KEY POINTS:
Alcohol is, undeniably, an integral part of New Zealand culture. It is an incredibly common substance, lurking in most people's refrigerators - a fundamental component of funerals, weddings and other social occasions.
All of this makes alcohol stand alone from other drugs. Most other drugs aren't socially acceptable or legal. Neither are they as readily available as alcohol.
For this reason alcohol always tops the statistics as the drug that causes us the most damage. Perhaps it isn't the worst substance of them all - if as many people used methamphetamine as alcohol our society would likely implode. But it certainly has a highly caustic effect on our country's people.
I finally came to realise the negative effects that alcohol had on my life almost two years ago. This recognition was enough to stop me drinking completely - cold turkey.
"How fantastic," you might derisively say. "Pat yourself on the back!" No, I'm not trying to grandstand here, or portray myself as a shining example of rehabilitation and reform. I outline my experiences with alcohol in the hope of making at least one person have a think about their drinking habits.
When the drinking age was lowered from 20 to 18 in December 1999, I was just five weeks away from my 18th birthday. This had little effect on my drinking, as I had been drinking regularly for a couple of years by then.
In the days when the drinking age was 20, the regulations seemed to be a lot less strict than they became after the drinking age was lowered to 18. I remember easily getting into pubs and clubs around the country when I was 16. But the lowering of the drinking age made things a lot easier for me - suddenly everything was above board.
The night of my 18th birthday was celebrated by hitting the bars and clubs of Auckland City. We got fantastically drunk. Other than that, the only thing I remember was the bouncers saying "happy birthday" to me, snidely.
When I look back on the bouncers' attitudes it becomes obvious that they were just beginning, in January 2000, to realise how the lowering of the drinking age was going to make their jobs more difficult. Suddenly they had teenagers on their hands who had every right to enter their drinking establishments.
Funnily enough, during the first two years of my legal drinking, alcohol wasn't really a problem for me. I rarely drank to excess.
It was after I turned 20, and began university, that my drinking became heavier. I remember going to many of my afternoon lectures and tutorials thoroughly pissed and completing exams with nasty hangovers. God knows how I always managed to pass.
But during those years I was only hurting myself. It was when I got married, at 24, that my drinking started becoming a problem.
Alcohol, thankfully, never made me physically or verbally abusive. It was just that I never knew when to stop. I wasn't the kind of guy that could go out for "a couple of beers".
If I tried to do that, a couple of beers would turn into four, four beers into 14, and so on. Suddenly the sun would be rising on a new day, and I would be trashed and have a wife waiting at home for me who was hurt and understandably angry at my absence.
Basically, when I drank there became no tomorrow. But tomorrow always eventuated, and it was sometimes a dark, horrible place.
So on one particular tomorrow I decided to halt my drinking completely. Since then I haven't really looked back. Becoming a teetotaller has its pros and cons. Let's start with the pros: these days, driving is never an issue, as alcohol no longer flows through my veins. I can drive where I like, when I like, without forking out large sums of money for taxi services.
Also, if I was still drinking I would doubtlessly be found carrying our newborn son up and down the stairs half or fully inebriated, which wouldn't have been at all safe or responsible. Neither, if I continue on my path of sobriety, will I face the prospect of getting drunk and embarrassing him and at his 21st birthday, or myself at any other social event.
As far as the cons go, there are a few: alcohol is, whether we like it or not, a wonderful social lubricant. It might seem a little sad, but I sometimes find socialising, especially with people I don't know very well, a little difficult without alcohol. Some social events, when attended sober, can be very dull.
A few people also find the idea of teetotaller a little weird. But I can deal with these things, as dealing with them is my only option, short of relocating my family to some distant Islamic republic. When I think about it, my alcohol-free life is far superior to the alcohol-sodden one that preceded it.
