It is time to bottle the demon

This article was published in The Sydney Morning Herald 14 November 2010

Our streets are awash in booze and blood. Something must be done.

After another week of appalling acts of random violence on our streets, we have to confront an unpalatable notion: more liberal drinking laws are turning us into a nation of drunks and bash artists.

The death of Pakenham teenager Cameron Lowe and the vicious attack on three young men in Edithvale may or may not have been linked to alcohol use but, most acts of random violence are. Just ask any cop on the beat or any emergency ward medico.

Our drunken ways are expensive and too often tragic. We can't go anywhere now without a drink - sport, the theatre, the movies - and what's worse, we too often drink to excess. Or we top it up with an illicit substance. Then we climb behind the wheels of cars, or careen through the city and suburbs and pick fights just because someone looked at us the wrong way.