There has been a lot of talk recently about the proposed alcohol law reform, with changes such as adding an extra 10% tax and raising the legal age of purchasing alcohol to 20 proposed by the Law Commission.
There is no argument; we do have a drinking problem, and nowhere is it more apparent than here in Dunedin.
Castle Street, Hyde Street, Leith Street, take your pick and on any given Friday I guarantee that you will see students either publicly urinating or vomiting.
Yet we still use the distinction of ‘drugs and alcohol'.
Legal drinking ages vary quite drastically from countries, from no age restriction at all (in countries such as Macau and Albania), to an illegal status (Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iran).
However the majority of countries have a legal drinking age of 18.
Be this as it may, New Zealanders seem to have a very poor history with alcohol.
"A can of beer or an RTD can be bought for one or two dollars in many retail outlets. This is less than we pay for bottled water," says Sir Geoffrey Palmer, President of the Law Commission in Alcohol in Our Lives: Curbing the Harm (NZLC R114).
"Our reforms are firmly targeted at reducing the harms associated with heavy drinking and drinking to intoxication."
In a recent survey among students and teachers at Dunedin schools, results were not very surprising.
The majority of students were in favour of keeping the drinking age as it is, and a similar majority of teachers wanted to see the drinking age raised.
There seems to be general trend amongst those affected and those who want to decide what is to happen to the affected.
The 15 and 16 year olds find no problem with the fact of getting trashed on a Friday night, yet towards the late 20s the ‘mature adults' know what's best (having done the same things themselves).
Although, hypocrisy isn't really an argument against the changes, as the effects of alcohol abuse are very wide ranging indeed. Recently James Webster (16), of Auckland had a fatal encounter with alcohol.
He allegedly stole a bottle of vodka from his house to go to a friend's 18th birthday party. "I don't know if anything would have saved James with that amount of alcohol in his body," says Donald Webster, James' uncle.
Accidents like this, though uncommon, have a huge impact on our society.
But would increasing the legal drinking age really decrease the number of youth drinkers? Is binge drinking not too ingrained in our ‘culture,' so to speak?
Like a weed must it be pulled out by its roots, so that it will not grow back? What can we do? One in ten drinkers, 224,600 people, admit to drinking enough to become intoxicated at least once a week.
One in five ex-drinkers also admitted driving while feeling under the influence of alcohol in the past year, this is the equivalent of 444,100 adults. "What these figures make clear, is that drinking to intoxication and drinking large quantities remain dominant features of our drinking culture and this behaviour is not confined to an aberrant minority," Sir Geoffrey said.
Depression, cancer, hypertension, schizophrenia, cirrhosis, coronary heart disease, the list seems to be neverending, with alcohol impacting negatively on almost all aspects of our health.
What makes alcohol so different from other drugs? Where marijuana is illegal, a 1.25 litre bottle of 8% Scrumpy can be bought for $9.00.
Alcohol has adverse effects just like other illegal drugs so why do we allow it to be sold commercially? This should not be an issue where you sit on the fence; take a stance, state what you truly believe in.
Alcohol, friend or foe?
- by Max Lequeux Year 13, Logan Park High School
