Queenstown binge-drinking 'leader'

BY SUE FEA IN QUEENSTOWN

Queenstown streets get "pretty ugly" from 2am and the resort is now one of the leaders of the heavy- drinking culture in New Zealand, according to National Addiction Centre director Dr Doug Sellman.

He told The Southland Times that late-night alcohol problems seemed to get worse in Queenstown every year.

"I see women comatose every year I come down. It seems to get worse.

"They're lying all over the place with half their clothes off and they do seem to be getting younger," he said.

"People are slumped over tables; I often see people just sitting on the pavement with their head in their hands."

Queenstown had more of a problem than anywhere else in New Zealand because it was a tourist town and so many bars had been set up, Dr Sellman said.

Queenstown now has 93 liquor licences, 41 of them nightclubs, pubs and bars, in its small CBD. The entire Queenstown Lakes district now has 332 licensed premises, 242 of them on licences, 76 off-licences and 14 club licences.

The town needed to move to "more rigid enforcement" to handle the alcohol-fuelled aggression that was experienced on the streets from about 2am, Dr Sellman said.

Queenstown has been hit by a spate of alcohol-related assaults, accidents and incidents.

Up to 10 police officers patrol Queenstown streets at night, one of the heaviest-patrolled areas in the country, police say, but Dr Sellman said for the per-capita number of liquor licences in such a small town – one for every 76 residents – 10 police on the beat might not be enough.

Queenstown Mayor Clive Geddes said the council had worked with local agencies and police for some time to minimise the fallout from having so many bars and pubs in such a small area.

A liquor liaison group had been set up, the night-time community guides put back in the streets and the resort's former 24-hour liquor licensing policy was cut back to 4am closing last year.

But senior sergeant John Fookes, of Queenstown, said police had submitted to the Liquor Licensing Authority that that closing time should be further reduced to 2am.

By far the worst alcohol-related crime and violence occurred in Queenstown from 2am.

Putting more police on the streets was not the solution, but was "very much the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff", Mr Fookes said.

"The issue is the availability of alcohol and management of licensed premises and the way people consume alcohol.

"The ones we're dealing with tend to have had their last drink at a licensed premises," he said.

LET'S DRINK TO DEATH:
* 700,000 New Zealanders classed as heavy drinkers – 150,000 of them have alcohol dependence
* Low-risk drinking is defined in Australia as no more than 14 standard drinks a week or four on one occasion. * People drinking at this level had only a 1-in-100 chance of dying from alcohol-related injury or disease.
* Heavy drinkers are classed as typically drinking more than 21 standard drinks a week or more than six on one occasion
* Alcohol is a group 1 carcinogen now linked to most common cancers – breast, prostate and bowel.
* 1000 alcohol-related deaths a year – half because of injury and half from chronic disease, of which half is cancer – represent 17,000 years of life lost because of alcohol.

- © Fairfax NZ News