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It's beer all the way for boys on a binge | The Australian
It's beer all the way for boys on a binge
Lauren Wilson | March 20, 2009
Article from: The Australian
A TYPICAL Wednesday night out on the town for engineering student Edward Grinter, 20, starts with a "few warm-up" beers at home. For Grinter and his mates, a "few" means eight or 10 stubbies each.
Wednesday night is big in Melbourne's university district. Grinter and mates Matt Flight, 21, Lachlan Dullard, 20, Peter Carnovale, 21 and Frank "Mad Dog" McCormack, 21, will then head to the pub for a few jugs of beer each.
Every jug contains roughly five pots (or middies) and over the course of the evening Grinter says they'll each consume up to three jugs of their favourite lager.
If the night is a particularly "big one" they'll have a shot or two before stumbling home.
These young engineering students are part of a demographic most at risk of dangerous binge-drinking.
The latest report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found men are responsible for more than 70 per cent of alcohol-related hospital admissions and are twice as likely to die from alcohol-related illnesses.
But the Rudd Government's alcopops tax was never going to affect the drinking patterns of this particular group of young men, who would prefer to guzzle a beer over an alcopop any night.
The National Health and Medical Research Council refused to use the term "binge-drinking" in its most recent guidelines, but recommends that no more than two standard drinks are consumed on any one occasion.
Grinter doesn't consider himself a binge drinker, although Dullard is more than happy to accept the tag.
"Technically, we're way over the binge-drinking limit, but seriously, every university student is a binge drinker. Everyone here tonight is a binge drinker," he said.
McCormack finds the guidelines a joke. "I can drink 20 to 22 beers before I pass out," he says.
And Carnovale, who said he gets asked to leave the local pub most Wednesday nights because of drunken behaviour, says there is no easy solution to the problem.
"The alcopops tax hasn't stopped binge drinking. People buy straight bottles and mix it themselves. There is no way to stop it," he says, adding, "if you have no money at all you'd still be able to go and get 'goon'."
Cask wine, or "goon" as many students call it, has become a popular alternative to alcopops since the tax hike came into effect last April and raised the price of mixed-spirit drinks by about $1.30 a bottle.
Sam Scott, 20, a business marketing student at Melbourne's RMIT, says beer is his drink, but when money is tight he and his mates share a wine cask. "Binge drinking is a big problem, 90 per cent of university students do it, but if they really wanted to stop it they would have taxed beer and goon bags. We drink the crisp dry white, it's a good buy," he says.
Wow thanks for telling us something we didnt already know you out of touch retards.
Is this just sensationalist journalism or did people really not realise this was the case?
i haven't touched a premixed drink for like a year. not because they are expensive, but because they are shit.
It's beer all the way for boys on a binge
Lauren Wilson | March 20, 2009
Article from: The Australian
A TYPICAL Wednesday night out on the town for engineering student Edward Grinter, 20, starts with a "few warm-up" beers at home. For Grinter and his mates, a "few" means eight or 10 stubbies each.
Wednesday night is big in Melbourne's university district. Grinter and mates Matt Flight, 21, Lachlan Dullard, 20, Peter Carnovale, 21 and Frank "Mad Dog" McCormack, 21, will then head to the pub for a few jugs of beer each.
Every jug contains roughly five pots (or middies) and over the course of the evening Grinter says they'll each consume up to three jugs of their favourite lager.
If the night is a particularly "big one" they'll have a shot or two before stumbling home.
These young engineering students are part of a demographic most at risk of dangerous binge-drinking.
The latest report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found men are responsible for more than 70 per cent of alcohol-related hospital admissions and are twice as likely to die from alcohol-related illnesses.
But the Rudd Government's alcopops tax was never going to affect the drinking patterns of this particular group of young men, who would prefer to guzzle a beer over an alcopop any night.
The National Health and Medical Research Council refused to use the term "binge-drinking" in its most recent guidelines, but recommends that no more than two standard drinks are consumed on any one occasion.
Grinter doesn't consider himself a binge drinker, although Dullard is more than happy to accept the tag.
"Technically, we're way over the binge-drinking limit, but seriously, every university student is a binge drinker. Everyone here tonight is a binge drinker," he said.
McCormack finds the guidelines a joke. "I can drink 20 to 22 beers before I pass out," he says.
And Carnovale, who said he gets asked to leave the local pub most Wednesday nights because of drunken behaviour, says there is no easy solution to the problem.
"The alcopops tax hasn't stopped binge drinking. People buy straight bottles and mix it themselves. There is no way to stop it," he says, adding, "if you have no money at all you'd still be able to go and get 'goon'."
Cask wine, or "goon" as many students call it, has become a popular alternative to alcopops since the tax hike came into effect last April and raised the price of mixed-spirit drinks by about $1.30 a bottle.
Sam Scott, 20, a business marketing student at Melbourne's RMIT, says beer is his drink, but when money is tight he and his mates share a wine cask. "Binge drinking is a big problem, 90 per cent of university students do it, but if they really wanted to stop it they would have taxed beer and goon bags. We drink the crisp dry white, it's a good buy," he says.
Wow thanks for telling us something we didnt already know you out of touch retards.
Is this just sensationalist journalism or did people really not realise this was the case?
i haven't touched a premixed drink for like a year. not because they are expensive, but because they are shit.
