EDITORIAL: Ugly reality if rugby cup runneth over

I have an uneasy feeling about the Rugby World Cup set to descend upon the nation, which includes we of the Bay, next September.
It's nothing to do with whether we have the skill and superiority to win the thing, or the overbearing security stranglehold that will undoubtedly make it difficult for people like me to sneak in.
It's to do with the "social" side of the event.
It's to do with another apparent Kiwi event which, like rugby, we are very good at.
Drinking . . . and I don't mean tonic drinks and crushed orange.
There is talk of "party centrals" being established and talk of issuing dozens of temporary liquor licences throughout the course of the 2011 Rugby World Cup . . . as if chewing through several pints or a carafe of red is a necessary ingredient to a global sporting event.
The odd celebratory drink, fine.
But I'm starting to get the unsettling feeling this festival of rugby could end up becoming a virtual twin to the Munich Beer Festival.
I've seen the late-night streets of big cities during "normal" times and they're not exactly scenic.
Stir in an apparent world cup "brew it and they will come" stance (blended with the government's lax attitude to overhauling the frighteningly young drinking and purchasing age) and it could all end up giving off worse vibes than the imminent excessive bumping up of prices to fleece the arriving masses.
Oh yes, it makes me uneasy.
On the subject of mind-altering substances, but a far more destructive and insidious one, it is hats off to anti-methamphetamine (P) campaigner Denis O'Reilly and those who are working alongside him within the community coalition set up to wipe the evil stuff from the landscape.
Denis is not the sort of bloke to sit back and shake his head in despair at how this drug menace is destroying families and communities ... not to mention fuel crime and line the wrong pockets with ill-gotten gain.
He's more into putting up billboards and posters and delivering leaflets to highlight how this vile thing called P has got to be strangled at the source. He's taking it on.
Awareness is everything.
Denis has embraced the lofty goal of killing off demand, which will then accordingly kill off the supply.
It's a huge hill to climb and I daresay many people will be sighing and remarking, "Best of luck."
They are the people who, unlike Denis and his colleagues, simply sit back and shake their heads in despair instead of asking, "How can we join this battle?"