It's how we're all drinking, not just youth

Emily Menkes argues against the raising of the drinking age.

Therecent report of the Law Commission on alcohol law reform makes a number of proposals about raising the drinking age from 18 to 20 in order to reduce harm and repair New Zealand's drinking culture.

Although the report has many valid points, this particular proposal is a badly thought-out attempt at a quick fix that restricts only one sector of the population without addressing the wider social problem: the drinking culture in New Zealand.

This is something that encompasses the behaviour and habits of all age groups, not just the under-20s.

It is not news that our drinking culture is harmful.

But raising the age from 18 to 20 will not solve this, and using youth as a scapegoat is unfair, misleading and potentially harmful.

The population of 18- to 20-year-olds numbers about 140,000, and this unfair scrutiny is leading these adults to have a right potentially stripped from them because of the careless actions of a few.

Of course, there are problem drinkers in this category, and an associated tragic loss of young lives, associated with binge-drinking.

But what the commission doesn't seem to be addressing is the problem drinkers in virtually every other category.

We under-20s have the responsibilities of adults: we can receive full prison sentences just like those over 20.

If we can be sentenced and taxed, among other things, as adults, it also means we should have the right to make our own decisions involving alcohol.

I am a 19-year-old and I am legally within my rights to bet at the TAB, apply for credit cards, have consensual sex, get married, buy a house, go to war, and vote, yet if this proposal gets through, I may not be able to have a glass of wine.