Want to meet up for a drink? It's either one or the other alcoholic beverage, then. Very rarely do you go out of the house for anything less, and chronic coffee consumption presents its own set of problems.
Alcohol abuse isn't just a blight on remote Aboriginal communities - it's something that affects Australian society as a whole.
Adele Horan's article of 30/08 in the Sydney Morning Herald rightly points out that even a week without alcohol is a very trying task for most people. The recent launch of On the Wagon Week presumably launched a collective chill down the spines of adult Australia.
The binge drinking of teens and young adults has come increasingly under the microscope, but what of the hordes of parents who enjoy a glass or two "to unwind" after a hard day at work? It might begin this way, but I've heard anecdotally of many friends' parents who, after many years, are technically alcoholics.
There are several factors at work here.
Firstly, our casual approach to "having a few drinks" - i.e. getting blind. It's all treated as a bit of a laugh, really, and I've certainly enjoyed my fair share too. But when it becomes a ritualised, unthinking habit, it not only eats into our wallets and workplaces (sickies are a great Australian tradition), but it's setting us up for serious health problems in the future.
Horan also notes the alarming availability of cheap cask wine in large volumes - three or four litres for ten bucks. Until wine is taxed at a more consistent rate, this seems unlikely to change. Apparently the region in S.A. which produces most cask wine is home to two of that state's most marginal seats. It would be a foolish political party to upset the winegrowers here.
Other drugs are demonised, yet alcohol remains acceptable. If there are health warnings on tobacco pouches, why not on bottles of alcohol?
Australia is addicted. It's time to accept this, and look at either changing the culture, or preparing for a very long liver-transplant waiting list.
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1 comment:
You make a very good point. There are consequences to people's actions. Not many care or think about this when they are getting blind, but in the end their liver will pay. If we look to England there is clearly a growing drinking problem and Australia seems to be following suit.
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