Excess all areas?

The Portman Group has just launched its latest campaign to tackle binge-drinking nationally. Jackie Annett sees what it is hoping to achieve

Every Friday and Saturday night millions of youngsters get dressed up and go out on the town to enjoy an evening drinking with friends.

While many will simply have a good time, others will drink far too much, putting themselves at risk of becoming involved in a disturbance or even worse being seriously assaulted.

It's a sad reminder that Britain's younger generation has, without doubt, one of the worst reputations for binge-drinking in Europe. And it's a problem that the licensed trade, which tends to bear the brunt of the blame, could well do without at a time when its image is paramount to winning relaxed licensing laws from the government.

In a bid to tackle the problems that are associated with binge drinking, drinks watchdog The Portman Group was set up as an independent body in 1989 by UK drinks manufacturers.

The group's most up-to-date records show that nearly a fifth, (17 per cent) of 18 to 24-year-olds (one million men and women) drink just to get drunk every week. And last month it launched a nationwide campaign aimed at young drinkers called "If you do do drink, don't do drunk" in an effort to tackle the problem.

Graham Goodwin, spokesman for the group, said: "We're not talking about the people who go to a party and have one too many by accident.

"We are talking about those people who go out every week with the conscious objective of getting drunk.

"We are trying to change this trend through our campaign, which looks at influencing youngsters through peer pressure.

"We want to ensure drinking to get absolutely slaughtered is one day as unacceptable as drink-driving."

A tall order maybe, but one that the group is keen to strive towards and one it has already made some headway on. In fact, the campaign has already been deemed a success in towns where it has been trialled including Bristol and Brighton, Blackpool, Southampton, Cardiff and Edinburgh.

"In Newcastle, for example, we asked a small number of people if they had seen the campaign," said Mr Goodwin. "A lot had and they said that it would affect their behaviour in the future and that they would drink less."

The campaign is touring the country and licensees are being urged to get involved.

Televisions are being installed in some pub toilets so that visitors can watch adverts that warn young people not to drink too much.

This is on top of other initiatives such as pub theatre where actors will perform embarrassing drunken scenes in pubs to highlight the problem and beer mats are being sent out adorned with the message, "We serve drinks, not drunks".

The Metropolitan Police, London Ambulance Service (LAS), National Union of Students and the licensed trade are all involved in helping to deliver the message.

The ambulance service is particularly keen to work with the group to try and stop young people from calling 999 unnecessarily.

The service's chief executive, Peter Bradley, said: "The LAS supports all initiatives to reduce alcohol-related 999 calls in London.

"A significant amount of the demand on our service is connected to people who have had too much to drink or who have sustained injuries resulting from excessive drinking."

The initiative has been launched at a time when reports suggest the health effects of drinking have also become a problem.

New figures this year show that cirrhosis deaths among men have hit record levels and that the liver condition, often caused by excessive drinking, is now killing more women than cervical cancer.

What is also frightening is that, according to the Chief Medical Officers' 2001 report, an estimated one in six admissions to hospital are for alcohol-related injuries or problems. And estimates claim that this rises to 80 per cent at peak times on Friday and Saturday nights.

Add to this the problem of late night violence. Some studies claim that up to 70 to 80 per cent of late night violence in town centres at the weekend is alcohol-related.

Despite the fact that groups like The Portman Group insist the real figure is much lower, it is acknowledged as a problem and licensees have said they want the situation to change.

Tony Payne, of the Federation of Licensed Victuallers Associations, said: "Licensees get the blame and are clearly not always responsible. But I do think that establishments that offer an admission fee of £10 and all you can drink all night, for example, are doing absolutely nothing to try and stop people from binge drinking."

Director of The Portman Group, Jean Coussins, said that the aim of its initiative wasn't to stop people from drinking altogether, but just to be more sensible.

"Most of us enjoy a drink without harming ourselves or others," she said. "But some people don't know when to stop and that can lead to problems.

"Our campaign aims to show them the downsides of drinking to excess and to encourage moderate drinkers to challenge the behaviour of their friends and loved ones who might go over the top."