Thread: What it is with some people and alcohol?

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

. My friends and I would not have wasted money on expensive drugs even if such were available.

Cheaper to do a few lines now, hell, can even take 2 E's for $40, drugs are the cheaper alternative

As an ex publican with nearly 30 years experience in the hospitality industry I have noticed the downward trend (crash) in standards. When I first started serving (the day after my 18th birthday) most of the guys drank beer from glasses. And mosat of us could pretty much drink all night ( at least till around midnight when the bar shut) this way at a steady rate. Sure we used to get full and yes there were some blues can't deny that, but rarely anything like what you see as a regular headline these days.
The other thing is that the publican was usually somewhere in the vicinity keeping an eye on what was going on and could stop most things happening by nipping them in the bud by early intervention. Most locals respected the publican and a good one was well known by them. We didn't have to have bouncers on every door and most of them don't do a good job anyway. And besides most pubs these days are operated by larger companies ( Coles and Woolworths own most of the pubs here on the Gold Coast) and all they care about is the bottom line.

I recently worked with a bunch of younger people in their 20's- 30's in an office job and listening to them was an eye opener. When I asked why they drank the way they did, ie. to get as blind as possible as quickly as possible, their answer was that the only reason they drank was to get blind. There was no idea of having a drink as a social way to meet and talk with friends or even as a way to make a network of contacts. Also because the bars are open so late they don't see it as an option that you can go home early.
Lets face it. No politician is going to have the balls to change opening hours back to more reasonable hours due to voter backlash, so we are going to see this downward spiral continue for a long time.

I could go on for a lot longer about this but I would get more boring than I have already been. Just as parents of kids all I ask is that they be taught from an early age that they need to be responsible for their own actions. Drinking per se is not bad but you need to know your limits, behaviourly as well as your alcohol consumption limit.

Who needs bars to be open until 3.00 am or 5.00 am? If you can't get enough grog into you by midnight you have not been trying.

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

Who needs bars to be open until 3.00 am or 5.00 am? If you can't get enough grog into you by midnight you have not been trying.

People who work late. If you worked at a restaurant or on shift, it's always nice to have a quiet one to wind down before bed.

There is no concept of personal responsibility anymore, so people will keep doing something until they are made to stop. I've never been refused a drink at a pub before but I have been told that my "next one should be a water" - which I accepted with a smile.

It really annoys me when I'm out and there is some turkey who with a gut full who is still being served. That said, there are plenty of pubs around that don't serve really drunk people, and are not afraid to remove anyone who is being a PITA - and they are rewarded with people who respect that. Conversely, pubs who turn a blind eye to really drunk people buying more get rewarded with really drunk people, and the costs of the extra security required to deal with them.

The solution is to only drink at places that have zero tolerance to bad behavior.

the deregulated hours of licensed premises had 2 main arguments always put for it

1. restricted hours introduced a drink swill mentality and by having longer hours people wouldn't rush to drink alcohol before closing time.

2. Having longer hours was more european and civilised and allowed people to have drink with their meals and allow them to go to small bars and taverns and socialise again the argument being they wouldn't swill alcohol

However we granted extended licenses to large drinking barns and factories and 1000 people plus discos which are hard to manage re crowds and what people do inside like sell and trade drugs and drink, so we get anti social behaviour.

Besides better drink education we need to revise drink licenses so we don't encourage large premises

Was in JApan in April 2010 and was amazed at the number of very small 20 to 30 people max capacity of little food taverns bars selling food and alcohol and whilst people were certainly drinking alcohol and it was cheap and there sere some merry people l didn't see any anti social behavioural problems and felt save to be on street at 2am

Don't disagree with anyone, but do have some experience with the matter.

For more than a decade I used to run medical support rooms at many of the major rave parties around Sydney (greater than 1000 patrons) and used to do more than one a month. The parties where we had the biggest problems were when a patron/s would have consumed alcohol + speed + canabis. In fact we had the least problems when people had consumed only MDMA (ecstasy) MDA or LSD or a combination of same so long as they stayed within the confines of the party precinct. I stopped doing the parties when Gammahydroxybutyrate (GHB or liquid ecstacy) came onto the scene. GHB is a very dangerous drug, more dangerous than heroin!

Back to alcohol, I believe that the type of alcohol is very important in the resulting mood of the drinker. Bourbon seems to make the drinker belligerent and violent, gin makes them introspective and depressed while champagne seems to make people happy but bold. The list goes on.

Those who think it's ridiculous should remember that every emotion we have is merely a chemical reaction in the brain, so it is logical that the variations in the type of alcohol would have slightly different effects on the results.

Originally Posted by flagg

People who work late. If you worked at a restaurant or on shift, it's always nice to have a quiet one to wind down before bed.

A good idea that never worked in practice.

Sydney once had a number of clubs that opened 24 hours supposedly as a service to shift worker members. Graphic Arts Club, Govt. Transport Club, Journalists Club, Flinders or Taxi Club were some. These degenerated into rugged hard drinking clubs in the early hours (and not so early in the case of a couple). About 1969 South Sydney Leagues Club changed the closing time to 4.00 am from mid-night. The early am patrons were distinctly different and rougher and very hard drinkers who lowered the tone of the club considerably.

I never saw an early opener pub that wasn't pretty rough.

From Sign in to read: What's your poison? - 27 November 1999 - New Scientist

Mention drug-related crime and people think immediately about heroin and cocaine. But 250 years ago, it was a different matter entirely.

"A new kind of drunkenness, unknown to our ancestors is lately sprung up amongst us, and which, if not put a stop to, will infallibly destroy a great part of the inferior people," wrote the London magistrate and novelist Henry Fielding in An Inquiry into the Causes of the late Increase of Robbers. "The drunkenness I here intend is that acquired by the strongest intoxicating liquors, and particularly by that poison called Gin; which I have great reason to think is the principal sustenance (if it may be so called) of more than a hundred thousand people in this metropolis."

Gin had arrived from what is today the Netherlands with the troops of William of Orange, Britain's king from 1689. Distilled from grain, it was originally known as genever, from the Old Dutch for juniper—the berry that gives the spirit its flavour. And though invented by a Dutch physician as a diuretic, the soldiers found it also gave them "Dutch courage".

At the time, the British still mostly drank ale and when they did drink spirits, they chose brandy. But France was out of favour, fighting yet another war with Britain, and anti-French policies ushered in by King William gave genever—or gin as it became known—a market opportunity.

Parliament encouraged the distillation of spirits from English grain and soon vast numbers of people set up their own distilleries. Gin drinking became positively patriotic, with workers being given gin as part of their wages. Soon it became the nation's favourite tipple.

But it also became a curse. Women were particularly taken with the spirit and bought it from pharmacists for "medicinal purposes", mixing it with warm water to calm the nerves—hence the name "mother's ruin". Mass drunkenness became a serious problem. By the 1740s, the British were consuming some 8 million gallons (30 million litres) a year and estimates suggest that in parts of London a quarter of the houses were gin shops.

The cartoonist William Hogarth drew his famous images of Gin Lane (above) with every building falling down except the pawnbroker and the gin house. He contrasted this with the relative harmony of Beer Street (left). Hogarth's friend, Fielding, blamed gin for a rising crime rate: "However cheap this vile potion may be, the poorer sort will not easily be able to supply themselves with the quantities they desire; for the intoxicating draught itself disqualifies them from using any honest means to acquire it, at the same time that it removes all sense of fear and shame, and emboldens them to commit every wicked and desperate enterprise."

Something had to be done. In 1751, Parliament increased the tax on gin, and its sale was strictly controlled. By contrast, government allowed anyone who could afford a relatively inexpensive licence to sell beer and virtually overnight pubs appeared in almost every alley. Beer began to regain at least some of its former popularity.