Students drink less than they used to. Actually quite a lot don’t drink alcohol at all. And the day time pint is largely a thing of the past – to the extent that union bars have been shut down in some student unions. Not everyone needs a drink to release their social inhibitions and kick off a good night out, but for others it’s essential. Binge drinking, however, remains a problem and the government is looking to address that by cutting back happy hours and 2 for 1 promos designed to lure you into bars at traditionally quiet times. Our advice to those who do drink is not to do drunk. Drunk is out of control, expensive, and not very attractive to the person you’re trying to pull – especially if it involves aggression, crying or puke. NSA stages a huge Freshers’ Pub Crawl, but even for this event our marshals will advise drinkers to alternative between alcohol and soft drinks at each of the pub stops – that’s why we negotiate promos on soft drinks as well as alcoholic ones.

This is usually about non-consensual sex – and drink-spiking is an abusive and criminal act. Spiking is usually done by someone who wants sex with you, but who hasn’t got an earthly chance of getting you to consent to it. To get round this problem, the spiker drugs you to get you into a state where your judgement is so impaired that you are not able to resist his/her sexual advances. It affects both men and women, but spikers are usually men.

It’s difficult to detect that your drink has been spiked until it’s too late, but you can take some precautions against having your drink spiked in the first place. Never leave your drink un-attended at anytime, unless someone you trust is watching it in your absence. If you forget and desert your drink, don’t go back and drink it later. If someone you don’t know well offers you a drink, don’t consent and allow him/her to go off to the bar and bring drinks back, be sure that you see your drink poured by the bar tender and take the drink directly from the bar staff. If that sounds a bit over-cautious and over the top, sorry, but it’s the only way to be sure of avoiding the awful abuse that raises out of drink-spiking.

You know how bad cigarettes are for your health and your bank balance, and that you can no longer smoke them in a public place in Scotland – including the pubs and clubs. How annoying is it that you have to drag yourself away from your friends and their chat, or from the person you’re trying to pull, just to go outside into the Scottish winter to feed your habit. Nicotine addiction is a really tough habit to break and you might need a few shots at it. For a free self-help guide, contact smokefree.