Is alcohol an excuse?

Some people really are massive assholes when they’ve had a feed of drink but think the drink merely amplifies the assholeness in them. There is an asshole in there at all times just waiting to be amplified.

So true. And some who haven't had a decent drink in their lives but condemn the demon drink.

The government take a braindead approach to dealing with alcohol consumption, they treat grown adults like teenagers telling them when they have to stop drinking and they treat teenagers like bold children if they have 1 drink which results in making teenagers think drinking alcohol is the coolest thing in the world.

Having 4 or 5 pints with your friends at the weekend once a week is a good way to socialise, if a person doesn't understand this then they have no business giving advice on alcohol.

At least 2 billion people in the world drink Alcohol. It makes most of these people happy as it helps with meeting new people, catching up with friends and dating, it also sometimes tastes really good. The problem is for a few hundred million people worldwide it does cause problems, problems that can include anything up to death.

If we want people to listen to the dangers of alcohol and get less people binge drinking it needs to come from a place of open chat and education rather than from a place of alcohol been bad

I can only speak from my own experience. When I used to drink and take coke, I took tiny lines just to "pep me up". It stopped the drink from turning me into a mess, but it didn't make me aggressive like people who shovel it up their nose would. It allowed me, who can't keep up with other seasoned drinkers, to keep up. I mean, I also had to get sick a few times to make physical room for more drink, which is stupid in and of itself, but such was my drinking life. My body was doing everything to tell me to stop, so I did. And haven't taken coke since either. And I wouldn't have done it on a random night out. Just the long ones, early gigs into a night of drinking, weddings, birthday seshs. Normal nights I'd just drink without it, get drunk, go home, have a sad **** and fall asleep depressed.

Have smoked a serious amount of weed since though. Wish I discovered it sooner. Or, wish I paid more attention to is sooner instead of continuing to think I need to drink and socialise to be happy. I wish I didn't need anything to forget about life, but I'm not perfect so I need something. And cannabis is the best option out there for me.

100 people sitting at home having a beer no headlines.

100 people dining in a restaurant having a couple of glasses of wine no headlines.

I idiot acting the maggot after a few drinks gets his name in the local paper.

Yes some people should not drink.

I just picked 100 to 1 as an example it's probably a lot more than that.

This is Saturday night most pubs and restaurants will be busy , folk will be at home having a bottle of wine.

The number of cases arising from tonight will be very small compared to the number enjoying a drink responsibly.

Alcohol is not a major problem for most Irish people.

As I said earlier in the thread alcohol is often put forward as an excuse for bad behaviour when it should be regarded as an aggravating factor.

ZERO benefits to drink.

Multiple downsides

A very expensive poison that people self administer.

It can also give people an overinflated semse of confidence. The amount of lads I've seen over the years while I was working in working in pubs/clubs who think they'll win a fight with 4 or 5 bouncers is astonishing.