Jason Ferris, The University of Queensland; Adam Winstock, King's College London; Larissa J. Maier, University of Zurich, dan Renee Zahnow, The University of Queensland
Responsible Service of Alcohol laws should be coupled with public discussion that encourages people to take responsible for their own drinking behaviour.
In one regard, lockout laws have succeeded in decreasing crime. But take a step back to see a city-wide perspective, and there are many other issues to consider.
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Policy changes such as the ‘lockout laws’ have had profound impacts on inner Sydney nightlife. Transport data help us see whether these have caused problems to spill over into neighbouring areas.
Sydney’s Kings Cross precinct has 3AM ‘last-drinks’ laws and 1:30AM lockouts for premises that serve alcohol.
AAP/April Fonti
As Queensland considers new laws to curb alcohol-fuelled violence in response to a one-punch death, several policy experiments that have occurred in recent years can provide valuable lessons.
Teenage drinking in Australia has declined dramatically over the past fifteen years.
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Ask your friends and colleagues about young Australians and alcohol and I bet they’ll say something about a generation out of control or a binge-drinking epidemic.
It’s simply easier to say others are flawed than admit you might be the one who is flawed.
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A majority of Australians agree we have a problem with alcohol. But almost all say that it’s not a problem of theirs – it’s a problem that exists somewhere outside of their world.
Early closing times reduce alcohol-fuelled violence but still face opposition from businesses.
Bruno Girin/Flickr
The Queensland government has said it will push ahead with its plan to introduce lockouts and 3am closing times for pubs and clubs. This is a good idea for patrons and businesses alike.
Gauging the pressure to make changes to the law.
Elliott Brown
There is a lot of evidence showing that changing people’s drinking hours and consumption patterns reduces violence and hospital admissions.
If governments choose to prioritise commercial interests, they place health scientists in the invidious position of helping inflict damage on public health.
AAP Image/Glenn Hunt
It’s undeniable that there’s an irreconcilable conflict of interest in the alcohol industry being involved in developing health policy. And by participating in meetings involving industry representatives…
Sticking to water before the front.
Hampshire and Solent Museums
Worries over binge drinking, women adopting masculine drinking patterns, and debates over legislation to restrict alcohol consumption: World War I has strange similarities to our own time. Since the 1830s…
The government recently attracted criticism after announcing a plan to ban the sale of alcohol at below cost price in England and Wales. The controversy was unsurprising. After all, in the past two years…
Daniel Christie is the latest young person to have lost his life to senseless, alcohol-related violence, adding to public pressure for nationwide action.
AAP
The start of 2014 has seen a tragic, but sadly predictable discussion around Australia about lives lost or hanging in the balance due to violence. All of the high-profile cases involved alcohol. These…
Roll up, roll up! Alcohol still going cheap.
Sang Tan/AP
The British Medical Journal’s investigation into the role played by the alcohol industry in public health policy focuses on the government’s decision to drop its commitment to introduce a minimum unit…
Few teen drinkers consider the harmful effects of alcohol on their developing brains.
Flickr/Lost Albatross
In far-flung tourist destinations across Australia and overseas, people are managing and mopping up schoolies week, where secondary school graduates engage in a ritual of excessive alcohol consumption…
Revolving door means you can advise government then advise industry.
Zeeweez
The appointment of senior civil servant David Frost as Chief Executive of the Scotch Whisky Association, one of the alcohol industry’s most aggressive lobby groups, is just the latest high profile case…
Young people are particularly vulnerable to the effects of heavy drinking.
Image from shutterstock.com
A group of Australian doctors and academics has called on the Commonwealth government today to raise the legal drinking age to 21, in order to reduce the harms associated with early heavy drinking. According…
Over the past year, 23% of drinkers report not being able to stop drinking once they have started.
Image from shutterstock.com
Australians are increasingly drinking alcohol to get drunk but just one in five believe they drink too much. The Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education’s annual alcohol poll, released today, found…
A smart card system could help consumers keep track of their alcohol consumption – and help them drink less.
Flickr/Mr Kael
We all know that too much booze is bad for our health. Alcohol has been linked to 60 different medical conditions and almost 3,500 deaths a year in Australia, mostly from long-term alcohol abuse, accidents…
Alcohol control is not an area for win-win policies and lately, the community has been losing heavily.
Carsten Nielsen
Many Australians believe that there isn’t much we can do about our dangerous levels of alcohol consumption. But the real difficulty is that we don’t know how to get effective prevention policies through…
Professor, Director of Research and Statistical Support Service and Program Leader for Substance Use and Mental Health, Centre for Health Services Research, The University of Queensland