Published: Thursday, 17th September, 2009 9:00am

Drink culture's horror stories must end

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There are times when one wonders if the message about the problems caused by alcohol is really getting through.

Increasingly it would seem that the misuse of alcohol is causing problems right across society. This can range from the social and health problems which individuals can get themselves into, to the problems in containing anti-social behaviour on our streets, to the toll on our health service.

The drink culture has brought many horror stories; a teenager is serious danger due to liver problems, youngsters as young as eight years old consuming alcohol and getting into trouble.

Here in Fermanagh, it seems to be a real issue. There are stories about some of our towns becoming unsafe on a Saturday night.

And last week, senior PSNI officer Graham Dodds highlighted real concerns when he met the District Policing Partnership.

He spoke about a 17-year-old girl who began the evening as a well-dressed young woman on a night out, but ended it "unable to look after herself in any way" because of the amount of drink she had taken, and she apparently collapsed in the street.

It is surely a sign of the problem that when we hear this, we are not surprised and probably consider it to be fairly commonplace.

The officer, quite rightly, pointed out that we should consider that the most alarming aspect we should consider is not that these young people may go out for a night and end up sick in the street -- the real fear and prospect is that some of them will end up dead in the street.

Considering the present drink culture, including unfortunately street drinking, it is right that the authorities should take steps to tackle the problem.

The police are warning that any publican who is not tough on underage drinking will face their full wrath. The police are continuing to inspect premises to catch underage drinkers, and any pubs not strictly enforcing law can expect to have their licence challenged.

Of course, it is not all down to publicans, many of whom behave responsibly.

This is a society problem. We must continue to get the message across to everyone that consuming large amount of drink, including the range of so-called fashionable products isn't "cool" or funny.

Lives and a future of misery for too many people are at stake.