Drinks tax a waste of time, say teens

By REBECCA WALSH

Teenagers say a new tax on spirits to cut binge-drinking is pointless and young people will find a way to pay for alcohol regardless of cost.

Early yesterday, sitting under extraordinary urgency, Parliament rushed through legislation to raise the price of light spirits containing between 14 and 23 per cent alcohol by volume.

The Government claims the new tax will raise $18 million and reduce alcohol consumption by young people.

Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton said teenagers based their buying on "the amount of bang they can get for their buck".

The Alcohol Advisory Council and alcohol researchers support the move, but yesterday Selwyn College students described it as "money-making" and unlikely to work.

"People will always find the money if they want it," said 17-year-old Mels Jimmink.

"If binge-drinking is all they want to do they will save up.

"Changing behaviour in people is the only way to stop it, not price."

The teenagers said popular drinks were ready-mixes such as KGB and Vodka Cruisers, beer and a bit of champagne or wine - all of which were unaffected by the price rise.

Ella Burton, 17, said it was hypocritical that the Government had lowered the drinking age but put the price of alcohol up.

She questioned why they had not raised the price on other beverages, and said teenagers would either buy more lower-alcohol drinks or spend the extra on stronger spirits.

Marcel Bellve, 17, believed people would get used to the new prices just as they had when cigarette prices went up.

"There are two kinds of drugs: the illegal ones and the kind they can make money off. This is about making money. It probably won't have any huge effect."

Keke Brown, 14, agreed and said some young people had been brought up "to not care what they pay for anything".

Friends often pooled their money to buy what they wanted.

But Advisory Council chief executive Dr Mike MacAvoy said the price rise would steer people towards lower-strength products.

The argument over "alco-pop" drinks missed the point, he said.

One bottle of light spirits cost $10 and contained 23 standard drinks, compared with one alco-pop drink at 5 per cent alcohol and about 1.5 standard drinks.

"If your goal is intoxication, which it is for a lot of young people, which would you choose?"

Figures showed the availability of spirit-based beverages (those under 24 per cent alcohol) increased 680 per cent between March 1997 and March 2000. By comparison, table wine rose 15 per cent, fortified wine fell 43 per cent, spirits rose 9 per cent and beer decreased 6 per cent.

Professor Sally Caswell, director of the Centre for Social and Health Outcomes at Massey University, said that although no one measure would stop teenage binge-drinking, it was a step in the right direction - international research indicated price had a major impact.

"It doesn't just affect the young kids already drinking, it affects the recruitment of the new ones to the drinking situation."

Professor Caswell said research she had done in 1995 and again in 2000 showed a marked increase in alcohol consumption among 16- and 17-year-old males.

In 1995, one in five drank eight or more drinks in a session, compared with one in three in 2000.

Professor Caswell believed people had lost sight of the fact that alcohol was a drug, and attitudes were possibly "swinging around to a change back" to disincentives for young people to drink.

She agreed it would be "useful to address" drinks such as alco-pops that were popular with young people. She recommended more funding for enforcing laws relating to the supply of alcohol but did not support more school-based education.