Gin Lane

doi:10.1136/bmj.39504.377755.43

BMJ 2008;336 (1 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.39504.377755.43

Editor's Choice

Gin Lane

Jane Smith, deputy editor, BMJ

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In this week’s opening editorial Thomas Babor proposesthat countries are like people when it comes to alcohol: somecan handle their moderate drinking well, but some—likeBritain—develop "a pathological pattern of alcohol misuse"(doi: 10.1136/bmj.39496.556435.80).

Babor is writing about the BMA’s report on alcohol misuse,which came out last month (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39495.570185.C2)and provided newspapers with the opportunity to print imagesof young women handling their drink badly. Babor commends thereport for marshalling well the evidence for its suggested combinationof increased taxes, controlling access to alcohol, and encouragingearly intervention and treatment. Such measures, he suggests,might return the UK to its former status as a temperate nation.But temperance isn’t the only state historically associatedwith Britain: not for nothing is Hogarth’s Gin Lane oneof Britain’s iconic images.

What works in alcohol misuse, but at the individual level, isalso the subject of . . . [Full text of this article]

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A prescription for amnesia: Chris Luke
BMJ 2008 336: 463. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Maximising benefit and minimising harm of screening: J A M Gray, J Patnick, and R G Blanks
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Diagnosis and management of alcohol use disorders: Andrew J R Parker, E Jane Marshall, and David M Ball
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