Alcohol and ‘binge drinking’
The new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, announced recently that binge drinking in Australia was now out of control and had reached epidemic proportions, and he wanted all Australians to do something about addressing it. Police had expressed their concerns to him because they have repeatedly observed that use of alcohol is behind a great deal of the increasing urban violence they are addressing regularly in the course of their duties. In fact it has been estimated that up to 80% of police work is caused by alcohol related problems.
Binge drinking has no accepted ‘official’ definition, as the term is used for several patterns of alcohol abuse. But in the current Australian community it means a lot of alcohol in one session of drinking, that is over 5 standard drinks for males and over 3 standard drinks for females. Typical binge intake is far higher than that, however, and that is the problem.
The Australian National Council on Drugs report that 1 in 10 young people aged 12 to 17 had abused alcohol in the past week. And among young people 16 and 17 this figure rose to 1 in 5. That equals more than 30,000 Australian young people who are abusing alcohol every week.
This excess is indulged in regularly by Australian young people, and considered normal. It is reported that even more young women and girls binge drink than do males, which must be a cause of genuine alarm to everyone. There are very serious social, physical and other effects from this level of inebriation, some of which are “gender specific”, meaning in this context the outcomes are worse for women and girls.
Some of those outcomes are:
·Vulnerability to domestic violence, and greater likelihood of perpetrating domestic violence.
·Loss of social inhibition leading to cases where young women urinate and vomit in public or in other people’s gardens, throw furniture off balconies, and cause public disturbances (joining the young men who, unfortunately, have always done this sort of thing.)
·Social violence, such as ‘glassing’ (hitting the face or eye with a glass or bottle), resulting in terrible scarring and occasional blinding of others, again frequently engaged in by young women against other young women.
·Casual, indifferent or unconscious sex with strangers, or vulnerability to rape, unprotected from disease or pregnancy which society pays a huge price for when picking up the pieces.
·The emotional ramifications of venereal illness, consideration of abortions, neglected children, and loss of self-respect are costly to individuals and families, and to society.
·Foetal alcohol syndrome, which permanently impairs the brain of the developing baby, is another result of women drinking during pregnancies.
·Another result of excessive alcohol intake for women is breast cancer. Peter Boyle, head of the International Agency for Cancer Research in Lyon, France, said alcohol was the most worrying cause of breast cancer for younger women, ” My concern is over the rise in drinking, especially among young women. For each single unit of alcohol per day, the risk rises by 7 per cent. It’s the ones who hit the bars on a Friday night that I worry about.”
Everyone in the community suffers from this state of affairs, not just the ones drinking to excess. The resulting noise and mayhem created in ordinary neighbourhoods by drunken carrying-on creates an unsettling, unpleasant discord that neighbours and police are increasingly unable to control. It takes away many subtle amenities such as feeling safe and happy in your home, and that you have trustworthy, sensible people living around you, because you don’t. Driving while drunk is a big killer, and is only getting worse with added drinking, but the loss of judgement and skill also applies to bicycling, and walking across busy roads. The risk of suicide also increases when disturbed or depressed individuals drink alcohol to excess.
What can be done about it?
As a teetotaller, I have long warned against the dangers of alcohol, as at age 8 I witnessed my father’s death due to alcoholism. As Superintendent at Wesley Mission I encouraged people into Alcoholics Anonymous and started up rehabilitation programs, personally counselled and set up counselling programs and help-lines for people with various addictions, supported the work of the Womens Temperance Union, and served on the Board of Directors of Ansvar (motor insurance for non-drinkers).
The responsible, moderate use of alcoholic beverages is permitted by many Christian denominations, while temperance is the standard held to by others who do not use alcohol even for their communion service. The dangers of alcohol have long been recognised, with warnings about excess appearing repeatedly in the Bible.
Although the government has supported an inquiry into alcohol advertising, and looking at tougher restrictions on the alcohol industry or pub hours, it may be more an issue of character, instilling self respect and self discipline, higher community expectations of decent conduct, and better monitoring by parents of their children’s activities (by reintroducing chaperones at young peoples’ parties?). The issue of people of all ages being out of control is a very complex one, and needs to be addressed in a comprehensive manner. But acting responsibly now, by getting ourselves, and those family members we are responsible for, back “under control” would be a first step. We owe this to ourselves, and to each other as members of the Australian community.
Rev Hon Dr Gordon Moyes AC MLC
References
http://www.smh.com.au 21 Feb 2008
http://www.iarc.fr/ 27 Feb 2008
http://www.epochtimes.com 27 Feb 2008
http://www.ancd.org.au/ 27 Feb 2008