Monday, 28 February 2005

Turner: Booze binge culture needs addressing

The fact that $655 million a year - or eight percent of the health budget - goes on alcohol-related conditions shows New Zealand needs to do much more to change its booze culture, United Future deputy leader Judy Turner said today.

Speaking after attending an alcohol policy roundtable meeting in Wellington today, Mrs Turner said the problem needed to be tackled on a number of fronts - from enforcing existing law to better education programmes to picking up overseas strategies that have been proven to work in reducing heavy drinking.

"We need to revisit access to alcohol and the way it is promoted, and we need to take a new look at education programmes.

"The reality is that too much of what we're doing isn't working - and we can quantify that with 655 million reasons why we need to do better.

"And much more importantly, we need to be aware of the countless lives that are being ruined by alcohol - both for drinkers and those who share their lives," Mrs Turner said.

ENDS

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