By Emma Jolliff
The detox tents at summer festivals usually see a fairly even split of intoxicated men and women who need medical help, but at this year's Rhythm and Vines, men were greatly outnumbered by women.
St John Ambulance says it is seeing more women than ever, and the experts say that's no accident.
The ratio of drunk women to drunk men seeking medical treatment was nine-to-one in favour of women. Most were aged between 18 and 20.
"The risk to themselves is quite great, not only in the medical sense of the word but for their own personal safety as well," says St John's Robbie Orpin.
So how drunk are they?
"The young people lose their function and their senses," says Mr Orpin.
Experts say young people and women in particular are being heavily targeted by the alcohol industry, which spends, at a conservative estimate, $200,000 a day marketing alcohol.
"A woman who was intoxicated some 20 years ago would be seen as loose, desperate and somewhat odd, whereas these days a woman who's a little bit intoxicated is seen as cool and glamorous," says Otago University's Doug Sellman.
Mr Sellman says alcohol is a dangerous recreational drug. In what he describes as a glimmer of hope, he hopes bold legislation will be introduced to curb the use and abuse of alcohol when the Law Commission publishes its final report into the industry in March.
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