Drunk tanks

If you drink responsibly, a few extra pence on a bottle will be immaterial.
According to the Scottish minimum pricing laws to be introduced next year;

"Given the link between consumption and harm and evidence that affordability is one of the drivers of increased consumption, addressing price is an important element of any long-term strategy.

Alcohol is now 60 per cent more affordable in the UK than it was in 1980. It is possible in Scotland today to exceed the new lower risk guidelines for alcohol (14 units per week) for less than £2.50. This is an unacceptable position and we have a responsibility to address this problem.

There is strong international evidence that tackling price - as part of a package of measures, including education and diversion - can help reduce alcohol consumption and related harm."

Do you want harm reduction, or don't you?
You can't have one law for those you think drink responsibly and another for those who don't!

Put an extra few pence on every supermarket bottle of alcohol , every alcoholic pub drink.
Is that fair on people who drink responsibly? The tax on alcohol is high anyway - amongst the highest, if not the highest, in Europe.
Yet do other countries have these problems?

That is why the whole drinking culture of younger people needs investigation. For instance - why do freshers at universities drink so much - as a kind of initiation ceremony?
Why do so many young people go out and get paralytic with drink at weekends - and how can they afford it anyway?

50 years ago there were exhibitions of pickled lungs going round libraries, etc., to show the effect that smoking had.
Very few people gave up smoking because of that.
It was more the extra tax on cigarettes that made people cut down, then stop.
It will be interesting to see if the minimum pricing tax in Scotland has any effect. Supposed to be coming in May 1st, 2018.

sallydapp I agree that alcohol awareness should be taught in schools, but rather than showing examples of anti-social behaviour show pictures of people in hospital with alcohol poisoning, people throwing up and soiling themselves - I think that would have more of an impact on young people.

That's why the idea of a drunk tank in the car park at A&E is a good idea, with a medic at the hospital door to send them there.
A diabetic having a hypo would then not accidentally be sent to a drunk tank.

I guess the trouble is that if going to a drunk tank incurred a cost, then they would kick up a fuss about going there and turn up at A&E instead - assuming they have enough functioning brain left to make that decision.

Put an extra few pence on every supermarket bottle of alcohol , every alcoholic pub drink.

Sorry Maggie I didn't realise Jalima had already mentioned spiking drinks.

She hadn't, Wilma, it was you I was supposed to be answering. Sorry, a senior moment (or someone had spiked my .

If these twats can afford to buy alcohol they can afford big fines not just some slap on the wrist. A&E is full of them on weekends in particular, staff get abused and real patients don't get a decent service. No one can pretend that needing security staff in hospitals or that not having an ambulance available because they've been diverted to a drunk is acceptable. Everyone blames everything else for the state of the NHS except the drunks and addicts. So fine people direct from their wages or benefits what it actually costs to run these drunk tanks and put them everywhere they are needed until people realise. It's no good putting the price of alcohol up or restricting purchases, they will still find a way of buying and over consuming it and price hikes will just effect the innocent drinkers just like uninsured drivers effect those of us who pay. I don't know about everybody else but I'm sick to death seeing that someone got a £30 fine for doing something that would have cost ££££ to put right. Introduce alcohol awareness into schools as part of PSE and show the kids videos of the antisocial behaviour.

Sorry Maggie I didn't realise Jalima had already mentioned spiking drinks.

That’s a good point about drinks being spiked, Jalima. Sometimes the world seems to be a.very scary place.

Just wanted to add that things are not always what they seem.

It's apparently quite cheap to buy drugs to spike drinks and the victims are completely unaware of what's happened, but they will not be in control of themselves in a similar way to someone who is very drunk. Spiking drinks is so common that drinkers are advised never to leave their drinks unattended.

Public drunkenness is as old as time, we just see more of it because the media enables us to see it. I hope realise photographers walk the streets looking for a photo of drunken behaviour?

Actually where I live it's an offence to drink in public in the city centre. There's a clear perimeter that's easily identifiable where no public drinking is allowed (I'm not saying here what that perimeter is). So things are being done to tackle antisocial behaviour.

I support the drunk tanks initiative because it keeps the people out of A&E and makes sure they get the right medical help.

There's some very judgemental posters on here.

Maybe the brewers and distillers should fund these “bins”? And those who get sent there could do X hours community service in cleaning them up.

Well drunks should certainly not be placed ahead of people who are genuinely unwell and in need of a hospital bed.

Most of us will remember the days when the local bobbies would out the drunks in the cells overnight to sober up and maybe charge them for appearance before Magistrates Courts the next day. The problem today is twofold - not enough police and not enough room in the cells.

So it makes sense to provide the equivalent to police cells and keep them away from A&E and the NHS in general.

Alcohol (and other drugs are a huge problem in the NT. Up here there is the highest rate of alcohol abuse in Australia. So many Federal (and State) initiatives to try and tackle the problem over the years but it’s a hard drinking culture. Indiginous communities are the most obvious public drunks (with DV ++ a major feature of community life and foetal alcohol syndrome a real problem) but the whites introduced the Grog. There is a very ambivalent attitude towards alcohol - seen as a socially desirable commodity amongst the young (and advertising industry) - but a real scourge.

Certainly they should pay. In the late 50s and early 60s I could walk through the most deprived and tough part of the city to get the last bus and no one would touch you. No problem and when you got on the bus no one swore or spat etc. People, specially young men got drunk but no girls went to town half naked, got drunk and lay in the street. Most had to be home by 10.30 or dad wanted to know why! Bring back proper closing time for pubs, booze only available at the off licence, not in supermarkets and garages! It will never happen as too much money involved

I totally disagree. New years eve..just one night in a year. Look after our youngsters. Yes, they are foolish but as the saying goes, you can't put an old head on young shoulders. however, i think there should be heavier control and policing of the drunk and disorderly the rest of the year.

Drunk tanks are a great idea .I t is ghastly having to deal with drunks who are often aggressive and are usually sick in A&E . Looking after these people , often youngsters , takes up every ones time and uses up cubicles which are needed for ill patients . I don`t go with fining people , not everything is to do with money ! I have read somewhere about homeless people being fined for sleeping rough which is beyond ludicrous . It is more about freeing up Emergency resources and staff and making what is already a difficult job a little less stressful .

I also think this behaviour has always been around. Exactly 40 years ago my 2yr old son needed a stomach pump on Christmas Eve afternoon. On arrival at A&E we were told we would have to wait quite a while as they were dealing with a high volume of drunks!
When same son was 18 he went out locally on NYE with friends, some drunk threw a glass, it wasn't aimed at my son but it hit him in the face, resulting in very serious facial injuries. This was logged as ' drink related'. Which I suppose it was but the drunk didn't need treatment at A&E.

I think this sort of behaviour has always gone on. Maybe not with females on quite the same scale as now. I remember my mum saying (I was too young to remember), that an Uncle went out every Friday and Saturday night. Got drunk, got in his car, drove his car (wrote off 3 Jags), and always had black eyes where he would get into fights. As we get older I think we hold on to the best parts of our past. Now of course pubs and clubs are open near enough all night, and alcohol is cheap in shops. A great expectation, from my parents at least to be ladylike and certain behaviour .g. getting drunk and smoking in the street! was a no no. Times change and not always for the better.

I am puzzled by a local area newspaper. It is a daily paper and one day each week they send a photographer to some event or other. In almost every picture the people are standing holding their drink in their hands. Can they not put a drink down for 2 seconds until the photo is taken. I am sure that someone could be assigned to guard the drinks for those few seconds in order to look like people and not desperate drinkers.
My DC work in situations where they have to deal with drunks. They have had to stand over 13 year olds who are paralytic drunk so ensure that no harm comes to them. Surely they have already harmed themselves by drinking alcohol underage and to such an extent. It is not only underage drunk people they have to deal with. They have had drunk police officers and bank workers and teachers and nhs staff. They get sick of having to deal with such stupidity. They have a duty of care to these people. They often try to contact the parents of the underage drunks. I would not like to be on the receiving end of a call from one of my DCs informing parents that your kid is drunk come and get them. They don't take NO for an answer.
I don't drink I have had good nights out and in my home or other people's homes and do not feel the need to have alcohol to enhance the experience.
I do rather support the way the Drunken Sailor was dealt with

As mentioned above, privatisation of provision of drunk tanks would be one way of dealing with drunks. They could employ their own staff and be entitled to charge for their services accordingly. Potentially, parents might have to 'spring' the drunks if they've spent all their cash on booze. That could have a massive deterrent effect.

Does these Drunk Tanks have cold showers only?

That should do the trick.

Drunken Sailor - heaving shanty
What shall we do with a drunken sailor?
What shall we do with a drunken sailor?
What shall we do with a drunken sailor?
Early in the morning?
Way-hay, up she rises
Way-hay, up she rises
Way-hay, up she rises
Early in the morning
*Put him in the long boat 'til he's sober
Pull out the bung and wet him all over
Put him in the scuppers with the deck pump on him*

They had the right idea way back!