SOON we could become a nation of round-the-clock drinkers. From this week applications are being made for extended licences, including 24-hour ones. Duncan Eaton focuses on a group of Eastleigh drama students who are bringing home the dangers of binge-drinking in a very graphic way...

EMPTY cans litter his bedroom and his mother is about to tip a half-empty bottle of vodka down the sink. Another fierce row explodes over drinking.

A tearful teenage girl tries to explain to her boyfriend that she is pregnant.

It was a heavy drinking session that led to unprotected sex. But the boyfriend does not want to know that he is the father.

These are dramatic scenes which are being played out by drama students at Eastleigh's Barton Peveril College.

Soon they will be shown to thousands of schoolchildren across Hampshire as the message about the life-damaging consequences of binge-drinking is driven home in a very graphic way.

Many cities and towns across the country have become alcohol- fuelled battle grounds on Friday and Saturday nights.

Barton Peveril's students are putting across a message which they hope will make other teenagers sit up and think about the perils of hitting the bottle.

The thought-provoking play is a community theatre project funded by South Central Connexions - part of a Whitehall initiative of 47 partnerships - and the Drug Action team.

Other organisations, including Alcoholics Anonymous, are giving their full backing to the Alco Pops project.

No Limits, a support agency based in Southampton, will be providing advice and support to anyone who is affected by alcohol.

Next month Alco Pops hits the road on a tour which will take the play into schools across the county, reaching an audience of between 4,000 and 5,000 young people.

It will also be turned into a video which will go out to 200 schools.

Poster space has also been taken on the sides of buses and bus shelters to drive home the message that "messing with booze can mess you up."

Twelve drama students have been busy rehearsing the 40-minute play which touches on the issues of how drink can all too often be linked to being excluded from school, vandalism, unprotected sex, teen pregnancies and family problems.

Project manager Dave Thorpe, pictured, says that the students have had to put themselves in the shoes of youngsters having problems at home through booze or who want to run with the drinking crowd.

It is also a great acting challenge for the students, who are having to create their own powerful story lines on how drink can wreck lives.

Dave says: "It is all from improvisation. There is no script."

One of the actresses, Katy Carmichael, 17, of Horton Heath, said: "There is too much binge-drinking. Young people think it is a fun thing to do."

She believes that the play would help to combat the problem because it was teenagers putting across the message to other teenagers.

The Alco Pops project comes at a time when fears are growing that the open-all-hours drinking culture could open the floodgates for an epidemic.

In his role as a youth worker Dave Thorpe often hears of cases where drink problems are spilling into the classroom.

He says: "There is a big problem of kids coming into school drunk. A parent came to me a few weeks ago. She was called to the school to remove her son who was drunk. In the morning he had drunk half a bottle of vodka.

"Some children are having a can of booze for their lunch breaks instead of a bag of chips. It is a growing problem.

"Teachers are recognising that some of the problems are alcohol fuelled."

Many of those with drink addiction are what Dave describes as "lost" children.

He says: "They are not doing well at school or they are excluded. Some of them have problems at home.

"The place where they find identity is with the gang, and across Southampton there are dozens of gangs.

"Youngsters want to identify. And if to identity means having a can of drink or half-bottle of vodka they will get involved."

Boredom is also another reason for youngsters turning to drink.

He says: "There is a shortage of youth clubs and they are often only open for a few hours a week.

"Youngsters have time on their hands and so they are hanging around."

Some youngsters are so desperate for drink that they will steal from shops or their parents.

Dave is quick to point out that it is only a minority of youngsters whose habitual drinking is wreaking havoc in the community.

He is highly critical of the government desire to press ahead with a revolution in licensing laws which has opened the door to 24- hour drinking at a time when binge-drinking has escalated.

He says: "I would have hoped the government would have seen sense and postponed the introduction of these new licensing laws for two or three years."

This would have given time for communities, police, social workers and youth organisations to address the issues more fully.

He fears that youngsters binge-drinking at 14, 15 and 16, would move into a 24-hour set-up that would encourage the lifestyle.

He warns: "We are going to see in the next few years an escalation of alcohol-related problems and addiction problems."

Many youngsters consider that drink problems are all about an old man sitting on a park bench downing meths.

But Dave says: "If you talk to some of the agencies that deal with alcohol problems there are more younger men and women coming to them for support, help and advice.

"They do not recognise that if you misuse alcohol in the way that some are you will have serious health implications.

"Alcohol-related problems are costing the NHS millions of pounds a year. Once you get a drink problem you have got it for life."

Dave also blames TV soaps, like Coronation Street and EastEnders, where the pub is the centre of the storylines, for glamorising alcohol.

There is also the image that if you drink alcohol you are buzzing and cool.

Dave says the breweries and advertisements for alcohol are geared to younger men and women, but pub happy hours often become miserable hours.