With new legal barriers in place to curb alcohol-fuelled violence looming, we could see a new form of bad behavior emerge.
Look out for the Boozeday Preppers – a group of dedicated binge-drinkers who will be ready for any lock-out, any ‘refusal of service’ and any other legal obstacle preventing them obtaining precious alcohol.
The new laws still deal with ‘how’ people get drunk but they fail to address ‘why’. That’s why it’s more than likely they won’t be able to tackle the problem effectively.
Take the new ‘prohibition-style’ laws in NSW – some already in effect:
- Law: Lockouts at 1.30am.
- Prediction: Drunk people will be on the streets outside venues they cannot enter.
- Law: The service of alcohol to cease at 3am in larger venues.
- Prediction: More drunk people will spill onto the streets.
- Law: Bottle shops to close at 10pm.
- Prediction: That’s a Boozeday Prepper’s cue to get to a ‘bottlo’ by 9.50pm.
- Law: Minimum sentencing of 8 years and a maximum of 25 years for one-punch assaults fuelled by alcohol and/or drugs that result in death.
- Prediction: This gives some grim satisfaction to the victim’s family and wider community. But it’s too late. The damage is done.
The laws deal with the problem of what happens when people are already drunk.
No laws can prevent stupidity and recklessness once a person is really inebriated. Common sense is gone. There are problems to address at the imbibing stage.
Why are Australians proud world leaders when it comes to binge-drinking? It’s true we kicked off our ‘culture’ as convicts and the Rum Trade. But that was centuries ago.
Prohibition is not a solution. History shows it’s an abject failure at reducing booze-related social problems. By restricting access to alcohol in the 1920s, organized crime took control of production and distribution to ensure the supply chain remained open. Binge-drinking increased once people felt safe away from the law. They bunkered down in Speakeasies.
And whole host of new social problems flourished as some people turned to more relatively legal recreational substances of the era such as heroin, cocaine and marijuana.
Today, a Boozeday Prepper will be inclined to buy more grog than usual because 10pm is ‘last drinks’ at the bottleshop. There’s no legal way to go back and get more.
So they will buy up, stock up, drink up then go out and mess up.
According to the National Drug Strategy Household Survey 2010, as many as three-quarters of a million Australians are physically abused by persons under the influence of alcohol in an average year.
- In NSW 45% of all assaults in the year up to September 2007 were alcohol- related, equating to 33,147 cases.
- Young people aged between 15 and 24 years account for 52% of all alcohol-related serious injuries and 32% of all alcohol-attributable hospital admissions for injuries caused by violence.
- In Queensland 31% of 15-18 year old and 32% of 19-24 year olds who attended the Emergency Department for an injury had consumed alcohol in the six hours preceding the injury.
People who think binge drinking is a rite of passage and just a bit of harmless fun, should also look at what it costs taxpayers. In Victoria alone, alcohol-related damage is estimated as $4.3 billion dollars a year.
It seems a generation has lost the ability to organize a fun event and include alcohol as an added option. Now, it’s just about the booze.
How many times do we hear the invitation to ‘catch up for a drink’? How about catching up for a host of other reasons? Maybe some Australians are so tragically punch-drunk, they don’t have any other reasons to catch up with each other.
We need a cultural overhaul. When there were more venues in Australia playing live music, for example, there were more reasons to go out other than to just get smashed.
This week football player Jamil Hopoate was arrested for a one-punch assault outside a pub. It’s already a cliché.
What would show binge-drinkers that alcohol is an optional additive and not the focus of life?
Some might say less king-hits to the head and more kicks up the bum.
Maybe it’s about knowing how to have real fun.
Renée Brack is a journalist, media producer and adventurer.
