Queensland's serious alcohol problem revealed

QUEENSLAND has a serious drinking problem, with its population at higher risk of alcohol-related harm than the rest of the country.

alcohol abuse

HELLO. My name is Queensland and I have a drinking problem.

Just take a look back at my past week.

Police pulled over soccer coach Frank Farina on his way to a Brisbane Roar training session last Saturday. It was 7am and Farina allegedly recorded a blood alcohol reading of .09.

He told the media he had drunk a bottle of chardonnay and a couple of glasses of red at home the night before.

Then on Monday, Nova's Ash Bradnam admitted he had also been caught drink-driving. The announcer was stopped on the way home from his breakfast shift.

At 10.20am – an hour and 20 minutes after he came off air – Bradnam allegedly recorded a blood-alcohol reading of 0.214 – more than four times the legal limit.

It was his 37th birthday.

But are these just the occasional excesses of a relatively young good-time state or a sign that Queensland, as a community, has sunk into a serious drinking problem?

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According to University of Queensland public health policy Professor Wayne Hall, it is time to admit that Queensland has a "chronic" alcohol problem.

Not that Queenslanders are in the same league as the Northern Territory's infamous drinkers, he says.

But figures show we are in a worse state than the rest of the country.

The latest National Drug Strategy Household Survey found 37.2 per cent of Queenslanders aged 14 and over were at risk or high risk of alcohol-related harm at least once a year, compared to 34.6 per cent nationally.

One in 10 Queenslanders was at risk or high risk of alcohol-related harm at least weekly, again slightly higher than the national average, the 2007 survey found.

"The main problem is high social tolerance of intoxication," Hall said. "We just don't seem to think there's anything to worry about with people getting drunk on a fairly regular basis."

It's an attitude that worries Superintendent Peter Savage, in charge of the Brisbane Central Police District covering the CBD and Fortitude Valley.

Last weekend, for example, his officers in the Valley confronted a melee in the Brunswick Street Mall involving at least half a dozen intoxicated people.

A few days earlier, Brisbane baker Terry Wilson was left critically injured when he was allegedly hit on the head while trying to get a taxi in the Valley about 1am.

The alleged attack was apparently sparked by an argument over soccer teams and the relative merits of Brisbane versus Sydney.

Two days before that, a man was found unconscious in the Valley after a fight. He later died in hospital.

For Savage, those who get drunk even before they arrive in the city or Valley are a particular concern.

"We've seen a change in culture with people tending to drink considerably before they come in to places like the city and the Valley," he said. "I think it's been a gradual trend with the extension of trading hours of licensed premises. It allows people to enjoy the pleasure of cheaper drinks at home, before they come in to enjoy the company of their friends in some of the clubs and hotels."

But that just increases the levels of intoxication his officers have to confront.

Addiction psychologist Dr Mark Daglish sees the same problem at Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital's accident and emergency department.

He has three nurses working there for up to 12 hours a day, every day of the week, under a trial early-intervention program to help identify patients with a hazardous drinking or drug problem and direct them towards appropriate treatment.

They are reaching up to 400 people a month – three-quarters of them with an alcohol problem – and could be reaching many more with more resources, he says.

"Anybody who has been in an accident and emergency department on a Friday or Saturday night will know that it is wall-to-wall with people drunk with trauma," Daglish said.

"The only sober people in there are the staff, usually."

According to Daglish it's not a new problem, but the demographic is changing.

"Young women are drinking more like the young men, so we are seeing more of them suffering the same problems that the men have been suffering for years."

That is supported by a survey of 3000 year 10 and year 12 students last year, which found a sharp rise in the number of young women consuming three or more drinks on a single occasion.

The poll, by La Trobe University's Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, found 60 per cent of year 12 girls admitted to binge drinking three or more times in the previous fortnight – more than double the rate four years earlier.

Drunkenness, the students told researchers, was commonly associated with unwanted sex.

Hall, meanwhile, links excessive youth drinking to the Schoolies phenomenon. "The extent to which year 12 kids plan for and aim to write themselves off at the end of year 12, it's pretty appalling," he said.

Australian Medical Association Queensland president Dr Mason Stevenson says the surge in teenage binge drinking has worrying implications for Australia, as that generation carries their bad drinking habits into adulthood.

"We are going to expect a substantially increased rate of alcoholism," he said.

Prompted by such concerns, one Queensland school – St Edmund's College in Ipswich – is proposing to randomly breath-test students arriving at the school dance.

Mason suggests an even more radical intervention. "There is a cogent argument for increasing the legal age of drinking in Australia from 18 to 21," he said. "You also as a result of that policy would save 100 Australian lives every year and an extra 1000 from severe maiming and permanent injury.

"On medical grounds, it's a no-brainer."

According to Mason, the argument that teenagers exposed to alcohol in moderation are less likely to abuse alcohol later in life is "a total fallacy".

"We do know anyone who drinks before the age of 21 is twice as likely to become an alcoholic as those who do not. It seems the younger we get a taste for alcohol, the more likely we are to drink excessively."

According to Mason, Australia must take urgent steps before what is already "a national disgrace and a national crisis" gets even worse, presenting Australia with "a tsunami of medical challenges".

While he accepts there is unlikely to be the political will to lift the legal drinking age, he says Australia should at least enforce a strict "zero tolerance" approach to drinking by under-18s.

Like Hall and Daglish, Mason's 12-step program to tackle Australia's alcoholism would also include reining in the trading hours of licensed premises and jacking up the price of alcohol.

According to Daglish, a price hike would have a dramatic impact on binge-drinkers in particular.

But those ideas too are likely to face political barriers.

In the meantime, Queensland may be left to rely on the AA philosophy and try to live without drinking "one day at a time".

Getting help

For help with an alcohol problem, call:

Alcohol & Drug Information Service: 1800 177 833 (freecall, 24 hours)

Alcoholics Anonymous helpline: 3255 9162

Drug Arm: 1300 656 800

Lifeline: 131 114