The drinking rates of young teenagers in Australia is going through the roof .Increasing the drinking age is just one tough measure that would help reduce random violence, according to a top health expert who says the time for "soft actions" is over.
In NSW alone, every day four young people aged 18 or under are so blind drunk that someone has to ring an ambulance. Some of them are as young as 12.
Professor Mike Daube says the US, which has a legal drinking age of 21, shows it can be done and it works, but adds that although it’s “unlikely to happen” here, we have to apply it, for increasing the drinking age was no “magic bullet” but would help.
Firstly, rising drinking age will help stop street violence. Easy access to copious amounts of alcohol at all times of the day and night was a big part of the problem. The kids are drinking younger, they’re drinking to get drunk, the more access (to alcohol) there is, the more violence there’s going to be. Youth violence takes many forms including bullying, gang violence, sexual aggression, and assaults occurring in streets, bars and nightclubs. The victims alike are young people, and the consequences of youth violence can be devastating. Alcohol use directly affects cognitive and physical function. Hazardous alcohol use can reduce self-control and the ability to process incoming information and assess risks, and can increase emotional lability, to make certain drinkers more likely to resort to violence. As the some of the youth is not able to control their intake of alcohol, most of them are not able to do things properly
