Doctors are taking a stand against the Government's hands-off approach to tackling alcohol-related harm, saying it's time to look at raising the drinking age back to 20 and bumping up prices.
"We consider it vital to ensure that policies to reduce alcohol-related harm are based on the best available evidence, not on ideology or on the basis of lobbying by vested commercial interests," the New Zealand Medical Association (NZMA) said in a briefing published yesterday. In addition to upping prices and the drinking age, doctors want to end liquor advertising and sponsorship.
The recommendations aren't new – in fact, they're the same as what the Medical Association recommended before the 2012 changes to New Zealand's alcohol laws.
Wellington Hospital's Dr Paul Quigley says the NZMA has decided to take a stand.
"Our governing body from a medical point of view has said, 'Right, we're going to make a statement that is clear that this is what New Zealand doctors believe.' Because our voices aren't really being heard," Dr Quigley said on TV3's Paul Henry programme this morning.
"Instead of having a few individuals talk out and making it sound like it comes from a bunch of tub-thumping individuals, this is actually a statement on behalf of the medical community of New Zealand."
Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne says there are no changes planned, despite Dr Quigley's claim the 2012 tweaks haven't resulted in any improvements.
"I believe the 2012 changes are effective and need more time to bed down fully before any further changes are considered," Mr Dunne said yesterday.
Dr Quigley says giving local communities more power over alcohol retailing was a good move, but isn't particularly efficient.
"Each individual district is having to reinvent the wheel and create these health policies, and then we go through the appeal processes and battle with the alcohol industry. But again, all done at a very individual level."
On the front line
Forty percent of patients treated for intoxication at Wellington Hospital are aged 20 or under, and Dr Quigley says it's a myth that most of them will grow out of binge-drinking.
"The whole concept that's out there is 'I'll grow out of it', and it's quite frankly just rubbish. There's good evidence now that if you develop a binge-drinking approach to alcohol when you're 18, then you're going to carry this on into your subsequent decades."
Raising prices has been shown to be the quickest way to reduce harm – particularly for younger drinkers – but Dr Quigley says it's no magic bullet.
"The most vulnerable part of our community, actually believe it or not does need some guidance at a higher level," he says.
"Higher-educated people… they actually go 'yes, I know the harms of alcohol'. But we've actually got a group out there that… don't get that level of education, and they need to be guided.
"I think one of our problems we've also got as well is we've pussyfooted around a little bit and we expect them to make their own decisions. But there is a time sometimes for autonomy, and say that as a society we actually think this is a problem, and this is one of the ways we can fix it."
3 News
source: newshub archive
