Bendigo health experts have called for a “hard discussion” on the legal drinking age following recent figures we are consuming higher amounts of alcohol.
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Bendigo Community Health senior manager of alcohol and drug services Cheryl Sobczyk said Australia’s “ongoing love affair with alcohol” is behind the rise.
A Medical Journal of Australia report on Monday revealed the overall alcohol rate jumped from 3.9 standard drinks per day to 4.3 – an increase of 13 per cent.
But heavier drinking was becoming more common among women – in 2001, women were drinking 2.8 standard drinks daily, but in ten years that spiked at 3.4.
Men still drank more than women, consuming 5 standard drinks a day (compared with 4.7 in 2001).
The report cited that teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19 drank a staggering seven standard drinks a day on average – 65 per cent more than adults.
Ms Sobczyk said alcohol was tied to “right of passage” notions and there was a need to look at the pervasive drinking culture.
“We need to have the hard discussion about the legal drinking age,” she said.
“We know that people don't wait until a legal drinking age when they start consuming alcohol.”
She said there were long-term health and social impacts on young people drinking – including accident, violence and self-harm.
“Drinking contributes to the three leading causes of teenage death – homicide, suicide and accidental injury,” she said.
She said there was a vicious cycle where people with mental health problems tended to have a high alcohol intake, and people who drank to excess often had mental health struggles.
But local health sciences student Tori Barnes, 19, said the figures certainly did not reflect her attitude to drinking.
“I don't drink regularly by any stretch of the imagination,” Ms Barnes said.
“I work quite hard at uni and I have other commitments, and it’s too expensive.”
“I have a lot of friends who live (on campus) at uni and no doubt there is a culture to drink regularly and drink mid-week.”
“But I find it very difficult to believe people are drinking seven standard drinks a day.”
The MJA report used ABS National Health Survey data from 2001 and 2011-12.
DOUBT CAST ON TEENAGE DRINKING
The director of Victorian Youth Support and Advocacy Service Peter Wearne has said figures suggesting teens drink seven standard drinks a day should be taken with a large grain of salt.
“That’s an awful lot of alcohol. You would need treatment,” Mr Wearne said.
“It’s astounding...it just doesn’t sound right.”
“Parents need to be reassured the average teenager is not drinking seven standard drinks a day – that’s the exception.”
“We just don’t see those patterns.”
ALCOHOL IS THE MOST COMMON DRUG: EXPERTS
Local youth workers have urged alcohol is a more prevalent problem than ice.
Bendigo Youth Support and Advocacy Service manager Kerry Donaldson said most clients are drinking to self medicate for trauma, anxiety or depression.
“For us, the alcohol and cannabis are still the predominant drugs causing harm in Bendigo,” Ms Donaldson said.
“People don’t become addicted because it’s an easy option, but because it helps.”