AUSTRALIANS have become familiar with the image of the ice addict as portrayed in marketing campaigns, but we continue to drink ourselves to death. EMILY BAKER talks to the experts about the impact of alcohol abuse.
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ALCOHOL is linked to road deaths, suicide, violence on the streets and in the home, mental illness and more than 60 medical conditions, most of which can lead to premature death.
Tasmanians in particular are partial to a drink too many, with data showing the number of the state’s adults at risk of alcohol-related harm was slightly more than the national average.
Tasmanian males fared especially badly: 35.9 per cent were at lifetime risk from alcohol consumption compared with 29.1 per cent nationally.
Alcohol and Drug Services clinical director Adrian Reynolds said the state’s alcohol abuse was of grave concern.
‘‘Alcohol is a significant problem in Tasmania and a significant contributor to health and social harm across our nation,’’ Dr Reynolds said.
‘‘We’re drinking at higher rates on average than our mainland counterparts.’’
And still we drink. Just one in 10 Australians nominated alcohol as a problem drug in the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2007 National Drug Strategy Household Survey, compared with 39.4 per cent who nominated heroin and 29.2 per cent who pointed to cannabis.
Dr Reynolds said there were a number of strategies under consideration in the battle against the bottle.
He said clinicians and researchers believed ‘‘serious discussions’’ should be had about the legal drinking age and that a volumetric tax was key in tackling binge drinking.
Dr Reynolds said further education and awareness was also required to ensure people were making informed choices about their alcohol consumption.
‘‘There is a very low rate of health literacy in the general community and a low rate of awareness of what is low risk and what is not,’’ he said. ‘‘People can’t make the healthy choice if they don’t know what the healthy choice is.’’
Dr Reynolds said the most important thing was that the issue was taken on by all levels of government.
‘‘We are potentially dumbing down our nation because young people are binge drinking,’’ he said.
‘‘We don’t know how much harm it is doing to adults and young people, who are the leaders of tomorrow. That is the starkest way I can put it.’’
