Alcohol comes in a whole range of different drinks.

Spirits usually contain a higher level of alcohol than wine or lager.

‘Alcopops’ and ready-to-drink ‘mixers’ may not seem to be strong drinks but they usually contain more alcohol by volume than beer or cider.

Prices vary depending on what you drink and the quality, for instance a premium whisky or older bottle of wine is more expensive than a pint of beer.

Official guidelines:

The UK Chief Medical Officers advise that an alcohol-free childhood is the healthiest and best option. However, if young people drink alcohol:

• It should not be until at least the age of 15 years.
• If young people aged 15 to 17 years consume alcohol, it should always be with the guidance of a parent or carer or in a supervised environment.
• Parents and young people should be aware that drinking, even at 15 or older, can be hazardous to health and that not drinking is the healthiest option for young people.
• If 15 to 17 year olds do consume alcohol, they should do so infrequently and certainly on no more than one day a week.
• Young people aged 15 to 17 years should never exceed recommended adult daily limits and, on days when they drink, consumption should usually be below these levels.

For adults, the UK Chief Medical Officers advise that there is also no completely safe level of drinking, but that by sticking within their recommended guidelines, people can lower the risks of harming their health.

Adults are safest not to drink regularly more than 14 units per week, to keep health risks from drinking alcohol to a low level. And if they do drink as much as 14 units per week, it is best to spread this evenly over 3 days or more. If they want to cut down the amount they’re drinking, a good way to help achieve this is to have several drink-free days each week.

Units of alcohol

A unit is a way of expressing the actual amount of pure alcohol that is in a drink. This allows you to compare how strong one type of alcoholic drink is to another type. For example:

• half a pint of lower-strength beer, lager or cider (ABV 3.6%), or a 25ml measure of spirits (ABV 40%) is 1 unit,
• one pint of stronger beer (ABV 5%) can be almost 3 units, and
• one large glass (250mls) of mid-strength wine (ABV 12-13%) can be over three units.

Check the label on drinks as they often show the number of alcohol units. If they don’t, you can calculate the units by multiplying its ABV (ABV is ‘alcohol by volume’ and shows you the strength of an alcoholic drink), by the volume of the drink (in mls) and then dividing by 1,000.

What are the effects of alcohol?

Alcohol is a depressant on brain activity:

• A small amount can reduce feelings of anxiety and inhibitions, making you feel more sociable. And it will often exaggerate whatever mood you’re in when you start drinking.
• The short-term effects of alcohol can last for a day or two, depending on how much you drank, including the hangover.
• Long-term effects include damage to body that can take years to develop and this leads to a wide range of serious health problems, like cancers that you may not realise are due to alcohol.

What are the risks of alcohol?

Drinking alcohol involves risks, and the risks are higher if you drink excessively on a single occasion or drink higher amounts regularly over time. Here’s what it could do to you.

• One drink too many can leave you feeling out of control – slurring your words, losing your balance and vomiting.
• Alcohol can make you mouthy, argumentative and aggressive. There’s no way of knowing beforehand if you’re going to turn into a nasty drunk but some people do find that heavy drinking affects them in ways they don’t like. Alcohol can also make you take risks that you normally wouldn’t take.
• You’re more likely to take part in risky behaviours that you wouldn’t when you’re sober, e.g. unprotected sex.
• Alcohol contributes to all kinds of problems in Britain, from violent crime to domestic violence to car-related deaths to missing work and unemployment.
• Drinking above the lower-risk guidelines for regular drinking persistently over time causes illnesses such as high blood pressure, liver damage, stomach cancer, breast cancer and heart disease.
• Too much on a single occasion can lead to alcohol poisoning which could put you in a coma or even kill you.

More information about alcohol can be found at the Drinkaware website

The scientific name for the alcohol in drinks is ethanol or ethyl alcohol. Other types of alcohol, such as methanol and butanol, are much more toxic than ethanol and should not be consumed by humans, as they can cause serve liver damage, blindness and even death.

Although these toxic forms of alcohol are sometimes found in counterfeit alcoholic drinks, the vast majority of alcohol brought from legitimate sources won’t contain any impurities.

Counterfeit alcoholic drinks tend to be sold in places you wouldn’t normally buy alcohol, such as car boot sales, and sold at low prices. Sometimes, a clue to knowing that an alcoholic drink is counterfeit is its labelling and packing – there maybe spelling mistakes, holographic labels aren’t holographic, etc.

Can you get addicted to alcohol?

Some people’s drinking gradually gets out of control and if they regularly drink above the recommended guidelines, they’re at particularly high risk of harming their health. For some people, it also leads to them becoming dependent on alcohol.

Psychological and physical dependence on alcohol can creep up on you. Your tolerance to alcohol gradually increases the more you drink, so you may find that over time that you need more alcohol to get the same effect, you may seem to be getting better at holding your drink when that’s really a sign of a developing problem.

For people who are more dependent on alcohol, the withdrawal symptoms after they stop drinking can be severe. In some cases the withdrawal symptoms can be fatal, so a person may require medical treatment because of this risk of death. Typically, the symptoms include sweating, shaking, nausea and retching and high levels of anxiety. Some people can develop hallucinations or fits, or occasionally life-threatening delirious states.

There’s often misunderstandings about alcohol and what’s legal and what’s not, so here’s a quick guide to the law

• It’s illegal to give an alcoholic drink to a child under 5 except in certain circumstances (such as. under medical supervision)
• Children aged under 16 must be accompanied by an adult in a pub or bar
• It’s against the law for anyone under 18 to buy alcohol in a pub, off-licence or supermarket or online
• It’s illegal for an adult to buy alcohol for someone aged under 18, except where that person buys beer, wine or cider for someone aged 16 or 17 to be drunk with a table meal while accompanied by a person over 18
• Anyone over 18 can buy and drink alcohol legally in licensed premises in Britain. But, a lot of shops operate a scheme called Challenge 21 where if you look under 21 (or 25 in some places) and don’t have proof of your age they will refuse to sell you alcohol.

The police have the power to stop a person and confiscate alcohol in a public place if they reasonably suspect the person to be aged under 18. Young people under 18 who persistently drink or are found possessing alcohol in public places may be prosecuted.