New Zealand's heaviest drinkers are now 18 and 19 year olds, the New Zealand Drug Foundation says.
Executive director Ross Bell said New Zealand's low drinking age and binge drinking have worsened the teenage drinking problem.
He said the Government was also to blame for their "weak alcohol policy", which does nothing to correct New Zealand's drinking culture.
Mr Bell said lobby groups warned that lowering the drinking age would encourage young people to drink "more and more frequently", and there would be more carnage on the roads as a result.
"The way young people are drinking has changed… We describe it as binge drinking," he said.
Teen Bingers Twice as Risky
A Ministry of Justice report published in 2006 showed that teenage binge drinkers are twice as likely to suffer harm than any other group.
Unwanted sexual encounters, short-term memory loss, accidents, violence and embarrassing situations were experienced by 91 percent of adolescent binge drinkers, the report said.
Alcohol Advisory Council (ALAC) chief executive officer Gerald Vaughn said to help find a solution people need to look at the problem from a young drinker's viewpoint.
He said young drinkers do not like to have fingers pointed at them, saying: "Don't just pick on us. We are just drinking in the same way that adults do but we get blamed for the problem."
ALAC have now changed their advertising strategy, with a focus now on drinkers of all ages. It encourages New Zealanders to reduce the amount they drink on any one occasion, he said.
"Actually, a lot of young people see themselves as being a scapegoat for all social problems – [they believe] adults blame them for crime, truancy, violence," Mr Vaughn said.
Teenagers regard heavy drinking as being socially acceptable and feel adults are hypocritical when they try to change their drinking behaviour or discipline them for drinking too much, he said.
Young people tend to drink in public and in big groups. The combination of risk-taking and the alcohol mix give the perception that it is only the young people who are drinking and having all the problems, he said.
Alcohol, Alcohol Everywhere – and Cheap
The availability of alcohol is a factor that encourages binge drinking, Mr Vaughn said.
An ALAC survey from 2003 showed that one quarter of youth aged between 12 to 17 years could afford as much alcohol as they wanted, and 70 percent had no problem obtaining alcohol. An exercise carried out by the Taranaki Health Board last December showed how easy it was for underage drinkers to buy alcohol.
Two 18 year olds stood outside a liquor outlet and asked shoppers to buy alcohol for them. Half the shoppers agreed without asking their age.
Clendon in South Auckland has seven alcohol outlets for a population of 1500 people.
"The alcohol landscape young people are growing up in is an environment that has got a lot more risks in it than what previous generations had to contend with.
"It is a lot easier to get alcohol but a lot harder to control the impact of that," Mr Vaughn said.
Alcohol Advertising Aimed at Younger Audience
The Government should regulate alcohol advertising, not the alcohol industry, Mr Bell said.
Last year, an Australian marketer openly admitted that alcopops (RTD's) were disguised with sweeteners and flavours to hide the taste of alcohol. "It is quite clear that the industry wanted to get young people drinking alcohol," Mr Bell said.
He said the marketer admitted that "Alcopops are a more effective and easier way to get drunk faster", and "it is one of the few drinks where you don't necessarily know that you are drinking alcohol".
Overall alcohol consumption was at its highest point in 2006 since 1986, the main contributing cause being the 16.3 percent increase in the sales of spirit-based drinks or RTD's over the previous year, according to Statistics New Zealand.
Solutions
Around a third of young people in New Zealand indulge regularly in binge drinking and very few problem drinkers recognize this as being a problem or seek help, according to recent research by the Otago University School of Medicine.
The study, published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, interviewed 1003 young people at 21 years of age and then again at 25 years of age.
It showed that the heaviest problems drinkers were also those who were least likely to admit they had a problem or to seek help. Most viewed their drinking as normal.
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