The Current Economic Arguments And Concerns Around Binge Drinking

These days there are a number of social issues in the community, such as drug abuse, teenage pregnancy and alcohol abuse. Alcohol abuse is rampant in today’s society, Australian Drug Foundation states that, “Alcohol is the most widely used psychoactive, or mood-changing, recreational drug in Australia.”(Healey, 2002, p. 11). Underage drinking and binge drinking are some of the problems associated with alcohol abuse.

First of all, binge drinking has been a problem for some time now. It has climbed over the past few years, capturing more attention from the media. A study

Alcohol is the most commonly used drug in Australia (The Australian Drug Foundation, 2014). The term binge drinking is defined as drinking heavily over a short period of time with the intention of becoming intoxicated (Druginfo.adf.org.au, 2009). Binge drinking is spreading across Australia and is now having a greater affect on adolescents. There are things that individuals, schools, families and governments can do in order to minimise binge drinking. The effects that alcohol has on the body depend on a range of thing such as how often you are drinking, the strength of the drink you drink and how much you drink (Dame, 2016). Alcohol has both short-term and long-term effects on the body. Some short-term effects include alcohol poisoning, blackouts,

Over time, it has become a regular thing for citizens of Australian to drink excessive amounts alcohol; Australians of many different ages drink alcohol for a wide range of reasons; whether alcohol is being consumed due to a special occasion, for stress relief, or as an (not so good) anti-depressant. Alcohol, believe it or not makes a huge impact on Australians as young as 14. Statistics show that at least 90% of teenagers 14 years old and up have tried alcohol at least once, and estimates also show that around about 50% of teens 14 and older consume alcohol on a weekly basis. The problem being caused by this deadly drug is that teens under the age of 18 are not complying with the law and are consuming crazy amounts of alcohol on a regular

Underage drinking is rapidly becoming a widespread matter within Australia. It is considered to be a serious problem not only nationally, but also globally wide. Underage drinking has climbed its way up the ladder to one of the most common forms of substance use. “The health risks that accumulate over a lifetime from alcohol increase progressively – this means that the more young people drink, the greater the risk” (Windle, Spear, Fuligni, Angold, Drown, Pine, Smith, Giedd, Dahl 2009). Some states within Australia do not have to deal with this problem nearly as much as others. These teenagers are classified as underage drinkers because the national legal drinking age in Australia is 18 years of age – meaning they are still considered to be minors (Australian Alcohol Guidelines, 2009). For the purposes of this essay, the focus will be set on adolescences and alcohol. It will be argued whether parental influence has an impact on teenagers present or future drinking habits.

In Australia and throughout other western countries, the misuse of alcohol by young people has been highlighted as a problem (Toumbourou et al 2003).

Evidence and research proves that the laws related to the legal drinking age does not reflect today’s societal values and that the legislations ‘Liquor Act 2007 No 90 (NSW) Part 7 Division 1 Sections 117 & 116’ should be reformed to raise the drinking age in Australia from 18 years of age to 21. Through surveying different age groups and socio-economic backgrounds of society, information has been gathered to demonstrate that the current laws do not reflect society’s opinion on the legal drinking age in Australia. Research suggests that there are many social consequences related to alcohol in young people including alcohol fuelled violence and major health issues. Despite evidence from leading health experts,

Presidents of college campuses around the nation face issues of underage drinking and binge drinking on a regular basis and realizes that it is a danger and a problem. “Alcohol consumption is the third leading cause of death in the U.S., a major contributing factor to unintentional injuries, the leading cause of death for youths and young adults, and accounts for an estimated 75,000 or more deaths in the United States annually” (Wechsler 2010). Binge drinking can be loosely defined as consuming five or more drinks at one sitting for men and four drinks for women. Binge drinking amongst college students is a social activity that allows students to let loose and “fit in”.

Firstly, binge alcohol drinking is ongoing and pervasive issue among Australian adolescents ( Dengenhardt et al, 2013, P.1). Generally, adolescents tend to drink less frequently than adults drinkers but they have a tendency for excessive and binge drinks (Wechsler and Nelson, 2010, p.985).

Binge drinking can have a major effect on crime rates. These crimes can include, physical abuse, sexual abuse like rape, and domestic abuse. When a young person comes out of a club after binge drinking they wouldn’t know where they were and would often go back to anyone’s house, this is when the dangers then come into the situations, they are put into situations that they don’t want to be in but they can’t get out of them because they put themselves into them serious situations. Often this causes more damage in later life, some decide that they can’t take the pain of knowing they have been abused and then commit suicide and the rates of suicide is increasing as the years go on which clearly shows there is a link to binge drinking. If there

In 2008, a National Institutes of Health Survey counted a total of 1.3 million children from the ages of twelve to seventeen that have experienced alcohol abuse just within the last year, and a total of 2.3 million young adults from the ages of twelve to twenty who have drunk five or more times within a single occasion. “At age twelve, 11 percent of boys and 9 percent of girls have commenced drinking, and 1 percent of them are classified as binge and heavy users. By age fourteen, the numbers are 31 and 33 percent use, respectively, and 6 percent of them are binge and heavy users. At age eighteen years, 73 percent have commenced drinking, 42 percent have used alcohol in the past month, and 39 percent are heavy users,” (Sherwood, 2012, p.1). However, the most common group in which abuses the use of alcohol is the college age. In 2007 alone, over 1800 college students were killed due to alcohol-related accidents, along

Alcohol Abuse in Australian teenagers has become an ever-growing epidemic nationwide, in particular teens aged between 14 and 17 years of age. This health issue not only has detrimental effects on teenagers but also has devastating effects on people of all ages all throughout their lives. Developing positive drinking habits at a young age is paramount to avoid alcohol related deaths and illnesses. Resounding statistics show that each year alcohol accounts for 13 per cent of all deaths

Australia has a well-established and deeply ingrained drinking culture and while most people are satisfied with a few beers on the odd weekend or a glass of wine with dinner, others have become addicted and have developed alcohol dependence. With alcohol dependency now the most common substance use disorder in Australia the effects of this disorder are far-reaching and catastrophic not only for the individual suffering the addiction and their family and friends, but for our government as well who is shelling out billions of dollars annually to address the fallout of this disorder. However, the devastation caused by such addictions may be a thing of the past as Professor Daryl Davies from the University of Southern California has

Australia needs to wake up and realize that society is influencing us to develop the binge culture. Thus, making binge drinking into a social issue. There is a sharp increase of binge drinking in the younger generation with the statistics showing 86.2% of Australian teenagers aged 14-18 years have consumed alcohol. The underage youth are stating that their parents are allowing it, that it is easy to get the alcohol, drinking’s cheaper and that they are getting highly influenced seeing the older (legal aged) youth drinking. Consequently, the younger youth cannot comprehend why they cannot drink

The prevalence of binge drinking in 2012 for females was in the middle-performing 50% for all counties with 8.7% of females engaging in binge drinking, while the prevalence of binge drinking in 2012 for males was in the middle-performing 50% for all counties with 24.6% of males engaging in binge drinking. To compare, the national average in 2012 was 12.4% for females and 24.5% for males. The change from 2002 to 2012 for females was in the best-performing 25% of all counties while the change for males was in the middle-performing 50%, with females experiencing a decrease of 0.3 percentage points and males experiencing an increase of 0 percentage points. To compare with the national average, females had an increase of 1.6 percentage points and males had an