On the radio this morning, members of the elite all day all night drinking society justified keeping the pubs open 24 hours a day, stating that many of the "drinkers were alcoholics and would have nowhere to drink and would just go home and beat their wives". It was on the radio, so it must be true.
Experts are lining up to have the pubs' opening hours restricted.
The state's chief adviser on alcohol, Ian Webster, says the Government is in denial about the extent of alcohol abuse and it should close 24-hour pubs and limit new licences in areas where heavy drinking is recorded.
Professor Webster, the chairman of the New South Wales Expert Advisory Group on Drugs and Alcohol, said state and federal governments had been more focused on combating the abuse of illicit drugs, even though alcohol caused more harm.
"Alcohol is a bigger problem than the drug-addiction problem," he said. "More people are medically harmed, more people get injured, there is more domestic violence, more families get destroyed. Governments are prepared to proudly state what they are doing about illicit drugs but they rarely say what they will do about alcohol."
Good to see that we all agree.
