A Report published into the drinking habits of secondary school children makes for disturbing reading. The NHS Information Centre asked 7,798 pupils, mostly aged from 11 to 15, how much they drank and where they got their alcohol. More than half, 52 per cent, said they had drunk an entire alcoholic drink. Most had got….
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How can a 16-year-old be an alcoholic? Maybe it’s just a phase. She’s probably had too much to drink at last night’s party and feels miserable. That’s all. Alcoholic is certainly not a word. With thoughts like these flitting through my mind, I catch up with Shriya (name changed); young, confident and pretty, she seems….
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The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism reports that more young people today are dying from alcohol-related accidents. Among 18 to 24 year olds, the number of deaths has risen by over 20 percent in the last ten years. “I woke up in the driver’s side seat, blood all over me, glass everywhere. The….
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When does a glass or two at the end of the day spill over into high-functioning alcoholism? After work every day you either go to the pub or return home to crack open a bottle of wine. Twice a week you might drink so much alcohol that you suffer memory loss. You spend much of….
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The Biggest Little City gained notoriety in a 2006 edition of the New Yorker after two Reno police officers estimated that ignoring one of the city’s homeless chronic alcoholics cost the city more than $1 million over the years. Malcolm Gladwell’s story quoted Reno police officers Patrick O’Bryan and Steve Johns explaining that Murray Barr,….
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All children from the age of 10 are to be routinely asked by GPs how much alcohol they drink. New guidelines expected from the government’s health watchdog will recommend that family doctors screen youngsters for alcohol abuse on their first appointment or during routine visits. The guidelines aim to curb the health damage caused by….
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Although they approach the challenge of addiction differently from scientists, 12-step programs still have a therapeutic role in helping human beings. Alcoholics Anonymous may have pioneered the concept of alcoholism as a disease, but will scientific research that proves the point eventually make AA obsolete? Studies that reveal brain and genetic links to addiction seem….
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When Luis Carino was sober, his friends said he was a thoughtful guy. He painted and fixed things and did odd jobs for people in the neighborhood where he used to live. But when he drank beer, which friends said was often, it was a different story. Carino, 52, who had a history of battery,….
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OPINION: ‘MILAN HAS banned the consumption and sale of alcohol to young teenagers in an effort to curb binge drinking,” said yesterday morning’s news as I staggered downstairs to make a cup of tea. “Parents of children under the age of 16 caught drinking wine or spirits will be liable to heavy fines of up….
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Amina is 35 years old. She is married and has six children. She is also addicted to heroin. A housewife from Herat Province in Afghanistan, Amina started using drugs at the age of 10, when she was working as a carpet weaver. The job was strenuous and her workmates advised her to use opium to….
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