"Gal pals out-drink the boys"
- Sunday Herald Sun 27/4/2008
"TEENAGE girls are out-boozing and out-smoking their
male peers, according to the biggest study of drug use
conducted in Australia.
The survey of more than 23,000 Australians revealed
rates of tobacco smoking and marijuana use are dropping.
But those healthier habits are being offset by record
levels of alcohol consumption and cocaine use.
And the National Drug Strategy Health Survey 2007,
released today by the Australian Institute of Health
and Welfare, found teenage girls among the worst abusers
of alcohol. Men aged 20-29 are the biggest binge drinkers,
with 43.8 per cent drinking at "risky or high-risk" levels
at least once a month."
That explains the high incidence of alcohol induced
brain damage we see in Usenet from posters like
Doug and SirVile John Howard
"However teenage girls are bucking traditional gender
trends, with girls aged 14-19 the only females binge
drinking at greater levels than their male peers.
In that impressionable age group, 28.3 per cent of
girls put themselves "at risk of harm" through alcohol
consumption, compared with 24.5 per cent of boys.
Girls aged 16-17 are also twice as likely to be
daily smokers than their male counterparts.
The results did not come as a surprise to friends
Gemma Lyon and Chloe Smith, both 19, who say they
drink at least seven drinks a night on Fridays,
Saturdays and Sundays.
"It's getting more acceptable to drink a lot.
We love to have a good time and we'd easily have
seven drinks a night," said Ms Smith.
However the partying comes at a cost, says Ms Lyon:
"I'd never knock back a drink, but have been trying
to cut back a bit lately. I was starting to feel it
in my body, was getting stomach aches, my skin was
bad and I was feeling dehydrated -- depressed, too."
The previous government ignored the problem, and
tried to pretend it was confined to aboriginal
communities, many of whom had already faced
up to the issue and admitted they had a problem.
Now it is time for the non-indigenous community to
do the same, and do something about it.
Research that shows that young people are price sensitive
and if that means increasing prices is a deterrent then
shouldn't we be doing that, and putting the money raised into
paying for the cost of drug abuse in the community.
Raising the tax on those mixer drinks AIMED at young teenage
drinkers will bring in an estimated $2 billion a year to the
government, to be spent on preventative health policies.
The excise itself was a health measure because raising
it would discourage young people from drinking.
"these products are targeted to young people," said the Health Minister,
"They're full of sugar, they're marketed so you can't
particularly taste the alcohol, and we've seen an explosion
in their consumption by young people and we want to turn
that around."
"Dr Nelson said the coalition supported the move,
as long as a portion of the revenue is spent on treatment
programs and public hospitals."
Even The Liberals think this is a good move, and although
they claim no ideas came out of the summit, they are happy
to say "Me Too' on this one!
"The proposed increase in the excise on alcopops is something
that will be supported by us"
Why didn't they do it during 10 years of inaction!?
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