IS Australia’s ‘binge drinking epidemic’ something just created by the government to make it look like they are doing something worthwhile with all their funds and campaigns? Or do we really have a drinking problem?
I recently went to Sule College at Prestons to witness a drug and alcohol forum run completely by the students for the students, also involving a couple of hundred teenagers from several other local high schools.
The kids put on skits, made videos, gave musical performances, presentations and speeches based on the theme, ‘lose control, you lose.’ The day was influenced by the government’s national binge drinking strategy, with the intention of early intervention.
The research the students had evidently put into the day was impressive, but I wondered how much they really knew about alcohol in a ‘real’ situation, and how much of the day was about proving they had top research abilities, which they obviously really did. When I asked a couple of the teens what they thought about the whole binge drinking thing, it seemed they might have been so scared by shocking statistics and were so fearful of the garish horror stories about alcohol that they would never let a drop pass their lips.
Or maybe they were just being model students to the enquiring journalist.
Either way, it made me wonder if instilling so much fear into the soon-to-be young adults is the right way to educate them about the effects of alcohol? Or if this is just teaching them about alcohol in excess, where do they learn about alcohol in moderation? Or should they even need to learn about alcohol in moderation?
I was brought up in a household where there was nothing wrong with a cold beer or two with mates after work on a Friday night, or having a nice glass of red with your roast lamb on a Sunday. In fact, it was encouraged.
When I went to university, where I admit the binge drinking culture was rife, I think my parent’s mature attitude to alcohol in moderation, and drinking to enjoy the taste rather than to ‘get off your face’, meant I handled my alcohol more steadily and without as many dire consequences.
I remember on my first night of orientation week at the residential college I lived at meeting another nervous ‘fresher’, anxious to make sure she would fit in properly, say all the rights things, and, drink the right drink.
She told me she had never had alcohol before in her life, because her parents always told her it was the wrong thing to do.
That first night was a BYO drinks night. I had a couple of beers; she had a bottle of straight rum. Needless to say, my new friend was put to bed several hours before the rest of us, very inebriated and overcome by the devil in the bottle, and missing out on the party because of it.
The government’s huge tax increase on ‘alcopops’ hasn’t affected me in the slightest because, to be honest, I don’t like the taste of sugary lolly water that can get you really drunk, really quickly. I like to enjoy a glass or two of beer or wine, and leave it at that.
But by God have I seen the impact it has had on friends.
Before the price hike, for instance, I would go to a barbecue with friends who would buy a couple of premixed alcoholic drinks from the bottle shop and enjoy them as they were. But now, to save a few pennies, they will pool in to buy a big bottle of straight spirits and mix their own. Without realising it, they are doubling, tripling or quadrupling the amount of alcohol they are consuming and their social drinking can now spiral from a social tipple to a boozed binge much more easily and uncontrollably than it might have before.
I know it is their choice whether or not they drink and is their responsibility to monitor how much they drink, but do you think the government is in fact making responsible drinking harder through new strict rules and regulations?
How much responsibility do parents have in teaching their kids about alcohol?
How else can our supposed binge drinking epidemic be soothed?
What do you think the drinking culture is like among young and old in and around Liverpool?
*I have taken over from Katrina Vella here at the Champion and Advertiser and really look forward to your comments, whether you disagree or agree with me, let’s get the ball rolling with some discussions, your valued opinions and suggestions for future topics!
Rebecca.richardson@fair faxmedia.com.au
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