What’s fascinating about this discourse is that while it seems to me Chloe is plainly asking for support in admitting she has a problem that is getting worse, ALMOST NO ONE has acknowledged that in this thread. There’s your typical societal avoidance right there!
I’m guilty, I’ve let go of a friend rather than express to her that I feel she is an alcoholic, we don’t like to rock the boat. Well we need to and we need to get real, we are a very repressed society, and TV etc does encourage it, of course it does.

One of things I’ve noticed is the amount of drinking that goes on in some tv shows, Step Dave is a perfect example. The amount of alcohol that is consumed by characters on that show would drop a horse. I’m not sure if it is blatant product placement or social commentary that when people have issues they reach for the wine.

No arguments from me against honesty – there is risk involved in drug use and the people raking in fat profits from it are not model citizens. I’d like to see drunkenness made an aggravating rather than mitigating factor when it comes to sentencing – make people actually face up to the fact that they are taking a risk when they do this.

You bet I’m judgmental when it comes to people who commit violent crimes – me and the criminal justice system both. And should you find one of your mates trying to rape a drunk girl, I really, really hope you will not quietly leave him to it and tell yourself “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”

It is indeed a simple fact that many crimes wouldn’t happen if people didn’t drink alcohol, just as it’s a simple fact that many injuries wouldn’t happen if people didn’t play sport and many incidents of child abuse and STDs wouldn’t happen if people didn’t have sex with people they weren’t married to. However, people aren’t going to stop doing those things, so these are not very useful facts if you’re looking for guides for action. They help us identify behaviour that involves risk, but that’s about it.

I don’t think that alcohol can make someone rape, but I do think that taking a drug that can affect how people perceive social behaviours can lead to problems.

Alcohol impairs our judgement, it’s why people who drive safely sober, kill people when driving drunk. Just as the perception required for driving a car is inhibited by alcohol, so is the perception needed for interpersonal relationships. Alcohol is a powerful drug that causes cognitive function to change, it affects the central nervous system because it’s psychoactive.

When people have a wine or whisky because they enjoy the taste, that’s fine, but when people drink to become intoxicated then they are using it as a drug. People intoxicated on drugs don’t always make good judgements. I’m not saying we should stop this kind of drug use, but let’s be honest about the harm it causes people. And let’s be honest about the money it makes big business.

It’s one of the few drugs that is ‘crimenogenic’ ………… its presence and consumption ALWAYS leads to more violent crime and disorder offences.

Its effect on the brain apart from being neuro-toxic ( it kills brain cells ) is to dull and turn of the ‘reasoning’ part of the brain while amplifying our emotional responses ……. ie it makes you stupid and highly emotional.

Some people suffer full blown alcohol psychosis where the drug alcohol has turned otherwise normal sane people into raving irrational lunatics.

Those addicted to it can die from with-drawls.

But although booze is this powerful drug which when abused can cause huge suffering including a lot of innocent victims ( drunk drivers, drunken assaults etc ), the steps to minimizing its harms are quite simple.

Get it out of the supermarkets and control its marketing ………. it IS a drug and its pushed like no other

And set the excise tax at a level which pays for the costs caused by its consumption.

All those extra cops, doctors , jail cells and hospital beds needed and filled by booze should be funded by booze.

The present state of affairs is taxpayers and society are picking up the tab for drug pushers which is exactly what the liquor industry is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHI-4NWB8n0

My point was that young men when pissed (which yes, is getting off the main topic) are in a situation where a lot of their value systems are not fully formed and consist of a lot of stuff that has just been handed to them.

One value that kids have reinforced every day is that people with power over you get to treat you how they like and do what they like.

The next value is that people with power are nicer to you if other people are watching

The story that boys get from the media is that women are there for their benefit.

If you put all of that inside a young person, who’s frontal cortex is probably offline (and certainly will be if they’re drunk) there’s going to be problems.

Saying that all alcohol does is lower your facade is fairly judgmental and doesn’t take into account the complexities of the situation. Pointing out that the alcohol itself isn’t responsible for the crime is a useful way to think about an issue for a moment but back in the real world it’s a simple fact that a lot of crimes wouldn’t happen if people hadn’t drunk so much.

If I had drunk more and also if I had been mistreated in any way as a child I probably would have been a candidate for this sort of thing (as would any guy in our culture).

I’d love to hear what crime-inducing qualities alcohol is supposed to possess, and what the chemical mechanism for its operation is supposed to be. As far as I know, it does nothing more than lower whatever facade you present to society when sober. If the facade you normally present is that you’re not a thug or a rapist, then yes other people are in serious danger when you drink. However, that’s not the fault of alcohol or its manufacturers, sellers or advertisers.

This is in any case tangential to the actual point of the post – not many women are dangerous to others when pissed, their problem is more that many men remain a danger to them but their ability to recognise and defend against that threat is lowered. Still not alcohol’s fault, mind you.

I’m not comfortable with either/or statements like this. Yes a rapist is 100% responsible for the rape, I’d never question that, and I understand the emphasis you’re trying to make but it’s pretty obvious that alcohol is involved a lot of the time.

I’d say it was a ‘facilitator’ and I’d hate to see it’s contribution ignored while we’re trying to change our culture to one that doesn’t produce potential rapists.

“a sober rapist might be less likely to rape someone, but alcohol has no magical power to turn an otherwise consent-respecting citizen into a rapist”

On reflection I don’t think I agree with this, boys are presented with a very, very distorted view of relationships and women while they’re growing up. Women are shown as being there for their benefit and for a young guy having grown up in a culture where children are routinely treated without dignity a great many of them are not going to ready for this situation.

It took me a very long time to work out my own values around relationships and also to work out which values were inherited. If I had drunk more and also if I had been mistreated in any way as a child I probably would have been a candidate for this sort of thing (as would any guy in our culture). Unfortunately for the guys who meet the criteria trying to live with what they have done will change them forever too.

Again I don’t want anyone to mistake this as an apology for rape – but we have a major problem here and we’re letting down our boys as well as our girls in the way we raise children.

Have a look at Jessie’s article for another method of preventing rapes that most people haven’t yet cottoned on to https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/04/07/go-give-your-kid-a-hug/