Oh, the excitement: This week the Victorian Government will be tabling their secondary supply legislation!

Long story short, the law will make it illegal for any person to give an underage young person alcohol on private property without parental permission. It puts parents back in control of their children’s access to alcohol and also gives parents an avenue for recourse if things go wrong.

Secondary supply laws are already in place in New South Wales, Tasmania and Queensland, where fines have already been issued. Let’s hope that the Victorian Government’s initiative encourages other Governments to step up and follow suit.

The change in legislation has been a long time coming, as a lot of you well know.

The ADF has been advocating a change in law ever since the death of fifteen year old Leigh Clark, over a decade ago. Many of you will remember that Leigh died after a friend’s mother supplied him and his friends with imitation vodka essence, a 375ml bottle which at 70% alcohol, contained about 22 standard drinks.

A lot of blood, sweat and tears has gone into getting this law changed, and I believe the majority of the kudos should go to Leigh’s father Bruce, who brought the issue to the ADF’s attention way back when. In fact I remember getting a phone call from Bruce years ago, when I held a similar position in Western Australia.

Bruce has been a tireless advocate, successfully campaigning to have the imitation vodka essence banned.

He formed the Leigh Clark Foundation in 2003, with the aim of preventing similar alcohol related tragedies. Bruce has kept the issue on the agenda, conducting public education campaigns on alcohol misuse and young people to schools.

I’d like you all to join me in giving Bruce a huge round of applause.

Until next week,

Sarah Jaggard,
Community Mobilisation Policy Officer

Cat from Canberra sent me this week’s promotion of the week, taken from a letter to the editor in the Sydney Morning Herald:

“This week I witnessed a violent assault by three intoxicated young people on two young staff at an Oxford Street food venue.  Someone said the offenders had been causing trouble along the street earlier after drinking at a venue catering primarily to backpackers.

Further up the street, after noticing a high number of drunk, aggressive, young people, I asked a bouncer at one of the gay clubs what was going on.

He said "Tuesday night is always feral" because the bar in question has a "happy hour". A quick web search confirms the bar provides "power hours" three nights a week, where patrons drink as much as they can for one hour for free."

And here I was thinking that responsible service of alcohol is practised in all states and territories.

Early Bird Registration for the 6th International Conference on Drugs and Young People: Making the Connections (May 2-4, 2011) closes on March 31, 2011.

So if you have been thinking about registering, get in now and save. Day and concession rates are also available.

Full registration details are available at the 6DYP website.

Queries can be directed to the Program Coordinator, via email or by phone 03 9645 6311

Presented by US author and expert Ralph W Hingson, Sc.D., MPH, Director of the Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).

Alcohol related deaths continue to make a major contribution to morbidity and mortality, particularly for young Americans. There is a major problem of excessive alcohol consumption by students attending colleges, in a context of a college culture that encourages high levels of alcohol consumption.

This paper examines a number of USA programs intended to reduce the health impact of excessive alcohol consumption by young Americans. It includes a consideration of the effectiveness of brief interventions (individual level interventions), school based programs, family based interventions and environmental/community based interventions.

Wednesday 30th March 2011

Time: 1.30 pm—3.00pm

Venue: Room 113, Level 1, Population Health Building
School of Population Health, Herston Campus
The University Of Queensland, Herston Road,
Herston, Qld 4006.

Blitz to dry up booze for kids
Herald Sun, 21 March 2011
A new law aims to close a loophole that has angered drug and alcohol campaigners for a decade. Parents are being urged to dob in adults who supply alcohol to their children under tough new laws carrying fines of more than $7000.

Council: We want mid-strength alcohol only after midnight
Namoi Valley Independent, 17 March 2011
Gunnedah Shire Council unanimously supported the re-establishment of a restriction on the shire’s licensed premises to only sell mid-strength alcohol after midnight at its ordinary meeting last night. The resolution came following the end of a trial in August which saw licensed premises in Gunnedah voluntarily serve only mid-strength alcohol after midnight in a bid to reduce alcohol-related crime.

NT grog reform 'shelved to placate hotels'
The Australian, 19 March 2011
Proposed changes to the Northern Territory Liquor Act that would have empowered police to shut bars to head off violence were shelved to avoid upsetting the powerful hotels lobby, according to the man who helped draft the new laws.

Police chief blames booze for violence
The West Australian, 21 March 2011
WA Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan has hit out the binge-drinking culture that he says fuelled a string of violent incidents across Perth late on Saturday and early yesterday. Mr O'Callaghan yesterday revealed a list of brutal exchanges that he said mostly involved drunk and aggressive people.

Liquor firms donated $300,000 to Labor campaign
The Australian, 22 March 2011
THE governing Northern Territory Labor Party received more than $300,000 from individuals or companies associated with the liquor industry on the eve of the last election.
The donations represented nearly a third of all funds received by the Territory's ALP branch for 2008 and 2009.

Late-night liquor and violence link 'a nonsense'
The Australian, 23 March 2011
South Australia is to get the nation's most restrictive late-night liquor licensing laws under a move by the Rann government to stamp out what it says is the increasing problem of alcohol-fuelled violence.