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Radio Transcript - Dr Capolingua Discusses Youth Binge Drinking

JOHN LAWS: Well, you've been seeing footage of the annual schoolies celebrations, they kicked off on the weekend, and just yesterday I was telling you about some of the television footage, of alcohol-fuelled stupidity, and that's all it is, just plain, bloody stupid.

On the television news, there was some terrible footage of a nasty brawl, and obviously those involved had been drinking, and drinking heavily, many of them could hardly stand, and there was footage of some clown with a cigarette in one hand and two beers under the other arm, trying to climb over balconies 11 storeys off the ground. What a moron. And then if he fell and injured himself for life, he'd be wanting to sue somebody.

You wouldn't start brawls and climb high-rises if you were sober, would you? I don't think so.

The Australian Medical Association, the AMA, is concerned about the irresponsible use of alcohol, they say that the binge drinking culture is alive and well, and it's reached epidemic proportions in our youth, and it's killing kids, and it is, you know, that sends chills down your spine. I'm sure it does for you too, so I thought we'd discuss this further.

Joining me on the line is the president of the AMA, Dr Rosanna Capolingua, did I say that correctly?

DR CAPOLINGUA: Fairly close, Capolingua, good morning, John.

JOHN LAWS: It's nice to speak to you again, doctor.

DR CAPOLINGUA: Indeed.

JOHN LAWS: Is booze really killing kids?

DR CAPOLINGUA: It is really killing kids, we've got some statistics that show that alcohol accounts for 13 per cent of all deaths among 14 to 17-year-old Australians.

JOHN LAWS: Thirty per cent?

DR CAPOLINGUA: Thirteen per cent.

JOHN LAWS: Oh, I thought you said thirty. Thirteen?

DR CAPOLINGUA: Heaven forbid. Thirteen, it doesn't matter, that's a statistic that we shouldn't tolerate at all.

JOHN LAWS: That's right.

DR CAPOLINGUA: So they are indeed putting themselves at risk, as you so ably described, when they're drunk, they are at risk of accident or injury, because of the behaviour that they carry out, or of violence, or of being abused by someone else, or taking other drugs, so there is acute risk at the time, and they often recurrently binge drink, and they will get long term effects, such as brain damage, and increase their risk of cardiovascular disease.

JOHN LAWS: How many alcohol-related deaths happen in Australia, have we got numbers on that?

DR CAPOLINGUA: There's an estimation that one Australian teenager dies, and more than 60 are hospitalised each week from alcohol-related causes, so once again, when I saw these statistics I just felt that we have let our kids down in a big way, if we're allowing them to die. You know, these are families whose son is outside a pub in a queue on a Friday night, he's king hit by someone in a violent sort of exchange, his head hits the kerb, and then the parents are turning the life support system off a week later, and this happens.

JOHN LAWS: And you hear of it frequently, that's the tragedy of it. Is it worse here than other countries, do we have any figures on that?

DR CAPOLINGUA: I don't have comparative statistics in other countries, I guess I'm turning my mind to our kids in Australia, and what we need to do to help them get out of this situation.

JOHN LAWS: OK, so what do we need to do?

DR CAPOLINGUA: Well, I think it's very important that we as adults and parents look at ourselves as role models, and think about what messages we could project into our kids over time, and what we continue to project with our own alcohol consumption, so there's a bit of responsibility here on us.

I think it's important that we talk to our kids, that we discuss, you know, have the conversations about where they're going, what they're going to be doing, who they're going to be with, talk to them about drinking and the risk of something happening to them, I think some of us shy away from having that conversation, in case the kids think that we're stupid.

I think we should have the ability to have that talk with them, and I think on a broader level of course, we have to really have education campaigns, public awareness and understanding campaigns, talk about the fact that hazardous alcohol consumption is socially unacceptable and dangerous to health.

And then talk about drink labelling, look at the marketing of alcohol, we know that young people are targeted by the alcohol industry, it's a big market for them, because they get them in at a young age, and now we're talking under the age of 17 - 14 to 17.

JOHN LAWS: I know.

DR CAPOLINGUA: Bringing them in with the 'alcopops' and those mixed drinks that the kids tend to purchase and drink, so we need to change that pitch that's out there, look at taxes, look at the labelling, and get everyone to understand that this is a very serious problem.

JOHN LAWS: And I think that we need to get kids to look at other kids. I wish we could get together, I mean some of that footage you see of girls vomiting in the street, of girls staggering around, falling on the ground, with boys falling on top of them, I would think parents would be well advised to try and record some of that, and then play it to the kid and say, would you like that to be you? Would you like to be seen like that?

DR CAPOLINGUA: That's actually quite a powerful message. Listening to young people that I have around my home et cetera, when they see that sort of behaviour in others, they do reflect on that, and think, "Oh golly, I hope we don't look like that. I hope that doesn't happen to us, that we don't behave in that manner." So it is a bit of a message, we've really got to do some deep thinking into what sort of targeted messages we can use, that the kids will respect and understand and respond to.

JOHN LAWS: Why can't we get somebody, even if it's a private concern, to make a DVD of that kind of footage, of kids behaving like that, and being seen like that, those hideous pieces of film that you see with girls throwing up, with vomit in their hair, it's all terrible to say, but I'm sure that if you showed it to your children, and said, would you like that to be you, they'd think twice, wouldn't they?

DR CAPOLINGUA: We need to think about the sorts of strategies we've used to target smoking in young people, you know, we need to focus group test those sorts of issues, we need to do the research on what, as I said, messages are the right ones to get kids to understand what it means, and we need to take a step forward to focus on the issue of binge drinking in our young kids, so that we change the statistics, which will only get worse if we don't do something about it.

And losing any kid, any son or daughter to alcohol, or losing a child at that age, in this country, is just not something we should tolerate.

JOHN LAWS: Now those premixed drinks are very popular with young girls, they should be of special concern, because they taste like lolly water and the kids tell me that you don't even know you're drinking alcohol.

DR CAPOLINGUA: Yes, the 'alcopops' we call those, they are very much sweetened, ready-to-drink alcoholic beverages, pretty colours, and nicely shaped bottles, and lovely labelling, and we seriously need to look at controls to kerb the marketing of those products, particularly to teenagers.

JOHN LAWS: Well, you can get them in those vending machines for God's sake, anybody could get them.

DR CAPOLINGUA: And they are priced at a price where kids can afford to buy a couple of those, a few of those, so we need to target those sorts of drinks, so you don't have to buy them in six packs or whatever, where the price might be out of range, but in singles and doubles and things like that, and we need to also think about the fact that kids will buy bottles of spirits and mix their own, and that's something they tend to do, quite readily, and consume large quantities of spirits, things that young kids never used to, you know, they used to drink beer perhaps, or wine, the boys in particular, but now it's really into the vodka and into the bourbon in a very heavy way, at a young age, I'm talking under the age of 18, right down to 14 or 13-years-of-age.

JOHN LAWS: Yes, what are their livers going to look like by the time they're 25?

DR CAPOLINGUA: It's really very worrying, we won't know really what all the outcomes are of this, as far as their health goes, until 10, 20, 30 years afterwards. We certainly know what alcohol does to the brain, to the liver and to the cardiovascular system, and I fear very much that we're putting our kids at risk. Young kids, you know, their brain hasn't even fully developed till the age of 24, so they're probably having an impact on their full potential as well, by insulting their brain cells with recurrent binge alcohol.

JOHN LAWS: It seems extraordinary to me, I think it was last night, or the night before, but some time since this schoolies thing has started, a policeman was interviewed, and he said, we had a really good night last night, we only arrested 27. Twenty-seven kids, all drunk.

DR CAPOLINGUA: Yes, and that's one isolated example of many, and again I'm sure those kids would feel mortified in the morning, and their parents would be very upset and worried and concerned about what has happened, and I would rather protect our kids from ending up in that situation, than having to deal with the consequences of it afterwards.

So we need to be really - as I said, talk to your kids about all of this, protect them from it, and we need some bigger educational programs, looking at legislation, looking at taxes, and really alert everyone to the risks that binge drinking has, and alcohol consumption in our young people has in the long term.

JOHN LAWS: Thank you, doctor very much for your time, yet again, we appreciate it.

DR CAPOLINGUA: My pleasure, thank you.

JOHN LAWS: That's Dr Capolingua, Dr Rosanna Capolingua, and she is the President of the AMA, and a nice, bright woman, isn't she?

Ends

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