Richard, "blame the government"? Really?
I'd be more likely to blame Tesco.

The young people I work with don't get pissed in the pub or club - they get pissed at home, on the dirt-cheap booze they get from the local supermarket, then they go out at 11-30 pm, a time of night I used to be staggering home from the pub to bed when I was a young drinker, to hit the pubs and clubs for the last couple (just to top the job off and look out for a pick-up, so to speak).

IMHO, there needs to be a joined-up policy of education/rehabilitation, perhaps court-enforced (same as there needs to be for drug-abusers), price-control-legislation on all alcohol sales (including supermarkets - stop the loss-leader culture), a return to controlled licensed hours (the link between the abandonment of controlled opening and the increase in alcohol abuse is absolutely clear, only a complete idiot would deny it), control of advertising, and a culture-change in the media where alcohol abuse is constantly glamourised.

I don't believe that all young binge-drinkers are addicted to alcohol, but I do believe they are, in a way, addicted to an image of a lifestyle that's rammed down their throats as being desirable, glamourous and "dangerous" in a "non-harmful" way - that it's somehow 'clever' and 'attractive' to behave that way. Young people are impressionable, and they are being given entirely the wrong impression by the media, and by advertisers, who should know better.