Alcopop plan has sour taste

So it has come to this: We are asking the children to monitor the lolly jar.

Perhaps that could be seen to be a flippant response to the Government's watered-down stance on what to do with ready-mix beverages, or alcopops, as they are known. But it is apt.

The softened stand to allow the industry to set its own rules for RTDs was ripe for criticism, and deservedly so, after the Government ignored advice from the Law Commission to tighten regulations on a product line many see as at the root of our binge drinking and anti-social issues.

This about-face marks a significant retreat from the initial proposals outlined in the Alcohol Reform Bill.

In a 2010 report, the commission outlined what most of us had already worked out: RTDs are commonly used by binge drinkers, and are the drink of choice for 14 to 24-year-olds, especially women.

It was originally proposed the law restrict RTDs to 5 per cent alcohol and limit them to containers holding no more than 1.5 standard drinks. At the select committee stage, the cap on alcohol strength was raised to 6 per cent, and only restaurants and bars could sell higher-strength RTDs.

Now the cap has been scrapped and the industry will be left to create its own code. It smacks of a copout forced by intensive lobbying from the alcohol industry and not the "inspired" move Justice Minister Judith Collins claimed it to be.

And it doesn't wash that targeting RTDs might not be feasible because the alcohol industry would create alternatives, and young people could switch to straight spirits, as suggested by the commission. If that logic were to be applied evenly, Peter Dunne would not have outlawed a range of party pills. And, straight spirits have been an option since long before this low-cost and socially damaging lolly water was foisted on to society.

We have an acknowledged and significant problem with binge drinking and antisocial behaviour that is predominant in our youth. Watering down the regulations is not the answer. Rather, that approach should be taken to the product, alongside many of the other sensible recommendations the Government has ignored.

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