Responsible Drinking?

[Dr.K]

With the recent 'ZOMG BINGE DRINKING' phase hitting it's peak in Britain, there is some discussion emerging as to whether the bar staff of a pub have some kind of responsibility to ensure people don't get completely out of their heads inside the pub's walls. One paper kicked up a fuss when one of their reporters ordered a particularly lethal cocktail of hard liquor, and informed the bartender that it was for one person, to which the bartender was indifferent. This comes a fortnight after a boy drank a dangerous amount of alcohol in the space of 40 minutes and died.

Thus, I put the question - do you think the bar staff of a pub should have a moral responsibility (or whatever) to ensure people don't put their lives or immediate health at risk by going overboard?
I'm kinda on the fence. I'd feel responsible if I was a bartender and the above happened, but then I just think "what ever happened to using that thing inside your cranium?"

[Sephex]

I don't know. I never saw what was so great about alcohol related beverages anyway. I don't see what's so fun about imparing pretty much every important part of your body and mind. If people are stupid enough to drink so much to the point of death, I say let them.

[bipper]

Yes, here in the states bar keeps do have a responsability to make sure that thier clientell is not getting too drunk, and to refuse drinks after they feel the person is showing signs of being completley sloshed. Granted this is not a complete legal liability, but as anything is over here it can sure as hell be tunred into one.

Bipper

[Lionx]

When you are too drunk to judge properly yes i feel the bartender should stop you from drinking more. The argument of using your cranium sorta goes out the window when you are drunk. Sure he shouldnt consume that much alcohol, but thats not the point, when you are already drunk like that you dont give more.

[Madame Adequate]

When you are too drunk to judge properly yes i feel the bartender should stop you from drinking more. The argument of using your cranium sorta goes out the window when you are drunk. Sure he shouldnt consume that much alcohol, but thats not the point, when you are already drunk like that you dont give more.

Then don't drink in the first place, or stay with someone who's not drinking. If you are going to drink until you reach a point where you can't make a rational judgement about further drinking, it's still your own fault. Unless it is your very first time, but as is self-evident, that only happens once per person.

[Lionx]

They have a right to drink that much though, but someone gives them that alcohol, and thast the bartender. Take a test or something and decide if they should have more. The fact that they shouldnt drink or whatever, is not relevant because what we are dealing with here is someone that is already drunk. You dont give more when they are.

[Madame Adequate]

Yes, but they put themselves into a situation where they can't make the decision. They did NOT accidentally end up at a point where they can't make the decision.

[Lionx]

Thus, I put the question - do you think the bar staff of a pub should have a moral responsibility (or whatever) to ensure people don't put their lives or immediate health at risk by going overboard?

That is the question, not whether or not the person should be responsible or not. So in answer to that i say they should if someone is intoxicated enough, whether or not the person should or should not drink that way is irrelevant.

That and i dont think we can hold that to every drinker out there anyway.

[Teek]

In short - no, the bartender owes nothing to his clients other than the service he's providing. I'm hitting the bars to get away from my parents, not find a new one.

[Itsunari 2000]

If you're one of these people too shallow,gullible or stupid to see the underlying stupidity of this notion that drinking yourself into oblivion is " glamourous" then join the rest of the losers in the gutter.

[nik0tine]

The bartender should have a moral responsibility to refuse to serve more alcahol, NOT a legal one.

[bipper]

They do have a legal obligation. I kept my college liquor store job, and if someone can barely walk and the come staggering in, and buy a bottle of everclear, I could be legally liable.

This is even extended to say that if someone buys from our store, and gives it to a minor in the parking lot; that liability can be dropped on the store as well.

Although all things seem to have a legal liability, you have a reputation of human welfare and services to maintain as a government entity. When people die for stupidity (yes thier own stupidity) it costs the government a loss in the ammount of taxes it collects. It costs the government morale and interupts the system with probally pointless allegations and critical voices. The voices start small, but can actually lead to a bigger problem. That's why I see the government's need to simply enforce and post certain laws that mandate our stupidity It is nice to say everyone should be free; but freedom gives us too much power.

back to the overdrinking, you could look at it as aiding in someone's suicide.

Bipper

[nik0tine]

It's not that everyone should be free. The government just shouldn't have any say so in how I live my life and/or treat my body.

[Lionx]

They already do with their government set up and paying taxes and getting work or whatever. The government that we live in determine much what happens in our lives and what we are taught. But in any case they arent limiting you in having more alcohol, just the bartender in giving you, one source. I agree with Bipper.

That and true freedom is total anarchy.