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In a bid to lessen the “undeniable and substantial” harms caused by alcohol, a group of Australian doctors are pushing for new regulations that will raise the legal drinking age and reduce the blood alcohol limit for drivers.

The Royal Australasian College of Physicians, or RACP, in its recommendations submitted to a Senate inquiry on drunken violence, said that the blood alcohol limit for drivers should be lowered to .02 from the current .05. It should eventually decrease to zero, the group said.

While the RACP did not specify an age limit for Australians to legally purchase takeaway alcohol, it also called on the government to shorten the trading hours of bottle shops and bars.

“It is imperative that all measures to reduce the harms of alcohol be enabled via a comprehensive national strategy which employs a range of measures to bring about a shift in the Australian drinking culture and a reduction in alcohol-related harms,” RACP President Nicholas Talley said in the group’s letter to Senate inquiry chairman Glenn Lazarus, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

“Australians have a culture of alcohol — that’s fine, but we also have a problem with alcohol,” Talley was also quoted saying.

The RACP also recommends the ban of sports sponsorship by alcohol companies and the inclusion of warning labels to alcohol packaging similar to cigarettes. All pregnant women should also be screened for alcohol use, which leads to a “brief intervention” for pregnant women and high-risk drinkers, the group said.

While some welcome the proposed measures, others were quick to criticise the RACP’s recommendations. Liberal Democrats Senator David Leyonhjelm took to Twitter to express his strong opinions against the recommendations. “Hey doctors, you’re not qualified in public policy,” he wrote. He also said, “There’s nothing special about Australia. They drink in other countries without being treated like children.”





This is not the first time that such recommendations to thwart alcohol-fuelled violence were made. In 2013, a group of Australian doctors and academics also has proposed to lift the legal drinking age to 21, according to The Conversation. A study cited that over 60 per cent of drinkers aged 18 to 24 years drink alcohol to get drunk and 35 per cent say that they are not able to stop drinking once they’d started. Almost 40 per cent also report that they are unable to remember what happened the night of a big drinking session, The Conversation stated.