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.

[i-need-a-martini]

---

@crystal**flake wrote:

The thing is, girls think its fun and funny to be falling and staggering everywhere, its part and parcel of their "fun" night out.

---

If so, then it isn't a societal problem. It is a parental problem.

Seriously, how many parents sit down and have open discussions with their kids about drugs and alcohol without it being a lecture?

All I can say is that if your kids are binge drinking every weekend, then you haven't brought them up they should be brought up.

[topsidesoul]

Martini is correct........it's cheaper to get just loaded enough that you can walk into said venue and top up from there.

[**meep**]

But parents usually do dumb things or give their kids dumb messages when it comes to drinking. They either:

a) ban them from drinking until they are 18. Bad mistake when kid rebels big time.

I disagree with you 100%.  Not allowing children to drink alcohol until they're 18 is not dumb.  It is responsible.

[punch*drunk]

---

@i-need-a-martini wrote:

---

@punch*drunk wrote:

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.

---

2 things I disagree with:

Firstly,

a) it isn't only drunken yobs that stay up beyond midnight. When I go out with my friends we often don't make it home until the early morning after a great night out. My should our night out come to a screeching halt at midnight?

b) youngsters don't get tight at pubs and clubs. They can't afford to. They all start their drinking way before they ever arrive. I have a nephew who binge drinks every Friday and Saturday night. They meet at a friends house with an assortment of bottles and they go through the lot before they even leave the house. They buy their alchohol at a bottleshop, not a pub.

Secondly,

As a child of Italian parents, I drank wine with dinner from a young age. It was just a part of my life. But my parents made it clear that drinking was an important part of my social education but being drunk was disrespectful to them, my friends and myself.

But parents usually do dumb things or give their kids dumb messages when it comes to drinking. They either:

a) ban them from drinking until they are 18. Bad mistake when kid rebels big time.

b) think they are clever by 'allowing' their kids to start drinking in their early teens. But they make a big song and dance of it so that the activity of drinking becomes a bigger deal than it needs to be.

c) they set bad drinking examples themselves.

---

lol, I only said 2 things.

I didnt suggest mignight as closing time, maybe that was someone else?

I used to drink before going out too when I was younger, clubs were usually open till about 3am back then. Plenty of time to get sloshed at home first and still go out afterwards. The later starting times are really just a by product of longer opening hours.

The drinking at home thing, well everyones experience is different and every kid is different. I've seen more kids end up heavy drinkers when they've been allowed to drink younger at home than the other way round. The "wine with dinner" parents arent so much the problem as the "have a sip of my jim beam & coke" parents.

[i-need-a-martini]

---

@**meep** wrote:

But parents usually do dumb things or give their kids dumb messages when it comes to drinking. They either:

a) ban them from drinking until they are 18. Bad mistake when kid rebels big time.

I disagree with you 100%.  Not allowing children to drink alcohol until they're 18 is not dumb.  It is responsible.

---

So magically they become able to handle alcohol one day after they turn 17 and 364 days?

Thats a bit like handing them the keys of your car and saying "Off you go" as soon as they qualify for their licence even though you haven't spent any time preparing them and getting them used to the road or the car.

[i-need-a-martini]

Apologies punch. Misread your post.

[crystal**flake]

I actually did ban my kids from booze till they were 18, one doesn't drink at all, hates it and the other one has a couple when out with friends.

[topsidesoul]

---

@i-need-a-martini wrote:

---

@**meep** wrote:

But parents usually do dumb things or give their kids dumb messages when it comes to drinking. They either:

a) ban them from drinking until they are 18. Bad mistake when kid rebels big time.

I disagree with you 100%.  Not allowing children to drink alcohol until they're 18 is not dumb.  It is responsible.

---

So magically they become able to handle alcohol one day after they turn 17 and 364 days?

Thats a bit like handing them the keys of your car and saying "Off you go" as soon as they qualify for their licence even though you haven't spent any time preparing them and getting them used to the road or the car.

---

Meanwhile their kid is drinking at a friends house at age 14 with booze bought from an older brother/sister or raiding the parents stash.

You need to teach your kids that their bodies have a limit and also what types of drunk people there are....

-the angry drunk

-the friendly thinks they are funny drunk

-the depressed sitting in the corner drunk

-the  'I lost my inhabitions' drunk

The best remedy would be to spend 15 years living with a violent drunk.......worked for me.

[punch*drunk]

---

@i-need-a-martini wrote:

Apologies punch. Misread your post.

---

no worries 🙂

[**meep**]

You are assuming that all teenagers will end up drinking alcohol.  Should I introduce a minor to everything to experiment with so they are used to it by the time they reach legal age just in case?