Brian/Gareth
I am not defending the use of alcohol, so please don't try and turn the debate into trying to infer that I am.
Nor do I read the Daily Mail or The Sun so again, don't presume you know my political persuasion - believe me, you don't.
Gareth - if you are trying to debate (and I'm sorry if I've missed your point) that this research is justified because by reading it, 'young people' will modify their behaviour, I'm simply not convinced. I readily admit I am opposed to any reduction in the law with regard to making certain classes of drugs acceptable on the basis that because alcohol is freely available, it makes it OK for drugs to be too. It simply doesn't stack up.
The type of research (which I do know exists, sadly, unlike Brian I don't have the luxury of enough time to retrieve it ad lib) to which I do subscribe is that which is looking into the long term effects of both casual and heavy use of all these drugs on the ageing population - ie, those users who are now both in middle age and approaching old age who were at the forefront of using certain types of prohibited drugs that simply weren't in existence previously. I would be interested to know if they are experiencing a more frequent occurrence of diseases which a control group of 'clean' non-users appear not to exhibit.
And one of the biggest dangers of the list quoted is that there is no way of knowing if popping an Ecstacy pill will result in a toxic reaction that causes death if you happen to be one of the unlucky kids whose body cannot cope with the chemical reaction.
Brian, the research you refer to does not really answer the point I posed earlier. It relales to an increase in a disease closely correlated to alcoholism in a young age group. My point was how do results compare with having been a heavy drinker, then becoming either a social drinker or even tee total many years later with a casual/heavy drug user who then becomes 'clean' in a corresponding time frame.
I totally agree that there is an excessive use of alcohol amongst people under 30 these days - it seems to have become socially acceptable to get totally bladdered at every opportunity and in my own opinion, shouldn't be. The only way of stopping it is for the government to make it economically unsustainable but that's never going to happen. We live in an age of instant gratification, whether via drugs or alcohol and it is really starting to show. Or I'm becoming an intolerant old fart - like I give a xxxx!
