I have a confession to make. I was an underage binge drinker. When I was 14 I got hammered while on holiday in Austria with my parents.
We were staying in a hotel in the town of Traunkirchen on the shores of Lake Traunsee. The staff put on a music night and somehow I got hold of some schnapps and in next to no time I was lying on my back in one of the hotel's lengthy corridors, staring at the ceiling as it whirled round and round above me.
The next time I got drunk was a year or so later when I put away a bottle of red Dubonnet. I was as sick as a dog afterwards. God I was classy.
These were the two occasions when I got drunk before I hit 18. I bring this up - if you'll pardon the pun - because the Department of Health has responded to the latest report from Alcohol Concern by saying that more needs to be done to prevent under-18s from getting hold of alcohol.
Alcohol Concern's findings that nearly 8,800 youngsters sought medical treatment after heavy boozing sessions last year are indeed shocking. My own youthful indiscretions involving alcohol had no lasting effect and I certainly never ended up in A&E, but it seems some youngsters aren't so fortunate.
While this is a sorry state of affairs, one that requires careful and targeted policies, as usual sections of the media have pointed the finger at pubs; like there's nowhere else under-18s can buy drink from.
The Metro newspaper's website - owned by Associated Newspapers, home to the Daily Mail - ran the Alcohol Concern study story alongside a photograph of a bloke necking a pint of cask ale. As wide of the mark as it's possible to get, yes, but I suppose it made a change from the stock shot of a girl lying comatose on a pavement somewhere.
There are those who suggest that one outcome of the drive to prevent youngsters from drinking alcohol has been to stop them from discovering pubs as places of responsible consumption. I tend to agree with them.
But since no pub can afford to be found serving youngsters the latter tend to find other, less regulated, places to do their drinking.
There are those who moan and groan at adults - like me - bringing their children into a pub. But by doing so I am exposing my 11 year old to an adult world and thereby how to behave in an adult environment. And hopefully he's subconsciously tuning in to how great good pubs can be.
It would be nice if in a few years time he decides he likes pubs enough to frequent them regularly with his friends as well as, I hope, his old Dad. If so, some of my work will be done.
A footnote to this... agree with it or not, the coalition government last week steered many people onto a path of worsening personal finances through its proposed programme of rising taxes and cuts in spending.
I hope pubs become venues for people seeking solace from this new world of austerity, where one can go in order to get away from it all and maybe to have a moan about bloody politicians, just the like the Good Old Days of the early 1970s and the 3-Day Week, etc.
There is a catch, however. Supermarkets will go all out to attract such hard-pressed consumers with even cheaper booze deals and I fear the government will continue to blame pubs for our booze-soaked high streets.
Now that does make me sick...