Here comes the Rain

event, organised by the Police and local authorities of Staffordshire, where the trade were invited to discuss issues around drinking in the County. The statistics are stark; while the prevalence of nearly every condition brought on by lifestyle has reduced in the last 30 years, liver disease has seen a 300% increase! The cost to the NHS of treating alcohol related injury and illness is £44 million, every year………..and that is just in Staffordshire!

We also heard from a lady talking about drinking in the 11-16 age group. 23% of the children surveyed had their first alcoholic drink before the age of 10! 73% had drunk alcohol and 66% got the alcohol from their parents. Of those that had been drinking 25% said they couldnt remember events afterwards that had taken place while they were drinking. The lady is trying to get lessons added to the curriculum on alcohol awareness and responsible drinking.

People are now pre-loading at home prior to nights out. A nightclub owner shared his research which showed that on average each customer drank just 1.9 drinks when they went to his club on a Saturday night. He yearns for the old days where pubs closed at 11 pm and clubs at 2 am.

There was general agreement that the liberalisation of licensing laws in 2005 has not been a success and we are now left to deal with the problems of our booze culture. No answers yet, but at least the problems have been aired and there was a commitment to try and find solutions.

I had to drive through the Chase to the event so stopped for 10 minutes and quickly took this image. It was the first image of the day and almost the last as the rain drops started to hit the filter on the front of the lens.