1. Script
Title – How much is too much
Reconstruction using a case study
Interviews with police officer, bar staff, shopkeepers, students
This week on how much is too much we go to the heart of Britain to explore underage binge drinking
and how it leads to violence and in severe cases hospitalisation. Coming up…
-We talk to a police officer about the dangers of binge drinking
-We see how binge drinking can affect a young person
Binge drinking is drinking lots of alcohol in a short space of time to get drunk. It is estimated that
10% of 12-year-olds say they have used alcohol at least once. By age 13 that number doubles. And
by age 15, approximately 50% have had at least one drink.1 in 10 shopkeepers broke the law by
selling alcohol to underage drinkers, 90,000 crimes attributed to drink, 60,000 were violent attacks,
1,300 sex offences and there is a 37 per cent increase in the number of children being admitted to
hospital because of alcohol since 2001.
Drinking can cause numerous health problems such as: liver disease, throat cancer and mental
health problems. It can also lead to a young person becoming more violent, aggressive, less inhibited
and no longer in control… these are just a few mild examples of how alcohol can alter your body.
It’s obvious that underage binge drinking is a big problem in today’s society, so why are we
continuing to see alcohol advertised so cheap?
We went to the heart of Solihull to visit the Solihull sixth form college where we were able to
interview and question students about their views and opinions on underage binge drinking. We
wanted to know how much students really knew about underage binge drinking as they are known
for being the worst for it.
We asked a number of students that attend the college who they thought were the worst binge
drinkers were. 65% of students said that they thought males were the worst binge drinkers were as
the remaining 35% of students thought that females were the worst binge drinkers. The actual
statistic was ‘British girls are biggest teenage binge drinkers in western world.’
We also asked the students what their views and opinions were on binge drinking.