Alcohol guide is ‘unclear’

Title – Alcohol guide is ‘unclear’
Source – The London Paper
Date – 30th July 2009

This is a story we have covered before, the outdated ‘unit system’ and its ineffectiveness. That 77% of people do not know the number of units in a specific drink is one thing; that 40% of people do not know the recommended daily limit was actually a bit of a surprise to me, I would actually have guessed the number to be higher.

Certainly for the people we encounter on the many courses we run for candidates working in the Licensed Retail Sector, the knowledge regarding the recommended number of units is hazy at best.

The problem with all this is for either fact to make any sense, you have to know both the recommended daily limit and the number of units in a drink… Do the 23% of people who do know the number of units in a particular drink, know their recommended daily limit? The prospect is that actually very few people know both, thus making the system unfit for purpose.

I can’t really see any way round a change in legislation on packaging, advertising and sale of alcohol to resolve this issue, as recent government campaigns have clearly not made any significant impact.

I also strongly believe that everyone selling alcohol should at the very least have this knowledge so that they are able to Retail Alcohol Responsibly. During our National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH) course and our Award in Responsible Alcohol Retailing (ARAR) course, we help candidates to understand both these scales and to be able to accept their significance. We provide them with resources they can take away, so they can always calculate the units in any drink when they need to.

At Beyond The Blue we run a number of courses for those working in the Licensed Retail Sector to help them sell alcohol more responsibly. These include; The Award in Responsible Alcohol Retailing (ARAR) designed for front-line staff to help them meet their statutory requirements; The National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH) which qualifies candidates to apply for their personal licence; Our Conflict Management and Resolution (CMR) course compliments these courses to help employees deal with Workplace Violence and alcohol related disorder.

Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk. For a complete list of Blog entries visit our National Press Archive page.

For more information on any of our services, please call us on 0845 602 55 95 or Contact Us.

Cocaine use is on the increase

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Title – Cocaine use is on the increaseSource – The London Paper
Date – 24th July 2009

That cocaine use is on the increase amongst young people is not the news story; after all this is relatively well recognised by anyone working with young people.

However these new figures are interesting when taken in conjunction with the recent figures demonstrating that regular cocaine use had surpassed 1 million in the UK. The 1 million figure demonstrated the seriousness of the problem overall; these figures highlight the concentration of cocaine use in young people. This means that people working in environments which are frequented by young people or working directly with young people, have even more reason to be aware of the effects of cocaine use.

The increased use of Ketamine has been something we have long been warning of, primarily because of the cost of ‘special K’ generally being cheaper than cocaine.

Ketamine originally (and still) used as a horse tranquiliser by vets gained notoriety as a drug used in drink spiking to facilitate the act of drug assisted rape (aka ‘date rape’). It has over the last few years been widely used as a drug of choice, especially for younger people where the ‘price point’ is all important.

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Beyond The Blue we run a number of courses for those working in the Licensed Retail Sector including The National Certificate for Licensees Drug Awareness (NCLDA). For other sectors our bespoke Drug Awareness (DA) courses, which examine illegal drugs, their effects and the drug litter synonymous with their use, are specifically designed to reflect the nature of our clients working environment. Our Conflict Management and Resolution (CMR) course complements these courses to help employees deal with Workplace Violence and drug related behaviour.

Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk. For a complete list of Blog entries visit our National Press Archive page.

For more information on any of our services, please call us on 0845 602 55 95 or Contact Us.

Doctors tell of 8-year-old drunks they see in A&E /Childhood Addiction

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Title – Doctors tell of 8-year-old drunks they see in A&E /Childhood AddictionSource – The Times
Date – 3rd July / 7th July 2009

I think that anyone would be shocked by the sight of an 8 year old being brought into hospital unconscious; so how we address this particular problem.

What worries me is the tendency that in these extreme cases, it is suggested that the way they obtain the alcohol is the key to preventing this type of incident. It is very easy for the blame to be laid squarely at the feet of the alcohol retailers.

The problem with these extreme cases, is that looking for a simple solution is very short-sighted. There are undoubtedly rogue retailers out there selling alcohol to underage children and the industry would welcome proactive and constructive measures to deal with those few individuals, because they are in the minority and taint everyone’s reputation.

The fact is an 8 year old addicted to alcohol, cannabis, cigarettes, glue, who carries a knife or any of the other extremes we read about, is not a problem caused even by rogue retailers (and at no stage do I defend them) it is a much deeper problem of our society generally and it must be tackled in that way.

To simplify it or to use it in any way to justify further legislation on alcohol retailer will not only undermine that argument, but also undermine the legitimate arguments which call for ‘tweaks’ in current alcohol legislation.

At

Beyond The Blue we run a number of courses for those working in the Licensed Retail Sector to help them sell alcohol more responsibly. These include; The Award in Responsible Alcohol Retailing (ARAR) designed for front-line staff to help them meet their statutory requirements; The National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH) which qualifies candidates to apply for their personal licence; Our Conflict Management and Resolution (CMR) course compliments these courses to help employees deal with Workplace Violence and alcohol related disorder.

Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk. For a complete list of Blog entries visit our National Press Archive page.

For more information on any of our services, please call us on 0845 602 55 95 or Contact Us.