KAPAI'S CORNER: Booze, drug survey makes sobering reading

AFTER a week of waffling on about when to bring back the biff in rugby and tell the coaches to ruck off, or when to bring back the H in Wanganui and tell Mayor Michael to whuck off, it almost led me back down the path of picking up a beer - or something stronger.
But I was soon brought back to sobriety with the sobering results of a survey I read online.
Which drug causes the most social problems in the Bay of Plenty?
(1) Alcohol (55 per cent)
(2) Marijuana (2 per cent)
(3) Nicotine (1 per cent)
(4) P (Methamphetamine) (41 per cent)
(5) BZP (Class C Party Pills)(1 per cent)
What was interesting was it showed up a statistic that most of us know but don't want to know, and prefer to keep it in-house to keep us from exposing ourselves as part of the problem.
And if we were to rewrite the question  and ask what drugs were the most socially accepted in Tauranga, I think the answers would poll differently and possibly explain why we chose to deny what drugs are good and bad for us and our communities.
As far as socially acceptable, the altered poll would be somewhere along the lines of: Alcohol 55 per cent, nicotine 41 per cent and the remaining three (marijuana, P and party pills) 4 per cent.
Why do we downplay its dangers we may well ask, when we know that alcohol is an addictive drug that causes more mayhem than all the rest put together? Just ask any policeman who works the night shift dealing with domestic violence and grog-fuelled fights up and down the soul of our city - The Strand.
Is it because we are making the same mistakes we made when we glamorised smoking in the 60s, and now have inherited a generation of nicotine addicts who are killing themselves (4000 a year) and our national health budget?
Remember when it was  okay to smoke in a hospital waiting room? And now you can't smoke a fag in public - but you can marry one.
And now we are doing the same with alcohol by glamorising it and promoting it as a cool thing to do. Make no mistake, the mission behind making alcopop drinks taste like milkshakes with cool names is the same  as multi-national companies marketing cool-sounding smokes like Marlboro, Holiday and Port Royal.
It's all about making money by creating loyal addicts to the brand.
And by pointing the bone of blame at the other less socially accepted drugs (marijuana and methamphetamine) it gives society the perfect excuse-me waltz to dance around the demon drink and its equally evil cousin, the cigarette? If I were to recall one of life's magic moments for me it would be sharing a socially unacceptable enjoyment enhancer, on a tropical island with the late great George Harrison. Now if I were to lie and say the enjoyment enhancer
was a glass of rich red wine or an ice cold lager with a couple of ciggies on the side, there would be I expect an element of envy and acceptance.
But if I were to say George and I chuffed on a double Zig-Zagged reefer then there would be an immediate cry of self righteous cynicism about the type of drug we were taking.
And that's the guts of the argument about the good, the bad and the ugly side of what society sees as good and bad drugs. As far as what part of the story is true then let's say the picturesque evening was most memorable  for me and "my sweet lord" when we both seized the moment - and inhaled it all in.
For my two bobs' worth, of class A, B and C drugs the A should stand for alcohol and it should be stripped of its social acceptance.
As should the socially accepted ciggie, if we are to base the ban on  the harm they cause.

The stance by the Maori Party last week was admirable and should be mirrored by all parties. They are calling for tougher action against smoking and MP Hone Harawira wants the Maori select committee to launch an  inquiry into Maori and tobacco. Hone with an H wants to "bring these bastards from the tobacco industry out into the open".
And any Maori employed in Maori health should lead by example and give the butts the biff.
On a lighter note,  what will happen to the golden guitar and capital of country music - Gore, if they drop its first letter and replace it with a WH? And will 'ea' be out and 'it' in - giving a grain of sand to what will now be known as Ninety Mile Bitch?
broblack@xtra.co.nz