The fact is that alcohol has and is the greatest contributing factor in death, illness, misery, poverty and despair on the planet.

Taxes do nothing in constraining tobacco use, nor would they do anything to stem alcohol abuse.

The only thing higher taxes do is give bloody politicians more of our money to abuse. If you were even slightly honest in your statement you would be suggesting brewers, distillers etc. should increase their profit margins by 100%.

Nor does affordablity come into the equation, those who will abuse alcohol will find a way of accessing it.

The way to reduce current alcohol abuse is to tell the we-know-best crowd to target genuine alcohol abuse instead of pretending that all alcohol use is abuse thus inflating the figures they are so fond of quoting.

” I also support keeping the driving age at 15 years”

This is one that I disagree with entirely.

I used to work with a guy who completed a Masters looking at driving related injury for insurance claims. His conclusions indicated that the length of time a young person had been driving had absolutely zero impact on the likelyhood of having a major accident – the AGE of the driver was the all important factor (ie; an 18 year old who has three years driving ‘experience’ is still more likely to have a major accident, than a 21 year old who has only just completed the qualification).

Physiologically, we know that 15 year old brains are still developing into full adult form. I believe it is simply far too young to be put in charge of a 1-ton missle…

When a teen myself (and the age was 20) we could still access alcohol, but we could only afford enough to be happy, not blotto. There is some good evidence (incl. Europe and elsewhere) that the increase in binge drinking culture is because it so much more affodable than 20 years ago.
OK am I prepared to pay say 50% more for a wine or a beer? Probably.
Actually I would be snobby about it and help our wine industry – highest taxes on alco-pops.

and Age 13+ will allow ignorant whities of the “harden up” brigade to slowly damage the developing brains and internals of their children at BBQs – just fast enough so they can increase the lables of “useless” they already use to make themselves feel better, only this time instead of it being a projection of the parent, it will actually be physiologically true.

Come on people, theory is one thing, but at the coal face of NZ more than 50% are ignorant as fuck and quite happy with that situation.

Mix ignorant legalised substance abuse with the taint of socialism and you’ve just complicated and intensified everything that’s already wrong with our country.

Some moves I’d like to see:
1. Make the purchase age for booze in line with voting, contracts, military service etc.
2. Tax the living bejesus out of this filthy poison. I’m talking 50-60% of the purchase price.
3. Implement some of those American laws – e.g. open bottle in the car.
4. Wind back retail distribution coverage – starting with supermarkets and dairies.
5. Alchohol related injury = no ACC coverage.
6. Banning [Yes the greenies' favourite!] booze advertising. [Just like tobacco products]

But, we’re now repeating ourselves. And are back where we started – you think that 18 year olds aren’t adults and need special protecting from themselves. But only as it relates to alcohol. I think 18 year olds are adults, and need to make decisions on their own.

I like the form of The Barking Dog bar that has just opened in Botany (Auckland) which will only serve alcohol (and I think allow on the premises) to people who are 21 and over.

Still that will not alter the fact that the Police say that over half of young people involved in alcohol related incidents had their last drink at home (wording slightly distorted on purpose).

January 8th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
“Inventory2 – RTDs vary in alcohol content from 5%-12%. Beers vary from about 4% – 9% (got that from ALAC web site). Getting wasted on beer or wasted on an RTD is still wasted.”

Brian. Tell me what beer had a 9% alcohol content in the days Inventory2 was talking about? Shit Elephant beer was the strongest I can remember, and that was 5% – but you could only buy/afford DB Green/Brown and Lion Red by the flagon

On that basis we would make cars illegal, and not drinking and then driving them. It’s already accepted drinking prohibits you from undertaking many activities, Driving being one, allegedly because you are not in proper control of yourself if you exceed a government prescribed limit.

My point is teenagers have shown by and large they don’t know when to stop, and I would guess that their bodies do not process alcohol the same way as someone more mature.

At 18yrs – we treat people as adult for everything at a given age – sign contracts, marry (without parental permission), serve on a jury. tried as an adult, serve as policeman, Soldier etc

The issue is nailing those who get pissed in public and those who get pissed in public and cause grief no matter their age.
As for supplying teens alcohol, same thing.
Kids +13 can drink with mum and dad as they are under their control and authority.

But remember the way of the secularists is to nail everyone to stop the very few, remember now you break the law if you smack your child for discipline purposes.
has it stooped abuse and deaths?

of course not and the same applies to this issue.
We have a drinking problem in NZ, too many get pissed or wasted in public.
nail them all for drunk in public, simple.

but we won’t as theres too much profit to be made by Mr Sensible and his mates supporters.

So how about we let them drink, but any time they are found by the police in an obviously intoxicated state in a public place, or, even more, any time they are behaving in a way not consistent with public well being, the book should be thrown at them. Old enough to drink, also old enough to pay the consequences of being drunk.

If we continue down your path, we’ll start making kitchen knives illegal because some people cut themselves on them. We’ll make guns illegal because some people use them for crimes. The only reason you think this is OK is because it doesn’t impact you personally, not because it is a reasonable thing to do.

And if we continue down that path, we make everything legal just as long as no one sees the damage in public.
The last Govt already thought of that and ****ed it up by making prostitution legal. Has that worked? Seems to be just as many prostitutes being killed – maybe more than before.

Your problem seems not to be that these people are drinking, but that they are drunk and obnoxious in public places. Well, let’s make that illegal. In fact, I’m pretty sure it already is. So how about we let them drink, but any time they are found by the police in an obviously intoxicated state in a public place, or, even more, any time they are behaving in a way not consistent with public well being, the book should be thrown at them. Old enough to drink, also old enough to pay the consequences of being drunk.

If we continue down your path, we’ll start making kitchen knives illegal because some people cut themselves on them. We’ll make guns illegal because some people use them for crimes. The only reason you think this is OK is because it doesn’t impact you personally, not because it is a reasonable thing to do.