The Trouble With Booze (Nigel Latta)

Here is the link in case you missed it last night. I’d be interested to hear everyone’s thoughts. My overwhelming feeling after watching was just “thank god I don’t have to worry about what that shit is doing to me any more” mixed in with a bit of “what a massive problem we have to fix in this country” followed by “I’m just going to focus on myself and those of us in the online recovery community and hopefully our ripples will start to filter out”.

The Trouble With Booze

52 Comments
  1. JudeD 10 years ago

    Just to let you know I have just watched it in the UK. The link here did not work, saying “out of region” so I googled it and did find a way to watch it 🙂
    All I can say is that you can substitute UK for NZ nearly all the time, it’s exactly the same here.
    I cannot ever imagine that our 4 big supermarket chains, which sell the majority of booze in this country, would allow a change in law to stop them from doing so. They are just too influential.
    Also I don’t believe that most people would want that either – it is just too convenient to to able to buy everything in one hit.
    I too was surprised about Mitsubishi! And that pathetic effort using that marketing lady!! Say no more!

    • hangoverfree 10 years ago

      Hi Jude I just watched it and completely concur. We all think that our own country is unique in it’s problem with booze but the statistics of problematic abuse (1 in 6) and the measures that would fix the problem: increased pricing, reduced availability, seriously reduced and controlled marketing and advertising (and I would agree with NZ & push the legal age up to 21 in the UK too) are EXACTLY the same here in the UK, as are the politicians lack of political will to take on the corporations (including Mitsubishi!!). As for the pro booze lobby marketing site telling people that there is less calories in alcohol than orange juice – that’s’ just appaulingly misleading of the facts and impact that booze has over OJ. Public health is drowning under the weight of the industry on both sides of the globe 🙁 This has to be a grass-roots people movement as the powers that be are not willing to acknowledge and resolve what all of us here can see clearly as we have suffered at the hands of this Class B drug!

  2. Squizzi 10 years ago

    What got me was the so very obvious link to breast cancer. I had never heard of it until I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer last year. The oncologist recommended after the operation and the gruelling radiation that I drink no more than 2 glasses of wine (I am waiting for her to say per night) per week! Yea right!!! I would rather have none than try and have 2 glasses of wine spread over a whole week!

    And it took a while and I tried repetitively to give up (after all I had the ultimate motivation) and I still couldn’t! Whats with that! I was disappointed, disgusted and horrified with myself.

    What made it worse is everytime I tried to have the conversation with my friends about whether I should give up or not due to the cancer link, they all said “don’t be ridiculous – if there was a link to breast cancer we would all know about it and if there was a link to breast cancer we would all have it!!” Good point. Maybe my oncologist was just being one of those really boring over the top highly cautious specialist who go around telling everyone this without the proof.

    The other thing that gave my friends credibility is the majority of them are nurses, one is actually a breast cancer nurse and another one is on the Breast Cancer board and they still said it was ridiculous. Now who is putting their heads in the sand??

    But that nightmare is over now. I have given up. No more waking at 3am in the morning worrying. I am free. Not necessarily free of the unknown but definitely free of the anxious gnawing guilt. I am doing everything in my power to life a full and HEALTHY life!!

    • housesitter 10 years ago

      Sorry to read about your breast cancer. I have exactly the same fears as you regarding this horrible disease! I heard a story on the radio about every drink you have per day increasing your chances of getting breast cancer by 10%. I guess that means that if you have 10 drinks per day (easy to do with wine) you have twice the risk of contracting breast cancer as a non-drinking woman? Thanks for bringing up with point which usually becomes more of a concern for women our (?) age. I’m 45. I even fantasize idly about getting a radical double mastectomy so I don’t have to worry about getting breast cancer any more. This sounds extreme now that I have written it down. Am enjoying some sobriety just now (three weeks into it!) so…

    • Lulu 10 years ago

      Hi Squizzi, totally get the skepticism re the doctor. Our family GP is death on alcohol to the point that we were kind of ignoring her as an extremist. Have to admit now she was probably onto something. I think the link to breast cancer has something to do with what alcohol does to female hormones.

    • pixie74 10 years ago

      like your story Suizzi 🙂

    • KAZBAH 10 years ago

      Squizzi- I am hearing you! X

  3. FinallyDawned 10 years ago

    Frustrated that I can’t play the programme due to technical stuff I don’t understand, although I could watch the trailer- grrrr! Just too far away across the ocean! Maybe it’ll find its way to YouTube?

    • JudeD 10 years ago

      Just managed to watch it in UK. I googled and up popped lots of steaming sites. Very informative! x

  4. sodapop 10 years ago

    And during the first (I think?) ad break of this show, what was advertised? A certain supermarket with a super special on – you guessed it – bottled wine. $7.95 a bottle. Bargain.

    • Nancy 10 years ago

      Yeah saw that – 🙁 comes down to the mighty advertising dollar again!

  5. Mickie 10 years ago

    Great comments people. I went from drinking a litre of vodka a day over two years to putting myself into rehab, I’ve had sobriety for 15 months and never want to drink alcohol again. We have and always will be surrounded by alcohol, I will teach my young children the risks of excessive drinking and all things are fine in moderation. I expect everyone to drink around me and my wife has a cupboard full of the poison! Its my mindset of what alcohol has done to me and the destruction physically and mentally that gives me no urge to drink. Congratulations to all the people starting their sobriety, it does become easy and life is so good without it. Lol 🙂

    • Lulu 10 years ago

      What language is this auto correct using? 😉 my email auto correct makes similar wacky substitutions.

      I meant to say There are so many reasons that alcohol is NOT going to go away

    • Lulu 10 years ago

      Good attitude Mickie and congrats on kicking what was definitely a serious habit! I agree with you that we need to accept the presence of alcohol. I believe statistics say that ten percent of people who use drugs(of any kind) will become addicted. There are just so many reasons that alcohol is of going to go away. It is the ten percent who must adjust, tilting at windmills is futile. We here in theStates gave prohibition a good try and it was a well known disaster. Education and affordable rehab for the ten percent seems the practical way to go.

    • gabbygirl14 10 years ago

      Great Job Mickie!!!! 15 months WOW! I have been alcohol free for 2 days now. I started on Julyl 22nd and drank a little each weekend but have decided I want to stop completely. I have 5 kids and honestly tonight (it is almost 10pm in Northern VA) 3 of them sucked the life out of me. I could have had a six pack no problem to relieve the stress. Instead I cried and yelled and wrote a letter to my boyfriend about why I was so mad. Drinking my Fresca and reading all the great comments from people that have been sober a while. My first goal is 30 days. THANK YOU for your comments!

  6. Ladyjudith 10 years ago

    Blow! the video can’t be viewed in my region – AU

    • JudeD 10 years ago

      I have just managed to watch it in UK. I googled and up popped lots of steaming sites. Very informative! x

    • Author
      Mrs D 10 years ago

      Hi I just checked with the TV network and they don’t upload it to You Tube unfortunately 🙁 .. the only thing would be to work out how to view it from your region.. maybe some clever techy person could help with that (I’m told there are ways but have no idea myself)…

    • Ladyjudith 10 years ago

      Perhaps if it was uploaded to you tube, we could view it in AU.

  7. Nancy 10 years ago

    Agree with all of the above on this, what scared me the most was the obvious power that the liquor industry has over this country and it’s economy (and the world by the sounds of it) – I don’t believe this is political as I strongly suspect that whichever political party was running the show the answer/lack of action would be the same from all of them, too scared to upset the big boys. Interesting to compare the figures re profits for the industry/shareholders and what alcohol abuse and passive alcohol abuse costs this country in real terms. Smoking carries a myriad of health warnings on packets along with graphic illustrations of which particular horrific way you will die, what it does to you etc, so how can the liquor industry get away with not doing the same? Its like a ferkin free ride for them to do as they please, FFS advertisers even use wine to help advertise Tenalady Pads! “blah loves a sav with the girls…blah blah” does she really? would love to see a spin on that one when she is shitfaced and slipping over in her own vomit and being abusive to her friends. ASH and other lobby groups have moved mountains in the battle to reduce smoking and it has worked – we bloody well need a lobby group against alcohol (maybe there is one? I dont know) – rant nearly over folks – this whole alcohol thing is just about effing money, more profits for shareholders, sod us everyday plebs who guzzle the stuff, they couldn’t give a flying f**k – well no more for this girl, i’m not lining their pockets anymore SO FUCK YOU MITSUBISHI!
    30 days free of that poisonous, fat cat profit making shit today! rant over, back to work for me 🙂

    • Pheonixrising 10 years ago

      Couldn’t have said it better myself

    • Pollyonthewagon 10 years ago

      You go girl Sooo agree with you Would be awesome to set up an ASH like lobby I reckon with the power of this community it is possible

    • nikkita 10 years ago

      Totally agree – and hey, a simple change of name of ‘Mitsubishi” on the Speights cans would decrease sales – I don’t think I’ve ever seen a ‘Southern Man’ with muscles and a bit of 4 x 2 in the corporate offices of Japan!

    • nomorebeersies 10 years ago

      Ha ha ha i love your rant! Amen to you sister, couldn’t have said it better myself! Bloody disgusting that $ are more important than human beings! Im 30 days free of the boozy rot too and man did i view that programme from a whole new perspective than what i probably would have 31 days ago!

    • Nancy 10 years ago

      @aprilaries – thanks i feel I have turned a beautiful sober corner in my life x

    • Nancy 10 years ago

      @sylvie – apparently a lot of the breweries including speights are owned by Mitsubishi 🙁

    • aprilaries 10 years ago

      You couldn’t have said it any clearer or better Nancy.
      Congrats on 1 month down 😉

    • Sylvie 10 years ago

      Mitsubishi, really didn’t see that one coming!

    • Gilbert 10 years ago

      Yeah!! Amen to that!

    • Nancy 10 years ago

      I feel better now I got that off my chest! 🙂

    • inthegarage66 10 years ago

      You go girl! 🙂

    • Nugget 10 years ago

      Well said, and ranted Nancy 😉 couldn’t agree more – now must get back to work too…

  8. Nugget 10 years ago

    It does seem to that some supermarkets don’t care of the harm or the impact alcohol has on the community. This has been highlighted by some of the wonderful members on this site where the wine is in your face as soon as you walk in the door by the fruit & veg. I know also through other work I do, they often get targeted by youths stealing casks of wine etc because it is so close to the front door. And even though the police request them to move the wine to an area less accesable, they keep it there as it makes money for them. Thank god there are supermarkets like my local New World who do hide it in the corner as much as they can, so i do have to make an effort to go past it.

    • Stella 10 years ago

      They should lock it out of sight like cigarettes.

    • Gilbert 10 years ago

      The Evendale,alcohol removed wine is on the very bottom shelf in the soft drink aisle in my local New World.It ran out 2 weeks ago when I bought the last 2 bottles. They told me today they won’t be restocking it.

  9. S.D. 10 years ago

    I felt ill watching that programme- what hope have our children and grandchildren got when they are getting sucked in with the marketing of the poison. The programme should of been shown at 7pm. Wouldn’t it be good if the media picked up on this, especially what Geoffrey Palmer had to say. OMG I a so pleased I am sober.

    • Squizzi 10 years ago

      They should add it into the Health section of the school curriculum. My kids came home from Health in Year 7 (11 years old!) and they had been taught about sex, condoms and STDs. But they don’t cover alcohol in the curriculum that I am aware of. Prehaps if they taught this in the same Health class they wouldn’t need to be preparing 11 year olds on how to protect themselves from getting STDs!!

    • Gilbert 10 years ago

      It’s on demand and I also taped it.My whole family will watch it together tonight.

    • freebreezi 10 years ago

      More FM with Simon and Gary talked a lot about it on their radio session this morning. And a few people rang in about it so some media avenues are running with it.
      Our children and our grandchildren have a lot of hope because they have us – we’ve made enormous and amazing changes and in doing so we have developed an awareness we didn’t have before. The best bit of wisdom is wisdom shared.

  10. justjane 10 years ago

    Good show. You know, I never drank as much when wine was not in the supermarkets. It is just became SO much easier for me, both in terms of convenience and not feeling the guilt I felt going to a dedicated liquor store. After all, I was grocery shopping – perfectly acceptable to grab wine as well. Or was that wine shopping, and grabbing a few groceries so it didn’t look so obvious?

    • Kat70 10 years ago

      And hiding the booze under the groceries so people didn’t see how much you had actually bought!

      I remember a checkout cashier commenting on the amount of booze me and my dh had bought one week and asked if we were having a party. Obviously I nodded and said yes..(oh the shame). Avoided her whenever we saw her again in case she commented about us being party animals 🙁

    • Freshstart 10 years ago

      Ha, ha – yes, fill the trolley up with things like 12-pack toilet rolls so the booze is less obvious! I can relate.

  11. inthegarage66 10 years ago

    Nigel Latta.
    Strengthened my resolve to quit.
    There is no such thing as a safe amount to drink. The only safe amount is zilch.
    It’s incredibly hard to quit. We are surrounded by the bloody stuff wherever we go.
    It’s cheaper than bottled water!
    The marketing process is constant, in your face, and committed to NZers buying more and more booze.
    Politicians don’t give a shit. All they want is the tax from selling this fucking poison.
    The Cheers website reminds me of the Rothmans Sports Foundation of the 1960’s – hypocritical.
    The Cheers website is NOT about reducing the amount of alcohol we drink. It’s (supposedly) about NZers changing the way we drink. Bullshit. How does that work?
    Alcohol is addictive. It wrecks relationships, it’s poisonous, and it’s directly connected to specific cancers – breast, bowel, and prostate.
    I repeat – there is no such thing as a safe amount to drink. The only safe amount is zilch.
    Day 24 for me friends. Hope you are all winning the fight against this addictive, abusive, cancerous shit.
    Remember, we are all here for each other. Quitting is hellish hard. If you are struggling, talk to us! Please. We really do care. ☺

    • janabel 10 years ago

      I noticed they all ummed and arrd about how much is safe to drink. Better to just go without i think. A whole lot easier and nicer anyway.

    • gabbygirl14 10 years ago

      Congrat’s for Day 24!!!!!!!!!!! You are my inspiration… I am on day 2. Day 2 almost over. Love all these posts and Mrs. D ROCKS!

    • Gilbert 10 years ago

      Day 24 too.This is just what we needed to strengthen our resolve.

    • fridaymay92014 10 years ago

      Congratulations on your Day 24. I am still working on Day 1. This could be the day. (I do say that almost every day.) I did not see this program but the responses are enlightening.

    • Freshstart 10 years ago

      Bang on inthegarage – and thank goodness for someone like Nigel being prepared to stand up and say what he said. Scary how politics works, and how revealing that former Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer – who was at the helm when the alcohol reforms incl. selling it in supermarkets were brought in – is now so prepared to admit the government of the day were wrong and did a lot of harm. I’m darned sure if booze wasn’t available in supermarkets some inhibition about walking into the local booze shop too often might well have saved me from starting down that slippery slope. And we all know, it’s those first few steps that could make the difference.

      When I was primary school aged, I remember my mum standing all three of us kids outside the liquor store on the very occasional time she went in to buy something – usually because she had a party or there was a special celebration. It was not okay for kids to be seen in a liquor outlet (or a bar – actually, ladies were not allowed in a lot of bars, either.) All in all, the message was not that alcohol was this mysterious thing which could be indulged in when we got to a certain age. It was really that it should be treated with respect. (Tell that to alcopop swilling teens!)

      Alcohol has become so much a part of society – what we do, how we behave, what we “need” – that it’s hard to imagine our society without it. I say “Yay” to living sober – and Mrs D, you’ve really started something here. The winds of change are blowing – let’s hope our kids get to live in a society which wakes up to the damage alcohol is doing, recognises the real cost of letting alcohol take over the way it has, and changes the laws for a start.

    • Sylvie 10 years ago

      Yes!

  12. behind-the-sofa 10 years ago

    I would sooner enter a radioactive area with no protective clothing than enter the booze section of the supermarket. And contaminated and noxious is how it appears to me. The people standing in there picking up and perusing the bottles
    seem like skeletons reading about a life they once had and above their heads is a sign which reads Death.

  13. freebreezi 10 years ago

    Very intense show. I watched it with my husband who still enjoys his beer and yet shared the same views about the industry as I do. I am glad I no longer do alcohol. It’s going to be a tough challenge changing viewpoints, wine and beer are just a normal part of the grocery shop. In our supermarket it’s right there next to the toilet paper, tea and coffees……. our children are growing up with it everywhere like that so it’s a very normal part of our life. That is so sad but does go towards explaining the hold it has over us. I was shocked to hear that Cheers website compared alcohol to milk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Interesting that that lady got very defensive, I’ve noticed that people get defensive when alcohol is the issue. Like they need to make sure it’s okay and it’s all alright. Sites like this one, all of us in this community, show very clearly that things aren’t okay and that so many of us for varying reasons are making a change. Change comes from us each individually first and moves forward from there. Smokes are no longer legally able to be visible in the outlets they are sold in and yet alcohol is very visible and in areas where everyone of all ages can see it and access it. When I first stopped drinking my husband called into a 4 Square and thought he’d treat me to a non alcoholic drink and brought home a bottle of cider. He genuinely believed it was non alcoholic and at 5% it most certainly wasn’t. He brought it because it was right by the check out with the lollies and chips. A good first step would be to take alcohol out of the supermarkets. That is a money challenge but it’s achievable. We just need to keep on doing what we are doing and to be honest about it [as much as we can]. Smoking got changed, alcohol can to.

    • Sylvie 10 years ago

      I thought Nigel was reasonably kind to the Cheers spokesperson. Her defensiveness spoke volumes. I am tired of the young people that ring up wanting to sell wine through the various wine clubs my husband belongs to. Also the daily emails that come through with these super duper deals. As I write this the answer presents itself. I’ll un-whatever-you -do to the emails, and tell the merchants of pre-frontal cortex destruction to stop ringing the alcoholic. That’ll work. Husband won’t notice.

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