Our Kids Are Drinking To Death
May 30th 2008 02:15
By Freya Parrotte
Have you ever done something just because ‘everyone else is doing it?’ For many people image is everything. Binge drinking is a common problem faced by teenagers daily. It can cut years off your life, but many teenagers simply don’t care, they only care about their reputation and popularity. Binge drinking is when you consume lots of alcohol in a short period of time, or drink continuously over a number of days or weeks. Every Friday and Saturday night teenagers are involved in excessive drinking, leading to car crashes, unwanted pregnancy’s and even rape. Statistics show that many people drink to look popular and fit in with the crowd. The average age that a person has their first drink in Australia is fourteen. Thankfully evidence shows that the message is getting through to some teenagers, “In 2001, the percentage of 14 to 19-year-olds bingeing weekly - five or more drinks on any one occasion - was 11.8 per cent. In 2004, the figure was 10.5 per cent. In 2007, this had fallen again to 9.5 per cent.”Binge drinking is one of the most popular drinking styles amongst teenagers. Cruisers (also known as alco-pops), beer, spirits and shots are the most common alcoholic drinks chosen by teenagers. With alcohol advertising so widely publicised it’s no wonder Warrnambool and the rest of our country has been hit with a major alcohol related crisis.
Binge drinking can be extremely dangerous and harmful to our health. It can cause immediate damage and expose us to unnecessary risks. There are both short and long term effects involved with binge drinking. Dr Rosanna Capolingua, (president of the Australian Medical Association) believes that it’s easy for kids to think that because they don’t drink very often, “one big night isn’t going to hurt them, but in fact they are putting themselves at risk of injury or death.” Injury and death are just two of the many short term effects of binge drinking. Other short term effects include vomiting, nausea, hangovers and memory loss. Teenagers don’t recognise the harm that binge drinking is doing to their body. It’s only when they get older that they start to notice the effects that binge drinking has had on their body. Brain damage, liver damage, heart disease and breast, liver and throat cancer are all long terms side effects of binge drinking. Some people never grow out of binge drinking and become dependent on alcohol for the rest of their life. Binge drinking can also lead to depression and problems with our mental and physical state. Relationships between family and friends can be ruined and make us susceptible to unsteady relationships.
Warrnambool is a relatively small town and everyone has a reputation to uphold. In Warrnambool we have a major problem with underage drinking. Lots of teenagers drink to look popular and fit in with the crowd. This could be because we don’t have appropriate alcohol awareness for teenagers. To help solve this problem we could get people who have overcome alcohol problems to talk to teenagers, in schools about the problems that are involved with binge drinking. We need to make teenagers aware that there are people out there willing to help them overcome their alcohol problems. For many teenagers and adults it is hard to know just how much alcohol is in a standard drink. It can range from 30ml of spirits to 285ml of beer. Sometimes the alcohol is served in large glasses that can hold up to three standard drinks. Pubs, bars and clubs should serve only one average drink per glass, so that people are not mislead into thinking they are only having one drink, when it could be two or three. Many underage teenagers get their alcohol from older siblings, friends and fake ID’s. If a person uses a fake ID they can be fined $500 on the spot. A person over the age of 18 that supplies or buys alcohol for an underage person can be fined $600 on the spot. Underage teenagers are not usually accustomed to the effects that alcohol has on their developing bodies. Only a few drinks are enough to make them vomit, become unsteady on their feet and eventually pass out. It is proven that drinking alcohol can damage your brain and cause birth defects in unborn children. Binge drinking is a major problem faced by 168,000 12-17 year olds in Australia. Of those 168,000 people, hundreds of them binge drink in Warrnambool.
Have you ever done something just because ‘everyone else is doing it?’ For many people image is everything. Binge drinking is a common problem faced by teenagers daily. It can cut years off your life, but many teenagers simply don’t care, they only care about their reputation and popularity. Binge drinking is when you consume lots of alcohol in a short period of time, or drink continuously over a number of days or weeks. Every Friday and Saturday night teenagers are involved in excessive drinking, leading to car crashes, unwanted pregnancy’s and even rape. Statistics show that many people drink to look popular and fit in with the crowd. The average age that a person has their first drink in Australia is fourteen. Thankfully evidence shows that the message is getting through to some teenagers, “In 2001, the percentage of 14 to 19-year-olds bingeing weekly - five or more drinks on any one occasion - was 11.8 per cent. In 2004, the figure was 10.5 per cent. In 2007, this had fallen again to 9.5 per cent.”Binge drinking is one of the most popular drinking styles amongst teenagers. Cruisers (also known as alco-pops), beer, spirits and shots are the most common alcoholic drinks chosen by teenagers. With alcohol advertising so widely publicised it’s no wonder Warrnambool and the rest of our country has been hit with a major alcohol related crisis.
Binge drinking can be extremely dangerous and harmful to our health. It can cause immediate damage and expose us to unnecessary risks. There are both short and long term effects involved with binge drinking. Dr Rosanna Capolingua, (president of the Australian Medical Association) believes that it’s easy for kids to think that because they don’t drink very often, “one big night isn’t going to hurt them, but in fact they are putting themselves at risk of injury or death.” Injury and death are just two of the many short term effects of binge drinking. Other short term effects include vomiting, nausea, hangovers and memory loss. Teenagers don’t recognise the harm that binge drinking is doing to their body. It’s only when they get older that they start to notice the effects that binge drinking has had on their body. Brain damage, liver damage, heart disease and breast, liver and throat cancer are all long terms side effects of binge drinking. Some people never grow out of binge drinking and become dependent on alcohol for the rest of their life. Binge drinking can also lead to depression and problems with our mental and physical state. Relationships between family and friends can be ruined and make us susceptible to unsteady relationships.
Warrnambool is a relatively small town and everyone has a reputation to uphold. In Warrnambool we have a major problem with underage drinking. Lots of teenagers drink to look popular and fit in with the crowd. This could be because we don’t have appropriate alcohol awareness for teenagers. To help solve this problem we could get people who have overcome alcohol problems to talk to teenagers, in schools about the problems that are involved with binge drinking. We need to make teenagers aware that there are people out there willing to help them overcome their alcohol problems. For many teenagers and adults it is hard to know just how much alcohol is in a standard drink. It can range from 30ml of spirits to 285ml of beer. Sometimes the alcohol is served in large glasses that can hold up to three standard drinks. Pubs, bars and clubs should serve only one average drink per glass, so that people are not mislead into thinking they are only having one drink, when it could be two or three. Many underage teenagers get their alcohol from older siblings, friends and fake ID’s. If a person uses a fake ID they can be fined $500 on the spot. A person over the age of 18 that supplies or buys alcohol for an underage person can be fined $600 on the spot. Underage teenagers are not usually accustomed to the effects that alcohol has on their developing bodies. Only a few drinks are enough to make them vomit, become unsteady on their feet and eventually pass out. It is proven that drinking alcohol can damage your brain and cause birth defects in unborn children. Binge drinking is a major problem faced by 168,000 12-17 year olds in Australia. Of those 168,000 people, hundreds of them binge drink in Warrnambool.
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