It’s 20 years since the UK hit ‘peak booze’. The hangover is still with us

A devil-may-care culture led to the UK’s highest drinking rates. Are we now paying the price for years of excess?

Most people can foggily recall where they were as the clock struck midnight on 1 January 2000. Me? I hugged the jaundiced rim of a village hall toilet, vomiting 10 shades of bile. I had attempted to complete Team 2000 – a challenge set by 20 friends who endeavoured to consume 2,000 units of alcohol, 100 units each, throughout December.

Seasoned soaks might consider this eminently ­achievable – especially around the ­festive ­season – but I was just 15 years old. Later that night, in the grim depths of morning, I defecated while ­unconscious in my friend’s sleeping bag. Welcome to generation peak booze.

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