Kevin: Media Projection?

If collectively journalists have a problem with alcohol, then it must mean the whole country has a problem, right?

Let me start by saying I’m not a big fan of alcohol. Apart from the odd Guinness now and then, or a sweet liqueur, I don’t drink. In my experience the vast majority of psychoactive substances aren’t worth the bother, especially if you factor in the next day ‘hangover’. In fact I would count only two, or three if you count caffeine, and one of those is borderline.

Dr Eric Crampton: How police alcohol activism risks overstepping the mark

When Guyon Espiner reported on a police estimate of ‘$7.8b harm from booze’, I was curious whether the figure was the old BERL alcohol cost zombie back again from the dead to torment the living.

The BERL number included drinkers’ spending on their own alcohol – not a ‘social cost’ by any reasonable standard. Other costs were counted twice. It was …unsound. Only about a fifth of BERL’s number could count as a social cost by a more standard method.

So, I asked Radio New Zealand for the original documents, hoping to find a source for the figure. No source was cited, but police communications staff later confirmed that the number was BERL’s.

Dr Eric Crampton: Opposing bars

Health and police make a habit of trying to block licenses and license renewals for bars along Courtenay Place.

Tom Hunt and Rachel Thomas at The Post have been checking into one bit of it.

Health NZ has been claiming that there are 'just under 200' licensed premises in the area so the region is dangerously overserved; they pull out the number when objecting to licenses.

Robert MacCulloch: Why Jack Tame should do Economics 101 (and refrain from trying to advise the government)

In a prominent One News editorial, Jack Tame asks "Why don't politicians act on our most harmful drug?" He says, "A study by Otago University, published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, used 17 different harm criteria to assess the impact of different drugs on New Zealanders. The study considered harm to the individual as well as society at large, and in the end the results weren't even close. Top of the pops, a full 17% ahead of second place, wasn't methamphetamine or opiates or tobacco, but good old-fashioned, buy-it-at-the-supermarket booze".

Kerre Woodham: Our drink driving numbers are quite frankly, unacceptable

Yesterday I touched briefly on the fact that yet another study has come out showing that alcohol is considered one of the most harmful drugs and numerous studies around the world, the latest from New Zealand, show the level of harm it does to others, as well as the level of harm it does to users.

And of course more people use alcohol than they do meth, so obviously more people are going to be affected. But when you look at just a sample of drunk driving stories - this is a handful.

Point of Order: How the Treaty of Waitangi is determining the direction in which state-funded science will be taken (or dragged back?)

We have come – or gone – a long way, in the past two decades. In which direction is open to discussion.

Writing for The Independent Business Weekly on 22 January 2003, I noted how a localised Māori belief in a taniwha had obliged Transit New Zealand to stop work on a stretch of new expressway near Meremere for several weeks.

The Environmental Risk Management Authority was consulting people about ways to incorporate Māori spiritual values in a revised policy. The authority (according to newspaper reports at the time) might regard Māori spiritual concerns as sufficient reason for rejecting research applications for genetic research approvals, even if there was no physical biological risk.

Karl du Fresne: It's not booze that's the problem - it's us

It has become accepted wisdom that New Zealand has a serious drinking problem. But do we? And if we do, what’s the reason?

Let’s start by tackling that first question. In 2014 the World Health Organisation published a table showing per capita alcohol consumption in 190 countries.

New Zealand was ranked 31^st . At first glance, that seems a bit of a worry. It suggests we’re among the world’s heaviest boozers.

Karl du Fresne: The Mother Grundy authorities won't rest until we're frightened to drink anything at all

I wonder if this will be the summer when I get pinged for exceeding the drink-drive limit.

It’s bound to happen sometime. Like most New Zealanders I enjoy a drink, and we’re coming into the season of Christmas parties, barbecues and leisurely outdoor lunches.

Trouble is, the tougher drink-drive laws introduced last year make it far more difficult than before to judge whether you’re over the limit.

Karl du Fresne: Alcohol's mystical hold on Otago University students

TVNZ’s Sunday programme this week included an item about student partying in Dunedin. Residents unlucky enough to have noisy, drunk, inconsiderate students as neighbours have had a gutsful, and who can blame them?

The programme included footage taken in a student flat famous for its parties. An occupant proudly showed the reporter his rubbish-strewn bedroom, still trashed after the most recent revelry. To say it wasn’t fit for a dog would be an understatement. No self-respecting rat would have tolerated the mess and filth.

Karl du Fresne: Gender, booze and drugs

ONE OF THE most interesting aspects of the recent upheaval in Australian politics was the way in which sexual politics intruded on media coverage.

High-profile female commentators such as Anne Summers and Kerry-Anne Walsh conspicuously lined up on the side of the deposed Julia Gillard. It was hard to avoid the conclusion that they saw Gillard’s overthrow by Kevin Rudd as part of a gender war.