they feel. The world just sees that as trouble or booze causing the problem and in doing so they miss the point.
What Gok Wan is doing is a good thing because in helping people to be themselves, in other words allowing them take off their game face and feel confident to reveal who they are, in a safe space, then hopefully it will help some teenagers and young people to not seek solace in the bottom of a vodka bottle.
Bless you Gok, may you continue to shine.
Friday 3 February 2012
When will they ever learn?
Yet again I listen to another public health professional banging on about the only way to change the way in which we consume alcohol is to charge people more to buy it.
What does it take for them to realise that the people who are drinking to the point where they are damaging themselves have no care about money. A few pence or even pounds will not make the difference.
February is a difficult month for me for many reasons not least of all because it was the month my dad became terminally ill. He died a few weeks later on Mother's Day. Ironic really that your father should die on the day dedicated to mothers. And now every time that day comes around I cannot celebrate it because both my parents are no longer with us.
Well back to the story. As most of you will know who follow this blog my father was an alcoholic. Three bottles of vodka or whisky per night. A not for the feint hearted alcoholic he was the real deal. His body was shot by the time he died, disseminated carcinoma bringing on massive CVA, stroke for the uneducated, and ultimately death.
I sat with him in the last few days before he died. I only left him to return to my house for a few hours sleep, constantly worrying that the dreaded telephone call would come from an emotionally unattached nurse given the rotten task of breaking the news. Don't get me wrong I'm not having a go at nurses, it is vitally important that you remain unattached at the time of the bad news delivery, and I am a psychologist after all. Thankfully that never came because I was there when he died. He didn't pass on or pass away he died. His body stopped functioning plain and simple. His spirit didn't die because he is in my heart and always will be. Yet throughout those final days and hours I couldn't help but think still why he chose a bottle over his son and what would have stopped him.
One thing is for certain price wouldn't have. Nor would it have stopped any of the men and women who I have watched ending up in an early gave because of alcohol. Ask their bank managers or their creditors, or the bailiffs who came to take away their goods. Once you are trapped in alcohol dependence then you are trapped in a cycle of desperation that will only have one result. There are ways out of that but trying to artificially over price the market is not one of them.
But it will save young people won't it? Don't be silly. Young people will always find a way to get off their faces. It may drive a lot more towards party and hard drugs and then we will be begging for alcohol again. Two student's interviewed for BBC Points West suggested that half their weekly income went on booze. Well I have news for you previous generations had much higher percentages of their income going towards booze and many of these are the ones with chronic liver problems today. Students drink, it is a culture, deal with it. But don't try and deal with it by over pricing the product because if you do they will just change the product.
Teach responsibility and inspire people not to want to get out of their faces for the sake of it. Show them there is a better way.
Do it now or the bodies will start to pile up faster than a Rambo movie!
What does it take for them to realise that the people who are drinking to the point where they are damaging themselves have no care about money. A few pence or even pounds will not make the difference.
February is a difficult month for me for many reasons not least of all because it was the month my dad became terminally ill. He died a few weeks later on Mother's Day. Ironic really that your father should die on the day dedicated to mothers. And now every time that day comes around I cannot celebrate it because both my parents are no longer with us.
Well back to the story. As most of you will know who follow this blog my father was an alcoholic. Three bottles of vodka or whisky per night. A not for the feint hearted alcoholic he was the real deal. His body was shot by the time he died, disseminated carcinoma bringing on massive CVA, stroke for the uneducated, and ultimately death.
I sat with him in the last few days before he died. I only left him to return to my house for a few hours sleep, constantly worrying that the dreaded telephone call would come from an emotionally unattached nurse given the rotten task of breaking the news. Don't get me wrong I'm not having a go at nurses, it is vitally important that you remain unattached at the time of the bad news delivery, and I am a psychologist after all. Thankfully that never came because I was there when he died. He didn't pass on or pass away he died. His body stopped functioning plain and simple. His spirit didn't die because he is in my heart and always will be. Yet throughout those final days and hours I couldn't help but think still why he chose a bottle over his son and what would have stopped him.
One thing is for certain price wouldn't have. Nor would it have stopped any of the men and women who I have watched ending up in an early gave because of alcohol. Ask their bank managers or their creditors, or the bailiffs who came to take away their goods. Once you are trapped in alcohol dependence then you are trapped in a cycle of desperation that will only have one result. There are ways out of that but trying to artificially over price the market is not one of them.
But it will save young people won't it? Don't be silly. Young people will always find a way to get off their faces. It may drive a lot more towards party and hard drugs and then we will be begging for alcohol again. Two student's interviewed for BBC Points West suggested that half their weekly income went on booze. Well I have news for you previous generations had much higher percentages of their income going towards booze and many of these are the ones with chronic liver problems today. Students drink, it is a culture, deal with it. But don't try and deal with it by over pricing the product because if you do they will just change the product.
Teach responsibility and inspire people not to want to get out of their faces for the sake of it. Show them there is a better way.
Do it now or the bodies will start to pile up faster than a Rambo movie!
Wednesday 1 February 2012
Bristol's Booze Bombshell
Well figures released today suggest the fair city of Bristol has a really big problem with booze.
And it took someone how long to realise this?
For the past 15 years I have worked on a regular basis with people in Bristol in relation to alcohol. One thing has become increasingly clear to me and that is simply there is no real desire to educate people to give them the options for change. Walk around Brunswick Square, literally the other side of the road from the multi-million pound Cabot Circus shopping centre, and any time day or night you will find people drinking. In fact one of the best known Bristol street art paintings is on a building there. It depicts two young people with their can of special brew.
The local Council doesn't appear to really care, the law enforcement and judiciary services are Victorian in their understanding of how things work and the people who are left to pick up the pieces are the medics on the front line and those of us who seek to change things.
There is no miracle cure for the challenge but if we do not start now then it will not be just this generation that has a problem but subsequent generations of young people will see their lives wasted or ended prematurely by alcohol abuse.
Have those politicos that supposedly care about Bristol really got the guts and the common sense to ask for help? Or are they just happy to keep picking up the council tax from the businesses that encourage the above scene to continue?
And it took someone how long to realise this?
For the past 15 years I have worked on a regular basis with people in Bristol in relation to alcohol. One thing has become increasingly clear to me and that is simply there is no real desire to educate people to give them the options for change. Walk around Brunswick Square, literally the other side of the road from the multi-million pound Cabot Circus shopping centre, and any time day or night you will find people drinking. In fact one of the best known Bristol street art paintings is on a building there. It depicts two young people with their can of special brew.
The local Council doesn't appear to really care, the law enforcement and judiciary services are Victorian in their understanding of how things work and the people who are left to pick up the pieces are the medics on the front line and those of us who seek to change things.
There is no miracle cure for the challenge but if we do not start now then it will not be just this generation that has a problem but subsequent generations of young people will see their lives wasted or ended prematurely by alcohol abuse.
Have those politicos that supposedly care about Bristol really got the guts and the common sense to ask for help? Or are they just happy to keep picking up the council tax from the businesses that encourage the above scene to continue?
Monday 23 January 2012
A Joint, A Joint my Kingdom for Joint by Richard the Branson
OK so it's a play on words but what do you expect from this commentator, Shakespeare?
I was travelling back from Liverpool tonight listening to a feisty debate on BBC Radio5 Live about the rights and wrongs of the decriminalisation of cannabis and other drugs and I kept thinking to myself where have I heard this all before. And of course it struck me. I've said it before only about alcohol.
You know how I go on about alcohol and how there is this argument that always beats around the bush with the same players on the same sides arguing the same thing. Well guess what we're at that point with drugs now too.
Look people how many times do I have to say it. Prohibition doesn't work.
The funniest thing came from the ex Police Officer who started on the my truncheon is bigger than yours with the drugs campaigner all because he had spent 40 years fighting the criminality of drugs compared to the mere 30 years knowledge of the guy supporting decriminalisation. How pathetic can you get.
That said though he highlighted the problem. Children are unteachable because of cannabis. No children do not want to be brainwashed by Victorian ideas right out of the little red book of Chairman Mao. Children want to be inspired. Children want to feel there is a future.
If you really want to stop children wasting their future on drugs and alcohol then you have to inspire them into thinking in a different way.
There is a third way when it comes to alcohol and drugs and it comes through inspiration not castigation.
Teach our parents the truth, teach our teachers to inspire and teach our politicians to stop playing for votes.
After all the mark of any civilised society is it's ability to overcome adversity in a way that treats everyone with dignity and equality, It is about how we treat people that matters and it is about how we develop for the betterment of humanity.
Remember all that glitters is not gold and the quality of mercy is not strained.
I was travelling back from Liverpool tonight listening to a feisty debate on BBC Radio5 Live about the rights and wrongs of the decriminalisation of cannabis and other drugs and I kept thinking to myself where have I heard this all before. And of course it struck me. I've said it before only about alcohol.
You know how I go on about alcohol and how there is this argument that always beats around the bush with the same players on the same sides arguing the same thing. Well guess what we're at that point with drugs now too.
Look people how many times do I have to say it. Prohibition doesn't work.
The funniest thing came from the ex Police Officer who started on the my truncheon is bigger than yours with the drugs campaigner all because he had spent 40 years fighting the criminality of drugs compared to the mere 30 years knowledge of the guy supporting decriminalisation. How pathetic can you get.
That said though he highlighted the problem. Children are unteachable because of cannabis. No children do not want to be brainwashed by Victorian ideas right out of the little red book of Chairman Mao. Children want to be inspired. Children want to feel there is a future.
If you really want to stop children wasting their future on drugs and alcohol then you have to inspire them into thinking in a different way.
There is a third way when it comes to alcohol and drugs and it comes through inspiration not castigation.
Teach our parents the truth, teach our teachers to inspire and teach our politicians to stop playing for votes.
After all the mark of any civilised society is it's ability to overcome adversity in a way that treats everyone with dignity and equality, It is about how we treat people that matters and it is about how we develop for the betterment of humanity.
Remember all that glitters is not gold and the quality of mercy is not strained.
Sunday 15 January 2012
Doctor, Doctor
Ah so you tell the truth when you go to the doctor don't you!
When you're asked that awkward question about how much you drink you always answer with true and open honesty keeping your integrity in tact. Well maybe just a little white lie then.
The unfortunate thing is even if you tell the truth the doctor will assume that you are lying and write down a highly inflated figure. Now this figure gets sent off to epidemiologists who have the task of correlating this with the amount of disease, mortality and morbidity within the population, Thus they can report their ultra scientific findings to various Royal Colleges. In turn these Royal Colleges can advise those ultra scientific MPs who can ultimately tell the man in the street what is and isn't safe.
This is bad education based on bad medicine based on bad science based on bad information. There is no such thing as a safe limit and everyone who knows anything about alcohol can tell you that!
Trying to make alcohol a precise science is like trying to make gold from lead. It isn't going to happen. No scientist can accurately tell me how much alcohol is broken down by my liver in any given time period. No scientist can tell me how much alcohol will cause exactly how much damage to my body. I have been working in and around alcohol for over 30 years and even with the most up to date physiological tests I can only really guess at the damage that is done to an individual, It is an educated guess but all the same an educated guess is still a guess with some education thrown in.
Let us stop the smoke and mirrors, let us stop the funding of those who give us smoke and mirrors and let us have a Royal Commission to look at it all. Let us move forward together so that real information is disseminated to the public and so our children, who deserve our total care, get the best knowledge now.
What is simple is that the message is being fogged by those who would seek to benefit from the misery that alcohol can inflict. But remember guns don't kill people, people do. Alcohol can only cause this problem if we chose to put it down our necks, Let us go about showing people that they have a choice!
When you're asked that awkward question about how much you drink you always answer with true and open honesty keeping your integrity in tact. Well maybe just a little white lie then.
The unfortunate thing is even if you tell the truth the doctor will assume that you are lying and write down a highly inflated figure. Now this figure gets sent off to epidemiologists who have the task of correlating this with the amount of disease, mortality and morbidity within the population, Thus they can report their ultra scientific findings to various Royal Colleges. In turn these Royal Colleges can advise those ultra scientific MPs who can ultimately tell the man in the street what is and isn't safe.
This is bad education based on bad medicine based on bad science based on bad information. There is no such thing as a safe limit and everyone who knows anything about alcohol can tell you that!
Trying to make alcohol a precise science is like trying to make gold from lead. It isn't going to happen. No scientist can accurately tell me how much alcohol is broken down by my liver in any given time period. No scientist can tell me how much alcohol will cause exactly how much damage to my body. I have been working in and around alcohol for over 30 years and even with the most up to date physiological tests I can only really guess at the damage that is done to an individual, It is an educated guess but all the same an educated guess is still a guess with some education thrown in.
Let us stop the smoke and mirrors, let us stop the funding of those who give us smoke and mirrors and let us have a Royal Commission to look at it all. Let us move forward together so that real information is disseminated to the public and so our children, who deserve our total care, get the best knowledge now.
What is simple is that the message is being fogged by those who would seek to benefit from the misery that alcohol can inflict. But remember guns don't kill people, people do. Alcohol can only cause this problem if we chose to put it down our necks, Let us go about showing people that they have a choice!
Monday 9 January 2012
A bright new future? Hardly
And so the Government committee on science on technology makes another statement on alcohol. And what have they said that's new? Well nothing really. It's the same old people banging on about the same old things all over again. And there lies the problem.
We are still living in a world where the alcohol industry say's one thing and the people wanting controls are saying another thing. They are not getting to the heart of the problem and I doubt if they will ever get to the heart of the problem. Why? because it's all about the money.
The Alcohol Industry effectively brings in billions of pounds of taxation revenue in one form and another for the Government. And that is not just the direct tax on alcohol but all the bits and pieces of tax that add up in the tax chain that make up the final price that you pay. And then there are the detractors who are funded generally directly or indirectly by the same Government. You can rock the boat therefor but not too much hence all he mixed messages about booze.
Is alcohol bad for you, well yes it is. After all the reason why we believe alcohol came about was a defence mechanism by yeast to other competitive or predatory organisms.
How bad is it for you? We don't know and the only way we will find out is if we conduct a series of experiments that will ultimately kill or injure human beings. Thank goodness for medical ethics.
Plato said it best when he said "Man should not drink until he is 18 then only moderately until he is 40 when he should immediately stop" Now Plato lived in a world where observation came first not physiology yet he seemed to know a thing or two about booze.
What is a safe limit? We don't know this either as this requires alcohol to be a precise science and that is clearly not true.
The whole subject of alcohol is so scientifically complex that at the end of the day we know not that much more for certain than we did when ancient Mesopotamians first brought it to our society.
However we can change patterns and we know that psychology plays a vitally important part in that particular challenge. Not further studies by academics in ivory towers but by clear concise and simple education about what alcohol is and what it does and why we rely so heavily on it in our society.
Teach people to break the emotional connection that they have with alcohol. Show them how to stop playing the alcohol blame game and give them the ability to make honest decisions about their future relationship with the so called demon drink.
Carol Vorderman recently called for financial education in our schools. Well I call and have been calling for years for proper alcohol education in schools.
I today challenged David Cameron on live radio to knock on my door and talk to me about alcohol, me an ordinary bloke with a mere 30 years experience in dealing with alcohol issues. I did it because of something I have learned.
All it takes for evil to succeed is for one good man not to stand up
I have spent most of my time working quietly helping people to change their lives if they want to. I am fed up of people with vested interests setting out guidelines or giving out messages because it makes a good sound byte. We can change our habits and we can enjoy alcohol but we need to have total impartial and independent education so that people understand why and how.
And we need it now
We are still living in a world where the alcohol industry say's one thing and the people wanting controls are saying another thing. They are not getting to the heart of the problem and I doubt if they will ever get to the heart of the problem. Why? because it's all about the money.
The Alcohol Industry effectively brings in billions of pounds of taxation revenue in one form and another for the Government. And that is not just the direct tax on alcohol but all the bits and pieces of tax that add up in the tax chain that make up the final price that you pay. And then there are the detractors who are funded generally directly or indirectly by the same Government. You can rock the boat therefor but not too much hence all he mixed messages about booze.
Is alcohol bad for you, well yes it is. After all the reason why we believe alcohol came about was a defence mechanism by yeast to other competitive or predatory organisms.
How bad is it for you? We don't know and the only way we will find out is if we conduct a series of experiments that will ultimately kill or injure human beings. Thank goodness for medical ethics.
Plato said it best when he said "Man should not drink until he is 18 then only moderately until he is 40 when he should immediately stop" Now Plato lived in a world where observation came first not physiology yet he seemed to know a thing or two about booze.
What is a safe limit? We don't know this either as this requires alcohol to be a precise science and that is clearly not true.
The whole subject of alcohol is so scientifically complex that at the end of the day we know not that much more for certain than we did when ancient Mesopotamians first brought it to our society.
However we can change patterns and we know that psychology plays a vitally important part in that particular challenge. Not further studies by academics in ivory towers but by clear concise and simple education about what alcohol is and what it does and why we rely so heavily on it in our society.
Teach people to break the emotional connection that they have with alcohol. Show them how to stop playing the alcohol blame game and give them the ability to make honest decisions about their future relationship with the so called demon drink.
Carol Vorderman recently called for financial education in our schools. Well I call and have been calling for years for proper alcohol education in schools.
I today challenged David Cameron on live radio to knock on my door and talk to me about alcohol, me an ordinary bloke with a mere 30 years experience in dealing with alcohol issues. I did it because of something I have learned.
All it takes for evil to succeed is for one good man not to stand up
I have spent most of my time working quietly helping people to change their lives if they want to. I am fed up of people with vested interests setting out guidelines or giving out messages because it makes a good sound byte. We can change our habits and we can enjoy alcohol but we need to have total impartial and independent education so that people understand why and how.
And we need it now
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