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The Forum > Article Comments > Make mine freedom > Comments

Make mine freedom : Comments

By Greg Barns, published 25/6/2008

There is an intellectual dishonesty in the claim that there is a binge drinking problem in Australia.

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Bring on the Jenkem!
Posted by Bugsy, Sunday, 29 June 2008 5:09:09 PM
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DavidJS, I don't know why you support the War on Drugs. It costs you a fortune in taxes and ends up making people life-long criminals, as once they are tainted by association they have no future (and the prisons begin to fill up). It also forces people to obtain drugs that may have life-threatening mixes and maintains a whole PR front from police who require the funding (your taxes) to keep their jobs and makes people paranoid and aggressive, stealing money from innocent people to fund the insanely high prices
Posted by Steel, Sunday, 29 June 2008 5:48:17 PM
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I don't support a War on Drugs or any such political hype (conveniently forgotten once Carlton United promises a lucrative endorsement to the political party of their choice). I simply want alcohol to be recognised as a poisonous substance which affects not only the users but those around them (as does Crystal Meth or heroin) and treated the same way as existing legal but lethal drugs (ie: tobacco).

I am aware that drugs that are already legally available do require different tactics to eradicate them as opposed to illegal substances. So, what can we do?

How about massively lowering the alcohol content of every drink? Which means you can still drink beer but full strength beer won't be around 5%. It'll be around 2%. And force a reduction in the alcohol percentage of wine.

Please don't tell me this is Nanny State stuff because the state already controls the percentage of alcohol in beverages. If it was up to the industry, the alcohol content of each beer or wine bottle would be anyone's guess.

And stop with the 24 hours licenses. Even New York bars are starting close at 2am according to an American friend. I thought it was just a California thing but apparently not.

Finally, at least admit that alcohol is a dangerous drug like marijuana or ecstasy. Sure, it has different effects but then arsenic has different effects to cyanide. Big deal.
Posted by DavidJS, Sunday, 29 June 2008 6:25:37 PM
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Well I agree in part, but cannot agree that there is not a problem with binge drinking. Many parents with teenagers can tell you there is a real problem and not manufactured by some government conspiracy to raise taxes. Raising alcohol taxes is more a convenient spin-off benefit for the government to be able to fund their election promises.

There appears to be a problem on the definition of binge drinking. As another poster put it earlier, my understanding of binge drinking is to obliterate oneself until you can't stand up type of drinking. I would not agree that four drinks per night constitutes binge drinking. Possibly it is the precursor to alcoholism, but it is not binge drinking. Four drinks would have me under the table but I am almost a non-drinker, a woman and a low tolerance to alcohol.

I agree that taxing alcopops is a waste of time - it is not going to solve binge drinking. Teens will just move onto a different drink or will all chip in to buy a bottle of Bundy and a litre of coke.

Why always bandaid solutions? If there is a problem (given that some people think otherwise), what is the cause? The cause might be in the too hard basket and the change involved to really tackle binge drinking would mean a major shift in priorities.

The solution might mean re-evaluation of our obsession with 'the economy'. Something no current government or the alternative will do in any serious way. So expect more emperor's new clothes spin inspired 'solutions' coming our way.
Posted by pelican, Sunday, 29 June 2008 7:58:13 PM
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I think most of "the cause" is bad parenting. It doesn't help that the government so often places the responsibility of binge drinkers onto the majority of people who have nothing to do with it (rather than targetting the abusers).
Posted by Steel, Sunday, 29 June 2008 8:55:44 PM
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