eight have been admitted to hospital suffering from the effects of alcohol, figures reveal. Last year, 95 under-eights needed emergency medical treatment for alcohol abuse, bringing the total since 2001 to 624. They were all suffering from "alcohol-related conditions", including the toxic effects of excess alcohol, alcoholic liver disease or mental or behavioural disorders caused by their alcohol intake. Official statistics also reveal a steep rise in the number of school-age girls being taken to hospital with drink problems. In 2001, the numbers of boys and girls under the age of 18 being admitted to accident and emergency were level at around 3,000. But by last year, the number of girls taken to hospital had soared by almost 50 per cent to 4,538, compared with 3,686 boys.

The cultural and sociological factors that determine our patterns of drinking may date back thousands of years.4 As such, the Licensing Act 2005 was always unlikely to transform the culture of feast drinking to that of a Mediterranean society. Similarly, other options to reduce harm favoured by government and the alcohol industry—education and public information—don’t seem to change drinking behaviour or to reduce alcohol related harm.5 6 So, can we justify trying tougher measures to reduce alcohol related harm—particularly to health—and is there any evidence to show they would work?

New Zealand's binge-drinking culture is now so deeply ingrained that one in three young adults has an alcohol problem. What can be done to help change our binge-drinking culture? Email editorial@stuff.co.nz to send us your feedback Experts say a generation that has grown up with alco-pops, a lower drinking age and heavy marketing of hard liquor is now suffering the effects and urge health professionals to take action. The comments follow the release of a disturbing study from Otago University's Christchurch School of Medicine. A survey of more than 1000 25-year-olds found one in three admitted to an alcohol problem and one in 20 was alcohol-dependent or had an addiction where liquor ruled their lives and they needed it to function. Those with the most disturbing alcohol problems were the least likely to acknowledge they had a problem. "Because we have a deeply ingrained binge-drinking culture where risky drinking is accepted, tolerated and even glamorised, many people do not recognise they need help," he said. International research showed intervention, even as simple as a health professional asking pertinent questions, was enough to motivate an individual to change, Vaughan said.

While each European nation has its own drug laws and policies, they seem to share a pragmatic approach. They treat drug abuse not as a crime but as an illness. And they measure the effectiveness of their drug policy not in arrests but in harm reduction.

news article focussing on Nome Alaska but with mentions of Gallup and White Clay, Nebraska