Topic: Drinking Age and Campbell

Did anyone see Campbell on TV3 last night (Tuesday 07th June 2005)??

They had some politician on it that is saying the drinking age in NZ should be increased to 20 again. They then showed a "typical" weekend night in about 3 different places.

The first group of lads were about 18 and went from party to party trying to skull as much beer as possible, a group of girls who were pretty plastered and ready to hit the town and.......uhhh....I can't remember the third group.

In my view (and just to note, unless they raise the drinking age to 30 I'm fine whatever they do) what they showed was a selected view of "teenage" drinking. Not everyone is like that, and very few act like the groups TV3 showed. It really p!$$es me off as never mind where you go in the world they're always accusing teenagers of binge drinking and not being responsible, when it is a minority that fit that class. OK outburst over for now!!

Hi welsh yes i agree it only takes a few stupid buggers
but how did the news get such a vivid picture the guy
was actually spewing, it looked they taped themselves,
anyhow it does not matter what age, we all get plastered once
or maybe twice in our lives.

Hey BN53,
That was another point that I was thinking as they were going on and on about it. If they raise the age, then it is just sweeping it under the carpet and the problems to happen in a few years.

And yes I agree it did look like self taped footage, but TV3 made it out to sound like it happened every week, and I also noticed that they didn't interview the people at the party the kids were turned away from, looked quite sivilised (SP???).

And as you so rightly said we all get plastered once or twice in our lives, possibly even three times at a push......18th, 21st and 30th after that you try to look the other way and believe if you don't "recognise it" it doesn't happen

When I was a teenager binge drinking was something we did every weekend. We had nothing else to do. It didn't matter what the drinking age was. Either our parents or our older friends would buy the booze for us. We didn't go out on the town though because it was a small town and there was nowhere to go so we pretty much stayed within the confines of the party house/barn etc. We did however drink & drive and I lost a best friend when he decided to drive home after a party .... I certainly learnt my lesson after that.

Now ... what am I trying to say?

Ah yes, binge drinking does happen and I would say it probably happens a lot. There are also teens out there who do drink responsibly.

I don't think increasing the drinking age will change the binge drinkers in the rural areas however I would like to get 16 year olds out of night clubs and bars so I kind of agree with increasing it there.