Are the laws in New Zealand concerning underage drinking strong enough?

This Essay was written in my second year of my degree. The purpose of it was to look at public policy and see how effect it was. Public policy is an important topic in planning because we help to create them. The reason I did underage drinking is there are laws saying you cannot drink legally until you turn 18 (this is in New Zealand) however we get so many teens drinking anyway. Many of our young people die on the road due to drink driving and I wanted to explore the policies in place to see how effective they are.

In today’s society government enacts laws, make policies and allocate resources. Government creates laws and policies to benefit their citizens and achieve the greatest good for the greatest number. Public policy can be generally defined as a system of laws, regulatory measures and course of actions that require funding. Public policy is based on our values and ideas. Individuals and groups such as communities endeavor to shape public policy this is usually done through education, advocacy or targeting interest groups. Advocacy groups tend to educate the public and the policy makers of the general problem that needs to be addressed. A current issue in New Zealand affecting specifically the youth but can affect the rest of the general public is underage drinking. This essay will look at the laws that have been enacted with this issue, also it will look at the policies and it will look at what the government wants to do about the issue in the foreseeable future. Last of all it will look at the effectiveness of the laws and policies and whether or not they are working or if we need to take another approach to this issue.

Underage drinking has been an issue for a very long time. Previously the drinking age in New Zealand was 20 but a policy regime changed it to 18 in the year 1999. A policy regime is the underlying structure through which policy is formed, policy regimes tend to be stable and change slowly (Howlett and Ramesh, 2004). Underage drinking occurs because young people see it as being “cool” if they drink before they turn 18 which is the legal drinking age in New Zealand. Underage drinking usually occurs because of peer pressure at parties which could turn tragic, or parents buy their children alcohol at times this could also be tragic depending if the underage person is drinking under supervision or not. The reason there is a drinking age is because government decided that anyone under 18 is not mature enough to drink as it can lead to stupidity and deadly consequences. Also, at 18 you are classed an adult and you are responsible for you actions. There are many points of views on this as some people do not believe that at 18 you should be able to drink but there are always different views for all policies and laws that affect the public. Alcohol consumption by teenagers has turned into a binge drinking culture also known as drinking until you are completely intoxicated and do not know what you are doing. Drinking at a young age has health impacts such as short term effects for example blurred vision, vomiting, and loss of orientation. There are also long term effects for example liver poisoning, damage to the nervous system, cardiovascular disease, and alcohol poisoning this is just naming a few. Therefore, we need to try and reduce underage drinking to reduce chronic alcohol health damage for them in the future.

Policy actors are important in changing or modifying policies and laws. Policy actors are “Institutions both inside and outside government actively engaged in implementing and modifying policies (Harris and Milkis, 1989, Eisner, 1994a, 1994b in Howlett and Ramesh, 2002: 32).

A mandate has been established this is an unwritten and unspoken social contract or settlement between the state and society. This is when society allows the state to make the right laws and decisions for them and it will benefit the whole nation. Laws associated with alcohol are; Sales of Liquor Act 1989 the purpose of it is to restrict the sale of liquor to anyone that is a minor or to anyone that is intoxicated acting in a manner where the alcohol could put them at more risk. If this Act is breached the person or company selling the alcohol could be faced with a fine up to $10,000. If you are also buying alcohol for someone under the age of 18 you could be faced with a fine up to $2000. The reason these penalties exist is to discourage underage drinking as it is dangerous for the health and wellbeing of the youth drinking as they are still developing mentally and physically.

The Press, a New Zealand newspaper interviewed hospitals around the country and they said that during Thursday, Friday and Saturday night they reported at least one third of alcohol related problems in emergency department and they would like to see the alcohol age pushed back up to 20 as many of these accidents involve underage drinkers. The age of intoxicated people arriving at the department had dropped noticeably over the past decade; with the youngest being about 12 said a doctor from Christchurch hospital. Also, a survey done by ALAC an alcohol ogranisation in New Zealand found out that 48% of 14-17 year olds have participated in binge drinking in the past two weeks. This shows that the current law is not preventing underage drinking as there are no direct harsh penalties for them due to the fact that they are underage. In addition, it is not enforced easily as there are many loop-holes within the system given that not everyone knows about the penalties that exist.

Ministry of Health launched a National Drug Policy in 2007. This is a five year framework to prevent and reduce harm from alcohol, tobacco and other harmful drugs. "There is a culture of binge drinking among youth in New Zealand. The reality is that young people are reflecting the drinking attitudes and behaviours of adult New Zealanders and we have to acknowledge that this is part of the problem and redefine ourselves as a nation to get away from the pride we seem to have in our 'hard-drinking' culture", said Mr Anderton a member of The Ministry of Health Department. This policy wants to control the supply by reducing the circumstances that alcohol and other legal drugs can be sold in for example reducing the number of places alcohol can be sold in, demand by trying to reduce the peoples need or desire to want the drugs and to reduce the problems within communities by educating different groups within our society. There are still three years of this policy to fulfill the purpose of it, however in the past two years there does not seem to have been many changes apart from advertising of alcohol beverages on the television has reduced dramatically and drink driving ads have increased this is due to government coercion which is when the government tries to influence behavior. In addition, drink driving accident deaths have reduced since 1990 where there were 1700 deaths but in 2008 there were 572 deaths; however drink driving accidents have increased with prolonged injuries this is usually most present within younger divers (Ministry of Transport, 2009).

The government as an actor is looking into changing policies related to buying alcohol. They want to prohibited anyone under the age of 20 from buying alcohol from liquor stores or supermarkets however if you are 18 or 19 you can still buy alcohol from bars and restaurants. They also want to increase the cost of alcohol by putting higher taxes on it. This could affect the policy actors such as the alcohol retailers, it could reduce the amount they sell and could potentially affect the hospitality sectors such as restaurants bars and clubs. There have been different points of views about government allowing 18 and 19 year olds to buy alcohol in bars and restaurants but not in liquor stores. Reason being is that majority of the issues concerned with drinking occur in town on a Friday and Saturday night. Drunken driving, violence just to name a few issues occur then so if the government really wants to make a difference maybe the drinking age should be raised to 20 again. A co-operative mandate is occurring around this issue at the moment where the government and society are working together to come to a conclusion, this is done through consultation and government listening to the submissions from the society of what they think should happen.

The effectiveness of the laws and policies in place in New Zealand today concerned with underage drinking is minimal. As the essay has discussed there are flaws within the system and if the laws and policies really did work we would not have underage drinking today. The policy regime that happened in 1999 that lowered the drinking age seemed like the wrong choice because now we are getting 12 year old children drinking. What the government wants to do now which is not allow anyone under the age of 20 to buy alcohol from supermarkets or liquor stores but 18/19 can buy alcohol from restaurants, bars, and clubs does not seem very effective to decreasing underage drinking because 18/19 year olds can still drink. Also, the general public have to agree with this policy as it will be affecting them but some may think why not just raise the drinking age back to 20 again because that way police can easily patrol intoxicated underage drinkers. In addition, for underage drinking not to occur there needs to be harsher penalties for the youth committing the crime otherwise they will continue to drink. Penalties such as community service, fines, restrictions where they can go for example school, home as they will be monitored by police this will make them think twice before they drink as their freedom could be taken of them. The most effective way to do this is to integrate public policy procedures. First there needs to be a strong public policy based on underage drinking that the government initiates, then the government needs to consult the public and a co-operative mandate needs to be established where the government and society work together to create the greatest good for the greatest number. A policy regime will need to occur to change the policies and laws that exist now and that will be done by the government as they are the mandate.

Overall, the laws and policies in place at the moment in New Zealand concerning underage drinking are not very effective. The reason being is that youth drinking has been rising and it will continue to increase if nothing is done. The laws and policies do not have very harsh penalties and the fact that not many average citizens know about the fines in place for breaching the laws they will continue to serve minors alcohol or buy them alcohol. It seems like some communities have just adapted to youth drinking and it’s just seen as the norm but this is not good and the government needs to step in and change or improve the laws and policies otherwise our young people will get sick or die and we need to protect our future generations to run this country.



Reference:
Howlett, M & Ramesh, M. (2003) Studying Public Policy: Policy Cycles and Policy Subsystems, (2nd ed.). Don Mills.: OUP.
The Press, (22/8/2009) Young Drinkers Clog Hospitals, http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/christchurch/2776882/Young-drinkers-clog-hospitals, (Assessed: 23/8/2009).
Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand Information For Youth, http://www.alcohol.org.nz/InfoForYouth.aspx, (Accessed: 23/8/2009).
Ministry of Transport, Road Transport Organisation, http://www.transport.govt.nz/, (accessed: 26/8/2009).