Ireland facing the fallout of a ‘drink to get drunk’ culture

HEALTH and support services for alcoholics will come under unprecedented pressure as the fallout from excessive and binge drinking begins in the next 10 to 20 years, an expert has warned.

The increasing ‘drink to get drunk’ culture will have major, long-term consequences, according to one of Ireland’s authorities on alcohol abuse and addiction, Rolande Anderson.

The director of the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) Alcohol Project is in Waterford Institute of Technology today to launch a teaching workbook to accompany a 10-minute film on the perils of binge drinking produced by a group of students and staff at the college.

The film and support material will reach tens of thousands of teenagers as they are being distributed to secondary schools and third-level colleges. It is hoped it will become part of the SPHE programme in secondary schools.

“There’s no questioning the fact that drinking in society has increased significantly over the past 10 years. It’s worse right across the board - not just among students. It’s worse because of the binge aspect of drinking today. And it’s worse because people are drinking a lot more than they did before.

“More people are drinking to get drunk. There are more incidents and accidents associated with drink. There are all sorts of sexual consequences and the number of assaults which are drink-related are also up.

“We are facing major problems. Over the next 10 to 20 years we will pay the price for the binge drinking of the 80s, 90s and today. All of the addiction centres tell us that they are seeing more and more young alcoholics,” he said.

The short film entitled Under the Influence grew out of a poster design competition at WIT and traces the experiences of three male and three female students on a drink-fuelled night out in Waterford city.

It culminates in one of the men being arrested and one of the women being hospitalised having collapsed in a drunken stupor.

Part-funded by the Department of Health to reinforce the sensible drinking message, a key strength of the punchy film is its accessibility to young people - something shown by how well received it has been among those students that have already seen it.

Mr Anderson said of the DVD: “It is designed for SPHE teachers. They will need some training and it will have to be handled carefully,” he added.

And he said it will help combat much of the glamour associated with drinking presented in big-budget television advertising today.