Wanted: a cure for alcohol abuse

There has been a lot of it about lately: a rugby league star and NRL role model is charged with assault following an altercation outside a fast-food outlet in Sydney; a young actress is handcuffed and taken away to the police station after a bar fight in Auckland; police warn of potential fatalities amid a rash of apparently unprovoked assaults in central Dunedin.

The common inciting factor? Although the details of these events are yet to be fully revealed, it would come as no surprise to learn it was booze, booze and more booze - coupled with the time of day. All occurred in the early hours of the morning when even the most placid and reasonable of individuals seems to fall prey to loose-tongue, flying-fist syndrome.

New Zealand rugby league captain and West Tigers playmaker Benji Marshall had until last weekend managed to keep out of the limelight for the wrong reasons and avoid the trouble and headlines that had afflicted many of his fellow players. The incident in which he was involved in Sydney came hard on the heels of his elevation to being named the "face of the league" - in which capacity he launched the season last week.

Last Friday night he was hosting a black-tie fund-raising dinner in aid of the Children's Cancer Institute of Australia. Some hours later, about 3am on Saturday, Marshall is alleged to have hit a 24-year-old, reportedly in retaliation to a series of racial taunts. He is due to appear in court on April 20.

At a similar time on Saturday morning, across the Tasman in Auckland, Keisha Castle-Hughes, the young actress best known for her role in the movie Whale Rider, found herself in police custody, albeit briefly, following a fight that began in a bar. Ms Castle-Hughes claims that the incident began when she was recognised and "crude" comments and derogatory remarks were made about her job and Whale Rider.

Her partner took exception and "defended" her. They were both taken to the police station, but there were no formal charges and she and her partner were released.

Whatever the truth of each matter - and we do not know whether the high-profile people involved had themselves been drinking - both incidents highlight the potential trouble that "celebrities" expose themselves to when out after hours and when liquor is likely to have been consumed.

A sensible strategy for such people might be simply to avoid placing themselves in such situations. And failing that, if accosted, taunted or provoked by boozed-up yobbos, turn and walk away.

As events in the Octagon and other parts of central Dunedin in recent weeks show, not everybody is given that opportunity. Several reported and quite serious attacks appear to have been unprovoked and sometimes unseen.

Alcohol impacts on different individuals in different ways. Some claim, by way of excuse when asked to account for their behaviour, it turns them into "someone else"; others say the opposite - that in fact it exposes individuals for who they really are.

The latter is a frightening thought for, if true, there are a lot of aggressive and angry young men out prowling our city's streets looking for an opportunity to hurt someone. Certainly, alcohol seems the common denominator and a catalyst to violence. But to focus blame entirely on the substance is to diminish the important notion of individual responsibility.

On Monday this week, Parliament's justice and electoral committee heard a submission from the Hospitality Association of New Zealand (Hanz) to ban the sale of alcohol from supermarkets. The association argued that the availability of cheap booze in supermarkets was driving binge-drinking.

While labelling the call "pure self-interest" on the part of Hanz, the head of the University of Otago's National Addiction Centre, Prof Doug Sellman, endorsed the submission citing normalised, easy access to supermarket alcohol as "one of the biggest problems that's driving the heavy drinking culture".

But there are many other drivers of drinking, including wider markers that both endorse and celebrate the booze culture that is ingrained in New Zealand society. The problem of alcohol abuse today is multi-faceted.

There are no easy answers, but it will need a multi-faceted approach to counter it. One thing is certain: until there is a sea-change in the prevailing attitude of our society towards excess consumption of alcohol, behaviours will not change.