Awareness of Alcohol Problems in New Zealand
Alcohol is the one of the most commonly used drugs in New Zealand. Most people enjoy having a drink with their friends and family in moderation. However, this ordinary behaviour leads to the many alcohol problems in New Zealand. There are no short cuts to fixing these alcohol problems. The only way to reduce them is to implement a better education system for young people, so from a young age they can have a deeper understanding of the effects of drinking. We also need to make them understand the impact their drinking can have, both on themselves and others. Changes are also needed to the drinking culture to help reduce the number of people binge drinking. Strict laws regarding the alcohol specials that bars can have, will create a reduction in the amount of people over-drinking in public. Stronger sentences for alcohol related crimes will curb many first offenders, reduce youth drink driving and will stop repeat offenders. These ideas are not meant to be a quick fix for all alcohol related problems and it will take some time to see the effects from these changes. However, by adding these ideas with increased enforcement to the system, we will be able to change alcohol related statistics for the better.
New Zealand’s legal drinking age is eighteen years. There is always debate about raising the drinking age back to 20 in order to reduce drinking problems amongst young people. While increasing the minimum purchasing age to 20 may provide part of the solution by reducing access to alcohol by young people, this will not necessarily encourage young people to drink in a more moderate way. A study by the Ministry of Health shows that 55.7 percent of youths aged between 12 and 17 years had consumed alcohol in the last 12 months and 12.4 percent consumed large amounts of alcohol at least once a week (New Zealand Health Information Service 2001). We need to engage younger people to avoid alcohol related problems by educating them, not by simply raising the drinking
New Zealand’s legal drinking age is eighteen years. There is always debate about raising the drinking age back to 20 in order to reduce drinking problems amongst young people. While increasing the minimum purchasing age to 20 may provide part of the solution by reducing access to alcohol by young people, this will not necessarily encourage young people to drink in a more moderate way. A study by the Ministry of Health shows that 55.7 percent of youths aged between 12 and 17 years had consumed alcohol in the last 12 months and 12.4 percent consumed large amounts of alcohol at least once a week (New Zealand Health Information Service 2001). We need to engage younger people to avoid alcohol related problems by educating them, not by simply raising the drinking
References: Alcohol Alert, Alcohol Research & Health, Volume 28, Number 3, 2004/2005. Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand. 2005. The Burden of Death, Disease and Disability Due to Alcohol in New Zealand Grunwell, R. (12, October, 2008). Binge drinking linked to breast cancer. Auckland, New Zealand: New Zealand Herald McCracken, H New Zealand Health Information Service. 2001. New Zealand Drug Statistics. The Alcohol Advisory Council Press Release (3 April, 2006). Binge Drinking - It 's Everyone 's Problem, from http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE0604/S00013.htm