alcohol

National poll on raising the legal drinking age to 21

AUSTRALIA should increase the legal drinking age to 21, according to a national online poll. Kevin Rudd has again sparked outrage on the ABC's Q&A by suggesting that he 'personally' supports an older drinking limit and sees 21 years old as quite reasonable and feasible. Suprisingly this view was also later supported by an online [...]

Questions and answers: the provision of alcohol to minors

In a recent post, Paul Dillon discussed the provision of alcohol to minors. A young reader named Kate responded to the article with a very well considered and thought provoking question: I am a 17 year-old girl going on 18 and I have been to parties where alcohol has been served and there have been [...]

Providing alcohol to minors

You are sending a very strong message to your child when you agree to provide alcohol to minors. Most importantly, you are telling them to ignore the law - alcohol is an illegal drug for those under the age of eighteen. The laws are different across the country with New South Wales having the strictest [...]

Study investigates youth drug use and perceptions

Results of the annual American National Institute on Drug Abuse survey Monitoring the Future were released yesterday, revealing the patterns of drug use and perception in young people in America. The survey of over 46,000 year 8, 10 and 12 students found that the use of many drugs including alcohol, methamphetamines, cocaine, hallucinogens and cigarettes [...]

Police operation to target drunken violence this weekend

Police in capital cities around Australia and New Zealand are tonight preparing for a weekend of high-visibility policing aimed at reducing alcohol fuelled violence. The two day blitz titled Operation Unite will start tonight at 6pm, and will focus on tackling alcohol fuelled crime and anti-social behaviour, especially violence. Thousands of extra police will be [...]

Paul Dillon – Most young people haven’t done drugs

Last night I was watching TV and saw a news advertisement about young people and drug use. Over the top of an image or a group of young people was superimposed the words One third of all young people have used an illegal drug. That statistic sounds pretty scary for parents, and it is – [...]

Study warns of parent's tolerance towards under-age drinking

A study of 1,200 people has found that half of parents believe 15 to 17 year olds should be allowed to consume alcohol at home under parental supervision. The study by a national health insurance provider found that Western Australian parents were the most in favour of allowing under-age drinking. Dr Christine Bennett, who worked [...]

Tell your children – Calling an ambulance

It is important to tell your children that if they are in doubt, they should not hesitate to call for medical assistance. It’s hard to be too specific here as it’s not always easy to say what constitutes a ‘medical emergency’. Young people need to know that they won’t get in trouble for calling an [...]

National survey reveals concerns of the youth

The results of the largest annual survey of young people in Australia were released yesterday by Mission Australia. The National Survey of Young Australians 2009 obtained the views of almost 48,000 young people across Australia and found that the young people rank drugs, suicide and body image as the most concerning issues they face. The [...]

Generation Next at your school

We are currently in the process of planning the 2010 Generation Next series. Thanks to your feedback we have learned a lot of lessons about how best to run the events and use the limited financial and other resources available to us. Importantly, in 2010 we would like to explore the possibility of running the [...]

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