Alcohol misuse costs the Northern Territory an estimated $642 million per year in policing, justice, ambulance and health costs.

On top of that, 60% of all assaults and 67% of all domestic violence incidents across the Territory are alcohol related.

To try and reduce the huge cost, the Government has rolled out what it is touting as the toughest alcohol reform laws in the country.

As of last Friday, the Government implemented a Banned Drinker Register. Banned Drinkers include people who commit alcohol-related crime, people taken into protective custody three times in three months, and people who commit repeat or high range drink driving offences.

Banned drinkers can be banned from purchasing, possessing or consuming alcohol for up to 12 months.

Thus, all people wishing to buy takeaway alcohol in the NT will have to provide identification. By scanning a photo ID, the Banned Drinker Register will enable liquor licensees at the point of sale to identify banned drinkers and enforce the bans.

Allegedly over 500 people are already on the register, with more being added by the day. Police recently banning a woman from buying alcohol for three months after she was caught drink-driving.

Half a century ago, limiting alcohol sales on an individual basis was a fairly common strategy. It then fell out of favour, seen as an impingement on people’s civil liberties.

There now seems to be a revival, with similar strategies seen both here and overseas.

However tough the NT’s ideas may seem, there is evidence that such systems can reduce the harms associated with heavy drinking such as violence and deaths due to liver cirrhosis.

At the risk of being called a cottonwooller, I think any strategy with clear evidence showing it’ll reduce alcohol related harm is worth a shot. What do you think? Email CAAN@adf.org.au

Until next week,

Sarah Jaggard
Community Mobilisation Policy Officer

Dear GrogWatch,

This split age thing has been around for some time.

The first I heard of it was during the NSW alcohol summit way back when. It was then proposed by a couple of NSW police officers from the Central Coast area in 2003, if my memory serves me correctly. There were some new articles on it at the time. I can’t recall the age split they recommended but it was around 20 or 21.

It came up again a few years ago as a suggestion from the Australian Hotels Association of all people. I am not sure of the context of the submission, whether it was to a particular Government Inquiry or something off their own steam. The AHA claim was that a certain level of supervision exists in pubs and clubs. This was used as the justification. The major stumbling block with the AHA proposal was that they suggested the age split to be 16. Cynics might think the AHA was attempting to protect their market share at the expense of the major bottle shop chains. Also hotels do not have an unblemished record in relation to supervising drinkers in hotels so it is a bit hard to justify the claims of adequate supervision of 16 year olds.

All in all I think it is an interesting idea well worth exploring providing we discount the AHA suggestion. There are bound to be issues with it such as what to do if a car load of young people turn up at a drive-in bottle shop, although it could be argued that that particular problem exists now.

Cheers,

Bruce

Royal College of Psychiatrists 2011 Our invisible addicts: first report of the Older Persons' Substance Misuse Working Group of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, London: RCP

Key points:

• percentage of UK men and women drinking more than recommended weekly limits has risen between 1990 and 2006 - by 60% for men, by 100% for women
• even though alcohol use tends to decline with age, there are still a significant number of older people drinking at dangerous levels
• older people can show complex patterns and combinations of substance use (e.g. alcohol plus inappropriate use of prescription medications)
• different risks for older men / women: older men at greater risk of developing alcohol/ illicit substance use problem, older women at greater risk of developing prescription/over-the-counter medication misuse problems
  
  Thanks to Anna for the dot points!
  
   

NAIDOC stands for the National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee. Its origins can be traced to the emergence of Aboriginal groups in the 1920s which sought to increase awareness in the wider community of the status and treatment of Indigenous Australians.

Today, NAIDOC is a celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and an opportunity to recognise the contributions of Indigenous Australians in various fields.

Activities take place across the nation during NAIDOC Week in the first full week of July. Go here to find out what’s happening during NAIDOC week in your state or territory.
 

Alice Springs council protests against cheap alcohol ban in Woolworths and Coles
Sydney Morning Herald, 29 June 2011
Coles and Woolworths are under attack in Alice Springs for banning cheap wine in an attempt to force up the alcohol floor price. The Alice Springs town council has decided five votes to three to ask the supermarket chains to abandon the new rules, due to come into effect Friday.

Bid to curb cheap grog sales gathers pace
ABC.net, 29 June 2011
An Alice Springs alcohol policy group says another supermarket in the central Australian town has promised to stop selling two-litre cask wines. The People's Alcohol Action Coalition says Piggly's made the promise in an email yesterday, after Coles, Woolworths and four IGA supermarkets announced the move last week.

Do you know what your daughter’s doing tonight?
Sydney Morning Herald, 30 June 2011
They’re young, beautiful and think they’re invincible. On the face of it, today’s teenage girls are no different from those of previous generations. Except, writes Rachel Olding, that they’re sexually promiscuous and binge drinking like never before – and documenting much of it on Facebook.

Drawing the moral line between an alcoholic and the liquor store
ABC.net, 30 June 2011
After losing his balance due to excessive alcohol consumption, Bob could not carry the hundreds of dollars worth of scotch he drank every month, so the local liquor store did it for him. The store had access to his ATM and PIN number and would allegedly come into Bob's home, littered with bottles of scotch, and deliver more.

Drink driving laws get tougher from today
Brisbane Times, 1 July 2011
From today, police now have the power to immediately suspend a driver who has a blood alcohol content of 0.1 or higher. That is a decrease in the amount of alcohol in the bloodstream, down from 0.15, where police could previously suspend a driver's licence until their appearance in court.