Drunk tanks

The "drunks" still need medical monitoring as they might deteriorate or could choke on their vomit.
But they know that could happen - is no-one considered to be responsible for themselves or their actions these days?

Perhaps everyone could get a 'free go', just the once, in the tank? After that, charges occur. Hefty ones.

Elrel from the Bristol Post:

Bristol was the first city to trial the mobile drunk tank idea. It has proved a success, becoming a regular feature in the city centre at this time of year.

The drunk tank cost £500,000 and it can treat 11 people at a time with eight beds, showers and seats along with a sluice and pump room for the worst patients.

It has been a success that is why it could be rolled out across the country.

However, I am still not sure that I agree with it - it feels like a plaster on a wound rather than investigating what caused the wound in the first place and trying to prevent that.

....especially when the wounds are self inflicted!

Agree with Blue belle. They should be charged. Not just for being in the drunk tank but also for going to hospital. People have to start owning their actions. But we also need a campaign against drinking too much. It seems to have become an aspiration
I have friends who regularly post on F.B. about drinking. Sad. Having lost a friend to alcoholism some years ago, I am very aware of the dangers.

My D.H. says they should be shovelled up into old containers!

Like this, you mean, Morgana?

www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/man-found-dead-recycling-site-14088781

It's a good idea to have the drunk tanks to relieve A&E but the people in them should be made to pay-as in years gone by, when they were in police cells and before magistrates in the morning and fined.
Also the businesses that profit from this trade, pubs, clubs, breweries should also contribute.
I agree 24/7 licensing hours need amending too-no chance of that I would think!
It's heartbreaking that a whole generation seems to think it's ok to get drunk so easily-storing up problems ahead.

In Norwich and I believe other cities now, there’s an SOS building by the night club area where anyone who’s over indulged or in danger can go for assistance - and a boat cruises the river Friday and Saturday nights I believe, to fish out anyone who blunders in. Nanny state gone mad. I’m glad official drunk tanks will be made available and I think a fine of £50 at least should be charged for anyone who ends up in one.

I have no sympathy for young people who think it’s their right to go clubbing and get drunk out of their minds on a regular basis who then complain they can’t save for a house deposit.

How much does it cost to get that drunk in an evening?

That's really sad D. Jen.

I don't think that is the only case I have heard of.
Horrendous.

It wouldn't cost much to get out of your tree at some of our town centre pubs, Jalima. Wine at less than £8 a bottle, double up your spirits for £1.25, buckets of 12 beers......you get the picture. I can walk past at 9am and people will be sitting drinking there. And even though these may be problem drinkers, it's socially acceptable now. The club's own Facebook sites will have pictures of punters "enjoying breakfast and a pint". It just seems wrong to me, though perhaps I'm a judgemental old biddy.

We've always had drunks, they were called 'drunk and disorderly ' and they were put into police cells to sober up. Now there are far too many to sleep it off in police cells, and indeed clogg up A+E. So we can thank Tony Blair with his 'cafe culture ' idea, for liberalising the alcohol laws (hides behind parapet.)

Two years ago I was on an A&E ward waiting for a bed on the Neurology ward. A young woman was admitted who was so drunk she'd walked across a dual carriage way and was hit by a car. She'd got up and carried on walking down the road. She was eventually picked up sitting on the side of the road after the driver of the car phoned 999. When she sobered up a bit, she got dressed and left the ward when the nurses weren't looking. Three hours later she was back in the same bed (which by then had seen off two other patients). She'd taken a taxi to her boyfriend's house where he split up with her, so she took an overdose and cut her wrist with a broken bottle. He'd called 999 and that's how she ended up back in the bed opposite me. In the morning a social worker arranged temporary accommodation for her to go to when she discharged. She left the hospital again without telling anyone intending to go to a party in Birmingham.

I was on the A&E ward for 5 days and I'd never seen anything like it in my life. I never slept a wink because of the game of musical beds going on around me. I felt like I was the only normal person in the place. The nurses kept apologising to me.

PS I think the drunk tanks are a necessary evil and a sign of the times. I imagine there's a score system, something like they get a caution the first three times they get picked up and then they get charged with being drunk and disorderly (or whatever they call it now). Something like that.

My Step-Brother is the son of a police inspector and when he was 19 he got prosecuted for weeing in somebody's garden on the way home from the pub on one night. No preferential treatment. Mind you that was in Scotland where you get away with far less than in England.

Wonder if there's any way to get rid of this so called cafe culture? Trying to get the genie back into the bottle? It's the availability of cheap alcohol 24/7 at the root of it all. Shall we start a petition?

Close down pubs?

Closing down pubs wouldn't resolve the problem. Cheap alcohol is available from off licenses that specifically aim to sell alcohol as cheaply as possible, hence the Scottish government initiatives to have a minimum price per unit, which begins in May. There are businesses that operate in my area who will deliver cheap alcohol, directly to your door 24/7.

Definitely no to closing down pubs, it's a shame quite a few have gone already. At their best they are places where people socialise and inns/drinking houses have been around in some sort of form since the middle ages. I perceive that a lot of young people get their drink stash from the supermarket before they go out clubbing. God knows what the answer is without becoming some sort of prohibition type of society, banning anything just means it all goes underground. It's a shame we can't emulate the southern European way of drinking, drunkeness does seem more prevelant in northern parts of Europe, maybe it's the lack of sunshine who knows. I suppose young people need to learn about where the demon drink can lead, a sustained anti smoking campaign seems to have worked because I read somewhere the levels of smoking in Britain are very low now.

the minimum pricing initiative which starts here next May will also mean the end of the cheap multipacks...20 cans for £7 I saw advertised yesterday and while that isn't a problem for a lot of people who will stock their drnks cabinet/fridge and use it wisely there are a multitude of young folk ...and older drinkers who will down that in one sitting.Supermarket "deals" are a huge part of the problem ,thats why the weekend drunks GET drunk before they go out...its TOO cheap.The retailers should be contributing to the cost of the drunk tanks.I allso had a sister who was an alcoholic ...she died after "celebrating" her birthday...she choked on vomit.Maybe if there had been a local drunk tank she would have survived...not that it would have stopped her drinking ...but sadly the need to stop has to come from the drinker...no one else will ever influence them

I only said close down pubs because four have been closed down over Christmas and New Year in Newcastle.

There is evidence that the youngest generation (of over 18s ) are drinking less than the previous generation, preferring to stay at home with their smartphones and laptops. Obviously binge drinking is still happening but the trend is for less than ten years ago.

Surely cafe culture can only be a good thing, giving people places for socialising that doesn't necessarily involve alcohol. Coffee shops are everywhere in town centres now. It's sad to see the closure of the traditional pub - the ones that survive tend to be offering good food and coffee. In my area there are lovely coffee shops that are actually owned by brewery chains.

I was going to mention that, harmless.

A big tank of water, a hefty fine, paying for medical services, that's what is needed to clean up our city and town centres
of this disgusting behaviour.