Crackdown on public drinking won't deter binge drinkers
Jingan Young says while the path to binge drinking may be too easy for some, limiting where they can drink is unlikely to help solve the problem
A recent police raid on a well-regarded BYOB club in Hong Kong came as no surprise, following a wave of petitions to revoke applications for liquor licences, primarily in areas now undergoing gentrification. One organisation that is vocal on this issue is the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, whose petition posters, with their large black prohibition symbols layered over distorted pint glasses, are all over the city's streets and pavements.
The path taken by the government and other public institutions to control drinking-related accidents and crime takes the form of stone-walling the consumer's choice: drinking in public.
In the same month, British Prime Minister David Cameron's plan to ban the sale of cheap alcohol, setting a minimum price of 45 pence per unit (HK$18.04 for a can of lager with 7.9 per cent alcohol content) was dropped. The ethos behind the policy was simply "where there's cheap booze, there's more binge drinking". But does where we drink directly correlate to binge drinking?
In comparison with the rest of the world, Hong Kong's alcohol consumption per capita is low. A behavioural risk factor survey last year commissioned by the Department of Health reported that among those aged 18 to 64, only 16.7 per cent were regular drinkers who drank at least one day a week while 9.8 per cent of those aged 18 to 24 engaged in a regular "binge".
But teens aren't hanging out in louche bars; their "bar" of choice is the local 7-Eleven, where they sit and drink on the street. So if drinking in the street holds no potential risks, why should the local watering hole?