Bah, the EU is increasingly becoming puritanistic

[Wycoff]

Originally posted by DeathByTheSword
GROLESCH, HEINENKEN and HERTOG JAN!

I've heard that Heine and Grolsch taste better in Europe, but I'll have to try that myself.

Heine here in the US (mass produced crap)
Grolsch (decent, but its too often Skunked)

Weihenstephaner
Paulaner
Hacker-Pschorr
Celebrator
Aventinus

[Krill]

Alcohol

[Wycoff]

Originally posted by Krill
Alcohol

Alcohol in moderation

[Krill]

Alcohol in moderation

Too many bad things have happened due to people having one too many, and thinking they can handle it.

Edit - Spelling

[:) Smiley]

Isn't this because some of the new, Eastern European members are experiencing terrible problems with youth alcoholism?

Not exactly a new phenonmenon- what were drinking ages during the Soviet era?

[DeathByTheSword]

I've heard that Heine and Grolsch taste better in Europe, but I'll have to try that myself.

Heine here in the US (mass produced crap)
Grolsch (decent, but its too often Skunked)

heini...specialized export beer is make here to be send to the US...

Grolsch have no idea what ya talking about...it is always good

[Pyrodrew]

Re: Re: Bah, the EU is increasingly becoming puritanistic

Originally posted by Wycoff
Isn't this because some of the new, Eastern European members are experiencing terrible problems with youth alcoholism? BBC had something not too long ago discussing the problem that the issue is giving the Czechs.

http://archives.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/02/19/deaths.alcohol/index.html

Alcohol named Europe's youth killer
February 20, 2001
STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Alcohol is the biggest killer of young men across Europe, according to research published by the World Health Organisation.

More than 55,000 people aged 15-29 across Europe die each year as a result of road accidents, poisoning, suicide and murders linked to alcohol, WHO figures show.

In some parts of Eastern Europe up to a third of deaths of young men are due to drinking while the country with the biggest problem is expected to be revealed by another report as Ireland.

The WHO researchers said that alcohol had no beneficial effect on young people and urgent measures must be taken to reduce the death toll, including tightening up on the advertising of alcohol products.

Their report was published as health ministers from across Europe gathered for a three-day conference in Stockholm to discuss the problem of young drinkers.

Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, WHO Director-General, said: "Over the past 10 to 15 years, we have seen that the young have become an important target for marketing of alcoholic products.

"When large marketing resources are directed towards influencing youth behaviour, creating a balanced and healthy attitude to alcohol becomes increasingly difficult.

"Based on these concerns, I am calling for a concerted review by international experts of this issue of the marketing and promotion of alcohol to young people."

Dr Marc Danzon, WHO Regional Director for Europe, said: "Alcohol is deeply embedded in the culture and social activities of many societies.

"Health policies must have popular support based on an understanding of their importance."

He added: "The public should know what alcohol is. And that it is not exactly what the advertisers, the alcohol industry and sometimes the media is saying: pleasure, conviviality -- but also death. A lot of death of young people."

Officials said although there had been some progress in increasing health awareness relating to alcohol in western Europe, the situation in Eastern Europe was worsening.

Irish problem
Leaked details from a separate report, due to be unveiled at the conference on Tuesday, are expected to show that Ireland has moved to the top of the European league for youth drinking.

Alcohol is widely regarded in Ireland as being among the country's biggest social problems.

The report by ESPAD -- the European School Project Survey on Alcohol and other Drugs -- looked at alcohol and drug abuse in more than 20 countries over a period of four years.

Ireland's Health Minister Michael Martin last week called on the nation to "face up to the reality of our national alcohol problem."

According to Martin, the ESPAD report's statistics were shocking and it was time for both parents and children to look closely at their drinking habits.

"The figures...are particularly shocking when it comes to hard drinking among young people," the minister said in a statement. "They are drinking more, being drunk more often and binge drinking is a particular phenomenon."

Delegates at the Stockholm conference said rapid social and economic transition, civil conflict, poverty, homelessness and isolation were causing more youths to drink heavily.

But they also blamed an aggressive advertising industry and were expected to call for stronger measures to curb alcohol promotion and sponsorship and to improve control of access, according to a draft of the conference declaration to be adopted on Wednesday.

Brundtland said: "Not only are children growing up in an environment where they are bombarded with positive images of alcohol, but our youth are a key target of the marketing practice of the alcohol industry."

She said governments must pay attention to worrying trends in alcohol usage and put alcohol policy back at the top of their health agendas.

Just typing "Drinking" in the BBC search engine...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/4291365.stm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/east/series2/teenage_drinking_alcohol_abuse.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/southeast/series2/nhs_binge_drinking_alcohol_abuse_drunk_alcoholism.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/southwest/series5/drinking_binge_pubs.shtml

Binge drinking accounts for a higher proportion of drinking trips in the UK than in any other European country.

[Last Conformist]

I don't see this helping. Here, you have to be 18 to buy alcohol in a bar or restaurant, and 20 to buy in (state monoply) shops. Yet, teens drink alot. I had alcoholized classmates in junior high.

[Maquiladora]

I buy drinks for the little chav rats stood outside the shops every friday, if only to steal some of their change, but also knowing that I helped some to ruin their adult lives.

[Kassiopeia]

I don't see this helping. Here, you have to be 18 to buy alcohol in a bar or restaurant, and 18-21 (depends on how strong it is) to buy from (state monopoly) shops. Yet, teens drink a lot. I had alcoholized classmates in junior high.

[Az]

Finnish Alcoholism

My grandma told me stories of how when she lived in Leningrad she saw boozing finns coming for the cheaper alcohol in the SU ( only to be scraped from pavements by the soviet police )

[Nikolai]

The age is 18 in Norway, and has been so for ages. At least the EU does something good. I'm 18 myself, didn't touch any alcohol before turned 18, and IMHO, that age is more than good enough. I have had lots of lots of fun without alcohol, and to say you can't have fun without it, is 1) plain wrong and 2)very ignorant to say.

[Kassiopeia]

Originally posted by Azazel
Finnish Alcoholism

My grandma told me stories of how when she lived in Leningrad she saw boozing finns coming for the cheaper alcohol in the SU ( only to be scraped from pavements by the soviet police )

Yep, it's that bad, although now that the tax on alcohol has been lowered, it's cheap enough in Finland that hardly anyone travels to Estonia (that was the usual destination after the SU ceased to exist) to buy it. So now we can keep our drunks safely inside our borders where no one can see them

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Kassiopeia


Yep, it's that bad, although now that the tax on alcohol has been lowered, it's cheap enough in Finland that hardly anyone travels to Estonia (that was the usual destination after the SU ceased to exist) to buy it. So now we can keep our drunks safely inside our borders where no one can see them

Thousands of English people still cross the Channel to France to pick up cheap alcohol, cheap cigarettes, and cheap women

[Kassiopeia]

Ah, sucks to be you. Of course, then there's the whole football hooligan phenomenon, not to mention the tourists in Spain...