Understandably, it is a problem that needs to be dealt with, as it appears to be worsening. Alcohol use remains extremely widespread among today's teenagers.
I've been reading alarming facts about the use of alcohol among the teenage population. During the past month 26.4 per cent of underage persons drank alcohol.
In 2006 the Alcohol Liquor Advisory Council stats showed about 125,000 teenagers aged under 17 fell into the category of binge drinkers with 50,000 drinking at least once a week with the intention of getting drunk.
The survey showed that during the past four weeks 69 per cent of 18 to 19-year-old females and 68 per cent of males in that age range drank to excess and more than a quarter of both genders said they drank until they blacked out. One in 10 said he or she had been assaulted physically or sexually through alcohol-related behaviour.
Those figures are disturbing and I understand why police and hospital staff are very concerned. During the TV news item an ER doctor remarked, that the only way to stop the madness and mayhem of the youth drinking culture was to raise the price of alcohol.
Sure, that will have an effect, but it punishes everybody.
Tauranga police and local government have been working hard to make our downtown area as safe as possible at weekends by liaising with licensees in the CBD in Tauranga and the Mount, but they still face the same issues we saw in Auckland.
One of the problems is pre-loading - consuming drinks away from a bar or club then arriving in the CBD to try to get into licensed premises. That's where the trouble starts, says Western Bay of Plenty alcohol harm reduction co-ordinator Sergeant Nigel McGlone.
"Because of their intoxication, they take risks they might not normally take and, as a consequence, they can become offenders and become involved in disorderly behaviour, fighting and assaults, or they become victims, particularly young women."
One thing going for us in the Bay is that we don't have the later closing hours that Auckland has. Thanks to the hard work by Nigel's team, closing time for clubs and bars at weekends has been reduced to 3am, not the 6am of Auckland's case.
Sergeant McGlone went on to say that if local people ventured downtown in the early hours of Friday, Saturday or Sunday, they would generally be horrified at the behaviour and atmosphere.
"It's a far cry from the daytime crowd and alfresco dining experience that we are so used to. It's more like open cages at a zoo some nights."
Our MPs are in the process of debating the problem. Maybe they should ask the question: why did we lower the drinking age to 18 in 1999?
It's not just age parliamentarians need to look at. It's also the availability of alcohol to minors and perhaps the price of it. Education also must be looked at and not just by schools. All parents should be taking the responsibility of pointing out to our children the dangers of alcohol and drugs in general.
Without a doubt, one of the worst things that was introduced to our drinking culture was the so-called "alcopop". The sweet-tasting, but high-alcohol spirits in the small 300ml bottles are so easy to drink, but what an effect they have after drinking a few. Can young drinkers handle them? I say no, they can't.
Let's hope the MPs currently dealing with this problem act sooner rather than later on making changes.
