'Boost booze outlets, says drink expert'

[Conan Troutman]

Boost booze outlets, says drink expert

Peter Mickelburough and Mike Edmonds

June 09, 2007 12:00am

THE architect of Victoria's European-style drinking laws wants to make liquor even easier to get.

Prof John Nieuwenhuysen thinks alcohol should be freely available on supermarket shelves.

Prof Nieuwenhuysen also wants a one-size-fits-all liquor licence to give business greater flexibility in how alcohol is sold and consumed.

His call for fewer restrictions on the sale of beer, wine and spirits comes amid growing calls from health authorities for tighter controls.

New VicHealth head and former Quit boss Todd Harper believes the free flow of alcohol has gone too far.

A Herald Sun INSIGHT investigation has found:

POLICE believe alcohol abuse is the main reason the number of street assaults, robberies and properties being damaged has almost doubled in Victoria during the past decade.

LICENSEES are using $1-a-glass wine specials and free porno rooms to encourage binge drinking.

THE number of liquor licences handed out to restaurants and bars has jumped by more than 440 per cent since 1989.

DRUNKEN brawls are common in the city and washing up vomit is a regular job for businesses.

ALCOHOL kills more than 700 Victorians a year -- but only one in three people seeking help for drink problems actually gets it.

JUST 36 of last year's 18,652 liquor licence applications were refused.

MORE than $130 million a year is spent advertising alcoholic beverages.

TEENAGERS under the legal drinking age have significant exposure to alcohol ads on TV, despite rules meant to prevent it.

Speaking for the first time since being appointed as VicHealth head last month, Mr Harper said alcohol advertising and availability should be curbed to reverse a "disturbing pattern" of alcohol abuse among young people.

"High and increasing levels of harmful drinking among young people is the result of a culture that has grown up around alcohol in the past 20 years," he said.

Consumer Affairs Minister Daniel Andrews foreshadowed a major shakeup of liquor laws to reduce the growing damage caused by alcohol abuse.

Mr Andrews told Insight he had given four new terms of reference to the Liquor Control Advisory Council.

The council is reviewing the sale of packaged liquor, with retail giants Woolworths and Coles pushing to put alcohol alongside food on supermarket shelves.

It will now also look at:

MAKING harm minimisation the key objective in all licensing matters.

DEVELOPING a model to determine the appropriate density of liquor outlets based on local risk factors.

MAKING the use of screw-top resealable capped bottles mandatory to reduce drink spiking and encourage more moderate drinking.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2...820-661,00.html

EDITORIAL June 09, 2007 12:00am:'DROWNING IN BOOZE'

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2...2-24218,00.html

[Auxin]

Woah, its not on supermarket shelves there?

Over here every supermarket has a large alcohol aisle and then booze displays all throughout the store to ensure that any alcoholic trying to quit REALLY has his determination tested... also makes it piss-easy for kids to get booze.

Its really kind of repulsive having it ubiquitous throughout stores, I've known recovering alcoholics that had to have other people buy their groceries for the first few months just because they couldnt stand to be walking past stacks of wine and beer constantly.

do yourselves a favor and vote to keep it behind the counter

[ThunderIdeal]

i usually put my lid back on my beer now, only to stop flies but why should you have to finish or waste a beer just because it's open?

free porno rooms... what the hell does that mean? sounds disturbing.

i think we're headed the way of the pommies, where the majority of young people only have one conceivable weekend option in mind - going out and getting blasted. not a sign of a healthy culture, IMHO.

[Vertmorpheus]

Yeah only in the ACT can you get piss from your local woolworths at 11pm on a weeknight... those pollies have all the fun.

[ThunderIdeal]

interesting double standard isn't it.

[Torsten]

Availability has nothing to do with consumption amounts. A decade or so ago australia had really tight alcohol sales laws [these were relaxed with the olympics], yet had a much higher alcohol consumption rate than germany, where you can get alcohol at every snack bar, supermarket, 24h service station, cafe, well, basically anywhere and anytime. So if availability has anything to do with it then germany would have to have much bigger social issues around alcohol than australia did and does.

A similar situation exists in holland around cannabis. It is available everywhere, yet the dutch cannabis consumption rate is lower than that of the USA where you can still get 20 years for an ounce of pot in some states.

Prohibition and control has never worked. Only education and altered social conditions can have an effect, but these are much harder to tackle than passing a useless prohibition law. Don't fall into the media hype trap just because many of us loathe alcohol and drunks. Prohibition is NEVER the answer regardless of the substance.

So why does availability not increase consumption? In germany no one is EVER under any pressure to get 'enough' alcohol into them before a deadline. In australia we have all these time and location restrictions for alcohol, so we constantly feel like we need to fit in another 3 drinks before the bar closes or to buy 2 cases of beer because one might not be enough and you can get another one at 1am.

Most people I know in germany get most of their beer delivered by the local drinks service, along with lemonade and juice etc. if you know you have 4 crates in the cellar and that the next delivery is in 4 weeks, then you pace yourself to make the 4 crates last for the 4 weeks. In australia a party isn't over until the last beer is drunk.

Another big problem are driving offences. In australia the process to get a license is pitiful. It costs very little in time and money and hence does not carry a lot of respect and responsibility. In germany is costs a fortune to get your drivers license as you are taught ONLY by professional teachers. This makes for much better drivers, but also makes the license a major asset and something very precious. My sister paid about $3000 for lessons before she got her license and it took nearly 6 months of weekly lessons. The thought of losing your license as a result of a stupid night out is just not considered. That attitude makes youth drink driving much rarer in germany.

I don't think binge drinking can be cured overnight as it is the result of long term attitudes and habits. But availability restriction did not work for the last 100 years, while there is good evidence that greater availability reduces binge behaviour.

[teonanacatl]

lol that is all kids think about these days :D the only thing that changes is where they get trashed..... at mates place, on beach, out bush......

my bro was just in holland and he said they had a big prostitution problem and underage stuff aswell, connected to legal drugs? maybe indirectly i dunno?

I swear most kids just did drugs cos it wasnt allowed, I know a few people for who thats the reason they take drugs.

I think in this society legalisation of everything would result in quite a collapse, but only for a period of time. ie make drugs legal and every kid who wants to try drugs has a lot more choice, and getting trashed is all they care about. the novelty would eventually wear off and im sure it would be fine. Final thought, should we legalise more drugs when society cant even handle the legal ones as it is?

Edited June 16, 2007 by teonanacatl

[ThunderIdeal]

maybe alcohol, tobacco and pharmie problems would decrease if we legalised more drugs and made accurate information available.

i agree with everything you said torsten especially about how easy it is to get a license here... pathetic... but i'm not sure it would be right if it cost everyone $3000, seems like it would be one more thing keeping the poor from having a decent go.

among other changes i think we should have refresher tests, say every 15 years. the authority has no qualms about putting more pressure on the young hoons but how about we get some of these 80 year old calamities-in-waiting off the road?

[teonanacatl]

just thought about it somemore, its got way more to do with the society then it does the rules, and german and aussie societies arent same yeah? change the society then maybe we can change rules.

[Torsten]

just thought about it somemore, its got way more to do with the society then it does the rules, and german and aussie societies arent same yeah? change the society then maybe we can change rules.

that's the point. but much of the culture is also determined by the long term rules. alcohol has always been an open part of life in most european countries and kids grow up with much less of an urge to finally be allowed to get trashed cos they can have a glass of wine at dinner at age 15 anyway. It's the novelty and restriction that drives most of the desire.

Thunder - I agree that cost should not be the issue in regards to licenses. I was just stating how it is in germany [and many other european countries]. I am sure a similar goal could be achieved without the pricetag.

Pharmies have been a major problem in europe and USA for the last few years and still climbing, even though it is easier to score pot, coke, meth and heroin in all these places than it is to get a script. That alone should teach us about how restriction actually increases demand.

[ThunderIdeal]

yeah, it could be a lot better without too much change. considering how much driving takes place in australia, we really need to make sure people can drive a bit better than some do.