Almost 10,000 people arrested in Northern Ireland this year had been drinking, the Policing Board said today.
Nearly half of all detentions since January involved alcohol and the majority of arrests on weekends were alcohol-related, the board disclosed.
Claire Armstrong, director of a charity dealing with drunk offenders, said there was a growing problem.
“Certainly there’s been a cultural change around drinking. Alcohol is 60 per cent cheaper than it was 30 years ago, that leads to greater availability and that misuse of alcohol which can lead onto behaviour that people may otherwise not engage in were they not under the influence of alcohol,” she said.
“That greater availability of alcohol inevitably may lead to more crime as people are out of their depth in a number of ways with alcohol.”
Over 20,000 people have been arrested since January 1st and 46 per cent (9,557) consumed alcohol shortly before being detained.
A total of 77 per cent of arrests on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights were alcohol-related.