[Margaret Pilkington]

Sam you are right about the drugs being cheaper than booze....you are also right about not being able to make comparisons about what went on in the past.
What went on in the past was the pubs were open for less hours. and sons went out for a drink with their fathers, their grandfthers, their uncles......it was a sort of rite of passage. These male relatives instilled some kind of responsibility.......that you looked after one another, and if you did overdo the drink on odd occasions then you made sure that the one who was worse for wear got home safely......drinking was more about being sociable and less about getting 'bladdered', in fact my recollection was that for someone to regularly get 'bladdered' was a sign that they could not hold their drink and were something of a liability.

I don't think 24 hour drinking will ever work.....our culture is wrong....and I can't really explain what I mean by that.
Anyway, it is a problem for your generation......it is going to be your generation that suffers the health problems because of irresponsible attitudes to alcohol.
That sounds like I don't really care about what happens to your generation, but nothing could be further from the truth.......what i really mean is that your generation are going to have to solve this problem and the problem of recreational drugs before it kills you all off.
I don't know how it will be done, but I do know it needs to be high on the social agenda.