As the founder of Soberistas.com, an online website for people experiencing a problematic relationship with alcohol, I see every day the carnage, sadness, and physical and emotional damage caused by the excessive use of alcohol. The 50,000 members of Soberistas are all striving to be sober in a society that promotes heavy drinking at every turn.
This is despite the fact that just a few alcoholic drinks each night significantly increases a person's risk of breast cancer, early onset dementia, liver disease and around 60 other conditions and illnesses associated with alcohol consumption. The UK is (embarrassingly) known as a binge drinking nation, all over the world. We would like to see a cultural shift that steps away from the normalisation of heavy drinking in order to show future generations that they can be happy and have fun without being blind drunk.
We are not a reincarnation of the Temperance Movement! And we see nothing wrong with alcohol usage in moderation. But when stores and other public organisations overtly trivialise the seriously damaging use of an addictive drug that is the biggest risk factor for death, ill-health and disability among 15-49 year-olds in the UK, we feel as though something has gone tragically wrong.
There is a long way to go in terms of changing the UK's attitude towards binge drinking but we think John Lewis could be a brilliant champion of positivity regarding this issue and really help in getting the ball rolling :-)
