The Dangers Of Alcohol – Archive Article
December 10, 2008
BROADCAST ON FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 3 1999 ON RADIO 2GB’S “BRIANWILSHIRE PROGRAMME” AT 9 PM, AND ON SEPTEMBER 5 1999 ON “SUNDAYNIGHT LIVE” AT 10.30 PM.
RADIO 2GB NEWS COMMENTARY
They say that the only two certainties in life are death and taxes. Well, one way of reducing the risk of premature death and to lessen your tax burden is to avoid drinking alcohol. Alcohol damages your life – and your wallet.
Alcohol Awareness Week is getting underway. This is a good opportunity to alert people to the dangers of alcohol – even inso-called small quantities – and the value of living an alcohol-freelife.
The total cost of drug abuse in Australia is about $4.5billion per year, of which $3.5 billion is due to alcohol.
Australia is ranked 17th in the world for per capita consumption of alcohol. About 7,000 Australians die each year from alcohol-related illnesses – whereas the figure for heroin is about 500.
It is interesting that so much attention is paid to the dangers of drugs like heroin, when the real killer is alcohol.This is not, of course, to argue that we should be soft on those drugs – but that we should be harder on alcohol.
I suppose that heroin and the other drugs get the attention in the mass media partly because they tend to be used by younger people. Parents and journalists find it easier to point the finger at young people – rather than admit that they too have a drug problem (namely, alcohol).
Kids aren’t stupid. They can see the hypocrisy of parents complaining about their use of drugs when they are so busy consuming alcohol themselves. Parents should set an example to their children- indeed all adults should do so.
Indeed, a tendency towards alcoholism may be genetic. Itis important that people do not get started on it in the firstplace.
Incidentally, it has been claimed that drinking a little red wine each day is healthy because it lowers the cholesterol level. In fact, the key ingredient is resveratrol and this is found in much larger quantities in dark grape juice. Therefore dark grape juice is a healthier and cheaper alternative to the alleged benefits of red wine.
Given the Mission’s views on alcohol, it therefore does not support the “harm minimization” policies of the Commonwealth and State Governments. They are not opposed to alcohol in an absolute way – they only want to restrict the consumption of alcohol.
If something is wrong, then it is absolutely wrong; it ought not to be just “minimized”. It should be opposed.
Moreover, 1 in 7 so-called “social drinkers”become alcoholics. Therefore, the “harm minimization”policy is short-sighted because it is not dealing with the basic problems
Finally, the Mission wants to rebut the Australian imageof the non-drinker as “weak”, “anti-social”or “mean”. It projects a positive image of how people can be “successful” without alcohol.