Heavy drinking may prove costly in Britain, calls to charge drunks for their care

[The Straight Story]

Heavy drinking may prove costly in Britain

LONDON (AP) — British police chiefs say that privately run holding facilities should look after the nation's drunks, and then charge them for the care.

Chief Constable Adrian Lee, who speaks on alcohol policy for the Association of Chief Police officers, said Wednesday he didn't see why it was the responsibility of the public to pay for the care of someone "who has chosen to go out and get so drunk that they cannot look after themselves."

Authorities have spent years debating how to curb Britain's relatively high rate of alcohol consumption. In England alone, one recent estimate pegged the cost of alcohol abuse at 12.6 billion pounds ($20.1 billion.)

But Britain's Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, rejected what it described as "privately operated drunk tanks."

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/heavy-drinking-may-prove-costly-britain

[Kurska]

1. Maybe if they hadn't made every safer alternative illegal.

People would have other choices for recreation besides incredibly dangerous and addictive alcohol.

[4Q2u2]

2. What about Alcoholics

Do they really choose to go out and get drunk. They are going to mix together people with a medical condition and just plain fools and try to exact some sort of pay back. That is some real good government there. They will have it so we will all be milk-toast and tell us it is for the greater good. The future looks wonderful.

[Lasher]

3. This seems to be more about neoliberal economics than drinking.

Brits drink a lot (13.37 litres per capita annually), but folks in a number of other countries drink more. Take Russia, for example, at 15.76 litres. They don't have for-profit prisons that they need to fill up with drunks to be charged for the privilege.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_alcohol_consumption