Babysitting adults – Who is responsible for your drinking habits?

Recently our industry underwent some of the most significant liquor reforms in decades. Its aim is to curb our drinking culture.
After reading the stats, you would have to agree changes needed to be made. While many New Zealanders drink responsibly, it seems many don’t. More than 700, 000 over 18-year-olds binge drink and more than 120, 000 currently suffer from a clinically diagnosable alcohol use disorder. Alcohol related harm and the social cost of New Zealanders’ drinking habits are estimated at $5.3 billion a year. Then there is the question of what dollar figure can be placed on the pain and loss on our families as a result of excessive drinking in terms of family violence, personal tragedies and the loss of loved ones. Following on from this is the claim that 60 -70% of all injury based cases at emergency departments over the weekend are alcohol related.

Now there are certainly some positives that come from the reforms; communities can play a stronger part in local alcohol polices, parents are now required to give consent for kids to be given alcohol and there will be a reduction in the number of off-premise outlets in our communities.  But likewise, there are certainly issues that have not been addressed like the minimum drinking or purchase age for on and off-premise outlets, off-premise outlets’ pricing of alcohol, the alcohol percentage in ready-to-drink/alco pops, longer trading hours, advertising of alcohol prices and specials and supermarkets’ ability to drive down prices.
However, I believe the most important issue that has not been addressed is personal accountability.  We, the on-premise outlets (be it a café, restaurant or bar), carry way too much of the burden.  We are held responsible to ensure food is readily available, that free water is provided and clearly visible, that you are given safe transport options, that we provide licenced staff and train them about the different stages of intoxication, server invention, managing risk, host responsibility and that you don’t consume a level of alcohol that may cause you harm. We now we have shorter trading hours and we are categorized into high, medium or low risk based on size and trading hours for the purpose of revenue generating by our local councils. We are also restricted on what advertising we can do and feel pressured to provide security staff.  To me it seems the idea of personal accountability is blatantly absent.

It makes sense to me as a publican to offer an environment that is not only welcoming and safe but provides the products and services I would enjoy if I was the customer and I certainly don’t have a problem complying to our regulatory requirements.   But isn’t it a two way street? Don’t you as a patron need to assume some accountability for your actions?  Would revoking alcohol licenses from off-premises, supermarkets, bars or cafés stop alcohol misuse? Does fining a bar or staff member for serving an intoxicated person reduce alcohol harm? Isn’t it an attitude that needs addressing? What happened to personal responsibility? Some people make a conscious decision to buy cheap liquor, drink excessively, and come into town and cause damage and harm. Some people will have too many pints after work and still drive home. Some people drink to just get drunk.  Should an on-premise outlet be held responsible because you didn’t eat or drink your free water or ring a taxi to get home or you pre-loaded before you came to town and then was intoxicated and caused mischief on a licenced premises? What are you held responsible for? 
If we really want to start making a change to our drinking culture and send a clear message that excessive drinking is not okay, then shouldn’t we reinstate the law that makes it an offence to be drunk in public? It seems obvious that if individuals were held responsible for their actions, then it would it play its part in curbing our drinking culture.
Stats from the Alcohol Healthwatch and the New Zealand Drug Foundation