Anyone on the streets of Dublin, of my home town of Thurles or of any provincial town or city will notice the hordes of drunken people at weekends. Violent crime is on the increase and it seems to be linked to alcohol consumption. What was interesting in the recent "Prime Time" debate on teenage drinking was that very few young people were able to give concrete suggestions on how to tackle the problem. It is definitely a problem because the emergency and counselling services seem to be overrun with the fallout from this disastrous love affair with alcohol.