Mid Week Madness

So it's Wednesday - or as anyone between the age of 18 and 30 will call it, Mid Week Madness. I received an email this morning on facebook letting me know about 2-4-1 offers on a range of drinks in a club in town tonight.

It is no secret that binge drinking and under age drinking is a massive problem in the UK, we have the largest alcohol consumption in Europe and 1 in 4 adults are binge drinkers. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-302531/Special-report-Binge-drinking.html) A lot of people feel that cheap drinks are responsible for binge drinking but from my own experience I couldn't disagree with this more!

It is my opinion that even if the price of alcohol doubled in the UK we would still have a "binge culture." I come from Guernsey, where the average price of drinks easily double the price of alcohol in England, and this does not deter anyone from drinking in excess! In fact, it has been experience that teens from the channel islands drink far more on a night out than teens from other parts of the UK.

I used to work in a night club in Guernsey where a bottle of water cost £2.20 and alcohol prices were much higher then that and still every Wednesday night and weekends hundreds of people hit the clubs to go on a binge. The price of alcohol did not appear to deter many people from drinking until they couldn't take anymore.

I would argue that cheap alcohol prices are not to blame for binge drinking, I think that the fact there is little else to do in some areas is to blame. If there were other things to amuse teens and adults then I doubt so many people would choose to go out drinking.

In Guernsey there is hardly anything for teens and adults to do. There is an expensive bowling alley, a pathetically small cinema to keep people entertained, and of course there are beaches but these are not much of an advantage in the winter or at night! The result of this is that people choose to socialise in pubs and clubs for lack of anything else. I am not suggesting that this is the only reason why people drink but I would certainly argue that if there were other activities to do then fewer people would binge on such a regular basis.

This is not only the case in Guernsey, I have also seen evidence of this at my time at university. I am 18 years and am a first year so I am not going to try and convince you that I haven't been out drinking in my time here! But I have to admit that if I was not out at pubs or clubs then there would be little else to do on the weekend. The University openly encourages students to attend the student union bar and club, and we are continually bombarded with special student discounts by the clubs in town.

Why are we not being bombarded with offers from book clubs, museums or cinemas? We are not being offered many intellectual opportunities, so instead we go out and destroy our brain cells for a few hours.

So if you are reading this and know that you are going out tonight for Mid Week Madness it might be worth thinking about what you would be doing if you didn't want to drink. Are you being given enough options in your area?