Business Beagle
Spunky chick
Finance Industry
Songshi QuanGovernment’s Policy Binge
June 16th 2008 02:32
Well, unless you’ve been living under a rock yesterday and today, you would by now have heard that government policy makers will be releasing new national guidelines on alcohol consumption in Australia.
Included in these guidelines is the Government’s new definition for binge drinking which will allegedly state that any more then 2 standard drinks (3 glasses of wine or 4 middies of beer) in a session is binge drinking and as such will no doubt be the subject of and focus of yet to be announced policies or even laws designed to curb this anti-social behaviour. I say “allegedly” because until the guidelines are released I want to give the government some due for perhaps realising their over-reaction and heavy-handed approach to policy making and tone it back a little. I’ll be sure to update this post once the guidelines are released.
But, in their current alleged form, here are the problems with it as I see things.
1. According to Merrian-Webster Really Long Link the word “binge” is defined as a) a drunken revel, b) an unrestrained and often excessive indulgence, c) an act of excessive or compulsive consumption. Now, unless the Australian Government is in a position to change the definition of an English word at a whim, then its usage when applied to a person who has anything more then 2 standard drinks is clearly in error.
2. The unspecified time frame applied to “a session”. If we consult with the esteemed Wikipedia Really Long Link then for a typical adult, binge drinking behaviour is a pattern that corresponds to the consumption of 5 or more (standard) drinks for a male and 4 or more (standard) drinks for a female in about 2 hours. Ok, now we have a time frame, and to any reasonable person, that particular time frame would seem fairly reasonable. 5 or more standard drinks in 2 hours is certainly heavy going for all but a certain friend of mine who coined the term “tweener” as being the pint of beer he has between shouts to allow everyone else to catch up.
3. Next problem I see is the lack of correlation with other laws of various States and Territories around Australia. Drink driving, where the blood alcohol limit is .05 is supposedly kept at bay by using the guideline of 2 standard drinks in the first hour and 1 every hour after that. I would like to point out here that I do not condone driving after the consumption of anywhere near that guideline, but I am just pointing out the inconsistencies of the policy making as compared with current laws. The cynic in this Business Beagle thinks that maybe this new policy is a sneaky prelude to a change in the various drink-driving laws as well, but I guess time will tell.
4. The research. Apparently these guidelines have been based on research by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), which have found that four drinks per person should become the absolute upper limit. Well, fantastic, thanks for that research, but, upper limit per…. Hour/day/week what? And, what about the other research, which has found that drinking red wine is actually good for you in lowering your chance of getting heart disease? Maybe those first two glasses of red wine are purely medicinal and then I can start my social drinking.
5. (Lastly for now), the embarrassment factor should a politician in the public eye decide to have a few beers or wines over dinner or at a diplomatic function only to have a clever reporter slam dunk them with front page headlines of “Minister for Stupidity caught disrespecting the national binge drinking epidemic by binging themselves!”
Let me just say that I DO NOT encourage excessive alcohol consumption. You might ask why I do not define my view of “excessive”? Because I believe that as mature and responsible adults, we should know our own individual limits and keep within them accordingly. Moderation in all things my friends, and don’t drink and drive!
Let me know your thoughts, your stories and your opinions and let’s give the Government a dose of realism for their policy makers to ponder while sipping their non-alcoholic long island ice teas. ☺
Grr...Woof!
Included in these guidelines is the Government’s new definition for binge drinking which will allegedly state that any more then 2 standard drinks (3 glasses of wine or 4 middies of beer) in a session is binge drinking and as such will no doubt be the subject of and focus of yet to be announced policies or even laws designed to curb this anti-social behaviour. I say “allegedly” because until the guidelines are released I want to give the government some due for perhaps realising their over-reaction and heavy-handed approach to policy making and tone it back a little. I’ll be sure to update this post once the guidelines are released.
But, in their current alleged form, here are the problems with it as I see things.
1. According to Merrian-Webster Really Long Link the word “binge” is defined as a) a drunken revel, b) an unrestrained and often excessive indulgence, c) an act of excessive or compulsive consumption. Now, unless the Australian Government is in a position to change the definition of an English word at a whim, then its usage when applied to a person who has anything more then 2 standard drinks is clearly in error.
2. The unspecified time frame applied to “a session”. If we consult with the esteemed Wikipedia Really Long Link then for a typical adult, binge drinking behaviour is a pattern that corresponds to the consumption of 5 or more (standard) drinks for a male and 4 or more (standard) drinks for a female in about 2 hours. Ok, now we have a time frame, and to any reasonable person, that particular time frame would seem fairly reasonable. 5 or more standard drinks in 2 hours is certainly heavy going for all but a certain friend of mine who coined the term “tweener” as being the pint of beer he has between shouts to allow everyone else to catch up.
3. Next problem I see is the lack of correlation with other laws of various States and Territories around Australia. Drink driving, where the blood alcohol limit is .05 is supposedly kept at bay by using the guideline of 2 standard drinks in the first hour and 1 every hour after that. I would like to point out here that I do not condone driving after the consumption of anywhere near that guideline, but I am just pointing out the inconsistencies of the policy making as compared with current laws. The cynic in this Business Beagle thinks that maybe this new policy is a sneaky prelude to a change in the various drink-driving laws as well, but I guess time will tell.
4. The research. Apparently these guidelines have been based on research by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), which have found that four drinks per person should become the absolute upper limit. Well, fantastic, thanks for that research, but, upper limit per…. Hour/day/week what? And, what about the other research, which has found that drinking red wine is actually good for you in lowering your chance of getting heart disease? Maybe those first two glasses of red wine are purely medicinal and then I can start my social drinking.
5. (Lastly for now), the embarrassment factor should a politician in the public eye decide to have a few beers or wines over dinner or at a diplomatic function only to have a clever reporter slam dunk them with front page headlines of “Minister for Stupidity caught disrespecting the national binge drinking epidemic by binging themselves!”
Let me just say that I DO NOT encourage excessive alcohol consumption. You might ask why I do not define my view of “excessive”? Because I believe that as mature and responsible adults, we should know our own individual limits and keep within them accordingly. Moderation in all things my friends, and don’t drink and drive!
Let me know your thoughts, your stories and your opinions and let’s give the Government a dose of realism for their policy makers to ponder while sipping their non-alcoholic long island ice teas. ☺
Grr...Woof!
| 66 |
| Vote |
Subscribe to this blog
