“In data collected by Police Members the statistics in many areas are that 75-100% of all police work is alcohol related.”  Assistant Police Commissioner Peter Martin QLD Police.
Thinking Drinking Conference August 2009 Brisbane

I had a police friend of mine say to me recently... “If alcohol didn’t exist, I’d be out of a job!”

Wow, big statements!  Peter Martin in his address to the conference also was very, very concerned about what he has seen in only the last 15 years... He also has noticed disturbing trends in
Ways of drinking - Type of drinks - Intensity growth - Greater regularity - Women now drink like young men used to.

So is this all new? Well, yes in our current history it is, but our nation was in a very similar mess ‘back in the day’.

The following is an excerpt from a speech given by the Governor General...“I believe in my heart that drunkenness is a great curse of the colonies; in my position as Governor of this and the colony of van Diemen’s Land, I can bear positive testimony that out of every hundred persons who came before the Courts and were convicted of crime, ninety-nine could trace their crime to drunkenness.”  Sir William Dennison Governor of July 14th 1858   (Dillon, Gar (pp 64) “The Delusion of the Australian Culture” 1985)

Now you’d be forgiven for any sense de ja vu, as 150 years on, you have a chief government official saying pretty much saying the same thing that the governing officials were disturbed by during our nations formative years.  Between then and until about 50 years ago things got a lot better, due for the most part to progressive and self-less social responsibility efforts of Temperance Union Movement and its many constituents. These groups upheld and promoted a set of sound and effective values that were predicated upon the proactive and others focused Christological worldview that was comprehensive, cohesive, coherent and pragmatic – a positive and holistic cultural map of care, compassion and justice based on a gracious meta-narrative which our society only benefited from.

In the meantime, we lost our way the following are just a couple of  the concerning emergences...

• “Alcohol abuse is the biggest social issue facing Victoria.” Premier John Brumby.
• The social cost of Alcohol to the Aussie economy is over $15 Billion pa. Includes just under $2B on health, $3.5B on lost productivity, $1.6B on Crime and a staggering $2.2B on Road Accidents. (Study National Drug Strategy 2004-5)(This has double from estimates only 10 years ago)
• Almost half of all Australia's murders are alcohol-related,
• Alcohol-related crime in just one State has increased by 30 per cent, and public disorder offences by 65 per cent in the past few years alone.
• Alcohol abuse in just one State is now responsible for 100,000 crimes annually. According to Deputy Commissioner Peter Martin 62% of Police call outs and 75% of community issues they respond to are alcohol related according to Deputy Commissioner Peter Martin
• A study of community football clubs in 2000 carried out by the Centre for Youth Drug Studies showed that: 13% of 18-20 year olds drank 13 or more standard drinks each time they visited the club; 83% left the club as the driver of a vehicle; and 70% of males (30% of females) believe drinking is an important tradition at their club. (Taken from “National Binge Drinking Strategy)
• “The facts are that patterns of alcohol use are acquired in adolescence and two out of three children in the teen years drink illegally, many of them dangerously. Binge drinking is associated with violence and suicide and it’s estimated that 50 children per year die as a consequence of alcohol misuse.”  (Daryl Smeaton CEO of AER)

All this around a ‘legal’ drug, we haven’t even begun to peruse the data and impact of illicit substances. Some people want to let the ‘dope genie’ out of the bottle, but the already loosed alcohol genie has been a nightmare in trying to contain!

Yet even though this disturbing data represents real issues and concerns, they still remain in the realm of ‘symptom’. There’s something else going on here! What are the causes, what are reasons why a generation with the greatest potential in recent history, immersed in affluence and unprecedented technological advances want to, at best self-medicate and at worst, self destruct?

• “There has been a 10 fold increase in clinical depression since the 1950’s”   Dr. K, J. Smith
• “Many young people are ‘spiritual anorexics’ who lack a spiritual context for their lives…For many young people there is nothing to convince them to subordinate their own personal interest to believe in and live for.”  Psychologist - Dr. Carr-Gregg
• “Young people have a particular vulnerability to the failure of the modern Western Culture to do well what cultures are supposed to do: provide webs of meaning that shape the way people see the world, locate themselves within it and behave in it.”         “Well & Good: morality, meaning and happiness” by Richard Eckersley

One the recent, largest and most comprehensive survey of its kind, from Mission Australia - revealed the following...

“The increase in concern about drugs was most notable among the 11-14 age group who were twice as likely as 20-24 year olds to identify it as a major issue. According to Mission Australia’s spokesperson, Anne Hampshire, the results suggest that early adolescence is the key time when young people are most likely to be open to drug education campaigns.“The concerns 11-14 year olds have about drugs are varied. They worry about friends and family taking drugs, whether they’ll be able to resist peer pressure to experiment and most of all the damage drugs do. “At the same time, our survey results show that for young people in their late teens or early 20s there is a relative decline in their concern about drugs.

“If this tells us anything it’s that our drug education campaigns really need to be targeted at 11-14 year olds. That’s when the issue is most likely to be worrying young people, providing us with the best opportunity to equip them with the strategies they need to deal with the issue.”

Mission Australia’s 2008 National Survey of Young Australians http://missionpromotion.com/youthsurvey

The need for early intervention is critical! Our Education Resources and services, particularly NO Brainer and Zero Hero are essential in early childhood and adolescent development.
In essence there is a deep ceded and inescapable hunger – a need for all human beings to understand, who they are, where they fit, do they matter and ultimately why they are here. This evokes the need to seek out true identity, true intimacy and true spirituality. It is a need that goes far deeper than, event, activity or even cause, but to the very core of existence.  These anthropological realities demand an intelligent and thorough response, certainly a much more measured and considered response than the market driven, quick fixes and clichés, that are in essence ‘existential junk food’ that merely occupy us in a false hope for short time, only to have the gnawing pangs of much of our current cultural malady return.

‘Hard Wired to Connect: The New Scientific Case for Authoritative Communities’ was compiled by a group of no less than 33 distinguished children’s doctors, mental health researchers and scientists from such prominent institutions as Harvard, Yale and Harvard Medical school. The findings of this work will make even the ardent sceptic recalibrate. Among the 80 pages with dozens of poignant observations on values, morality and spirituality the following is worth noting….

“Human beings are biologically primed to seek moral and spiritual meaning, and nurturing relationships are a central foundation for positive moral and spiritual development. The presence or absence of a nurturing environment may deeply affect a child’s ability to develop a moral and spiritual perspective conducive to health, fulfilment, and a productive life...Nurturing relationships and a spiritual connection to the transcendent both significantly  improve physical and emotional health.”