The Alcohol thread...

[catching fish]

Great strategy. Kick everyone out onto the streets when they are the most intoxicated and during taxi changeover time. Can't see that going wrong.

 

[thehappyhippy]

Also, I like how they think closing bottle shops at 10pm will stop violence ??? people are just gonna buy more alcohol !

 

[spacejunk]

Police have to justify their budgets and "non lethal" (how fucking ironic/moronic) weapons somehow.
Violence only causes more violence - and the state has the monopoly on violence.
Yet another reason why booze is legal.
It can make people behave like belligerent dickheads, but not the kind that threaten the status quo; just those in their immediate vicinity.
Nothing like a bad drunken decision to "earn" you a jolt of taser or a face full of capsicum spray.

Stupid, reactionary politics - all based on tv news soundbytes to show that the powers that be are "doing something" about "alcohol fuelled violence".
Easy solution to make the police commissioner and the minister look like they're doing their jobs effectively.
One big easy scam. Keep the big brewing companies happy, let the boys in blue have their fun, and make the tv-saturated masses feel too scared to leave their homes at night.
All makes for a pretty bleak situation.
Call me a cynic if you will, but IMO none of the fuckers involved in enforcing "safer streets" really want much of a change from the status quo.
Shit, the decline of MDMA and the rise of methamphetamine - and return of a lot of the nightclub scene back to heavy drinking - has been great PR for the people invested in the peddling of alcohol, the legislators of knee-jerk laws - and the message that going out and having a good time is a bad thing. Keeps the propaganda machine running at full steam.

 

[One Thousand Words]

Alcohol doesn't create dick heads, usually they are dicks to begin with. How many times do you hear someone say they are going to get on the piss and go look for a fight? They make this decision well before they pick up a bottle. It wouldn't matter what their drug of choice is they going to be antisocial. I have been to plenty of raves over the years and there was always idiots making a fool of themselves. To say that a huge group of people on MDMA is always full of plur is a little overstated. I have been to plenty of weddings where everyone is drunk rotten and never seen a fight either. Alcohol isn't the problem, it's societies lack of empathy and overall loss of manners towards strangers. It's the ego and attitude of a small number of (usually) young men who think that violence and power need to go hand in hand.

Closing bars and bottle shops early won't stop people getting drunk, they will just change their drinking habits around the new hours. 6pm closing time 50 years ago didn't mean there weren't drunks fighting in the street. The main difference from today no one carried a camera to document it and use it as a badge of honour. A change in laws won't change peoples attitudes.

 

[5000m]

I agree with the above posts.. I lived in Sydney cbd for 7 years and I doubt these changes will be effective in solving the 'alcohol fueled violence' problem.

There are too many drinking establishments within the Sydney CBD and not enough in other areas of Sydney, so everyone flocks to the city on the weekend. more people from different areas clashing with each other = more violence

There aren't enough taxis for people to leave the city after a night out. people waiting around, uncomfortable and wanting to go home - end up fighting. especially when taxis with their available light on drive up to them, see they're a wasted mess then ignore them and keep driving past

Also as OTW says, some people just shouldn't be drinking if they always turn into an aggressive dickhead, people like this are making the conscious decision to enter that state of mind, so it's their own fault for getting involved in violence imo. Find another drug which agrees with your body or something.

There's no point to a lockout time really if they're still serving drinks and remaining open until later. The government is wasting time and money here trying to fix a problem they can't really understand

 

[One Thousand Words]

So true about drunks queuing always getting into fights. It's no coincidence that people get into fights in cab lines or out the front of food shops. It's almost like lighting a fuse forcing drunk strangers to stand next to each other in a confined space for more than 5 minutes.

 

[ensta]

^Don't mean to be cunt and doubt what your saying , but... there aren't worms in Tequila.

All Mexican Tequilas and especially top shelf one have stringent production that prohibit impurities such as gusanos.

The worm you're talking about is found in a different drink called Mezcal .

What poledriver said.

a) Tequila is a type of Mezcal
b) The worm is a sales gimmick that set back the appreciation of Mezcal, in my opinion, decades

Further, there is no such thing as a non-Mexican tequila...

 

[Dr Phibes]

Alcohol doesn't create dick heads, usually they are dicks to begin with.

Back in my day a 'king hit' was considered wimpy. Today's politicians don't know a king hit from a fight. Danny Green is right about teaching some rules and ethics. King hits used to be considered gutless (in my day). Politicians should not override courts. Westminster System anyone?

 

[bit_pattern]

I agree with the above posts.. I lived in Sydney cbd for 7 years and I doubt these changes will be effective in solving the 'alcohol fueled violence' problem.

There are too many drinking establishments within the Sydney CBD and not enough in other areas of Sydney, so everyone flocks to the city on the weekend. more people from different areas clashing with each other = more violence

The 'problem' has actually been in decline for several decades and even compared to recent times both assaults and alcohol use in the Sydney CBD has been declining. What we are witnessing is government-by-tabloid-journalism.

 

[bit_pattern]

Alcohol doesn't create dick heads, usually they are dicks to begin with

I don't necessarily agree with the agenda this guy is pushing but the literature he cites is quite interesting, links in the original found here: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-21/berg-neo-prohibition/5210782

The relationship between alcohol and violence is not as clear cut as you might expect. Yes, much violent crime is caused by intoxicated people. The doctors and police are right. But figuring out whether alcohol actually causes the violence is quite hard.

Correlation, as we all know, is not causation.

The most common theory is that alcohol lowers inhibitions. It directly anesthetises the parts of the brain that we use to regulate our everyday behaviour. Alcohol changes us physically, and in a way that makes some people more aggressive.

From experiments in laboratory settings we know that people who consume alcohol exhibit more aggressive behaviour.

But the inhibition theory is not the only theory which could explain this.

Some experiments have shown that people tend to get more aggressive even when given a placebo. That is, when they are told they are going to have an alcoholic drink, but are secretly given a non-alcoholic tonic, they get aggressive anyway. Thus the 'expectations' theory suggests people get more aggressive when intoxicated simply because they expect to get more aggressive when intoxicated. They think aggression is more socially acceptable in a drunk.

There are other theories. The connection between alcohol and violence could be indirect. Intoxication reduces intellectual function, causing us to exaggerate provocation and to needlessly provoke others.

But these theories only take us so far. It's one thing to show in a lab that people who believe they are intoxicated people are marginally more aggressive than those who are sober. It's quite another to draw policy conclusions from that finding.

The overwhelming majority of people drink without getting violent. (Some people just get more helpful.) In the real world, humans are able to regulate their behaviour even while intoxicated. Even if alcohol 'causes' violence, it only causes it rarely, and in a tiny fraction of people.

Even drunk people make choices. Even drunk people can be moral. We are not machines. Public policy ought not to treat us like machines.

 

[heythatsmybike]

Ok, curiosity has finally got the better of me. Now that I am a uni student, my bank account is suffering. I can no longer afford any of my usual stress relievers like weed, heroin or even alcohol and usage has to go sparingly. At the moment, I have a bottle of triple sec sitting on the shelf, and ½ a bottle of kracken (mmmmmmmmmmm) this is all I have to last me for the next month. Obviously if I were to drink it, it would probably last a week tops.

Sifting through the piles of cerebral bulimia people seem to purge when it comes to the topic, I decided to start off low, and take it day by day with increasing the dosage. There really isn't any sound advice on how much should be administered, or how it should be administered in general.

Every couple of days I will come back and update my experiences, and possibly throw out some questions for those who have a good understanding of the human anatomy. If I don't return, assume that I am probably dead, but it probably wont come to this.

What am I talking about? Rectal administration of alcohol.

If you have something to say about it, please keep it on topic and only add to discussion. There is already enough out there with the serious question being asked, only to have people retort in their own retarded way and it makes it impossible for those who wish to find the real information to do so.

I would love to hear tales from other rectanaughts, if you exist.

EDIT: tonight's dose, using a 10 ml syringe is 7ml triple sec, 3ml water (for some dialation). Just administered 5 minutes ago, and am feeling slightly intoxicated with a very rapid growth in body warmth

 

[Captain Brewster]

^ I hope this went okay.

And I'm hopeful you can keep us updated as to how your month goes.

My main concern is alcohol suddenly being introduced into the bloodstream, as opposed to letting your liver deal with it first.

 

[Halif]

How many times do you hear someone say they are going to get on the piss and go look for a fight?

Geez, 1K - who are you hanging out with? You really hear that often?

I've heard it only once or twice, and these were people who I rapidly left the company of. I am not disagreeing that there is indeed an extremely unfortunate minority of people who get lots of media coverage for committing super lame beatings - generally targeting people who are totally outnumbered and are not fighters to begin with.

It makes me wonder who these people are who are so disillusioned that they do these things. I think it's tragic, really.

Having said that, sympathy flies out the window when you're on the receiving end of a beating and you have no choice but to suck it up because if you fight back, you're FUCKED. Few years back, I got punched in the face repeatedly while some guys held me against a car choking me. It was me and one friend and our "crime" was trying to get into our car which these dudes had turned into their outdoor suite. There were at least fifteen of them.

At first I almost laughed because they were wasted and their punches were piss weak and a disgrace. Shit was less funny as time went on and I copped more punches. I started getting pretty fucking angry - mostly at the guy with his hands around my neck - and was two seconds away from basically committing suicide by smashing this guys face in.

Had I done that, I'd be dead. You can't win with two against more than a dozen.

Piss weak. For those who like to hit stuff (and those who don't mind getting hit back, hard): Join a fighting gym. It's great exercise, everyone there is up for it, and as you improve you have less need to prove how tough you are. Any half-way decent fighter would not be caught dead roaming the streets in a pack looking for weak targets.

 

[Nicklazz]

Is it true you guys in Australia only got shite beers? My brother was in Australia 1 year, traveled most of the country around, he found 1 beer that tasted OK, rest was pure garbage he said.

 

[Captain Brewster]

Mainstream Australian beer standards aren't that great. Very plain, and not much emphasis on flavour. Their served extremely cold to avoid the dodgy flavours.

Plenty of small craft breweries producing amazing beer. Their not hard to find, and generally quite a few in each capital city, as well as regional areas.

It's what turned me to home brewing years ago.

 

[opi8]

Having family members die is never fun. Who else started drinking at midday and who can stop me from doing the same thing tomorrow?

 

[laugh]

can't stop you tomorrow, but i can join. sorry to hear about the family member, mate. hope you are all good.

 

[spacejunk]

Yeah, my condolences opi8.
It's never fun - and it's never easy to know what to say or do to help someone grieving.
I'm sure it goes without saying that we (that is, the good people of bluelight) are here for you in any way we can be.
Look after yourself, mate.

 

[opi8]

Thanks guys. No need to worry about me, I have a steady supply of beer.

I am also visiting a friend who's been given less than a couple months to live tomorrow, it was less than a month ago he was diagnosed. Cancer is a fucking cunt.

 

[poledriver]

Yeah cancer really sucks, sorry to hear about your family member passing and your sick friend. I've lost 4 close relatives in the last 8 years from cancer, it's very hard to witness them in so much pain and suffering.