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“Blinded” by binge drinking: Why Australian youths need to take more responsibility for their drinking habits
by Olivia Proud
Smashed. Plastered. Blind. Hammered. Legless. It almost sounds like a car accident. Pissed. Blotto. Shit-faced. No, we are not in the public toilets. It’s just the response we hear so often when we ask how a mate was last Saturday night. Only for a country that seems to take such pleasure in getting drunk, we sure don’t make it sound like too much fun.
So maybe it’s fitting then, that the government is finally taking measures and will spend $53.5 million in the 2008-2009 Federal Budget [1] to help combat binge drinking and its related harms. As a Generation Y member I feel fit to comment on such a matter. Yes, I admit it. In the earlier days I have binged on alcohol, repented, binged again (and so forth) until I reached an epiphany. Drinking does not equal enjoyment.
The Australian Department of Health and Aging National Alcohol Strategy 2006-2009 [2] reports that each year around 3,100 people die as a result of excessive alcohol consumption and around 72,000 people are hospitalised. Not only is binge-drinking costing lives but it is also costing money. Australians are paying $7.6 billion annually for alcohol-related social problems. And that’s not fun for taxpayers either.
In contrast to many frenzied reports [3] in the media, this binge-drinking phenomenon is not a new one. I spoke to Gino Vumbaca, the Executive Director of the Australian National Council on Drugs who explained that binge drinking or drinking to excess has affected Australian society for a number of years. “The difference now is that young people have more of a disposable income than in the past.... It’s also about adult responsibility. In previous generations we’ve settled down, married, have had kids and all that in our 20s... Now late teens and 20s are more about exploring and pushing limits and partying.”
It could also have to do with the fact that we are the generation that has been handed everything on a silver platter. 25 year old
But what happens when getting “smashed” goes wrong? This week The Sydney Morning Herald is covering the sad story [4] of 18-year-old Jessica Loiterton that was raped by a taxi driver while he was driving her home after she had had so much to drink that she passed out. Of course it is not a choice to get raped, but it is a choice to get drunk. Sadly, many young Australians get so “blind”, that they are blind also to the fact they can find themselves in dangerous and life-threatening situations.
There needs to be a cultural shift in how we as Australians think about alcohol. If only we could think like the Italians, who don’t even have a word for ‘hangover’ in their vernacular. But like Vumbuca says, “you can’t import cultural traits. I think what it’s about is exposing the type of culture we have and making people a lot more aware of the culture of intoxication being too closely linked to enjoyment.”
This is what Australians need to start realising. But it can’t just be left up to the government to enlighten us that throwing up on your best friend’s shoe in front of a night club after one too many vodka-red bulls is not the most attractive end to a night. We as individuals need to start taking more responsibility for our short-term actions and come to terms with the fact that there are serious consequences.