I am a conservative

[kyleb]

lol Russ, i was simply reffering to extreeme stuff like:

children as young as 11 are showing up in hospital emergency rooms, dropped off by strangers who have found them passed out in their own vomit.

now i want to know exactly how many children they belive this happened to and exactly where they are getting their info. i'm not doubting it happened once or maybe twice, but the way they put it seems like obvious scare-mongering to me.

 

[Joe DeFuria]

Russ?

Who's doing the scare mongering now? 8)

 

[kyleb]

short story; i got checked my email to find a private message notification and the message was apparently rescinded but i looked at an old pm from Russ before responding to this thread. apparently his argument just stuck in my head.

 

[Silent_One]

now i want to know exactly how many children they belive this happened to and exactly where they are getting their info. i'm not doubting it happened once or maybe twice, but the way they put it seems like obvious scare-mongering to me.

try these...
http://society.guardian.co.uk/drugsandalcohol/story/0,8150,439962,00.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3038038.stm

or this....http://www.ce-review.org/00/24/csardas24.html

CER: Do you think that changes in drinking habits have had an adverse effect on the population's state of health?

Dr Holzberger: One of the major problems these days is precisely the change in drinking habits in Hungary. On the one hand, whilst the village communities still existed there were certain accepted standards and these standards acted as a restraint, deterring people from drinking to excess. If someone broke the rules, it spelled the end of their livelihood, as no one would help out a drunkard. There was a certain ritual element to drinking. If you visited a friend or neighbour, you were offered drinks until you were bound to accept.

The advent of industrialisation altered the situation in Hungary as elsewhere. The standards and their power to hold people back went into decline and there was a shift in consumption patterns from wine to distilled spirits. It is easier to become addicted to pálinka than to wine. You would have to drink three litres of wine to enjoy the effect of two decilitres of pálinka and pálinka is easier to get hold of.

CER: Would you say then that alcoholism is confined to the middle-aged and older segments of the population?

Dr Holzberger: No, alcohol is a major problem amongst young people as well. Looking at last year's statistics, quite high numbers of young people between the ages of 15 and 19 were heavy drinkers, not to mention the age group of 20 to 34 year olds, amongst whom drinking has been extremely important. The total number of patients registered at the addiction care centres at the end of last year was 46,737. Of these 42,924 were alcoholics, 2396 were drug addicts and 1417 were hooked on both alcohol and drugs.