‘The scandal of our society.’ That is how the British Prime Minister David Cameron described British drinking culture. It seems that tolerance of excessive drinking has been rapidly decreasing in several European countries in recent years. Generally speaking the approach to alcohol abuse in the Netherlands and Western Europe has evolved from a period of repression (1890-1960) to steadily increasing tolerance after 1960. Now the tide seems to be turning once more. Over the past decade the problem of public drunkenness has received a high position on the agenda of several European cities. Rotterdam, for instance, has been participating in a partnership with various French, Belgian and German cities since 2011, with the aim of studying alcohol abuse by young people in public spaces and learning to manage it better. This project, entitled ‘Safer Drinking Scenes’, is being co-funded by the European Commission.

In 2012 the Mayor of Amsterdam, Eberhard van der Laan (PvdA), also joined the struggle against public drunkenness in his city. He felt that alcohol use among young people was becoming a serious problem. On Queen's Day 2012, ambulances were called out 575 times in the capital to pick up binge drinkers. ‘This involves major costs for society,’ said Van der Laan, and he recommended that drunken ambulance clients should pay a fine. The Mayor also wanted binge drinkers to pay the costs of their hospital admission and for any necessary police action. This plan has not been implemented for the time being, but the tone was set. Now, as a survey by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reveals, 81% of Dutch people think that young people engaging in excessive alcohol use should pay the costs of their related hospital treatment in part or in full.

In English cities too, ambulances and hospital casualty departments work overtime on weekends and during certain public holidays. The city of Bristol chose an original approach: during Christmas 2014 a mobile Alcohol Recovery Centre went out on the streets. This specially equipped bus picked up blind-drunk Bristolians from the streets to examine them and see if they needed treatment. This type of bus is now planned for ten English cities.