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Ending happy hours and increasing alcohol taxes is what the British Medical Association is lobbying for to fight alcohol abuse. Other suggestions were to stop selling alcohol earlier and to lower the blood alcohol level for driving.
“Britain is among of the hardest drinking countries in Europe, and the country’s alcohol-related death rate almost doubled between 1991 and 2005 — from 6.9 to 12.9 per 100,000 people.” (UK Doctors Urge Higher Tax on Alcohol)
I don’t know if they are really worse off because they have less homicides than America, yet one suggestion was to look to America because of the higher drinking age.
We ended happy hour in bars in Ontario, Canada years ago but then they decided to stay opened a couple hours later so I imagine they’re selling more alcohol than they ever did.
Apparently, in Britain they even have a bus deemed the booze bus because it’s specifically for scraping drunken people off the streets. Increasing the drinking age wouldn’t hurt regardless but that’s not going to stop people from drinking, especially if they’re already addicted. Raising the price won’t stop anyone either.
What may help is educating people on the damage abusing alcohol can cause. It damages families, causes financial hardships and health problems. Crime and violence tend to increase with higher amounts of alcohol consumption as well.
I don’t think the government changing the laws will make much difference. Offering more support for addiction treatment and educating young people on responsible drinking before they get to the legal drinking age might.
The example that adults show their children is the largest influencing factor for their future behavior and that includes how much they may drink. If children see others reach for a drink to handle stresses, that is probably what they will end up doing because it becomes the norm.
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