Binge Drinking
FEDERAL MPs are in disagreement over the extent of binge drinking. Well they would be wouldn’t they? Everybody has a different opinion on drinking from wowsers to alcoholics so by definition there will be little agreement.
A woman is beaten up by her husband every time he drinks or I have half a dozen beers on a Friday night and get mellow. The wife beater and I could’ve consumed the same amount of grog but one wife hates binge drinking, the other is pleased about some quiet time for herself.
Not wanting to sound like a wowser here but one way to slow down on excessive alcohol consumption is to restrict the hours one can consume. I have lived through the six o’clock swill, 10 pm closing, 12 pm closing to open all hours and some where between 6 o’clock swills of my youth and open all hours there is a balance- I would suggest it’s 12 pm closing.
When I was a young player I would knock off work 5 ish on Fridays, be ready to play about six then drank, ate and tried to score for 4 odd hours. I went home mostly by myself and mostly happily inebriated but a long way from legless and the next morning I could function. Today the young knock off at 5 ish and have 12 hours to waste themselves, and they do, and you don’t hear from them until late in the wasted day.
When people are intoxicated restraint is not normally present so if the bar is open they keep buying drinks until the bar is closed or someone in the hospitality industry remembers the rules about serving drunks.
Look at the relevant state government licensing acts that are heavy on licensing/poker machine fees and light on social responsibilities.
Could be cheaper than spending 50 plus million dollars telling young people what they don’t want to hear.
Facebook
Twitter
Right on the money Kev
While I think there is also a culture that has been created, most young people are not going to be listening to any annoying ads or whatever.
Why aren’t you running for offics somewhere Kev?
Interesting comment Kev. I’m sure that “what” is consumed is a major issue – as well as “how much”.
When I was in my early twenties the variety of mixed drinks wasn’t around. Generally the blokes drank beer and the sheilas shandies (or lemonade lime & bitters which was conveniently the same price as beer).
I knew exactly how much I could imbibe without getting ill or falling down, and generally stopped before this point. One or two purgatorial hangovers early in the piece reinforced the lesson.
These days, drinks with high alcoholic content are palatable (often sweet) and readily available. Youngsters are often beyond the point of making rational decisions very early in the session, because of the potency of these drinks. In addition, they mix drinks of all kinds with gay abandon – something that was unusual in my youth.
They also have more money to spend, and more opportunities to spend it – we were too bloody busy grafting out a living, and were usually physically tired at the end of the week, because work had a more physical component.
Restricting opening hours may help, as would looking at the way alcohol is marketed and sold. The current laws aren’t always applied properly – maybe a bit of zero tolerance here would help.
For mine, a weekly bottle of red lasts the whole weekend – but then I’m the only one who drinks the stuff. I also own at least one car with manual transmission – same principle – no one else in the household has a manual licence.
Bit selfish – but it works.
You’re dead right. Drink types are more readily available but I’m not sure any government would have luck putting that genie back in the bottle.
Talking of manual cars I have this day resurrected my 1966 series 2A. Works a treat and hardly anyone I know can still double shuffle the clutch as required in the old non-synchro LR box. Still I like it and it’s the same at my place – no one fights me to drive it.
You old farts are just jealous. If the government wasn’t expected to be a surrogate parent, consequence would dissuade the worthy.
I also suspect that changing the Police forces into Police services ie the “Hello I’m Constable Bob and I’ll be your Police Officer this evening” attitude rather than are large, hairy, tough copper giving you a clip around the earhole has contributed to the level of drinking becoming a social issue.
Throw in the amount of sweet mixed drinks aimed directly at the young and its going to cause problems.