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The Forum > Article Comments > Binge drinking: there is no magic cure > Comments

Binge drinking: there is no magic cure : Comments

By Raffaele Piccolo, published 24/6/2013

Let's take it as given we need to sober up, but how?

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…I agree en-total with Raffaele Piccolo. He does well to point out that no one strategy works in eliminating the insidious effects of alcohol consumption on society and on the individual.

…We need another “Nicola Roxon” style politician with the guts and garters to legislate in a similar manner to the recent anti-tobacco campaign, which faced-off with the tobacco industry successfully.

…Driving Alcohol back into a tight corner is a legislative answer: It was a very successful strategy when smoking was widely accepted in public places. Finally, smoking has been relegated to the undesirable by a thankful public.
Posted by diver dan, Monday, 24 June 2013 10:46:52 AM
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' It is not uncommon to see people drinking before going out, to unfortunately, drink some more.'

That's to avoid the higher prices. Same as kicking people out of pubs earlier, it just makes people drink faster. The law of unintended consequences.

I found in the UK with pubs closing at 11, it was an encouragement to go home, no matter how intoxicated, and get some sleep before work in the morning. They had good public transport though, which closed at 12ish, another reason to get home while it was cheaper than a taxi.

It lessened the hangover purely by ensuring more sleep...

Until, one discovers the places that serve primarily water, at the same price as beer, and turn a blind eye to ecstasy use.

Oh well, probably better for me than beer. Cant have that discussion though now can we.

People will stop drinking to excess when they are introduced to a better drug. I really don't think in this society it is possible to get by without any mind altering substances.

I believe in policing the actions of people that affect others, like violence, disturbing the peace etc, but people should be able to get off their face whenever they like. It's a human right. As long as I don't impinge on others human rights, I don't see why I shouldn't be allowed to write myself off once in a while and feel all the better for it for having let off some steam.

I am a happy drunk, actually more fun to be around than when sober, so in effect I am doing the world a favor! Besides, binge drinking has now been defined as more than 2 standard drinks in a sitting, that's why the incidence of binge drinking has increased, because the definition has been expanded.
Posted by Houellebecq, Monday, 24 June 2013 11:35:14 AM
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Houellebecq,

...It’s a question of what quality of “public life” a society wishes for. One must agree (to a point) with your sentiments: If you wish to “poison” yourself, great, but not in public thanks….
Posted by diver dan, Monday, 24 June 2013 1:14:16 PM
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I never thought I'd say this (as I'd be perfectly happy with a world bereft of drugs and alcohol), but I'm against combating alcohol problems with stricter measures. Here's why:

RAISING THE DRINKING AGE: When I was 15, I got drunk for the first time. From then until I turned 18, drinking was about sourcing alcohol and doing a good job of getting off my face. My friends were the same. We didn't know when we'd be able to do it again, so we did a good job of it while we could. When we turned 18 and it was readily available, the sheen wore off and we all tended to moderate a bit more.

INCREASING THE PRICE: The Australian who has three beers after work each day does less damage to himself and his surrounds than the Australian who goes on a bender every Saturday night. However, he is likely to consume more alcohol over the same period. Increasing prices punishes the good with the bad.

SERVING LOW-ALCOHOL DRINKS AT SPORTING EVENTS: This brings on the pre-drinking. And people who pre-drink tend to drink more and drink more quickly due to time constraints and the desire to prolong the 'buzz'.

CLOSING EARLY: This causes the same problem with pre-drinking, as people try to get more in more quickly. Post-drinking becomes a reality as well - but they're out in the streets instead of in a 'controlled' environment.

The real issue, as I see it, is the reason Australians drink. There's a pretty strong tendency to drink for the sake of getting drunk - possibly because that's how we're conditioned at a young age. My British and Southern African rellies seem to have the same issue. Is it an Anglo thing?
Posted by Otokonoko, Monday, 24 June 2013 1:21:17 PM
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'.It’s a question of what quality of “public life” a society wishes for'

Well, it used to be people had to wear hats and gloves in public. Now it's acceptable to walk around dressed as a hooker. I find it hard to be against drinking per se. I believe the real person comes out when drunk. It's not the alcohol that turns someone into a violent prick, it's that they were always a violent prick, but now minus the inhibitions. When someone steals because they are poor, we don't look to stop poverty, we look to punish the behavior.

Don't shoot the messenger. Like Alcohol exposes violent pricks, Gambling exposes the greedy, religion exposes the self righteous, shopping exposes the shallow and vain.

Most people have a vice.

Drugs
Alcohol
Gambling
Religion
Shopping
Fitness
Video games
Sex
Porn

Whatever numbs the pain.
Posted by Houellebecq, Monday, 24 June 2013 1:54:51 PM
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The author give statistic showing that we drink about 30% less than we did in the seventies, then states "Instead what we are seeing today is an increase in the number of people partaking in dangerous levels of drinking, i.e. binge drinking or drinking to get drunk." He doesn't give a source for that assertion though. I am not convinced that Australians have a problem with drinking. I think we have a problem with people telling us we have a problem with drinking. I haven't seen a drunk in a public place in years. I don't tend to go into entertainment districts late at night, and if I did decide to i would expect to see some intoxicated people. After all, most people going out to pubs and clubs late at night like to have a fair bit to drink. I don't see that as a problem.
Of course there are the occasional alcohol related assaults. But in a country of twenty million people it would be more surprising if there weren't.
Doesn't mean every body is drinking and fighting.
Posted by Rhys Jones, Monday, 24 June 2013 7:48:57 PM
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there is no magic cure
yes, there is ! Educate our teachers to a level where they can instil some sense into our young. The rest will fall into place by itself.
just look around at the insanity of "DON"T signs, no wonder they start drinking, they're not allowed to do anything else.
Posted by individual, Tuesday, 25 June 2013 8:01:39 AM
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Oh dear: 'educate our teachers to a level where they can instil some sense into our young. The rest will fall into place by itself.'

Here I was thinking that parents could play a role in raising law-abiding and responsible children. Perhaps this could be another instrument for performance-based pay for teachers: track the alcohol consumption of current and past students for the next decade to ensure that teachers have instilled some sense into them. Maybe also dock the pay of teachers whose students have parents who let them have alcohol-fuelled parties on the weekends.
Posted by Otokonoko, Tuesday, 25 June 2013 1:56:41 PM
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Sorry individual - my tone was out of line in that last post. Surely, though, the development of a child's behavioural sensibilities is the domain of a parent? And surely their best role models should be found in the home? Certainly teachers have a role to play in indicating that some kids' home lives may not be entirely normal (or healthy), but they are a very minor part of the solution.
Posted by Otokonoko, Tuesday, 25 June 2013 10:15:45 PM
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parents could play a role in raising law-abiding and responsible children.
Otokonoko,
There are possibly still some countries unaffected by oilitical correctness i.e. Academia & Nazism but here parents have absolutely no power over their own children by order of Government since moron Goaf.
Posted by individual, Thursday, 27 June 2013 5:46:03 AM
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Crickey, the silence of the degree-flashing do-gooder social engineer brigade is deafening !
Posted by individual, Friday, 28 June 2013 8:31:14 PM
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You have a point, individual. But even in these days of legislated parental impotence (and note that if parents are rendered impotent, schools are practically castrated), there are some things parents can still do to set their kids on the right path. Refraining from buying their kids alcohol, for example - and refraining from hosting parties with underage drinking at their homes. An alternative method would be to model (and, possibly, allow) drinking in moderation. During a homestay in Germany many years ago, the whole family would drink beer at dinner. Nobody drank too much and the kids seemed to refrain from getting plastered afterwards, despite heading down to the pub for a drink (bizarrely enough, with their teachers). The idea of drinking themselves to oblivion seemed to be alien to them.

That's not to say that there are no drunks in Europe - far from it. But the drunks tend to be a degenerate underbelly of society rather than its otherwise-respectable mainstream.
Posted by Otokonoko, Saturday, 29 June 2013 1:58:05 PM
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Getting wasted and losing one's mind and similar slogans support binge drinking.

I come from a family which had other things to do than to drink any alcohol at all - we had a good time without having to get drunk first.

There are a lot of animal and insect control techniques that give clues to preventing binge drinking being seen as a good e.g. the third alcoholic drink in two hours make you feel sick.

But the best preventative of binge drinking is Alternatives to alcohol.
http://www.vicnet.net.au/~ozideas/drugs.
Posted by ozideas, Monday, 1 July 2013 11:15:07 AM
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Yes... as we hear with unfailing predictability from reformed alcoholics, it seems the only really reliable way to "cure" binge drinking is for the person concerned to hit "rock bottom", and to get themselves into such a dire situation that their life, livelihood, freedom, family etc is at risk, whereupon the motivation to do something about one's drinking starts to overwhelm the urge to obliterate oneself yet again.

I'm not quite convinced that the drinking problems in Australia are worse than in places like Germany. From what I have seen over there, public drunkenness is not such a factor, but that doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't happen behind closed doors. Just stand outside a suburban Aldi and watch the constant stream of bleary-eyed, rosacea-nosed, sallow-skinned people sidling furtively out to their Polos with trolleys full of 2-euro plonk and you'll see what I mean.

I just think that what underlies all this, is that a lot of people feel pretty miserable most of the time, and despite medical advances over the last 200 years, alcohol is still by far the most effective and fast-acting antidepressant we have.
Posted by Sam Jandwich, Monday, 1 July 2013 2:12:56 PM
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"alcohol is still by far the most effective and fast-acting antidepressant we have"

It's the fastest acting but the alternatives that don't involve oral or skin intakes are the longest lasting and the most effective.

Look at the people who dont use them.
Posted by ozideas, Monday, 1 July 2013 4:07:43 PM
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