Binge Drinking Is Quickly Becoming an Epidemic in Australia There is growing global concern about the increase in levels of binge drinking, which is now becoming one of the most common forms of drug abuse in Australia. Many people are now dependant on alcohol, and go out with the intentions of drinking large amounts of it to get drunk. These actions usually result in things such as violent behaviour, taking stupid risks like drink driving, and other alcohol related accidents which can leave many dead. This disgusting practice must be controlled, or stopped as soon as possible, before more of the people that are closest to us are lost forever.
Alcohol has become so widely used that many people don’t even think of it as a drug, and it has become an important part of Australia’s culture. It may be easy to introduce something new into our culture, but to remove it after so long would prove to be a very hard task. This is probably one of the reasons why alcohol hasn’t been banned from our country altogether. The major contributing factor to this however, would be the fact that the majority of Australians enjoy drinking alcohol, and it has become part of their way of life.
To completely ban the use of alcohol in Australia would cause absolute pandemonium within the country. While binge drinking effects people of all ages, research indicates that binge drinking is predominant with young people, particularly adolescents, with one in four young people having more than 10 drinks a day at least once a month. I think the government should take more responsibility, and put more effort into preventing this from happening, rather than just cleaning up afterwards.
Stricter rules should be put in place, concerning the matter of who is allowed into places like bars, and other places where alcohol is easily accessible for teenagers. The government doesn’t even seem interested enough to do something about this crisis, even though the results of binge drinking are damaging to the economy, with alcohol related illness, injury, and damages to the community, estimated to cost $7. 6 billion per year. It’s hard to believe that they choose to ignore this fact, because in the end, it is the money that they’re concerned about, instead of the health of their nation’s people, is it not?
Alcohol abuse and binge drinking are extremely damaging to both the physical and mental health of the individual and those around them, and a large amount of deaths in Australia are alcohol related. There are other effects that alcohol can have on people, which include permanent brain damage, alcohol poisoning, violence, sexual assault, road accidents like car crashes, and other accidents such as drowning. Binge drinking is an obvious problem in Australia, but no one is taking any proper action to solve it. However, there are many reasons why this may be.
Australia has a strong drinking culture, and it would be almost completely useless to try and change that. On the other hand, this couldn’t possibly be constructive for the health of our country’s people or its image could it? These arguments could go on forever, but they would just keep cancelling each other out, and nothing would ever get done to stop our nation from being consumed by the influences of alcohol. One thing is for certain, if we don’t act soon, many more people will die because of this terrible drug, and it will be too late to stop this epidemic from spreading to the next generation.
