Australia's alcohol idiot problem

[purple.cow]

I think it's past time the Australian government treated the problems associated with alcohol as it has been doing for a long time with cigarettes and smoking because while smoking is harmful to a person's health it usually only affects the smoker in a serious way themselves, whereas the problems arising from grog harm many around the drunken idiot.

Heavy drinking results in public brawling to the extent where death occurs to both the drinker and others they see fit to harm.

Heavy drinkers also seriously abuse kids and partners, both physically and mentally.

Alcohol abuse is a growing issue among our young people.

Alcohol abuse costs the country millions of dollars every year through loss of productivity due to the drinker chucking sickies because they are hungover or suffering ill effects of grog the following day.

Alcohol abuse results in way too many deaths and injuries on our roads every year.

alcoholics cost our public health system millions every years due to the serious issues it causes to the abuser.

I could go on and on about the bad side of grog, but it will start sounding as though I'm totally anti-grog if I do, when in fact I have absolutely nothing against anyone enjoying a drink or two, but I have a hell of a lot against what abusing the stuff causes.

So, I think it's time that the Australian government takes a far more serious approach to the subject.

To do this they should start off with banning all alcohol/and alcohol related products from public advertising - just as they did with smoking products many years ago.

Next they should slap on an immediate minimum tax price rise of 10% for all alcohol and alcohol related products, to be followed up within 6 months with a further 10% price rise on the lot.

These price rises should also hit the home grog making products market too.

additionally all consuming of ALL alcohol products should be totally banned from all public venues and licensing hours over the entire country should be reduced to far more reasonable hours, say midnight in all clubs and pubs etc.

Do you think I'm goping over the top?

OK, you may think so, but I'm sick to death of seeing the results of alcohol abuse at all levels in this country, and I can see no good reason why my tax dollors should go toward fighting a losing battle against the problems arising from grog abuse.

I've also been forced to attend too many funerals of innocent bystanders killed due to bloody idiot's bad habits while they walk away from it all almost Scot free.

[poddster]

Minmising the booze might help this place too, although I am guessing that too many brain cells have shuffled off their mortal coil already and are beyond any redemption. 🙂

[acacia_pycnantha]

Moorna . . . I think the real problem lies within our ideas of popular culture. We seem to have a culture which enshrines the rough-tough-sporting-heros and gives less emphasis to the arts and the more sensitive sides of our nature.

Just look at our current prime minister for example. he bases lots of his popular appeal on the more physical side of his nature. if he has a sensitive and artistic side at all he is concealing it because he knows what sells.

So, we have a blokey physical culture replete with racism and misogyny which shies away from sensitivity and empathy as we sure don't want to appear to be "girly", do we? As if that was a "bad thing".

An overemphasis on sport, fast cars, barbeques, with good blokey "mates" sitting around and watching the "big men fly" on tv and cracking a few coldies before they go inside and give the kids and the missus a crack or two around the ears when they complain.

It's not just the alcohol. It's the alcohol in a simian cultural setting which is to blame.

[acacia_pycnantha]

And the young women are often not much better. They smear their faces with make-up (above the chin-line only) in a parody of their blokey male mates who spack-fill the walls of their houses on the weekends. They wear clothes which are designed to inflame lust but which invite pity when a dress is worn revealing a set of bra straps and blouse straps in non-matching clours, and is short enough so that they can't sit down comfortably.

They have no sense of taste.

Walking around with mobile phones plugged into their ears and their fingers, searching for endless distraction which keeps them from having any serious thought or idea which might engage more than five cranial neurons.

They can't talk about world events or the arts but they can relate the fortunes of the Big Brother participants or the exploits of the current popular commercial tv soapie or other inane series replete with ghastly canned laughter and fake applause, in tedious detail.

Not everyone is as I have described, but there are enough of them, both men and women to make this country appear as if it were populated with boozy, violent, degenerate, superficial  bogans. The Culture needs to change because as it is  we are an embarrassment to ourselves.

The really embarrassing thing is that all too few Australian people notice this, and the ones who should notice are often  setting the bad example in the first place.

[acacia_pycnantha]

Our parliament is a disgrace. Aggressive, abusive people  concerned with petty point scoring nyah nynah nyah and personal advancement and so on while they should be debating issues with dignity and make their points by virtue of their power of reasoned argument for the good of the country and its' people.

In short, they should act like truly civilised people. They set an atrocious example for the rest of us (both sides of politics are equally to blame, I'm not taking sides on this one).

We need exemplars of something other than bogan brawlers to inspire and instruct us. Perhaps we should demand that Parliament be a dry zone, too?

Couldn't make things much worse, could it?

[i-need-a-martini]

I disagree with most of your comments.

Unlike smoking, drinking is something enjoyed by most of the community. So increasing prices or setting club curfews is punishing the majority who are drinking responsibily.

Binge drinking generally only affects young people.

Education is the key.

[punch*drunk]

There's simply no need for clubs/pubs, or anything much else, to be open all night. Bringing back earlier closing times would definitely help, nothing will stop the problem though, its been going on as long as there's been alcohol.

Parents need to shoulder a lot of the blame too, letting kids drink too young thinking that they wont over indulge when they get older seems to have the opposite effect from what I've seen.

[***super_nova***]

It is interesting that some people think that sport and alcohol, or top athletes and alcohol have somehow logical connection.  That has been drummed into our subconscious by advertising.  🙂   If an athlete drunk the way the ads show, he would never make it to the top ranks. 

We need an advertising campaign to show that binge drinking is not socially acceptable and that being drunk legless is not attractive.  Prosecuting anybody who sells/gives drink to underage kids might help.

[punch*drunk]

---

@***super_nova*** wrote:

It is interesting that some people think that sport and alcohol, or top athletes and alcohol have somehow logical connection.  That has been drummed into our subconscious by advertising.  🙂   If an athlete drunk the way the ads show, he would never make it to the top ranks. 

We need an advertising campaign to show that binge drinking is not socially acceptable and that being drunk legless is not attractive.  Prosecuting anybody who sells/gives drink to underage kids might help.

---

supernova, you can add junk food to that too. I'm appalled at the amount of sports people that promote mcdonalds and the way they target our kids with their sponsership of young kids sports. Its disgusting, neither alcohol or fatty disgusting food has a place in sport. Unfortunately we're teaching kids that it goes hand in hand.

Sorry for the off topic rant 🙂

[***super_nova***]

---

@punch*drunk wrote:

---

Sorry for the off topic rant 🙂

---

I do not think it is off the topic; it is ALL connected.  Unfortunately, we are being manipulated from early age by advertising.  Be it booze, cigarettes, or sexy clothing for little girls; it tells us that to be attractive, happy, popular or whatever we wish to be, we need to consume their product.