Not too late for change

Black Cap Doug Bracewell has pleaded guilty to drink-driving at more than three times the legal limit.

Hawke's Bay Today's Insight feature in this weekend's edition gave an in-depth observation of how alcohol has affected some of the region's most prominent sportsmen.

Black Cap Doug Bracewell became the latest in a line of the Bay's leading sports personalities to make headlines after pleading guilty to drink-driving at more than three times the legal limit.

Drinking, and drinking to excess, is heavily ingrained in our culture and even more so in Hawke's Bay.

Hazardous drinking, which is defined as an established drinking pattern that carries a risk of harming physical or mental health, or having harmful social effects to the drinker or others, is 60 per cent higher in our region than nationally.

And Hawke's Bay District Health Board public health physician Rachel Eyre confirmed hazardous drinking rates are increasing.

The rate went up by 10 per cent in a 2006-2007 health survey compared with a 2001 - 2002 survey.

It's an alarming trend.

I'm sure, like me, many of you have family members or friends who have an unhealthy relationship with alcohol.

Alcoholics don't just harm themselves both physically and mentally, but also inflict lasting damage on those closest to them.

Coming from a family that has suffered at the hands of alcohol addiction, it's a feeling of helplessness and anxiety that never truly leaves you.

And what makes alcohol addiction even crueller is it's accessibility, which, in turn, makes it that much more difficult to beat.

It's at the addicts fingertips, literally.

It's all around us, day and night alcohol is available, from booze companies stamping their logos on sports jerseys to our need for a hard-earned beer at the end of a busy week.

But it's not too late for change, if not for us, then for the next generation.

"It's a great advantage not to drink among hard drinking people."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby