Alcohol Abuse: You're one of my kind?

Come over here, all I got is this thirst, the twenty-first century's yesterday. New drink just came out. Everybody wants it yeah, that's ok hey. So fizz over here and give me your drink, your bubbles are so yum. I've got to let you know. You're one of my kind?

Mad man's broth alcohol woes state-wide - Della Bosca

The Minister heading next month's alcohol summit says alcohol use is prevalent across NSW, not just in particular areas.

Special Minister of state John Della Bosca says there is only a small percentage of people who are alcoholics, but that small percentage has a disproportionate impact on their own health and costs to society.

Small percentage? Excuse me? Do I need a calculator? Or do I need a new set of eyes? According to the statistics at least two million people abuse alcohol?

Question to Mr Della Bosca?

Do you want two million people on your doorstep?

Alcohol and other Drug Use in Australia

Over 80% of the population consumed alcohol in the previous 12 months, with 11% of males and 6% of females drinking daily.

In terms of risk of harm in the long term, 10% of males and 9% of females drank alcohol in a pattern that was risky or high risk.

In terms of short-term risk, 24% of males and 17% of females drank at least once a month in a manner that was risky or high risk for short-term harm.

He says there is a much larger group of people who are exposed to the general harms of binge drinking.

"Chronic alcoholism is common to pretty well all communities in small numbers alcohol abuse seems to be coming a lot more common and certainly there's a lot more attention on binge drinking and young people," he said.

"There's a lot of very young people starting to drink at ages previously we would have thought very inappropriate."

I need my alcohol coz I'm so thirsty. There is something about this drink that gives me a buzz. "How do you feel?" I'm gasping! "What do you think? "Gonna take you all! "Whatcha gonna do? "Gonna live my life! So fizz over here and give me your drink. Your bubbles are so yum. I've got to let you know.

You're one of my kind?

Alcohol Poisoning

By Gregory Kable & INXS 18 July 03

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Drunks propel rise in violent crimes! But who promotes drinking really?

Every day NSW police deal with more than 300 violent offences committed by people who are drunk and they say the number is rising. But they don't say because the government promotes alcohol and only alcohol.

Governments, who promote only alcohol as a legal social drug are narrow-minded greedy people with a shallow ideology in terms of the variety of substances that could be available to prevent binge drinking. Having more choices is what prevents people taking the same substance over and over again.

Taking the same substance over and over again only promotes abuse of the same substance. We have one heavily taxed and promoted (drug) substance and a government who maintains that: social drinking is the only legal drug to escape life's bitterness?

But the Australian Government the same people who take the tax has an interest in it and now you have a problem with it and so do they!

Many violent offences are occurring around pubs, bars and clubs a factor that has contributed to assaults doubling in the past 10 years, according to Bureau of Crime Statistics figures.

The Police Commissioner, Ken Moroney, yesterday announced police were making alcohol-related crime a priority ahead of the Premier's Alcohol Summit planned for later this year.

Pubs and clubs say they are already doing the right thing when serving alcohol and would be working closely with police.

But the head of the National Drug Research Institute, Tim Stockwell, said licensees could do much to reduce the chances of violence because of alcohol, although he agreed their strategies had improved in recent years.

Management in licensed venues could reduce crowding and "sexually permissive behaviour", ensure bouncers were trained in defusing violence, and insist bar staff did not serve those who were intoxicated, he said.

"In places where anything goes, there is a high risk of violence," Professor Stockwell said.

A recent survey had shown drinkers are rarely refused another drink even if they show signs of intoxication.

But the head of the Australian Hotels Association, John Thorpe, said hoteliers were "leading the way in responsible service of alcohol". They had also embraced measures to deal with unsociable behaviour, such as lock-outs and liquor accords. He suggested bar staff should have to take courses about serving alcohol every three years to keep up to date.

According to figures from the Department of Gaming and Racing, 67 cases related to intoxication were prosecuted in the licensing court in the past year.

A spokeswoman for Mr Moroney said that in the year to February, police dealt with almost 120,000 cases of assault, sexual assault, malicious damage and domestic violence related to alcohol abuse.

More than two-thirds of all incidents attended by police - and an even higher percentage in cases of domestic violence and street offences - were related to alcohol. Operation Vikings had shown that alcohol-related crime had risen in the past 12 months. Newcastle had been identified as a hot spot. Recent research had shown alcohol was a factor in 31 per cent of road deaths. Last year 72,000 people nationwide were admitted to hospital because of alcohol.

By Mad Mans Broth 1 April 03

THE DRUNK: Just one more for the road?

Related:

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This is another lethal party drug article by the Daily Telegraph's (DT)'s Super Crime Buster Division, but I'll try to straighten it out a bit so you can understand it.

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Everything is a drug love, money, vegemite, and honey so why the hang up on coke? Things go better with Coke. at least that's what we're told each and every day by advertising. [?] So why the big hang up on alcohol, amphetamines, cigarettes, marijuana, speed, ecstasy and cocaine?

Police selling drugs? Bikies selling drugs? Pharmacies prescribing drugs Of course there will be criticism when you cross that thin blue line! You have to realise how the government itself has been corrupted because of the drug scene and the money involved.

Drug rehabilitation: Threats, threats and more threats!
But a spokesperson for Citizens Against Being Forced Mr Ihave Amind Ofmyown said, "Major Watters is John Howard's adviser because he's a bully. Citizens make their own decisions about what is best for them and if you don't like that step down."

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Corruption and mismanagement are still entrenched in the NSW Police, and problems at the highest levels are "whitewashed", according to evidence given yesterday to a federal parliamentary committee.

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People who start using alcohol by their mid teens are more than twice as likely as others to experiment with different drugs and to become dependent on drugs a major Australian study has found.

Tobacco, alcohol top the drug abuse toll
Tobacco and alcohol accounted for 83 per cent of the cost of drug abuse in Australia, dwarfing the financial impact of illegal drugs, a Commonwealth Government report has found.

NSW police cracked up on antisocial behaviour
Hundreds of extra police will be on the streets of Sydney from this afternoon as part of a major blitz on crime and activities as "antisocial behaviour" says the ABC online last Fri 24 May 2002.

Alcohol pickles your brain
The only two social drugs the Government sanction are cigarettes and alcohol as legal, yet they cause the most damage." He said.

Tobacco, alcohol top the drug abuse toll

Tobacco and alcohol accounted for 83 per cent of the cost of drug abuse in Australia, dwarfing the financial impact of illegal drugs, a Commonwealth Government report has found.

It estimates that in 1998-99, tobacco accounted for $21 billion, or 60 per cent, of the costs of drugs to individuals, business and government, and alcohol made up $7.5 billion, or 22 per cent.

One of the report's authors, David Collins, a professor of economics at Macquarie University, said that the report had measured, for the first time, the cost of passive smoking to the community.

"A lot of the impact of ... involuntary smoking is on the unborn child, and on children under 14 years - it hits the young very hard because they have no control over their lives," he said.

Measuring hospital bed days, other health care costs and deaths in 1998-99, the report found involuntary smoking cost the community $47 million."Tobacco is still the greatest killer by far and imposes the greatest costs," Professor Collins said.

The cost of fires resulting from smoking was put at $81 million.

"The message from this report is that the costs [of drug use] are so high the potential benefit of a small reduction is substantial," Professor Collins said. "Anti-tobacco programs yield very high rates of return.

The problem of alcohol use was more complex, because it had beneficial as well as damaging effects on drinkers.

"If you reduce alcohol consumption you may reduce the benefits," Professor Collins said. "That said, people should not be encouraged to binge drink. It is moderate, low level consumption that provides the benefit."

The report estimates that in 1998-99, alcohol caused 4286 deaths.

The costs of drug use include both the tangible - crime, policing, cancer, hospital bed days, car accidents, death, fires, loss of productivity, less tax revenue - and the intangible, such as pain and suffering due to illness and death.

The information officer for the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, Paul Dillon, said experts had been aware for some time that alcohol and tobacco were the biggest cause of drug-related problems and costs. But there was a vast gap between the reality and public perception.

"People really do perceive that illicit drugs are the major issue ... [and] they don't actually want to acknowledge that their drug of choice is really problematic," he said. "For most Australians those drugs will be legal drugs."

The Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association said the report was a wake-up call for all governments to expand drug treatment and prevention programs.

[What about labels warning potential customers and taxpayers of the dangers?]

Professor Collins said the costs contained in the report were conservative calculations, and represented only minimum costs. "The real figures could be much higher."

By Legal Drugs, Health Writer Jan 21 03

THE DUCK: Whatever you do just don't smoke or drink alcohol! QUACK

Related:

NSW police cracked up on antisocial behaviour
Hundreds of extra police will be on the streets of Sydney from this afternoon as part of a major blitz on crime and activities as "antisocial behaviour" says the ABC online last Fri 24 May 2002.

Alcohol pickles your brain
The only two social drugs the Government sanction are cigarettes and alcohol as legal, yet they cause the most damage." He said.