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Completely agree. I find the attitudes of our society to alcohol very worrying. I have a very well balanced, sucessful BD (age 22) her and her peers in my opinion all have a very casual attitude to alcohol and over indulge regularly. I also have an AS whose BF were chronic drug/alcohol abusers so i worry greatly re his genetic inheritance. I now sadly have a friend in her 50s who is alcohol dependent and the destuction caused by addiction is truly awful.

http://www.ias.org.uk/uploads/pdf/Factsheets/Young%20people%20and%20alcohol%20FS%20May%202013.pdf Lily

We had a very good friend who died recently as a result of his alcoholism - which he was in denial of - he had nearly died once before when he gave up alcohol suddenly and his life was only saved as his wife was in the house with him at the time - he had lost a very well paid job; substantial savings and shares; his marriage and a previous long term relationship and was estranged from his children. He died suddenly in the middle of the night from an undiagnosed heart condition and was found alone several days layter by my husband and his brother when he hadn't returned calls for several days. One of my uncles also had many problems from his alcohol use and was estranged from family - had lost his flat but luckily not his job. He died in a road accident at a fairly young age too. I do remember in Glasgow when I was there as a child (we have family there) people coming out of pubs in a very bad state - far worse than anything I had seen in England - partly I think because of the very restricted opening hours at that time which improved when the opening hours were extended, I work in an area which has a drinking ban - it is very near the town centre - it is 5 mins walk from the police station - but there are always people on the streets here dringing from cans in brown bags - and they leave the remains on the ground in doorways - I have never seen anyone being challenged. I agree it is a huge problem - and especially for young people who still see it as a positive way to spend their time - thankfully my son is involved in sports and very rarely has a drink and never more than the odd one - education is key - so it does need to be flagged up in a nationwide project of some sort - it is a huge cost to the budget - with police costs and A&E as well as social services, child protection, domestic violence etc as well as the immense costs to individuals and suffering for themselves and their families.

There is a link between long term, heavy drinking and heart disease. Some of the deaths of alcoholics result from heart disease such as a heart attack. My daughter's partner believes that she would have died recently when she had alcoholic seizures, and was struggling to breathe, if he had not been there to call for an ambulance. https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/alcohol-facts/health-effects-of-alcohol/diseases/alcohol-and-heart-disease/ Lily

I’m not entirely sure that attitudes have changed so much. I’m in my late 50s now - I was certainly going to pubs and drinking alcohol way before I was 18. And the drinking culture was very much in evidence when I was a teen/early 20s. It may not always have been quite so obvious but there was always someone who would buy alcohol for us under 18s and I was certainly going to clubs before I was of legal age. Even then there were well known places to avoid on a Friday and Saturday night. My parents ran a pub when I was a child/early teens and, whilst it did then tend to be more male dominated, the women could also put it away. My grandmother died a long time ago - of cancer but a cancer caused by her alcoholism. My eldest son has the odd cider but he drinks responsibly. He got very drunk, very ill once but thankfully his sensible friends called me so I could collect him. He’s not repeated it. This is not to say that I don’t agree that alcohol consumption is a problem because I think it is, particularly for us adopters whose children often suffer the consequences of their birth mothers’ drinking. It still concerns me to read posts from prospective adopters querying effects of bm drug abuse but not seeming to have the sane concerns about alcohol abuse. And just because alcohol isn’t mentioned in the CPR, doesn’t mean it isn’t an issue. I think it’s possibly more open now whereas before it may have been behind closed doors but personally I think it’s always been an issue.