+ Health

Drink
saved their lives.

68 | NORTH & SOUTH | january 2010

ameron Hawkins didnt

intend to get on the turps
the night he accidentally
drank himself to death. It
was a Saturday, but the
horticulture student had
a shift at the Mr Apple
packing shed the next day and wanted an
early night.
He even headed to bed for a nap around
8pm, but when he heard his mates partying,
got up and joined in.
donna chisholm is north & souths
editor-at-large.

picture from corbis

As the Law Commission

considers how to curb the
countrys booze culture, Donna
Chisholm tells the story of four
young men who didnt survive a
night of drinking and asks what,
if any, law changes might have

Researchers
estimate the
lethal dose
is about 30
standard drinks,
although some
die with less
booze on board
or survive with
much more.
Camerons blood
alcohol level was
396mg per 100ml
of blood almost
five times the
legal driving
limit.

7 0 | N O R T H & S O U T H | JANUARY 2 0 1 0

CAMERON HAWKINS
Born February 23, 1989. Died Hawkes Bay,
March 2, 2008.

Above: Cameron Hawkins.

Saturday nights usually signalled party

time in the sociable Taradale flat he had moved
into with his best friends Lucas Holmberg,
Matt Hellyer and Stephanie Brenchley only
a few weeks earlier. Theyd crack open the
Woodstocks and Tuis early in the evening and
be pleasantly cut by the time they cabbed into
town for happy hour at the Havelock Tavern
at 11pm, when Midori Illusions were only
$7.50, half-price. But this night a balmy endof-summer evening theyd got on the booze
early, there was plenty left still, and nobody
could really be bothered.
It was cheaper to stay home, too. The
Taradale bottle store always gave them good
deals on the Woodstock bourbon and cokes
$25 for 18 and loads of free, branded stuff
like Frisbees, jandals and keychains. They
knew me and Cam by name, says Lucas, so
they often did specials just for us. We got twofor-one deals.
The Taradale flatmates werent the only
ones getting pissed that night. As they partied
around the stereo, they could hear the strains
of Jimmy Barnes and Tom Jones performing
to a much wealthier crowd at the Mission
Vineyard concert just a kilometre away an
evening one reviewer would describe as a
booze fest.
By the time that the Mission crowd had
dispersed around midnight, paramedics were
trying to revive Cameron Hawkins. But by
3am, he was dead. He had just turned 19.

hazardously than others the same age.

The deaths of Hawkins, Cranswick and
Neil were mentioned anonymously in the
weighty Law Commission paper Alcohol in
our Lives, released last July, which proposed
a raft of options to limit the harm New
Zealanders do every day by drinking too
much. Among them were price increases
and raising the purchase age for off-licence
liquor. The commission heard submissions
on the report for three months in 2009 and
its final recommendations will be released
in March. They look likely to lead to the
biggest shakeup to our liquor laws since
they were liberalised in 1989.
For the families of these young men, change
will come too late. Yes, their sons were
foolhardy, they say of course they shouldnt
have drunk so much but the culpability is
not theirs alone.

ameron Hawkins, Daniel

Hansman, Willy Cranswick
and Neil [Neils family asked
that North & South respect
their privacy by not publishing
their surname.]
Four young men. All tertiary students. All
kids from provincial centres living away
from home for the first time. All dead from
alcohol.
But these were not stereotypical booze
deaths. These kids didnt get into a car and
drive. They didnt get violent. They broke
no laws. But they all got drunk and died.
Hawkins, who attended Napiers Eastern
Institute of Technology, and Neil, a
Canterbury University science student, drank
so much it seems they just keeled over and
dropped dead. Hansman fell off the wharf
near Wellingtons overseas terminal and
drowned. Cranswick was playing bull-rush
in a student bar in Palmerston North and hit
his head on someones knee. No one at the
pub did anything to help and he died of an
undiagnosed brain bleed the next day.
These were good boys, among our brightest
and best university students with big dreams,
high hopes and a love of life, adored by their
families, cherished by their friends.
And each of them a victim of the many
and varied ways in which alcohol is targeted
at youth particularly university students
who, the research shows, drink more

haremilkers Shona and Mark

Hawkins had been hard-out
drinkers in their youth but gave up
when they joined the Salvation
Army about 10 years ago. Cameron,
one of six children, was a junior soldier in
the army until he converted to Catholicism
at 17. His parents had repeatedly warned him
of the perils of drinking. By the time I was
26, Id buried 13 of my mates and most of
them were from alcohol four in one crash,
says Mark.
Shona and Mark asked Camerons friends
to talk to North & South about the night
Cameron died in the hope it might save
another young person from the same fate.
The flatmates, now aged 20 and 21, said
Cameron started the night on beers and
Woodstock ready-to-drink (RTD) bourbons
but later moved on to a concoction they
called Jake the Muss a mix of beer, Bacardi,
Everglades liqueurs and Jim Beam. Cameron
was sculling the lethal brew from his
favourite gimmicky Coke glass which flashed
when you pushed the button on the bottom.
He must have had about three of them, says
Lucas, but it was hard to keep track.
The friends admit this was a boozy flat.
Food was often sacrificed for drink, and
theyd survive on takeaway McDonalds and
Burger King and supermarket meat patties.
We had heaps of top-shelf stuff, says Lucas.
Our fridge was always full of bottles:
Woodstocks mainly. There was Jim Beam,

Shona and Mark Hawkins got the news

when Mark was bringing in the second herd
for milking on the farm at Reporoa. Police
told him Cameron had choked. The Hawkins
didnt find out how much alcohol was
involved until weeks later.
Lucas Holmberg says before his best mate
died, hed thought the only way alcohol killed
kids his age was through drink-driving. Thats
why they always used a sober driver.
They had no idea that alcohol in high doses
could itself be a killer. Researchers estimate
the lethal dose is about 30 standard drinks,
although some die with less booze on board
or survive with much more.
Camerons blood-alcohol level was 396mg
per 100ml of blood almost five times the
legal driving limit. His intake could have

john cowpland

absinthe, Johnny Walker... I would spend $60

to $70 a week on alcohol. I spent more than
Cam because I drank more Cam was more
into saving money but I didnt care if I saved
at that time.
While the others began drinking earlier
that day We were half-cut by the time he
started Cameron seemed unintentionally
to be playing catch-up after he joined them.
I dont think he wanted me to drink alone,
says Lucas. And one led to another and
another.
The flatmates were avid fans of WWE
wrestling and, on big drinking nights, theyd
award a wrestling belt to the last man
standing. It wasnt on the line that night, but
when he was really wasted, Cameron said he
wanted to win the belt.
At 11.30, Cameron, happy but slurring,
got up off the sofa and fell over, hitting the
TV on the way down. Lucas, Matt and
another flatmate, James, lifted him to his
feet and carried him to bed where they put
him in the recovery position with a bucket
nearby. Theyd never seen their friend so
drunk and, though tipsy themselves, were
sufficiently worried to check him every few
minutes.
Just after midnight, Lucas found Cameron
unconscious with his lips dark blue and his
tongue badly swollen. A river of vomit poured
out when they opened his mouth.
As Stephanie called an ambulance, Matt
and Lucas began CPR while James tried the
Heimlich manoeuvre. Paramedics tried for
more than two hours to bring Cameron
Hawkins back to life with electric shocks and
adrenalin.
At the sound of the flatlining heart monitor,
a devastated Matt Hellyer threw a chair at
the wall and screamed.

Top: Camerons flatmates Lucas Holmberg (left), Matt Hellyer and Stephanie Brenchley.
Above: Camerons parents, Mark and Shona Hawkins.

been fatal even at 300-350mg.

Despite the fact the flatmates were stocking
their fridge with cheap alcohol, they believe
higher prices wouldnt have significantly cut
their intake.
North & South asked them if any warnings
could have changed the outcome.
Said Stephanie: No, absolutely nothing. I
reckon we would have just been, No, that
wont happen to us.
Lucas: No, it wont hit [other young adults]
until it hits them like it hit us.
They dont drink as much now, though
Lucas admits he sometimes gets wasted to
take away the pain.
Shona Hawkins says when she went back
to the Taradale flat to pick up her dead sons
clothes, a friend of the flatmates gave her the
wrestling belt.

At 11.30,
Cameron, happy
but slurring, got
up off the sofa
and fell over,
hitting the TV on
the way down.
She said, Here, Cam won this; he deserves
this.
She knew it was offered with love but, she
says, I just wanted to grab it and throw it
against the wall in that split second. All I
thought was, Thats robbed me of my son.
Thats taken my son.
N O R T H & S O U T H | JANUARY 2 0 1 0 | 7 1

NEIL
Born November 1984. Died Christchurch,
September 23, 2008.

It was going to be a
good day. The plan was
to have a few drinks
and check out a few
girls, basically have a
good time, one friend
told the coroner.

Drinking in
New Zealand

bout 1000 people a year die

of alcohol-related causes
about half because of
accidents and a quarter from
alcohol-related cancers.
Since July 2007, 16 New Zealanders with no
history of alcoholism have died of alcohol
toxicity from a drinking binge.
Waikato coroner Peter Ryan said he had
four inquests in six months in 2008 in which
people had drunk themselves to death.
In September 2009, there was another a
24-year-old man whod died with a bloodalcohol level of 330mg, more than four times
the legal driving limit.
These seem to be ordinary people doing
ordinary things drinking socially but to an
excessive degree.
I dont think the public are aware that
simply by drinking to excess they could end
up dead as a result of aspirating vomit or
suppressing the respiratory system.
He said even he hadnt been aware of it
until the inquests. He said warning labels on
alcohol could raise public awareness.
Wellington Hospital emergency
department specialist Paul Quigley said it
was impossible to know the difference
between a drunk who would simply sleep it
off and those who would die. Everyone who
drinks to the point that they are unrousable
is at risk of death. Its as simple as that.
It was best to keep the drunk awake
if possible, or place them in the recovery
position with their head in a slightly
downward position so that any vomit would
trickle away.

7 2 | N O R T H & S O U T H | JANUARY 2 0 1 0

ix months after Cameron Hawkins

died, Canterbury University
science student Neil a fit but
lightly built 23-year-old lost his
life in strikingly similar circumstances. Like Cameron, Neil had been
drinking heavily, but over a much longer
period; he and his friends had attended the
students day at the Riccarton races before
continuing to drink at the home of his
childhood friend Chris.
The Canterbury Jockey Club cancelled
students day in September 2009 after
disorderly behaviour by alcohol-fuelled
students in 2008 although hundreds turned
up anyway to honour the tradition started in
the late 1990s. In those days, the club offered
students entry to the course, food and all the
beer and wine they could drink for $50. By
2008, however, when numbers swelled to
more than 1000, the ticket price fell to $45
and free drinks were capped at three.
Neils inquest heard everyone was in high
spirits and dressed for the occasion; hed
borrowed a suit for the day. It was going to
be a good day. The plan was to have a few
drinks and check out a few girls, basically
have a good time, one friend told the coroner.
There were no negatives everyone was
just out to have a good time.
They bought two three-litre casks of red
wine from the Riccarton Mall Pak n Save
on the way, and drank it mixed with Coke.
Neils mate Charles said they didnt eat
anything at the races, and Neil was also
drinking beer. He was photographed holding
up a can of Speights.
Neil and his friends had done the right
thing by getting a sober driver to pick them
up from the races about 4pm. On the way
home, they stopped at the Riccarton Rd
Countdown and picked up a 12-pack of
Corona beer, and they still had the remains
of the red wine.
Around 10pm, despite being very drunk,
Neil walked to a nearby Burger King for
takeaways. One friend said no one that night
seemed particularly intoxicated and Neil,
while past tipsy was not offensively
drunk. He wasnt slurring his words or
stumbling into anything that I noticed.
What happened next shows how shockingly
quickly alcohol can shut down the body.
Just before 11pm, Neil was sitting in a
friends car outside Chriss flat. At 11pm, they
came inside to get ready to go into town to

play pool at the Rockpool Bar on Hereford St.

At 11.40pm, just before leaving for town, Neil
was so drunk he fell off a chair and was helped
to the couch, but said he was fine. Ten minutes
later, just like Cameron Hawkins, he got up
from the couch, and fell over.
Within seconds, his friends realised something was terribly wrong Neil was vomiting
but his jaw was clamped tightly shut and they
were unable to clear his airway.
Paramedics began CPR and Neil was
admitted to Christchurch Hospitals intensivecare unit, where his blood-alcohol level was
only marginally lower than Camerons, at
370mg. He died two days later.
Neils parents said their son was not usually
a heavy drinker but enjoyed socialising with
friends. Although the coroner referred his
report on Neils death to the Alcohol Advisory
Council, the Law Commission and Minister
of Justice as an extreme example of the
consequences of alcohol abuse, his parents
said a pathologist gave evidence Neil may
have had an underlying heart condition.
The loss of our son is unbearable for us,
they said in a statement to North & South.
The truly sad thing is that the choices made
by these young people who have died are
no different than those made by many other
young and not-so-young people every day
in New Zealand. Alcohol is an accepted
killer drug in our society. Young people do
not seem to connect the seriousness of the
effects of alcohol and its ability to kill or
seriously harm them. For most of them, it
will seldom become an issue, but our son
paid the ultimate price.
They said while media emphasised the
risks of drink-driving, education needed to
focus on drinkers being responsible all the
time, not just when driving.
Many young people do not drink heavily
at all, but on isolated occasions they become
binge drinkers. On this day, the alcohol was
readily available at the race meeting from
late morning and purchased from the
supermarket.
New Zealand needed to change its attitude
to alcohol, they said.
We will never be able to accept the premature death of our lovely son. He was considerate and thoughtful, quietly spoken and
so interested in everything concerning the
world. Our memories of him are precious,
and we grieve for him, the loss of his future,
the wonderful potential and opportunities
of every kind ahead for him, and simply his
presence.

A computeranimation student
in his second year
away from home,
Daniel Hansman
was quiet and
peace-loving.
Ironically, says
his mother Jean,
Daniel said he
didnt even like
the taste of
alcohol, and never
drank before he
turned 18.

DANIEL HANSMAN
Born September 17, 1986. Died Wellington,
August 10, 2006.

aniel Hansman was so wasted

the night he fell off the wharf
into Wellington Harbour that
his friends had needed to carry
him to the Coyote Bar in
Courtenay Place. Theyd already got drunk
at a student party, but the bars offer of free
admission or cut-price drinks parents
Eddie and Jean cant remember which was
not to be missed.
He was totally tanked up; right off his tree,
says Eddie, but his friends were determined
to go because of the free passes.
Declined admission to the bar about 9pm,
Daniel lost track of his friends and spent
several hours searching and texting before
toppling into the water near the overseas
terminal. No one knows exactly what time,
but his friends phone records suggest it may
have been up to three hours later.
The Hansmans believe he was heading for
another popular student haunt near the
terminal when he drowned. His body was
not found for a week.
Theyd travelled to Wellington from
Taranaki most weekends to visit Daniel at
the flat he shared with four other students
from the Naki, and had become alarmed at
how much he was drinking. He was getting
drunk at least once a week, and binge
drinking a couple of other nights.
The teenagers would drink the cheapest

thing they could find often supermarket

wine. Wed gone down and growled at him
a couple of times, and said things like, Youve
got to watch it, eh. You cant keep going like
that, says Eddie.
He was trying to slow down and not do it
all the time, a heartbroken Jean told North
& South. He even rang my mum two weeks
before this happened because she was so
worried about his drinking. Id kept telling
Mum I was really scared for him and she told
him, Be careful, look after yourself. Daniel
said, Dont worry, Nana, Im going to cut
down and slow down. Im not going to do
that stuff any more.
A computer-animation student in his second
year away from home, Daniel Hansman was
quiet and peace-loving and his parents
believe he drank to ease his shyness around
women. The other problem was boredom, his
mother says. At home, he went surfing or
played the drums neither of which he could
do at Victoria. He didnt have a car to get to
the beach and couldnt disturb the other
students with his drums.
Ironically, says Jean, Daniel said he didnt
even like the taste of alcohol, and never drank
before he turned 18.
Had she realised the danger her son was in
at university she wouldnt have let him go till
he was older. They are definitely in peril.
They go from being at school where their lives
are controlled and there are rules and all of a
sudden they have no boundaries. A lot of
parents dont know whats going on. We
thought we were doing the right thing we

were so keen for him to go and get a degree

but if Id known I was throwing him into
this drinking culture I would never have sent
him there so young.
The Hansmans prepared a submission for
the Law Commission in October, suggesting
the drinking age be returned to 20 and
alcohol removed from supermarkets.
They say the coroner made no recommendations about alcohol at Daniels inquest.
The only thing thats been done is that
where he fell in, they have life rings now,
says Eddie.

WILLY CRANSWICK
Born December 30, 1983. Died Wellington,
September 24, 2003.

airarapa sheep farmers Rod

and Belinda Cranswick
always worried about the
heavy drinking culture at
Massey Universitys Palmerston North
campus. At son Willys orientation week, says
Belinda, theyd even erected what they called
a spew tent to look after the drunks.
The most popular student pub was The
Fitz, where Willy, a second-year business
student, and three friends each downed
about 24 double bourbons before playing
bull-rush with bar staff. Willy was knocked
out for about five or 10 minutes during the
game but staff failed to call the ambulance
which could have saved his life despite
being twice requested to do so. He died two
days later after being flown to Wellington
Hospitals intensive-care unit. His parents
had to make the decision to turn off his life
support.
Willys girlfriend, Rebecca Collins, who
says she lost the love of my life when he
died, had never seen him and his mates as
drunk as they were that night. We were all
students, we all went out and had fun, but I
couldnt believe the state they were in.
Theyd had 100 drinks between them.
Shed been called to pick Willy up around
midnight and found him sitting outside on
the ground where bar staff had put him,
apparently after one said he was an
embarrassment to the pub. She took Willy
to her flat, and her flatmate helped get him
to bed. He was in great spirits, slurring and
rambling good-naturedly, happy that hed
been with his mates, and he loved those guys
so much.
She found him unconscious in bed the
next morning.
At one of the hearings following Willys
N O R T H & S O U T H | JANUARY 2 0 1 0 | 7 3

The bar manager

testified that Willy
and his mates
werent drunk. We
asked him what his
interpretation of the
term pissed was,
says Rod Cranswick,
and he said, When
they stand at the bar
and pee their pants.
7 4 | N O R T H & S O U T H | JANUARY 2 0 1 0

death which included his inquest and

liquor-licence reviews the bar manager
testified that Willy and his mates werent
drunk. We asked him what his interpretation
of the term pissed was, says Rod Cranswick,
and he said, When they stand at the bar and
pee their pants.
So it was in appalled disbelief that they
heard a judge acquit the bar manager of
breaching the Sale of Liquor Act by serving
drunk patrons. At Willys inquest, Palmerston
North surgeon Richard Coutts contradicted
the decision, saying Willy was intoxicated.
It beggars belief that anyone could find
otherwise.
The Cranswicks believe help wasnt called

that night because staff feared police

attention would follow after all, staff had
served Willy and his friends six $48 trays of
16 doubles at a time.
They accept, of course, that Willys drinking
that night was foolhardy, but their anger at
the bar managers lack of responsibility for
Willys wellbeing remains. The heartbreak
of losing our beloved Willy is hard enough,
but the fact the bar manager turned his back
on him when he so desperately needed help
is too much to bear.
Says Rod: Belinda asked the bar manager
why he didnt ring an ambulance. He said, I
dont have to put up with listening to this
crap and walked off and left us.
Theyd always feared Masseys booze
culture and hammered the safe-drinking
message to all three of their kids.
You can tell them till youre blue in the
face but teenagers are always going to do
silly things and why shouldnt they have a
bit of fun? so there need to be safety nets
for them, says Belinda.
The universitys community manager wrote
to the pub after Willys death, saying that while
students needed to take some responsibility
for their actions, they were aggressively
targeted, a lucrative market, and vulnerable
because they were inexperienced drinkers.
The Cranswicks have a box of cuttings of
ads by the Fitz and other pubs in the student
newspaper Chaff offering deals such as three
Cruisers for $10, $2 triples and $1 nips of
Jim Beam every Tuesday. Students were
bombarded by flyers in the mailbox, and
alcohol-branded material. You are really
battling the liquor industry, says Belinda,
and its very powerful.
Like Daniel Hansman, Willy Cranswick
was planning to cut down on his drinking.
Says Belinda: He told his sister a week before
he died that he was getting sick of Palmerston
North and the pub scene. Alcohol was a
novelty in the first year but he was over it.
After Willys death, alcohol was banned
from student hostels at Massey University
from Monday to Thursday. The Fitz closed
last December.

There is a risk
for young people
going to a
university away
from their family,
says researcher
Kyp Kypri. The
liquor industry
doesnt care about
your kid. Your kid
is a commercial
opportunity for
them. Their
responsibility is
to make a profit.

Universities
and Booze
Death By
Degrees?

enior research fellow Kyp

Kypri, an associate of Otago
Universitys Injury
Prevention Research Unit,
probably knows more
about the drinking habits of
New Zealand university
students than anyone else.
For the past decade, his studies have
shown theyre drinking more hazardously
than their non-student peers partly
because of the way theyre targeted by the
liquor industry.
In two papers published last year, he
reported how heavily student newspapers

relied on alcohol advertisements and how

the density of liquor outlets around
university campuses directly contributed
to alcohol problems.
In 2003, he revealed that students
dramatically over-estimate the drinking
levels of their peers, with more than 90 per
cent thinking others drank more than
them. In 2005, his survey of more than
2500 students from five universities found
that when students drank, most consumed
more than the recommended maximums
of four drinks for women and six for men.
There is a risk for young people going
to a university away from their family, he

says. The liquor industry doesnt care

about your kid. Your kid is a commercial
opportunity for them. Their responsibility
is to make a profit.
Kypri, who is based at the University of
Newcastle in Australia, says first-year
students are of particular concern. For
most of them, its their first time away
from home for an extended time and
theyre bombarded with alcohol marketing
and events that go along with it. Its part of
the landscape and it would be nice to give
them a bit of space to adjust to quite a big
life transition before alcohol is thrown into
the mix with such vigour.
The Law Commissions issues paper
soft-pedalled on alcohol marketing and
advertising, suggesting the link between
promotion and consumption was complex
and important commercial freedoms
would need to be considered in any ban on
price advertising.
But Kypri believes when theres a major
problem such as this, lawmakers should
adopt a precautionary approach and seek
evidence from the proponents of the
activity that promoting alcohol is risk-free
and not place the burden of proof on the
community to show the risk of harm.
Law Commission president Sir Geoffrey
Palmer told North & South the issue of
alcohol and university students was
difficult to treat in isolation from the
countrys wider drinking culture. The
N O R T H & S O U T H | JANUARY 2 0 1 0 | 7 5

liberal regulatory regime since 1989 had

meant that alcohol was treated as any
other commodity. And if you put it with
the pumpkins in the supermarket you are
going to cause the expectation to arise that
its just like anything else. The underlying
problem is that drinking to intoxication
has become normalised. Its seen as a
harmless form of entertainment when its
actually extremely dangerous, but the
health problems are not at all well known.
The problem really is peer-group
pressure among a lot of young people.
Its thought to be socially acceptable to get
drunk, to throw up and have your mate
take a picture and put it on Facebook.
When I went to university, it wasnt
acceptable to be seen to be clearly drunk
and incapable. Now its cool to throw up,
its sort of a rite of passage. The question
Im asking is, Why is it cool to be drunk?
And these [students] are supposed to be
the best and the brightest hello?
The commissions proposals, particularly
to increase prices and raise the age at
which alcohol can be bought at offlicences, should lower harm and
consumption, he says.

ational Addiction Centre

director Doug Sellman
says students are largely
ignorant about the
dangers of booze. For
example, the lethal dose
of alcohol is 10 times the normal low
recreational dose of two to three drinks,
whereas it was almost impossible to take a
lethal dose of cannabis, which had a safety
ratio of more than 1000 times the
recreational dose.
University capping and orientation
weeks were really fuelled by the
industry with free products, sponsorship
and discounts. The industry spent about
$200,000 a day maintaining a heavydrinking culture. Relentless drug-pushing
works.
The best thing that parents could do
was to model responsible drinking before
their children left home, and to keep in
close contact with them, especially in the
first year.
He says that while the Law Commission
report had largely covered price, purchase
age, driving limits and opening-hour
restrictions, it was imperative alcohol
marketing and advertising be reduced. He
also favoured supermarkets becoming
alcohol free but the Law Commission said
7 6 | N O R T H & S O U T H | JANUARY 2 0 1 0

Its thought to
be socially
acceptable to get
drunk, to throw up
and have your
mate take a
picture and put it
on Facebook.
When I went to
university, it
wasnt acceptable
to be seen to be
clearly drunk and
incapable.
Law Commission president
Sir Geoffrey Palmer

that was unlikely to be publicly acceptable.

There is evidence, though, that
universities and student associations are
beginning to respond to the problem.
Otago Universitys council announced in
October that it would eliminate alcohol
advertising and sponsorship from
university grounds and at university
events or activities, wherever they were
held.
The industrys response was
illuminating: a spokeswoman for Lion
Nathan, which makes Speights among
other brands, said it had five-year product
deals with the university and students
association and was surprised and
disappointed the university hadnt
consulted it first. She said the company
could seek damages.
New Zealand University Students
Association co-president Sophia Blair says
theres wide variation in policies among
campuses. Some associations have
advertising prohibition policies while
others have a bar on campus and are
willing to accept industry sponsorship of
events and advertising in student papers.
A lot have moved towards reducing their
dependence on advertising or sponsorship
on campus because of issues around
student safety.
Professor Barry Jackson, director of the
drug, alcohol and wellness network at
Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania,
whos here on sabbatical as an honorary
senior research fellow at Otago University
in Wellington, says American and New

Zealand societies are culturally quite

different in their attitudes to alcohol. For
example, 80 per cent of New Zealanders
drink compared with 60 per cent of
Americans, partly because the US legal
drinking age is 21. Your young people
start drinking at a much higher rate much
earlier than ours.
In Pennsylvania, his initiatives reduced
student consumption at Bloomsburg by 20
per cent over 15 years. They included
informing students about risks and
advising them and their parents before
admission about the institutions
disciplinary policies. In most states in the
US, drinking violations at university meant
a student would not be permitted to work
in certain professions, including medicine,
nursing and dentistry and such a move
could be investigated in New Zealand.
Asked what parents could do to protect
their children at university, he says: Im
asked this all the time and I have to say
theres no silver bullet which is going to
kill the werewolf here. But the evidence in
the US shows parents do have an
influence. If the parent says, I expect you
to go to college and not waste my money.
I expect you to study and not get drunk
every night of the week this is not
tolerable in my household, the kids listen.
Alcohol Healthwatch director Rebecca
Williams, who co-ordinates the national
advisory group on tertiary student
drinking, says it is difficult to say which
Law Commission recommendations
would have saved the young men in North
& Souths story. But the evidence is very
clear about what works to reduce harm,
and the relevant things in relation to
student drinking are the purchase age, the
price and accessibility to alcohol.
Students are very price-sensitive and
we know pricing strategies really do limit
not only access but the amount they drink
on each occasion.
She says universities, particularly Otago,
were taking alcohol issues very seriously,
and Victoria had also been active in
promoting safe drinking, warning students
of the risks with provocative postcards,
assessing risk and intervening to reduce
hazardous student drinking.
The commission report was only a range
of options. We can twiddle around the
edges all we like but we have to do what
works.
We have to make the transition from just
talking about this stuff and trying to be PC
about it all. We have to be brave.
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