I am writing to express my concerns about alcohol and under drinking, and I hope that when you have read this letter you will have changed your mind and hopefully increase the legal age for drinking to 21.

To Mr Andrew Lansley

Youngsters start drink for many reasons such as Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant. So if you're tense or uptight, drinking some alcohol will reduce some of that tension and help you "chill out.” Most of all teens that drink start by peer pressure. There are also some cases where the parents of the kids abuse them so the kids drink because it makes them feel as if all their problems are all gone. Not only is it peer pressure but the beer commercials, they make it look cool to drink. Another reason for teenagers to drink is parents divorcing. Whenever such a thing happens, teenagers may seek comfort in alcohol.

There are many health risks associated with alcohol such as raised blood pressure which increases the risk of Stroke; stomach disorders; depression and emotional disorders; cancer with particularly the mouth, throat and gullet; liver damage; malnutrition; accidents, at home, at work, on the roads and maybe even suicide.

The risks to your family:
Violence, accidents (perhaps influenced by you); less to spend on food; poor role model for children; increased risk of divorce. If you are pregnant you can damage your baby by drinking alcohol.

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After drinking, the brain works inefficiently, taking longer to receive messages from the eye and this results in the instructions to the muscles being delayed. Alcohol can slow down reaction time by 10 to 30 per cent. Alcohol reduces the ability to see distant objects and night vision can be reduced by 25 per cent. It can also cause blurred and double vision. The ability to see what is happening at the roadside is weakened and there is a loss of peripheral vision Alcohol may also give you overconfidence, with the result that you are prepared to take greater risks.

About 1,900 people under 18 die every year from car crashes involving underage drinking. Drinking drivers aged 16 to 18 are twice as likely to be involved in a fatal crash as drinking drivers who are 18 or older. Amongst 16-18 year olds, transport accidents are the leading cause of death, with drivers under 20 being involved in over 1,000 drink drive accidents a year.10% of under 18s were convicted for drink driving. Even when sober, young drivers are more accident prone than older more experienced drivers. Alcohol increases their accident risk. The vulnerability of a young person to the effects of alcohol is shown by the lower average blood alcohol levels of young drink driving offenders compared with older offenders. For young people accident risk increases after one drink; after two it doubles and after five it can have increased ten times more.

As you may already know binge drinking is defined as drinking a lot of alcohol in a short space of time. Binge drinking can cause many problems:

Accidents and falls are common because being drunk affects your balance and co-ordination.
You’re also more likely to suffer head, hand and facial injuries.
In extreme cases, you could die. Overdosing on alcohol can stop you breathing or stop your heart, or you could choke on your vomit.
Nearly a third of alcohol related deaths are a result of alcohol related accidents. These deaths are more common among 16–34-year-olds.
Binge drinking can affect your mood and your memory and in the longer term can lead to serious mental health problems.

An economic effect of binge drinking is unemployment because they have spent all their money buying drinks and therefore get too drunk too hold their job.

A social effect against binge drinking they’ll prevent people from walking out in the streets for fear of getting into a problem with a drunkard. It can often cause the drunkard to get an ASBO and conflict between his/her family.

Alcohol is banned in countries such as Bangladesh, Somalia, Saudi Arabia and United States Virgin Islands.

It is also banned in a few religions: Islam because it is called "abominations of Satan's handiwork," and it intends to turn people away from God and forget about prayer and Muslims is ordered to abstain from it.

Christianity because the bible states that you must not get drunk with wine, it is prohibited.

However, in Judaism you are only allowed alcohol on a special occasion.

Anyone including teenagers, adults and the elderly will feel agitated or nervous walking in the streets at night or even in the day, in alleys, graveyards or enclosed spaces, they might think that a drunken will be around the corner who isn’t sober might lash out for no apparent reason can cause harm to them.

If alcohol was discovered now it would be classified as a harmful and illegal drug because of many reasons which include:

Only one or two drinks can impair your judgement and coordination needed to safely operate a car. Some short term effects of alcohol are reduced inhibitions, loss of muscle control, memory loss or blackouts, nausea, vomiting, headaches, hangovers, and stupor (which is acting seriously disoriented and confused). The longer a person abuses alcohol the closer they get to becoming an alcoholic.
Long term effects of alcohol can include: liver cancer, women who drink increase their risk of breast cancer, memory loss, stroke, heart disease, and changes in physical appearance, diabetes, and much more.
Drunken individuals are four times more likely to lose their temper and six times more likely to commit an act of violence. Alcohol is the major cause in thousands of suicides and murders each year. These numbers would go down if we banned alcohol.

Yours sincerely

Schmyla Siddique