TWO Fridays ago during her usual night out at Zouk, Carol downed three glasses of whisky green tea, two glasses of bourbon Coke and a jug - equivalent to about four glasses - of vodka Ribena, all within a span of four hours.

'I was very wasted and when I woke up the next morning, I couldn't remember much of what I did,' she says sheepishly.

But she did recall 'puking so much after I left the club that in the end, I was just puking bile'.

Still, she does not regret the binge. 'Since the holidays are coming to an end, I wanted to make the best of the final days before school starts.'

Carol, you see, is 18.

A second-year polytechnic student, she declined to reveal her full name 'in case my parents find out'.

Although she's now within the legal drinking age of 18, she says that she has been drinking hard liquor since she was 14.

'Most of it was stuff like vodka Ribena that I mixed at friends' houses. But I don't drink beer because I don't like the bitter taste.'

While New Year's Eve may be an annual excuse for countdown parties and drunken revelling, here's a sobering thought: A whole generation of young Singaporeans like Carol - in their early 20s and below - are growing up very at home with hard liquor.

Eschewing milder beverages like beer and wine which provide 'no kick', they are heading straight for the hard stuff.

Industry players say the trend gained momentum in the past decade, thanks - or no thanks - to a burgeoning club scene, old-man liquor brands that have become trendy and the increased acceptance of drinking as a social habit.

After a night of clubbing, the livers of these youngsters swirl with vodka, whisky, brandy, rum - hard spirits which boast an average alcoholic content of 40 per cent compared to between 5 and 20 per cent for beer and wine.

Nightlife industry veteran Dennis Foo, chief executive officer of St James Power Station, says: 'In the old days, you would start with beer, then maybe try a white spirit like vodka, then brown spirit like scotch. Now spirits are very big.'

Peter Wong, former owner of Madam Wong's who now works at the pub as a consultant, says 'things are different now'.

'Most parents don't know what youngsters are drinking. They would be shocked to see the bottles they are buying,' he says.

But he adds that most young people should learn how to hold their liquor as 'they need to learn how to drink to mix around or entertain clients'.

Says student Ethan Ho, 19: 'Maybe you'll drink beer when you're watching football at a pub. But if you're up for a night of clubbing, stuff like vodka and whisky give you a better high.'

Side effects DR LAW Ngai Moh, a consultant gastroenterologist at Raffles Hospital, says liquor is not any more harmful to the body than beer and wine. 'It is actually the alcohol content and quantity taken that will determine the risks of damage to the body,' he says. That said, drinking excessively will lead to major organ damage, says Dr Law. 'Excessive' means any amount that could make you feel sick or inebriated. Alcohol can impair the function of various organs.   The liver might suffer from conditions like hepatitis (inflammation of the liver), cirrhosis (where the liver becomes scarred, fibrous and filled with fat, thus reducing its ability to function) and liver cancer.   The gut might suffer from peptic ulcers (ulcers in the stomach), gastritis (inflammation of the stomach), varices (engorged blood vessels) and acute and chronic pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas).   The central nervous system may be affected, causing poor memory/cognition from brain atrophy (wasting or shrinkage of brain mass) and nerve problems.   Heart-related conditions include hypertension (high blood pressure), arrhythmia (abnormal heart rhythms), heart failure and increased risk of sudden death.   The blood system could suffer from anaemia (a shortage of red blood cells). Go low DR LAW recommends 'low-risk drinking'. Males should have no more than about 20 units of alcohol a week while females should limit themselves to 15 units. One unit is roughly one glass of wine, half a pint of beer, or one spirits measure (about 25ml). Alcohol level THE alcoholic content of liquor depends on its type, brand, and quality. Here's how some common brands compare with beer and wine:   Smirnoff premium vodka: 40 per cent alcohol   Martell cognac (brandy): 40 per cent alcohol   Bacardi rum: 40 per cent alcohol   Johnnie Walker Green Label whisky: 43 per cent alcohol   Beefeater gin: 47 per cent alcohol   Tiger Beer: 5 per cent alcohol   Wolf Blass Cabernet Sauvignon red wine: 14 per cent alcohol Bad mixer DRINKING and driving don't mix. In Singapore, any driver found with more than the legal limit of 35 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath, or more than 80 milligrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood, is deemed to have broken the law regardless of whether he is in control of the vehicle or not. As a rough guide, don't have more than two drinks. If what you are drinking is high in alcohol content, drink even less. Even when your alcohol level is under the legal limit, you can still be convicted if the police believe you do not have proper control of the vehicle. Those convicted will lose their driving licence for at least one year, and could be fined or jailed.

High spirits

ACCORDING to British research house The International Wine and Spirit Record, party-goers here would have consumed 275,000 cases of spirits last year.

The figure has held steady over the past few years, with about 264,000 cases and 299,000 cases consumed in 2005 and 2004 respectively.

But more tellingly, whisky and vodka - spirits popular with the young crowd - are gaining a big following.

This year, about 90,000 cases of whisky were swigged, compared to about 82,000 in 2005 and 70,000 in 2004. Similarly, party-goers here drank 38,000 cases of vodka this year, more than the 35,000 and 33,000 cases they had in 2005 and 2004 respectively.

Club managers say that young drinkers are easy to spot. They tend to drink to get high rather than because they enjoy the taste. This means they are likely to mask the bitter taste of liquor with sweet mixers like Ribena, green tea or Coke.

Says Mr Foo: 'It's what I call the 'sweetener effect', which makes the drink more palatable in the beginning.'

Despite their age, they aren't necessarily penny-pinching drinkers in search of free flow promotions.

At the Ministry of Sound (MoS), for instance, senior club manager Sanjay Joseph has seen 20-year-olds spend up to $1,000 in one night buying bottles of liquor. Quite predictably, their choice poisons are the hip drinks of the moment: whisky and vodka, thanks to easy-to-recall mass brands like Chivas Regal and Absolut.

At MoS, where the age for entry is 18, 600 to 800 jugs of vodka Red Bull fly off the bar every Friday and Saturday. Of all the drinks sold, 40 per cent are liquor, 35 per cent beer, 15 per cent cocktails and 10 per cent wine.

Similarly, at rival club Zouk, where the average age of clubbers is about 19, 400 to 500 jugs of vodka Ribena or vodka Red Bull are chugged down on weekends. Liquor forms 60 per cent of sales, followed by beer at 25 per cent, wine at 10 per cent and cocktails at 5 per cent, says its beverage manager Francis Lau.

However, clubs like Thumper, which cater to older crowds, sell about 10 per cent liquor, with the rest of sales split evenly between wines and beers, says manager Ashur Jahari.

Says Mr Joseph: 'Entry-level drinkers think they can take on the world. They think they are invincible. There's 'cheers' all around and within half an hour, that person is the happiest one in the room.'

Young drinkers are the ones who boast of 'downing' copious amounts of liquor, and like war heroes, regale friends with stories of projectile vomiting ('doing the Merlion') outside clubs.

National serviceman Joseph Chee, 19, recalls waking up in his bed after a night of drinking with 'puke all over my shirt'.

'I was so sloshed I didn't even realise I had thrown up in my sleep,' he says.

Many young people are also getting boozed at a young age. A poll which LifeStyle conducted on the Stomp website last week found that 32 per cent of the 60 people who responded had their first taste of hard liquor below the age of 15.

Youngsters LifeStyle interviewed shared similar experiences. Says a 15-year-old girl who declined to be named: 'I drink at my friends' houses when their parents are not at home. There's nothing wrong if we don't get into trouble outside.'

Student Pamela Teo, 20, thinks it's 'bad' to drink hard liquor at a young age 'but I drink anyway. It's a peer influence thing. Everyone drinks together and gets happy together'.

Mr Dave Sim, 23, who studies in Australia, says young Singaporeans are 'quite civil compared to Australians. They love their beer and don't stop until they get drunk'. Compared to vices like drugs, he says drinking 'is the lesser of two evils'.

Social drinkers

SO WHO'S to blame for the rise of Singapore's hard-drinking generation? Admittedly, it's not easy to point fingers, especially when drinking is no longer considered much of a vice.

Instead, alcohol is seen as a kind of social lubricant. Saying 'would you like a drink?' is a surefire way to starting a conversation, and a cocktail or two makes everyone seem friendlier.

Psychiatrist Brian Yeo, who is also an alcohol addictions counsellor, says: 'If you go partying, you don't go there for lemonade. Nowadays, the 'start point' is different, it is very unusual for people not to have something alcoholic.'

Still, there are clear reasons for the trend.

With the nightlife scene booming, clubs, bars and all manner of watering holes are easily within reach. Last year, 3,431 public house licences - permits required by any establishment wanting to sell alcohol - were issued by the police, compared to just 1,876 in 2001.

There are now at least 1,000 pubs and clubs in Singapore. Last November, about 1,500 global frequent travellers voted Singapore as the second best country for nightlife, second to the United States.

This year also saw the opening of mega nightspots like St James Power Station and The Cannery.

Engineer Tan Teck Hua, 26, says: 'When I was in my teens, there weren't so many places to go. If I couldn't get into Zouk, that was it.

'Now, you have places like St James Power Station, MoS and not to mention all the seedy neighbourhood pubs which won't turn underaged people away.'

Liquor brands have also gone hip over the last decade, no doubt contributing to the notion that nursing a glass of whisky or brandy is no longer just the reserve of old men.

Whisky brand Chivas Regal, for example, has gone from old school to sponsoring trendy music events here like Womad.

Cognac label Martell VSOP is a regular party-thrower, organising events like its Rise Above Party at Mount Faber in June.

Officially, though, liquor companies say they don't target younger drinkers. Chivas' clientele is 25 to 35, while cognac brand Martell's is 25 to 40, says Mr Raymond Koh, marketing director of Pernod Ricard Singapore, which distributes both labels.

The Singapore Code for Advertising Practices also prohibits alcohol advertisements from targeting or depicting anyone below 18.

Diageo, the umbrella company for whisky brand Johnnie Walker and vodka brand Smirnoff, says it only uses models over the age of 24 in its promotional material.

Still, the young are sucked into the 'adult cool' image of these brands.

Student Cindy Koh, 20, first learnt of vodka when she saw some Absolut print ads in a magazine a few years ago. 'I became curious and wanted to try it.'

Young men, especially, see drinking as a show of bravado or initiation into adulthood. Says student Dave Sim: 'You often see young people spending $200 to $300 on bottles simply because they want to look cool.'

But Mr Andrew Ing, chief operating officer of St James Power Station, counters: 'Yes, image has a lot to do with it. But this is something you are putting in your mouth. If you don't like the taste, it doesn't matter how cool the advertising campaign is.'

Ugly drunks

MORE often than not, inebriation brings out the ugly side in young drinkers.

Club managers tell of young men who get overly aggressive, coming to fisticuffs with strangers, and young women who 'become a little too easy'.

To their credit, nightspots have policies not to serve those who are already drunk. Staff also keep an eye out for those who plan to drink and drive, offering to call taxis for them instead.

There are also possible long-term consequences to hard-drinking at a young age.

Ms Noor Haslinda Ibrahim, a counsellor at the Community Addictions Management Programme at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), says this may lead to an increased tolerance to alcohol, leading them to drink more to get high.

This, in turn, may result in an overdependence on drink at a later age.

At IMH and Dr Yeo's clinic, most alcoholics are in their 30s to 50s, but they share a common trait - they started drinking in their teens.

Health effects of excessive drinking also include liver and heart diseases.

But apart from a handful of seriously hardcore ones, most young hard-drinkers eventually tire of their lifestyle and leave the phase behind.

This is when they start drinking less and rather than mindlessly chug, they grow to appreciate their liquor.

'People in their early 20s are still exploring. But as they get older, they are no longer drinking to get drunk and may be more discerning with what they drink. For example, they may ask for something like Glenmorangie single malt whisky,' says Mr Ing.

Like marketing co-ordinator Lisa Low, 25, who has put her 'wild years' behind her.

'I still 'chiong' (Hokkien for 'party') but I got sick of hangovers a while back,' she says.

'I'm happy with a nice glass of wine, or I go to a bar for a premium glass of whisky.'