BINGE DRINKING

Binge Drinking and It's Effect in the Society



Table of Contents

Introduction1

How to Reduce Binge Drinking2

Increase MLDA3

Reduce commercial access4

Reduce Social Access5

Reduce Economic Availability5

Theoretical and Academic Justification7

Adaptive Cycle7

Exploitation Phase8

Conversation8

Release9

Reorganization10

Impact of Binge Drinking10

Impact on physical Health11

Impact on mental health11

Impact on a person's performance and abilities11

Impact on society12

Why it is important to control binge drinking?12

Conclusion13

References15

Part 1

Briefing Paper on Binge Drinking and How Changes in Policies Can Reduce Binge Drinking

Introduction

Binge Drinking is used to refer heavy consumption of alcoholic beverages with the intention of becoming intoxicated for a short period of time. Binge drinking is a popular issue in several countries and people intentionally drink alcoholic deleverages in large quantity, which can have a huge impact on their health. Many people confuse binge drinking with social drinking and consider it to be a fun-filled activity. The degree of intoxication varies in different cultures. The after effects of binge drinking can continue for several hours and even days. Therefore, binge drinking has become a major public health issue (Giesbrecht, Norman & Thomas 2003, p. 63-104). Figure 1, shows regional classification of people in UK, who purposefully engage in binge drinking.

Figure 1: percentage of binge drinkers in UK (Institute of Alcohol Studies, 2006, p. 8)

The percentage of youngsters who engage in binge drinking has increase by 59 percent, and the number of middle-age binge drinkers also increased by 43 percent, which clearly shows that binge drinking has become an international concern. Therefore, in the first section, I am going to discuss how different policies can help the potential allies and the policy makers to control binge drinking and it's after effects. Apart from this, this paper will also cover the theoretical and academic justification on the policies of binge drinking discussed in the first section. The paper will also highlight the impact of binge drinking on the individual and his or her society and why it is important to control the rate of binge drinking?

How to Reduce Binge Drinking

This section aims to uncover different policies and methods, which can help the policy makers and potential allies to reduce binge drinking. Binge drinking is a serious problem. The late night scroll down on the streets and the casualty rate in the hospitals show the increased rate of binge drinking done by youngsters, in particular (Laurenc, 2001, p. 91). Adolescent alcohol drinking is a serious issue. Teenagers start consuming alcoholic beverages due to legal, economic, physical and social factors. Therefore, the lawmakers have restricted the availability of alcohol to the teenagers, who are below eighteen years of age. The British government has defined the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA), restricted the commercial access of alcoholic beverages, and limited the economic availably of these beverages. However, following strategies will make the policies more efficient and will help to reduce binge drinking:

Increase MLDA

MLDA is the minimum legal drinking age. Therefore, if the British government increases MLDA to at least 21 years of age, the consumption of alcoholic beverages will reduce. The effectiveness of the drinking policies is reduced due to ...