Have a look at these statistics.
Up to 70% of all admissions to hospital accident and emergency departments are linked to alcohol misuse.
Up to 22,000 premature deaths a year are linked to alcohol misuse.
Alcohol misuse is a factor in around 1000 suicides a year.
Between 780,000 and 1.3m children are affected by their parents' alcohol problems.
Alcohol-related crime costs society around £7 billion each year.
There are over 500 drink-driving deaths each year.
Around half of all violent crimes, and a third of domestic violence incidents, are linked to alcohol misuse.
Marriages with alcohol problems are twice as likely to end in divorce.
Source for all above: PMSU Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy for England, March 2004.
In a recent survey, 38% of boys and 31% of girls (age 15-16) in the UK had drunk alcohol 20 times or more during the last 12 months.
Source: European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (ESPAD) study, 2003 report, p136-7
