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  Anonymous - submitted 3/07/2009

  I think that one of the biggest problems is that people are not aware of how much they are drinking. Because of the weird and wonderful packaging of alcoholic drinks (especially alcopops), young people are often not aware of how much alcohol they are actually consuming. Standardising drink packaging would help make people more aware of how many drinks they have actually had. One beer (full strength), can actually equate to up to 1.5 standard drinks. Most people are quite surprised when they are told that it would take their body at least 1 & 1/2 hours for their body to process that one drink. Wine is often worse because wine glasses vary in size so much. This means that often a person drinking wine doesn't know how may standard drinks they have consumed until they have drunk the whole bottle (which is far to late). Spirits can be really lethal because young people have no idea how much they are pouring and when mixed with soft drink they have no way of knowing how much they have had or worse been given. I think that all spirits packaging should have a device that allows the person pouring to only pour 1 standard drink per pour. These measures would give young people the chance to at least try and do the right thing and become more aware of how much they are drinking at any one time.

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  Rosa - submitted 3/07/2009

  I live in a small town and a lot of youths spend their time partying and drinking. Peer pressure, boredom; who really knows what makes them do it? At school all I hear is news about the latest paries and who got drunk. What makes me more mad is the fact they think it is funny. Binge drinking has really harsh affects on your body and life, but people still continue to do it. No amount of advertising will change the way teens think about alcohol. We need to be more harsh so they will think twice about doing something so stupid.
  
  I think that small communities like where I live, should offer more alcohol and drug free events and activities for youths. Along the lines on Charlie’s idea, I think all legal aged people should be given an alcohol card (which must be handed over at every purchase) which has a limit of alcohol bought per month. When they have reached this limit, they will not be able to purchase any more. I think it should become mandatory for every big party to be registered with the police so they can do random check ups and catch underage drinkers. I think any person who is charged with alcohol related offences should serve time with a person whose life has been dramatically changed by alcohol. And lastly, I think each youth should have an alcohol rap sheet so that any alcohol related offences will be recorded and filed.

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  Mashi Mario - submitted 2/07/2009

  In my personal opinion, binge drinking is a terrible, horrible thing and there is just no point to it. What is the point of drinking just to get drunk? For some teenagers, this seems to be a favourite pastime, a stupid one at that. Binge drinking can seriously affect teen’s lives and in extreme cases, can get them addicted and hurt through alcohol related accidents. An earlier idea that I really liked was sent in by Ross, and said that we should Random Breath Test others, not just drivers, no matter what the age. This would enable the police to test anyone on the street who looks a little stoned and clear up the problem before people get hurt. The idea may seem a little harsh to some people, to punish teens for having fun, but this ‘fun’ is hurting people and will be more effective in clearing up the binge drinking problem. There just seems to be no other thing that teenagers will respond to. Nothing that anyone is doing is helping the problem because it is not harsh enough. This may seem cruel but will help in the long run.

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  charlie and brown - submitted 2/07/2009

  Underage Drinking
  Another prevention idea is if all people 18 or over are given an alcohol license card which when buying alcohol has to be presented to the shop keeper. This means that it will be much more difficult to buy alcohol as an under-aged person. Also by doing this it will provide a record of what drinks the adult has bought so that if a under-aged person is found with alcohol police are able to check the bar code on the bottle and trace it back to the store and then to the customer that bought it. The customer would then either be fined or have their card removed from them as punishment.

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  Samba&Piklelet.co. - submitted 2/07/2009

  Bindge drinking is a serious problem in the 21st century. Binge drinking causes many isssues to do with health, social relations, the community and family. it can impact hugely on your life and can cause you a unwanted pregnancy, cirousious of the liver and possibly even disrespect amoung your family and peers.
  
  To prevent bindge drinking the govournment should give more education to parents as well as children. Parents should NOT supply their children with alchhol at any time. It is important that they do this as the furutre of our country relies on them.

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  Amy Laura - submitted 2/07/2009

  I think that instead of just focusing on kids binge drinking, we also need to inform parents. So many parents either don't know, or worse, don't care. The government needs to inform parents to the dangers and harm that binge drinking does to their kids.
  
  The government is trying to stop kids, through the use of graphic advertisement, which only scares innocent children. Most teens look at the ad's and think 'that won't happen to me'. Instead, the government need to inform teens about the dangers of binge drinking.

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  Juliah - submitted 2/07/2009

  My idea is that we should alert and educate children at an early time of their lives (from 3 to 13 years of age). This could then change the whole attitude surrounding binge drinking, changing it from something exciting to something being seen as unhealthy and wrong. If this action of raising awarness is made, then the toll of binge drinkers is likely to decrease. But this won't help the binge drinking problem straight away as it will take time for it will be done for the future generations to come.

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  charlie and brown - submitted 2/07/2009

  Underage Drinking
  By promoting underage drinking in adverts on television it’s able to show and help put off underage drinking and binge drinkers
  Because most alcohol adverts only focus on drink driving when it’s not the most common issue. The most common issue is binge drinking and under-aged drinking. To help raise awareness on these issues, there should be more adverts showing the consequences.
  For example the smoking adverts target mainly younger audiences as they show teenagers what they can miss out on if they smoke, (there is an that shows a young boy at football training, sitting on the side bench watching as he can’t play because he is unfit and unhealthy due to his smoking habits.)
  As a younger audience, we think that these ads are more effective to us, as we are able to understand the consequences before we are exposed to them. People who are already smoking would have already decided and set the minds to it so it’s harder to persuade them out of it.
  So we think that if they put the ads against binge drinking out to young people, teenager and children will be aware of the consequences before they get a chance to experience it.

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  sonjah! - submitted 2/07/2009

  I am a senior school student who is very concerned about binge drinking and that binge drinking could harm someone by accidents and mistakes. I am also concerned about the fact that the parents are unaware of what their children are doing. Parents also do not care or worry about the actions of what their children are doing. I see parents and older siblings that are over the age of 18, who actually supply the drinks for the underage teenagers. Children at the age of 10 and 11 are already drunk from alcohol because it would make them feel happy and they don't have any purpose to get drunk. They just do it. Parents have too much trust in their kids and let them do what they want. For example, teenagers don't come home at nightime and the parents think that they are staying at a friend's house, but they are actually drunk at a park or a party. Teenagers also wag school because after their drinking they cannot wake-up early in the morning to go to school and so they can not think properly.

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  Em - submitted 2/07/2009

  The Alco-pop tax
  This is not working, instead of putting teenagers off Alco-pop because it is too expensive they mix their own drinks. This is illegal and it could lead to serious harm such as alcohol poisoning or binge drinking.
  Teenagers drink because they want to have a good time. If they can’t buy their drinks at a club or pub because it’s too expensive they drink at home mixing cheap alcohol with other substances and getting drunk before they go out into town. This creates a un-safe environment for the teenagers and for the people who are out at night.

Other topics on now

• Consultation on the Indigenous Education Action Plan