One reads a lot of crap in the newspapers, but the article I read in the NZ Herald today; quoting sources via the Telegraph Group Ltd is either a take the piss piece of news or downright bad research. If any of the kids I work with on a daily basis hear about it, then we would have one more impediment to safe and rational behaviour around the use of alcohol.
This is what the ‘researchers’ claim. They say that participants in the study who consume a set amount of beer (or any alcohol?) perform better in a series of tests. We need no more information other than to assume that the boorish behaviours we already see on our streets will just have had one big boost to justifying their ‘fun nights out.’
If anyone takes this seriously, then how many steps have we taken back towards even more crazy and unsafe consumption of alcohol? Now don’t get me wrong: I am not advocating a non-drinking culture; we know that never has and never will work. I am saying that sensible use of alcohol is fine, but in the hands of young teenagers, who have a way to go to achieve any balance in their lives, then it is obvious what a belief in this so called research will lead to.
You may say that the kids we are worried about will not read the report anyway and that they are far more involved in the everyday pursuit of having fun. Wrong my friends. Kids have access to so many avenues in the media and the ways to promulgate such reports. It will be on Facebook, Utube and twitter within hours of its release. I am sure that the word will spread and the behaviours justified.
Maybe, many will also see the report for what it is--- just a way of filling in a small gap at the bottom of page 3 or whatever page it manages to capture. Let’s hope so.
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