Herald on Sunday Editorial: Need a drink? No, not really, thanks

Bars are shamefully exploiting the debt university students carry these days, offering to put 5 per cent of a student's bar tab into the person's student loan. Photo / Thinkstock

If we could see the way we look when we are drunk we might never get drunk again. That is the subliminal message of the current television advertisement warning young drinkers not to fry food when they go home. It is a message public health promotions should use more. Nothing might be more sobering for those who drink to excess than to see how much fun they really are when they reduce themselves to a stumbling, slurring, slack-jawed oaf.

Public health campaigns may need to raise their game to counter drinking inducements by the liquor industry, such as the student loyalty card we report today. Bars are shamefully exploiting the debt university students carry these days, offering to put 5 per cent of a student's bar tab into the person's student loan.

In other words, the more they drink, the more of their loan they can pay off. It is hard to think of a more cynical manipulation of young people. The card company wants to make the same offer through other services, such as food outlets, petrol stations, stationery and book sellers. It says it is serving student needs. "What do students need? They need food, petrol, utilities. They need alcohol and entertainment."

They do not "need" alcohol. It is, or should be, a social pleasure, nothing more. It is a commentary on New Zealand's drinking culture that it could be seriously called a need. Today we also publish a personal testament by radio host Alex Behan to the power of human nature to ensure that if alcohol becomes a need, it does not have to remain one.

Not many of us admit an alcohol dependence. A glass of wine in the evening or two, or three? A few beers at a session? Half a dozen? A reduction in the drink-driving limit appears to have made us more wary of drinking too much in bars but it might also be producing more drinking at home.

Behan's article usefully includes the definition of dependence in the Alcoholism and Drug Addiction Act. "Persistent and excessive indulgence (that) is causing or likely to cause serious injury to health, or is a source of harm, suffering or serious annoyance to others, or renders the person incapable of properly managing himself or his affairs."

It is a fair test. Behan says he could easily argue he does not meet that definition, "but it would sound like the kind of denial you'd hear from someone who is alcohol dependent".

Perhaps the best test is to do what he is doing, try living without for a while. Many might be surprised how little they miss it and how much more enjoyable it is when taken with a clear head in moderation.