Browse content similar to Drowning in Drink. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
Just another Belfast Saturday night. Young people here are drinking | :00:13. | :00:18. | |
harder than ever before. In the past, they would have been drinking | :00:18. | :00:25. | |
drinks of around 4%. Now they are drinking drinks that are 40%. | :00:25. | :00:32. | |
a case of lining up the shots on the bark and who can drink the most. | :00:32. | :00:36. | |
But where as it used to be teenagers drinking, now it can be | :00:36. | :00:42. | |
primary school children out well. You see people in their twenties | :00:42. | :00:45. | |
with advanced liver disease and they say they started drinking when | :00:45. | :00:52. | |
they were 10 or 12. So how do we break a drinking cycle so ingrained | :00:52. | :01:02. | |
:01:02. | :01:02. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 42 seconds | :01:02. | :01:45. | |
A bereaved father looking for the body of he's drowned son. Joe | :01:45. | :01:48. | |
Murphy has been out here every day for four weeks with family and | :01:48. | :01:51. | |
friends, searching the River Lagan. On this particular day, nothing is | :01:51. | :01:55. | |
found, but Joe refuses to stop looking for his son. Joby was a 20- | :01:55. | :01:58. | |
year-old barman from Belfast. Six weeks ago, he and his girlfriend | :01:58. | :02:04. | |
Karen went to a Snow Patrol concert at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast. | :02:04. | :02:07. | |
But it was just a few hours after this photograph was taken that Joby | :02:07. | :02:14. | |
died, soon after getting extremely drunk on cheap shot of vodka. | :02:14. | :02:24. | |
:02:24. | :02:29. | ||
was into everything when he was younger. He enjoyed life. Because | :02:29. | :02:39. | |
:02:39. | :02:40. | ||
of one night of cheap alcohol, he After the concert, Joby and his | :02:40. | :02:47. | |
girlfriend went to the Beach Club inside the Odyssey. It was hosting | :02:47. | :02:54. | |
its usual Wednesday night offer - 9 shots for �9. The last memory I | :02:54. | :03:04. | |
have of him, he had four drinks in his hand. That was it. Everything | :03:04. | :03:07. | |
was fine and then they went to the beach club and then it was vodka, | :03:07. | :03:14. | |
vodka, vodka. Later that night, so drunk he could hardly walk, Joby | :03:14. | :03:24. | |
:03:24. | :03:28. | ||
fell into the River Lagan. His family blamed cheap alcohol. He was | :03:28. | :03:31. | |
really drunk and still manage to get a drink at the bar. | :03:31. | :03:41. | |
:03:41. | :03:46. | ||
challenge the Beach Club on this But Joby's brother Martin claims he | :03:46. | :03:49. | |
saw his brother and others being served whilst they were heavily | :03:49. | :03:59. | |
:03:59. | :04:00. | ||
drunk. Me and my friend, there was guy there. We had to physically | :04:00. | :04:08. | |
lift him up. He still got served. Have you ever been in the Beach | :04:08. | :04:13. | |
Club and been drunk and been served? Plenty of times. When we | :04:13. | :04:16. | |
went back to the Beach Club, they told us their staff is trained to | :04:16. | :04:23. | |
spot drunk people, but it is not an easy thing to ascertain. Do you | :04:23. | :04:33. | |
:04:33. | :04:38. | ||
think it is partly Joby's fault? is. The drink is so cheap. It is | :04:38. | :04:42. | |
like giving a child a bar of chocolate. If the Beach Club has | :04:42. | :04:46. | |
not been open that night, would Joby still be alive? He would. 100 | :04:46. | :04:56. | |
:04:56. | :05:04. | ||
Alcohol abuse is costing Northern Ireland up to �900 million a year. | :05:04. | :05:10. | |
Alcohol-related deaths have gone up by almost 50 % in the last decade. | :05:10. | :05:20. | |
:05:20. | :05:22. | ||
Hospital admissions have also risen by more than 50 % in five years. - | :05:22. | :05:25. | |
15%. The biggest rise been among 15-24 year-olds. In the wake of | :05:25. | :05:28. | |
Joby Murphy's death, the Stormont Executive has vowed to introduce | :05:28. | :05:32. | |
new legislation to ban irresponsible alcohol promotions. | :05:32. | :05:35. | |
Tonight on Spotlight we investigate some of these nightclubs running | :05:35. | :05:37. | |
these promotions and expose how they blatantly disregard the | :05:37. | :05:47. | |
:05:47. | :06:07. | ||
Spotlight has learned of a significant rise of violent | :06:07. | :06:10. | |
assaults in Belfast city centre in the last year, which police sources | :06:10. | :06:20. | |
:06:20. | :06:28. | ||
believe are linked to drinking One area where incidents have been | :06:28. | :06:31. | |
happening is here, outside the Odyssey, which is home to some of | :06:31. | :06:41. | |
:06:41. | :06:42. | ||
Northern Ireland's busiest night Our youngsters seemed to have taken | :06:42. | :06:48. | |
over the night time economy and we don't know what to do about it. | :06:48. | :06:56. | |
Hyland runs the SOS buses. They are staffed by trained volunteers to | :06:56. | :06:59. | |
offer medical support and a shoulder to cry on for the young | :06:59. | :07:06. | |
people in various stages of drunkenness. Joe says many of his | :07:06. | :07:14. | |
team joined after visiting the bus to pick up their own children. | :07:14. | :07:18. | |
Things are getting worse. As long as alcohol is very, very cheap, as | :07:18. | :07:21. | |
long as we have a culture where we send our children into places like | :07:21. | :07:28. | |
this. We have given the space to them because we are now staying at | :07:28. | :07:33. | |
home. There has at times been serious drunken violence at the | :07:33. | :07:41. | |
Odyssey. On this night, people are falling down and being sick. The | :07:41. | :07:48. | |
mood is generally good-natured, but we do see plenty of trouble. It is | :07:48. | :07:54. | |
close to chucking out time. We have seen a lot of drunk people, but | :07:54. | :07:57. | |
what has been impressive is the way the security staff, the police and | :07:57. | :08:02. | |
the SOS bus work together. Although there are lots of drunk people | :08:02. | :08:10. | |
around, it does feel quite safe. How many times do you think you | :08:10. | :08:17. | |
have been drunk? This youth worker insists there | :08:17. | :08:20. | |
have been changes in drinking habits in young people over the | :08:20. | :08:30. | |
:08:30. | :08:36. | ||
last few years. It is a case of I am going out and I'm going to get | :08:36. | :08:40. | |
drunk. I am going to have the greatest time I'm never going to | :08:40. | :08:45. | |
remember. At Addiction NI, there has been an increase in people | :08:45. | :08:52. | |
coming for help. The demand for our treatment service has doubled in | :08:52. | :08:56. | |
the last three years. We are seeing 2,000 people a year in Northern | :08:56. | :09:01. | |
Ireland and the majority of those people have alcohol problems. | :09:01. | :09:04. | |
Director Clare Armstrong also believes this is down to a major | :09:04. | :09:13. | |
And this is that culture in action - so called booze buses which young | :09:13. | :09:19. | |
people travel on to get to a nightclub. This footage shows | :09:19. | :09:24. | |
clubbers drinking neat alcohol mixed with beer. It was on a | :09:24. | :09:33. | |
website, but was taken down after sparking controversy in the media. | :09:33. | :09:38. | |
Young people are drinking spirits as their first drink. They have | :09:38. | :09:40. | |
gone from drinking something that was around 4% in strength to | :09:41. | :09:49. | |
something that is 40%. This culture of downing shots is so popular that | :09:49. | :09:59. | |
:09:59. | :10:08. | ||
it is even highlighted in this Neil McDougall, Northern Ireland's | :10:08. | :10:10. | |
leading liver specialist, says that this drink culture is the reason | :10:10. | :10:19. | |
why liver disease has doubled in the last few years. He says the | :10:19. | :10:25. | |
patients he sees are getting younger. We are regularly seing | :10:25. | :10:30. | |
people in their twenties with advanced liver disease. It is | :10:30. | :10:36. | |
something we have become more aware of in the last five, 10 years. It's | :10:36. | :10:39. | |
not the usual alcoholic in their forties, it is people drinking | :10:39. | :10:49. | |
:10:49. | :10:50. | ||
excessively just because they can get their hands on it. The family | :10:50. | :10:53. | |
of Joby Murphy met a Stormont Minister who wants to bring in | :10:53. | :11:00. | |
legislation to ban drink promotions. The Executive is also watching to | :11:00. | :11:03. | |
see if Scotland is successful in introducing a minimum price for | :11:03. | :11:10. | |
alcohol. There is determination on the part of the Executive to deal | :11:11. | :11:17. | |
with this. Government is really committed to do this issue. | :11:18. | :11:20. | |
just how committed are the authorities to making nightclubs | :11:20. | :11:24. | |
behave responsibly? We visited a few nightclubs in Belfast city | :11:24. | :11:27. | |
centre to find out if it is possible to buy alcohol after 1am | :11:27. | :11:37. | |
:11:37. | :11:47. | ||
when premises should stop serving And sure enough, two vodkas are | :11:47. | :11:57. | |
:11:57. | :12:20. | ||
All four clubs were quite openly serving alcohol between one and | :12:20. | :12:23. | |
three in the morning, so what does that say about the attitudes about | :12:23. | :12:27. | |
nightclubs to our drinking laws? And the authority's ability to | :12:27. | :12:32. | |
enforce them? In Northern Ireland three quarters of us drink and | :12:32. | :12:35. | |
enjoy the relaxation and social benefits, which come with sensible | :12:35. | :12:38. | |
consumption. No-one's suggesting they should stop, but all the | :12:38. | :12:41. | |
experts we've spoken to emphasise there is the change in the | :12:41. | :12:44. | |
intensity of young people's drinking and they all say the other | :12:44. | :12:51. | |
change is that children are starting to drink at a younger age. | :12:51. | :13:00. | |
We have had clients starting drinking at seven. Primary | :13:00. | :13:02. | |
schoolchildren are able to take you to where their older brother | :13:02. | :13:05. | |
gathers with their friends to drink and they would admit that they | :13:05. | :13:11. | |
would be tempted, yes, to accept the alcohol. Joan McClain is a | :13:11. | :13:14. | |
Londonderry school teacher who is deeply concerned about how some | :13:14. | :13:19. | |
schoolchildren are drinking at primary and secondary school age. | :13:19. | :13:22. | |
It's not uncommon for young people to go to school with alcohol in | :13:22. | :13:28. | |
lemonade bottles. That's going on as well. On my way to school | :13:28. | :13:32. | |
sometimes I would see young people waiting on the doorstep of an off | :13:32. | :13:38. | |
licence maybe at 8am, waiting for it to open. She runs a project for | :13:38. | :13:43. | |
P7 pupils to try to stop them falling into early drinking habits. | :13:43. | :13:47. | |
Children as young as five have been able to identify for me blue WKD or | :13:47. | :13:55. | |
orange. They've been able to use this in a role-play session, which | :13:55. | :14:04. | |
would you like blue or orange WKD? This is the at age five. With the | :14:04. | :14:14. | |
:14:14. | :14:16. | ||
help of some of Joan's older ex- Educating children and alcohol | :14:16. | :14:22. | |
awareness doesn't necessarily stop them drinking. Here is Joby Murphy, | :14:22. | :14:25. | |
this time filmed four years ago, taking part in a Belfast City | :14:25. | :14:32. | |
Council project about the dangers of abusing alcohol. I seen someone | :14:32. | :14:42. | |
:14:42. | :14:43. | ||
the other night and they were lying in a puddle of their own piss. | :14:43. | :14:49. | |
body is not well equipped. Here in Donegall Pass, Terry Watson is | :14:49. | :14:52. | |
trying to get the message across about alcohol to boys like Luke and | :14:52. | :15:00. | |
Sammy, who are both 13 years old. What sort of state do 11 and 12 and | :15:00. | :15:05. | |
13-year-olds get themselves in? I've had to phone 999 on a few | :15:05. | :15:10. | |
occasions for young people, who have been violently ill. I've been | :15:10. | :15:17. | |
young women almost lying in gutters and absolutely legless. That's a | :15:18. | :15:27. | |
:15:28. | :15:42. | ||
sad and sorry sight and especially when they are underage. Street by | :15:42. | :15:45. | |
Street is a group of local volunteers set up to monitor the | :15:45. | :15:49. | |
inner city streets of South Belfast keeping in touch with and an eye on | :15:49. | :15:52. | |
young drinkers. Look at all of that beer and the vodka. They come round | :15:52. | :15:55. | |
here and drink first, because it's cheaper. One teenager we met | :15:55. | :15:58. | |
claimed he started drinking simply because it was the done thing. | :15:58. | :16:03. | |
drink mostly every weekend. You feel left out if you don't. Luke | :16:03. | :16:10. | |
told us he's been drinking since he was 11 years old. How do you get a | :16:10. | :16:18. | |
beer? Mates. Sometimes. What do your parents think about you | :16:18. | :16:26. | |
drinking? Told me to tell her if I had a wee beer and tell her about | :16:26. | :16:35. | |
it. Instead of lying, so I told her. It's not just beer. There are 11- | :16:35. | :16:41. | |
year-olds who are also drinking spirits. When did you have your | :16:41. | :16:51. | |
:16:51. | :16:51. | ||
first hangover? 11. I drunk a glass of vodka, so I did. Me and my mate, | :16:52. | :17:00. | |
Sammy. That was it. They brought me home, the police. That was it. | :17:00. | :17:07. | |
did you feel about that? Sick. it stopped you drinking? What do | :17:08. | :17:13. | |
you drink now? WKD. That's it. I just drink at Christmas time with | :17:13. | :17:17. | |
my mummy. She lets me have a wee drink with her at Christmas and | :17:17. | :17:22. | |
when I'm on holiday with her. about around here? Where do the | :17:22. | :17:30. | |
kids go to drink? Sit in the park here. At night-time. DD and his | :17:30. | :17:33. | |
friends are older, but have been drinking since around the age of | :17:33. | :17:37. | |
ten and 11. They are clearly proud of the drinking exploits they've | :17:37. | :17:44. | |
got up to. What is the worst state? Legless. I had to get carried home. | :17:44. | :17:54. | |
:17:54. | :17:57. | ||
What age did you start drinking? What about you? 14. We had a bottle | :17:58. | :18:01. | |
of gin and didn't take too well to our bodies. He was sick. I couldn't | :18:01. | :18:06. | |
walk. I was literally sleeping in this here park, so I was. They had | :18:06. | :18:11. | |
to carry me home to my back garden and left me there. Called my mum | :18:11. | :18:17. | |
out and she came and took me up to bed. Why are some young people | :18:17. | :18:22. | |
drinking so much? The experts largely blame the cheapness and | :18:22. | :18:32. | |
availability of alcohol. You can now get a bottle of cider cheaper | :18:32. | :18:38. | |
than certain brands of water. Dr George O'Neill says alcohol is a | :18:38. | :18:44. | |
legal drug which we treat and buy like a grocery. We have a culture | :18:44. | :18:46. | |
now where it's acceptable to drink large quantities and to drink | :18:46. | :18:53. | |
excessively and it's fuelled by the fact it's freely available. You can | :18:53. | :19:03. | |
:19:03. | :19:03. | ||
dial a taxi and they will deliver Ryan Hilditch drank carryouts for | :19:03. | :19:09. | |
years. He turned 22 and said last year he drinking finally spiralled | :19:09. | :19:18. | |
out of control. It was nearly seven days a week. A bottle of Frosty | :19:18. | :19:24. | |
Jacks and Budweiser and a couple of other cans. Even though he's | :19:24. | :19:27. | |
unemployed Ryan says he could still afford to drink because of cheap | :19:27. | :19:34. | |
deals at the supermarkets every day. Cheap drink. You can pick it up in | :19:34. | :19:42. | |
ASDA. Maybe at the minute it's 20 Carlsberg for �12. Near Christmas | :19:42. | :19:49. | |
time it was bottles of whiskey. Karl Williams from the Forum for | :19:49. | :19:51. | |
Action Against Substance Abuse is trying to occupy Ryan with | :19:51. | :19:59. | |
activities like football to keep his mind off the drink. He says the | :19:59. | :20:01. | |
trends among young drinkers are increasingly fuelled by the | :20:01. | :20:11. | |
:20:11. | :20:19. | ||
internet, where people can brag and You can go on to a social website | :20:19. | :20:22. | |
and see the glamourisation around some of these adventures over the | :20:22. | :20:32. | |
:20:32. | :20:32. | ||
weekend and the tales they can tell around their drinking. Certainly, | :20:32. | :20:38. | |
this idea of it's almost seen as a badge of honour. I can do this and | :20:38. | :20:43. | |
drink this amount. I can do it in this amount of time. Joan McClain | :20:43. | :20:46. | |
has been horrified by pictures of girls, though not from her school, | :20:46. | :20:55. | |
that have appeared on the internet. I've been told of young girls | :20:55. | :20:59. | |
filming themselves going to the toilet and putting it on Facebook. | :20:59. | :21:02. | |
They obviously wouldn't do that if they weren't under the influence of | :21:02. | :21:11. | |
alcohol. Just a few weeks ago, David Cameron went to a hospital in | :21:11. | :21:14. | |
Newcastle upon Tyne to announce new plans to tackle alcohol abuse in | :21:14. | :21:17. | |
England. He did so for a reason. Because Newcastle is often referred | :21:17. | :21:24. | |
to the party capital of the UK. It's also here that the shots | :21:24. | :21:27. | |
culture has reached a point where some pubs and clubs are now selling | :21:27. | :21:32. | |
nine measures of vodka for as little at �3.99. Perhaps not | :21:32. | :21:34. | |
surprisingly then, in the north- east, every 18 hours someone dies | :21:34. | :21:41. | |
as a result of alcohol intake. Bob Senior is the Chief Executive of | :21:41. | :21:48. | |
some clubs in the area. He feels Belfast still has a chance to avoid | :21:48. | :21:51. | |
the path Newcastle has gone down, where more drinks promotions have | :21:51. | :21:55. | |
created a city centre that is off limits to those who only the drink | :21:55. | :22:02. | |
sometimes. He said there must be a minimum price for alcohol to hit | :22:02. | :22:11. | |
the supermarkets' cheap deals. supermarkets have done a fantastic | :22:11. | :22:13. | |
job of diverting attention from the problems they are causing with | :22:13. | :22:20. | |
super-cheap drinks. The city centres are populated by younger | :22:20. | :22:23. | |
and younger people who are more and more drunk having preloaded at home | :22:23. | :22:26. | |
to make the money stretch and clubs that have declined the pricing | :22:26. | :22:34. | |
policy to compete. Is it not too easy to blame the supermarkets? Do | :22:34. | :22:38. | |
you not have a social responsibility? Anyone selling the | :22:38. | :22:41. | |
drug that is alcohol has a social responsibility, but of course the | :22:41. | :22:44. | |
defence of anybody accused that would to be say it's still more | :22:44. | :22:54. | |
:22:54. | :22:54. | ||
expensive than the supermarket. Nine shots of spirit for �3.99 is | :22:54. | :22:59. | |
not irresponsible if the supermarkets are selling it cheap. | :22:59. | :23:09. | |
:23:09. | :23:14. | ||
The Northern Ireland Retail They say they fund a DrinkAware | :23:14. | :23:16. | |
campaign as well as carrying information about alcohol units on | :23:16. | :23:24. | |
their products and preventing underage sales. In Belfast, it | :23:24. | :23:27. | |
hasn't reached the stage where nightclubs charge �3.99 for nine | :23:27. | :23:30. | |
shots, but there are still plenty of deals encouraging people to | :23:30. | :23:36. | |
drink large amounts for very little. When Joby Murphy died there were | :23:36. | :23:42. | |
public demands for action against the cut-price offers. Now, the | :23:42. | :23:52. | |
:23:52. | :23:54. | ||
minister says he will ban these types of promotions later this year. | :23:54. | :23:58. | |
We are at a point now where we are due to bring forward regulations to | :23:58. | :24:01. | |
ban irresponsible promotions and that will include both on-sales and | :24:01. | :24:04. | |
off-sales so the days of buy one get one free, or the days of pay | :24:05. | :24:08. | |
�20 and drink all you can until you fall over, that's something that | :24:08. | :24:18. | |
:24:18. | :24:23. | ||
would be ruled out by those Stormont is researching the | :24:23. | :24:26. | |
possibility of a minimum price per unit of drink. This would mean | :24:26. | :24:30. | |
strong drinks like some ciders and spirits would rise in price. But | :24:30. | :24:36. | |
average strength wines and beers would stay roughly the same cost. | :24:36. | :24:39. | |
The Minister accepts he needs minimum pricing alongside a ban on | :24:39. | :24:44. | |
promotions to fully tackle the issue. Undoubtedly, there will be | :24:44. | :24:47. | |
challenges on the way. There will be difficulties on the way, because | :24:47. | :24:50. | |
there are vested interests here, who will want to continue | :24:50. | :24:55. | |
exploiting vulnerable young people. The first step is to press ahead | :24:55. | :24:59. | |
with what we can do immediately and that is in terms of the | :24:59. | :25:07. | |
irresponsible promotions. How can the Minister be sure his ban on | :25:07. | :25:09. | |
cheap promotions will work? It's clear that the current laws are | :25:09. | :25:13. | |
being brazenly disregarded. We found evidence that the drinking | :25:13. | :25:17. | |
laws are being broken as a matter of course. We visited Mynt on | :25:17. | :25:23. | |
Saturday morning. The doorman was totally unperturbed as he explained | :25:23. | :25:33. | |
:25:33. | :25:52. | ||
that the police were actually What does the Minister responsible | :25:52. | :26:02. | |
:26:02. | :26:02. | ||
for licencing have to say when we tell him about this criminality? | :26:02. | :26:04. | |
Well, the responsibility for the operations as regarding the police, | :26:04. | :26:08. | |
that's something that needs to be taken up and I would encourage you | :26:08. | :26:12. | |
to take it up with them. You are the minister for licencing and the | :26:12. | :26:15. | |
clubs are openly flouting the law. You should be concerned about that. | :26:15. | :26:18. | |
There's a law there. It should be enforced. I have no control over | :26:18. | :26:26. | |
the police. In a statement the They also said venues serving after | :26:26. | :26:31. | |
hours remain a focus for police operations. But while the police | :26:31. | :26:35. | |
claim to have a focus on this issue, it is absolutely clear that the | :26:35. | :26:42. | |
four clubs we visited break the law right under their noses. Once the | :26:42. | :26:45. | |
doorman lets us inside Mynt in the background to the right of the shot, | :26:45. | :26:49. | |
police are talking to staff. While they are there, the bar is closed. | :26:49. | :26:59. | |
:26:59. | :27:02. | ||
Once they go, the bar opens and the illegal sale of drink resumes. We | :27:02. | :27:05. | |
contacted the four nightclubs, Mynt, Kremlin, Rain and Thompsons that we | :27:05. | :27:11. | |
found serving alcohol after hours, but only one responded. In a | :27:11. | :27:14. | |
statement Mynt did not address the fact it was breaching licencing | :27:14. | :27:17. | |
laws, but said it has signed up to the trades voluntary code on drinks | :27:17. | :27:26. | |
promotions. However the politicians, the police or society decide to | :27:26. | :27:29. | |
address the issues, back at the SOS bus, volunteer parents are dealing | :27:29. | :27:36. | |
with the fallout of another night's drinking. Just days after Joby | :27:36. | :27:39. | |
Murphy accidently fell into the Lagan, Joe Hyland says another | :27:39. | :27:41. | |
drunk clubber was going to deliberately throw himself into the | :27:41. | :27:48. | |
river. He was contemplating doing something silly. How much of that | :27:48. | :27:53. | |
is drink? A lot of it is. Of course it is. He wouldn't do it sober. It | :27:53. | :27:59. | |
wouldn't enter his mind sober. We all make mistakes. Our society | :27:59. | :28:05. | |
tells everybody drink is OK. During filming for this programme, the | :28:05. | :28:08. | |
Beach Club told us it has dropped the Wednesday promotions, following | :28:08. | :28:10. | |
Joby's death and now employs alcohol awareness stewards to | :28:10. | :28:18. | |
specifically identify potential drunkenness. Whatever the Beach | :28:18. | :28:25. | |
Club does now, it is too late for Joby Murphy. Last week, Joe finally | :28:25. | :28:31. |