Richard Moore's Straight Talk Columns

Show some bottle on alcohol age limit

17/8/2010

WHEN the Government announces its changes to drinking laws in the next few weeks we can only pray they will be gutsy enough to increase the alcohol-purchasing age back to 20 years old.

I'm not confident, as the Prime Minister seems a little too keen on popularity at times to make the hard calls, but you never know your luck.

The backing away from dropping drivers' blood alcohol limit from .08 to .05 is a fine case in point.

Raising the drinking age back to 20 will do a number of positive things.

Firstly, it will radically cut the number of young people getting drunk and getting themselves into trouble - like the idiots who went feral after a tennis court party in Matua and assaulted a Vietnam veteran who went to a girl's aid.

At 20 most people are considerably more mature than they are at 18 and they will often have work commitments to prevent them getting too boozed during the week. They can also handle alcohol better.

Some 15 and 16-year-olds can get away with looking as if they are 18, whereas they never look 20.

Too many of these kids end up in dangerous situations while intoxicated. A law change will let young drivers settle in behind the wheel for a number of years before they have any drinks at all. It cuts down the temptation for youngsters who may think they can get away with drinking and driving.

By delaying the ability to buy alcohol we will also reduce binge-drinking in young adults and its harmful effects.

Let's hope the Government will be brave and act decisively to lessen the pain of alcohol abuse in this country.

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Quite rightly our coppers are being told that if they are attacked and fear for their lives then ``anything goes'' when it comes to protecting themselves against violent offenders.

Officers in Christchurch are being taught to bite, even gouge eyes, to deal with attackers. And whatever action they do _ as long as it saves their lives _ their chiefs will go in to bat for them, so to speak.

I am all for that. Police should be able to fight back with the only thought given to their safety and not that of the person attacking them. There are far too many police being assaulted in the line of duty - such as the female officer who recently pulled over a drunk driver and got assaulted for her efforts - and violent offenders need to know they will be clobbered back if attacking coppers.

But it does raise an interesting point. Say I'm wandering through downtown Arataki late at night and am approached by hooded youths swaggering towards me.

They see my cameras, or want my wallet, and so either pull a knife or try to assault me. Am I able to defend myself in the same ``anything goes'' manner or will I face prosecution for putting the scumbags into hospital?

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It may surprise you to know that my knowledge of hairspray is a little outdated.

The last time I would have needed such treatment would have been in the 1990s.

However, that is not a bad thing as students in a Palmerston North hostel can attest.

It seems that so much hairspray is unleashed upon the ozone layer at this establishment it sets off the fire alarms.

Firefighters are suggesting students go easy on the cans - or else get the Moore look.

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Question: When is the oldest man in the world not the oldest man in the world?

Answer: When he's dead!

And while that seems strange, it is also true and comes from the land of the rising sun and swiftly sinking whale.

Sogen Kato's 111th birthday was to have been a big occasion and Tokyo officials went round to his flat to say ``well done and have a great day''. They could not get to see him as his granddaughter said he had taken to a monk's life in his bedroom and refused to speak to anyone.

Fair enough, the council guys said, left him a dolphin cake and a nice bit of cetacean sushi, and then headed home.

Trouble is that Kato's family had been fibbing to keep getting his pension and the old guy had actually died 30 years earlier.