Having spent many a night or weekend seeing the carnage that results from the casual and excessive use of alcohol in this country, I have to agree with David Nutt, we really should be putting far more effort into taking on this huge problem.
One can watch his words here on the BBC, I am sure most of you will be infuriated by the pathetic interviewing from the BBC 'journalists', they clearly lack the brains or knowledge to adequately dismantle this topic for their viewers, typically woeful coverage of a scientific issue I'm afraid. I noticed this thanks to Dr Grumble's blog.
The BBC and the media in general are pretty damn rubbish when it comes to covering scientific matters for several reasons. Firstly their journalists lack the understanding of the issues and secondly their bosses want ratings, not decent accurate journalism. One only had to watch their recent Panorama program on the use of antipsychotics in dementia patients to see a complex issue poorly broken down and distorted by some shoddy journalism.
Anyway onto alcohol, it is a national disgrace that the government continues to do effectively sod all to take on the drinks industry. The most effective strategy for improving our dangerous boozing culture is to raise the minimum price of a unit of alcohol, the government continues to resist doing anything in this regard. A&E departments are routinely overrun with drunk patients, the long term health issues associated with alcohol are plentiful. I suspect the drink industry and the big supermarkets' power is part of the reason that the government is doing sod all of use again.
