Today, the problem of binge drinking is a serious threat to the public health of the UK and to the national economy as well. In fact, binge drinking has a destructive impact on the health of the population of the UK. At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that binge drinking affects consistently health of individuals and provokes numerous health problems in individuals because of the excessive consumption of alcohol.
On the other hand, along with health and economic effects, binge drinking provokes numerous social problems, such as the growing crime rates, alcohol-related crimes, social tension and the social degradation of heavy drinkers. In such a situation, the prevention of binge drinking among the population of the UK is extremely important and the government has to develop a long-run strategy to prevent the growth of binge drinking and minimization of the consumption of alcohol by the British. In actuality, current measures undertaken by the British government are not sufficient to decrease substantially the rate of binge drinking nationwide, but they have allowed slowing down the growth and stabilize binge drinking in the UK, but further enhancement of policies is needed to decrease the consumption of alcohol in the UK consistently.
Binge drinking among the adult population of the UK
On analyzing the current situation in the UK, it is important to place emphasis on the fact that binge drinking is a serious challenge to the national health system and to the national economy. In actuality, the UK takes the lead among countries, where the consumption of alcohol is high, while binge drinking is almost a norm for many citizens of the UK. For instance, the 2007 General Household Survey shows that 37% of adults exceeded the daily recommended drinking levels (41% of men and 34% of women) (Binge Drinking Britain, 8). This means that about half of males and a third of females in the UK exceed the daily consumption of alcohol on the daily basis. The average consumption of alcohol in the UK is very high. At the same time, binge drinking is a serious challenge the UK government attempts to tackle. However, the current trends in binge drinking fail to change much. At any rate, the following graph shows the average weekly alcohol units consumed by the population of the UK:
Average weekly alcohol units
Source: Binge Drinking ”“ Nature, Prevalence and Causes. IAS Factsheet, 2012. Retrieved on April 27, 2012 from http://www.ias.org.uk/resources/factsheets/binge_drinking.pdf
Even though there is a slight decline in the number of alcohol units consumer in the UK that can be traced by the mid-2000s but still this trend is not really positive because there is no substantial cuts in the consumption of alcohol units by the British. Instead, they have just become close to the number of units consumed weekly in the late 1990s.
In this regard, the following graph show similar trends in the percentage of drinking more than the recommended daily number of units of alcohol:
Percentage drinking more than the recommended daily number of units of alcohol