I find it incredible that the large majority of parents in NZ are allowing their teenagers to drink. My parents (and most parents in NZ for that matter) tend to believe that they have done the hard parenting work, taught their children well and their now young adult (teenager) will go forth and make good adult like decisions. Parents also tend to believe that it is being a 'cool parent' allowing your teenager to have free reign. Teenagers have doctored this perception!! Teenagers are manipulative, they will do and say anything to be able to go to parties etc and be able to drink excessively. Teenagers brains are not fully developed, they are not capable of assessing risk, not capable of making adult like decisions because they are not adults. Let them be unsupervised and they will undoubtably make bad decisions like drinking excessively. This is not an issue of what types of alcohol are available, this is an issue of education - for the teenagers and parents!
Banning RTD's is in my opinion pointless, not to mention a hassle for those of us who enjoy drinking RTDs instead of hard liquors and mixes. I myself am a responsible teenage drinker and I like drinkind RTDs because they have a low percentage and I can drink them at a slow rate which doesn't have me over intoxicated, and they don't taste harsh! I think its peoples own personal choice what they drink and not everyone should be forced to drink mixes just because of some individuals who drink RTDS irresponsibly.
i think that 20 is a sensible age to drink unsupervised but the only issue that u can vote at 18 and join the police at 18 and arrest under age drinker when u are a hypocrite yourself that means that they have to rise all other ages to line up so on this topic i am a fence sitter
There was a time in England when Gin was illegal and Whiskey wasn't. This was because gin was what poor people drank, the decision was class related, poor people and working people were the "dangerous classes."I guess now the perception is that young people are dangerous should they drink RTD's.I believe we should re-classify ethanol as a class B drug. This would help remind people that alcohol is a drug like any other, in fact, a drug significantly more open to negative outcomes following consumption by the public than many others. While alcohol is a group one carcinogen, and accounts for around 70% of police time, I would never suggest that it should be prohibited as this has been tried in USA between 1919&1933 and the policy was a complete failure on a grand scale.During that period alcohol consumption fell for the first couple of years then increased by some 11% over the period. Gangs cemented firm foundations down in US society and became very powerful. Dodgy alcohol products bought on the black market killed scores of people. Police organisations became largely corrupt. There were many multiple homicides including bombings and shootings as the Thompson sub-machine-gun was used to communicate between rival groups who supplied what the people wanted... Anything sound familiar regarding illegal intoxicants today?
Being a teenager RTDS are nothing, if you ban them we will make our own rtds with half vodka and half lemonade, more percentage then RTDS
Just like any substance that contains addictive chemicals there NEEDS to be better education about these products. I never knew what an RTD was until this story and it angers me to find out about things like this under such circumstances. Again, how people have to die before people take notice. The alcohol industry couldn't care less as long as they get the money in their pockets. Give children a choice, sure, but make it a fully informed choice. Stop trying to pull the blinds over our eyes when it comes to alcohol and other substances that have the potential to kill. You alcohol businesses should b ashamed for not providing better educational tools for young minds.
I find it ridiculous that people think RTD's are a problem because they are cheap - that is actually the contrary. Using a calculator I came up with price per 100ml alcohol of four popular brands of four types of alcohol prefered by teenagers. RTD's were the most expensive at $15.91 per 100mL pure alcohol. Beer was the next most expensive at $11.36 per 100mL. Full strength Vodka was $10.67 per 100mL. White wine was the cheapest by far at $9.88 per 100mL. Perhaps because it is also very sweet and very easy to drink (and scull) - and is very popular with young people (particularly women) and in my time I've seen more people completely arsefaced off wine as opposed to drinking RTD's.
A vile concoction? Maybe, but I happen to like the occasional RTD and I’m definitely no teenager. Let’s be realistic. Rightly or wrongly we lowered the drinking age to 18 and these drinks are being legally marketed to the 18 plus age group to be legally purchased and consumed by the same 18 plus age group. So what should we be reviewing, the beverages (which seem to go down particularly well), consumer marketing strategy (which also appears to be very successful) or the drinking age?
Jan- Yes!! Alex- In NZ we give far too much stuff to drunk drivers: a disql, a fine and/or a crimm rec, but all they're asking for is a year in prison! But nobody cares!
Alcohol and Driving are two different meaning to each word.They tried mixing the two together by ripping our people minds off over the years that leads to road accidents and corruptions that kill too many of our innocences. Re-think,'alcohol and driving' don't mixed..