This is why the author talks of the nanny state.
Its OK to enjoy the effects of alcohol !
It does not make you weak or stupid to drink alcohol in moderation.
It does damage your body and that is a price you can choose to pay.
Our freedoms have a price and one of those freedoms is to make bad choices.

Vanna,

My Dad was a deputy principal at a high school> He's recently retired.

Here some some things you should look at.

http://web.me.com/stevebiddulph/Site_1/Home.html
http://www.boyslearning.com.au/
http://www.curriculum.edu.au/leader/issues_in_boys%E2%80%99_education:_encouraging_broader_def,12017.html

And From the GOVT,

An inquiry into the education of boys in Australian schools was conducted in 2002 by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Training which resulted in two major initiatives.
As a response to the Inquiry’s findings the Boys' Education Lighthouse Schools (BELS) program was implemented in two stages over 2003–2005. The program provided funding to over 550 schools to help improve boys' educational outcomes. The Final Report of Boys' Education Lighthouse Schools (BELS) Stage Two provided a detailed analysis and discussion of the key findings and experiences of the 350 schools involved. The Compendium is an interactive CD of resources that has been developed for teachers based on the findings from the BELS initiative.
http://www.deewr.gov.au/schooling/BoysEducation/Pages/default.aspx

None of them take the same divisive attitutde you do.

There needs to be more men in education, without a doubt, but while we continue to underpay our teachers, and withhold their ability to deal with problems, that won't happen. And it won't just be men who won't sign up.

It took me 1 minute to find the above. Imagine what you could find if you opened your eyes and your ears.

PaulL
Where are you going with this? Why all the boys in education talk in a discussion about alcohol? Are you implying that under-age girls don't drink?

Dan I suspect that he has accidently cross posted, that looks like part of the cyberbullying discussion.

Vanna I've never been drunk but do buy and drink beer with alcohol in it, occasionally some port, or Bailys. Not everyone buying alcoholic drinks chooses to get drunk, not everyone who sometimes get's drunk gets drunk everytime they drink. There is much more diversity to it than that.

There is a world of difference between the light relaxant that can come from a small glass of port, or a single cold beer and drinking to the point of being drunk.

R0bert

PaulL
Alcohol is supply-sensitive - check out WHO surveys of what works in reducing alcohol-related harms. Supply is the main indicator of harm levels; price is also important. For groups dependent on welfare incomes, there isn't much elasticity.

Re Alice Springs: the grog wasn't "switched off": a majority chose to ban grog from their towns in the 80s. Some people travel to Alice to binge; the demographic explosion occurring in Aboriginal society has increased average visitations. High attrition of family heads combined with the population explosion to produce unmanageable levels of drinking and associated behaviour in Alice Springs. The process has speeded up in recent years since governments started providing police to remote communities, with less drinkers taking grog back to home communities.
Re "the tax on mixed drinks": it wasn’t "an utter failure". Many shifted to other products, but consumption of pure alcohol, measured in standard drinks, dropped in the process.

Gray is a harm minimisation advocate: reducing supply and increasing base prices to reduce harms are part of harm minimisation practice.

Of course there should be an onus on those who give in to substance abuse to take responsibility for their own actions, financially and medically as well. By the same token, the responsible majority, their elected reps, and their appointed regulators of alcohol should do their bits to ensure that the innocent victims of irresponsible drinkers have to endure minimal levels of foetal alcohol syndrome, brain damage, wrecked childhoods, injuries in traffic accidents, gobbling up of scarce public funds and many other harms perpetrated by irresponsibly inebriated people.

If the Japanese put heroin vending machines in their streets, would you advocate that we imitate them? In the highly disciplined japanese society such machines may not produce great harms, but we have a very different society, and Aboriginal people in remote areas are highly susceptible to binging behaviours, which lead to habitual dependencies. Here, it would surely lead to many more addicts, and many other problems assocated with severe addiction.

I really don't care what some people do to themselves with grog, or where they buy it. Those who want it will get it somewhere. What I do care about is the duopoly getting control of yet another product, & squeezing out yet another group of businesses from our communities.

I would like st see a range of other products removed from their shelves. Oz is the only modern country that has let 2 companies so dominate the food scene, much to our detriment, it's time to put these octopuses in a box.