Booze cruisers
New Zealand Listener|September 23-29 2023
"Normalising" drinking at home isn't changing teenagers' binge-drinking culture, say health campaigners calling for price hikes and advertising clampdowns. 
SARAH CATHERALL
Booze cruisers

Just before midnight on a Saturday, Wellington's Courtenay Place is awash with inebriated people staggering along footpaths and stumbling into bars. If you take this cohort as representative of New Zealand's wider alcohol scene, about a third of the 18- to 24-year-old bar patrons among them will binge drink. Typically, they will have also preloaded, drinking at their flats or at home to take advantage of cheaper prices at off-licences or online.

Adolescent, underage drinkers are more likely to be drinking at home or at private parties, where their intake can be more difficult to monitor than if they have slipped into a bar on a fake ID. More than half the underage drinkers surveyed by the Addressing Alcohol Harm in Adolescents project undertaken by health promotion group Alcohol Healthwatch said they got alcohol from their parents, a statistic that worries health watchdogs.

Alcohol has never been more affordable, more heavily marketed or more accessible, say researchers and Alcohol Healthwatch. It was labelled in a recent University of Otago, Wellington study as our most harmful drug - worse than methamphetamine or synthetic cannabis - but critics are concerned that getting drunk continues to be the normal drinking style for 18-to 24 year-olds.

The New Zealand Health Survey (2020) found young adults aged 18-24 are our most hazardous drinkers: more than one in three (34.9%) drink excessively, a rate that has not improved in the eight years since the indicator was first introduced.

Hazardous drinking is defined internationally by a World Health Organisation (WHO) scale based on 10 questions covering frequency of drinking, amount consumed and experience of negative outcomes. A score of 8 or more defines hazardous drinking, a pattern that places the drinker and others at risk of harm.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 23-29 2023 من New Zealand Listener.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 23-29 2023 من New Zealand Listener.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

المزيد من القصص من NEW ZEALAND LISTENER مشاهدة الكل
First-world problem
New Zealand Listener

First-world problem

Harrowing tales of migrants attempting to enter the US highlight the political failure to fully tackle the problem.

time-read
3 mins  |
September 9, 2024
Applying intelligence to AI
New Zealand Listener

Applying intelligence to AI

I call it the 'Terminator Effect', based on the premise that thinking machines took over the world.

time-read
2 mins  |
September 9, 2024
Nazism rears its head
New Zealand Listener

Nazism rears its head

Smirky Höcke, with his penchant for waving with a suspiciously straight elbow and an open palm, won't get to be boss of either state.

time-read
2 mins  |
September 9, 2024
Staying ahead of the game
New Zealand Listener

Staying ahead of the game

Will the brave new world of bipartisanship that seems to be on offer with an Infrastructure Commission come to fruition?

time-read
4 mins  |
September 9, 2024
Grasping the nettle
New Zealand Listener

Grasping the nettle

Broccoli is horrible. It smells, when being cooked, like cat pee.

time-read
3 mins  |
September 9, 2024
Hangry? Eat breakfast
New Zealand Listener

Hangry? Eat breakfast

People who don't break their fast first thing in the morning report the least life satisfaction.

time-read
3 mins  |
September 9, 2024
Chemical reaction
New Zealand Listener

Chemical reaction

Nitrates in processed meats are well known to cause harm, but consumed from plant sources, their effect is quite different.

time-read
4 mins  |
September 9, 2024
Me and my guitar
New Zealand Listener

Me and my guitar

Australian guitarist Karin Schaupp sticks to the familiar for her Dunedin concerts.

time-read
2 mins  |
September 9, 2024
Time is on my side
New Zealand Listener

Time is on my side

Age does not weary some of our much-loved musicians but what keeps them on the road?

time-read
7 mins  |
September 9, 2024
The kids are not alright
New Zealand Listener

The kids are not alright

Nuanced account details how China's blessed generation has been replaced by one consumed by fear and hopelessness.

time-read
4 mins  |
September 9, 2024