Our growing " Alcohol " problem !

It is almost impossible to ignore the mayhem that is taking place on our streets because of the abuse of alcohol.    The morning paper delivers a litany of bad news stories.   People are regularly carted off to hospital and placed in a coma because of drunken fighting.  The television cameras record men and women engaging in wild melees when " grog palaces " finally empty out in the wee small hours of the morning. Attacks on police are common - and there is a growing list of those who lost their lives because of excess alcohol consumption.

One of the problems is that this is encouraging a growing culture of specifically drinking to get drunk. A custom is emerging where revellers " tank up " before going on the town by consuming copious amounts of alcohol before they even arrive at the pub or nightclub.  The end result is total loss of control when more alcohol is consumed - leading to the scenarios that head the news bulletins.

None of this is new.  It has been a problem of the night street scene for years, but it is turning into a frenzy that is beyond the ability of the police to control.   Taking the measures to bring it under control rests in the political arena - and so far the politicians on both sides of the political divide have backed away from doing what is necessary.

Basically, this is a power struggle between the government and the alcohol industry and it's scores of venues. Big money is involved - and with that comes  a great amount of leverage to influence political decisions.  The industry is quite capable of mounting a high profile advertising campaign to influence voters against any government that displeases it - and it is a source of big donations to the political coffers of individual politicians.   It has great influence to make sure that legislation is slanted to it's benefit.

It will take a brave government to do what needs to be done.  Drink limitations and " lock out " provisions have been effective where they have applied, but their universal application has been ignored.  The great alcohol companies and the venues that distribute that product will howl like banshees if the government applies an iron fist approach and reduces opening times and makes proprietors responsible for allowing drunken patrons to reach that stage of insobriety.    The only measure that will force their compliance - is cancellation of the right to sell liquor for a period of time for continued breaches of the law.

Curbing legislation will be branded a " Wowser " approach, but the vast majority of people know that the present mayhem can not continue, and many despair that when their young people have a night out they are going into deadly danger.   The night scene is not for the fain hearted - and that knock on the door to say that a loved one is in a police cell -or in the ICU of the local hospital - is a dread that many parents share.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a convivial drink of alcohol - taken in reasonable moderation.  The problem is that the more a patron can be induced to drink, the greater the profit for the venue that provides that alcohol, hence the provider has a motive to promote excess drinking.

We need a law change to restore the balance.  The right to make a profit from selling alcohol requires a corresponding obligation to impose sobriety limits on customers.   The only way this can be achieved is by implementing a control measure that withdraws the license necessary for making that profit if that duty is breached.    The server must say " No " to a customer nearing the limit of sobriety.

Its a big ask - but solving this problem is a matter of whether the politicians have the intestinal fortitude to do what is necessary !