- For a fine example of a local newspaper story supporting local alcohol strategy, check out the Leeds Today feature that begins like this: Alcohol abuse in Leeds costs the city a staggering £275m a year. The crippling bill includes the cost of treating patients, sending out ambulances and knock-on effects like damage to property, policing and court costs. On top of that there's the human price – the hundreds of people who die or are injured because of drinking. And it is not just those weekend binge-drinkers who are at risk. More and more of us – around 155,000 in Leeds alone – are drinking to excess on a daily basis. Many of us don't even realise the problems we are storing up for the future. Leeds Alcohol Tsar Tony Goodall said: "There is a timebomb ticking – and people just don't seem to be aware of it." Leeds Today
- A rape is committed in Oldham every week. According to police figures, there were 50 reported rapes between April 2005 and March 2006 – and there were 64 attacks in the previous 12 months. In a bid to reduce the number of sexual assaults and rapes, police have launched a campaign centred on the borough’s pubs and clubs. The move is in response to concerns about people who drink large quantities of alcohol and leave themselves vulnerable to sexual assaults in what has been dubbed ‘night hiking’. The term has been coined by GMP’s City Safe unit and refers to people who attempt to get unsafe transport home after a night out, including trying to get into vehicles that have stopped at traffic lights. Officers are also targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender licensed venues, following incidents involving male rape victims. Oldham Advertiser See also BBC News
- Police are targeting under-age drinkers in Meltham along with the people who buy them booze. Officers from The Valleys Neighbourhood Policing Team have acted after complaints that youngsters are getting drunk and causing problems in the village. Pc Joanne Sharp said: "People have expressed concern about under-age drinking in Meltham and the anti-social behaviour it brings and we are taking positive action to tackle this issue. "It's not only underage drinking - young people are hanging around shops and asking adults to buy alcohol for them. This is against the law and we will not tolerate it." icHuddersfield
- Binge drinking and alcohol abuse is killing hundreds of Swindonians every year and landing thousands more in court and hospital, according to a public health watchdog. The massive cost of binge-drinking, chronic liver disease, drink-fuelled sexual assaults and injuries are all catalogued in the North West Public Health Observatory report that says 21 per cent of the town's adults are binge-drinkers. Excess drinking is taking an average nine months off the life expectancy of Swindon men and 4.4 months of life from women. Dangerous drinking is killing 133 men and 100 women in the town every year. Hospital emergency departments were filled with more than 1,300 people, draining emergency resources after drunken trips, falls and other injuries. According to the report alcohol directly caused 389 admissions to Swindon's hospitals in 2004-5. Last year, drink-fuelled rage ended with 1,032 assaults and 28 sexual assaults from a total 1,490 crimes. Swindon and Wiltshire Alcohol and Drug Service director Bill Carlton said that the most disturbing part of the report was there is worse to come. Swindon Advertiser
- PARIS: French youngsters are smoking and drinking less but are increasingly indulging in the sort of weekend drinking binges usually associated with their British counterparts, a government study showed on Tuesday. Regular drinking of alcohol reported by those surveyed dropped between 2003 and 2005 to 18 percent from 21 percent for boys, and to 6 from 7 percent for girls, the annual Escapade study of 30,000 17 year-olds showed. But one-in-10 teenagers asked about alcohol use in 2005 said he or she had been drunk at least 10 times in the past year -- a jump of around three percent from the 2003 findings. The report adopted the English expression "binge drinking" to refer to youth drunkenness and said the "Anglo-Saxon" style of intense boozing was more marked among boys (55.7 percent) than girls (35.5 percent). Some regional officials have banned public drinking in order to counter the excessive noise and tell-tale garbage left behind after Saturday nights of youngster excess in city centres. Reuters
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