Calls to alcohol helpline jump 11pc

A new call for alcohol reform echoes the recent Law Commission report. Photo / Martin Sykes

The number of people seeking help for their drinking has jumped in the past year, figures from a national helpline show.

News of the increase comes hot on the heels of a Law Commission report suggesting major reform of the country's alcohol laws.

The report, Alcohol in Our Lives, proposes increased taxes on alcohol, greater restrictions around licensing, shorter opening hours for pubs and a reduced alcohol limit for motorists in order to combat the country's damaging binge-drinking culture.

The Alcohol Drug Association of New Zealand says a substantial increase in calls to its Alcohol Drug Helpline reinforce the need for the changes suggested in the commission's report. The helpline received 17,700 calls in the year ended June 30, an increase of 11 per cent over the previous year. Alcohol was recorded as the primary concern in 13,100 of the 17,700 calls, and two-thirds of people were calling about their own drinking.

Alcohol-related calls had increased by 10 per cent over the past two years, accounting for the steady growth in the number of helpline calls, said association chief executive Cate Kearney.

"Alcohol is the biggest drug problem in New Zealand. It is very positive that people are seeking help, but we can't always be the ambulance at the bottom of the hill," she said. "It is time to change the way alcohol is supplied and marketed in New Zealand."

Ms Kearney said alcohol-related calls ranged from people simply seeking basic advice, to those who desperately needed help and referral to an agency in their area. Occasionally it was a crisis call, where the caller was "in a really scary place and dangerous things are happening around them", and the call-taker needed to contact emergency services.

In contrast to the alcohol-related call volume, Ms Kearney said there had been no substantial increase in calls about cannabis and methamphetamine, or P, over the past two years. There were 1256 calls about methamphetamine in the year ended June 30, up from 1200 the year before, but not as high as two years ago when there were 1700.

"We know that there are increasing reports of methamphetamine problems, especially in the North Island, but our call analysis does not reflect this trend," she said.

Calls about party drugs like BZP continued to decline.