‘Binge’ drinking, British alcohol policy and the new culture of intoxication

Abstract

Against the backdrop of a long-standing British ‘binge and brawl’ pattern of alcohol-based weekend leisure and concomitant recurrent anxieties in the media surrounding youth and young adults at play, this article considers the cultural distinctions of contemporary British leisure and the evidence for a ‘new’ culture of intoxication. Four key changes are identified which together, the authors argue, suggest significant change is underway in respect of patterns of alcohol consumption in the UK. Presenting empirical data for the first time, the article considers how one might assess the evidence for a new culture of intoxication which embraces both legal and illicit drugs and which encompasses a broad social spectrum of young people. The study concludes that the pursuit of altered states of intoxication must be positioned in late modern society as behaviour which is a vehicle for consumer and criminal justice discourses, both encouraged by economic deregulation and constrained by legislative change, indicative of the ambiguities at the heart of British alcohol policy.

The influence of groups and alcohol consumption on individual risk-taking

“…The absence of a combined influence of groups and alcohol on risk-taking potentially offers insight into the dominant factors driving risky behaviours in social drinking environments (e.g., the night time economy ;Finney, 2004;Measham and Brain, 2005). Specifically, in support of qualitative work on violence in the night time economy (Levine, Lowe, Best, & Heim, 2012), the current findings also highlight group contexts as being a potentially important factor influencing risky behaviours over and above solely considering the effects of alcohol consumption.…”

“…Moreover, while current intervention efforts which target individuals' drinking behaviour have appeared to be successful in reducing alcohol consumption (c.f., HSCIC, 2017), their success in reducing alcoholinduced risky behaviour is less apparent, with both drink-driving and alcohol-related injury still rising (or unchanged) in numbers (Department for Transport, 2014;HSCIC, 2017). Many risky behaviours following alcohol consumption are characteristic of heavy episodic drinking, which is largely prevalent in young adults, in the night time economy (Measham & Brain, 2005). In these environments, alcohol is consumed in social contexts, where the influence of peers may play a contributing role to the observed increase in potentially harmful behaviours.…”

‘Kiddie drugs’ and controlled pleasure: Recreational use of dexamphetamine in a social network of young Australians

“…Measham, 2004Measham, , 2006Measham & Brain, 2005;Szmigin et al, 2008). According to these studies, aggressive alcohol marketing, the cultural normalisation of alcohol and other drug intoxication, and changes in night-time leisure economies have meant that young adults must negotiate complex contradictions between a market-driven society that emphasises excessive consumption and the increasing social regulation of such consumption.…”

Alcohol, Advertising, Media, and Consumption among Children, Teenagers, and Young Adults

“…Alcohol marketers meanwhile have been accused of deliberately targeting young people with new products designed especially to appeal to this market category (Barnard & Forsyth, 1998;Measham & Brain, 2005). By making drinking more intrinsically appealing by creating products that appeal in particular to the taste preferences of under-age drinkers (i.e., sweet tasting beverages with high alcohol content), under-age drinking has been encouraged ).…”