NEW ZEALAND URGES STUDENT DRINKERS TO 'JUST SAY FORGET IT'

Universities use ad campaigns to combat a long-standing tradition in the country

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND

It isn't often that a university's motto causes public-health officials to
frown. So why does "A Degree in Distinction," the University of Otago's
slogan, have that effect? Because Distinction happens to be the brand name
of a beer that enjoys enormous popularity on campuses here and is a staple
at binge-drinking parties.

"In the minds of many young New Zealanders," says Karen Elliot, a health
educator employed by the government to promote the responsible use of
alcohol by students, "that kind of unfortunate verbal association is less
humorous than it is a matter of fact." She says that at the University of
Otago, as at most other New Zealand institutions, "the traditional student
mindset has been that university is somewhere you go to party hard -- a
place where young people learn to get drunk."

Ms. Elliot, along with local police departments, campus administrators,
student leaders, and the national Ministry of Health, has taken a pro-active
stand to try to deal with the problem. Taking a cue from the American
anti-drug campaign dubbed "Just Say No," they are urging student drinkers in
New Zealand to "Just Say Forget It."

There is a lot to forget. Since its colonial beginnings early in the last
century, New Zealand has made much of its fervent attachment to beer. Among
inhabitants of English-speaking countries, only Australians consume as much
alcohol as New Zealanders, with young people imbibing a disproportionate
share. While young men from ages 20 to 24 represent only 6 per cent of the
population of New Zealand, they account for nearly 20 per cent of the
country's alcohol consumption. When it comes to alcohol-related problems,
young people also are overrepresented.

Among industrialized nations, New Zealand has long held the dubious
distinction of having the most-dangerous roads, but it has not been until
relatively recently that policy makers here have connected that fact to the
nation's drinking habits. And according to government statistics, the
college-age New Zealander is responsible for 27 per cent of all deaths from
motor-vehicle accidents, with alcohol a contributing factor in a majority of
cases.

Although the exact number of students represented in such statistics has yet
to be officially quantified, "there's no doubt that they feature prominently
in these and other areas of alcohol abuse," says Philip Parkinson, an
official of the Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand, a government agency.

In addition to compiling statistics that many observers call long overdue,
the government recently produced a series of provocative national
advertisements aimed in large part at curbing the more lethal effects of
campus drinking.

In one advertisement, seen on national television and on the screens of most
movie theaters, a group of obviously intoxicated young people is shown in a
car being driven recklessly down a highway in the aftermath of a
fraternity-style party. As the car hurtles toward what viewers expect will
be its inevitable destruction, the screen fades to black and these words
appear: "If you drink then drive, you're a bloody idiot!" The same message
was used recently on billboard advertisements in the country's seven major
university towns.

Drunken driving is only one of the alcohol-related issues now facing health
educators here. At the University of Auckland, New Zealand's largest
higher-education institution, one student leader speaks of "trying to halt,
and then reverse, the effects of 150 years of boozing." In the case of
universities, that tradition includes binge-drinking parties that often lead
to brawls or even campus riots, beer tents "of circus-like proportions," and
indiscriminate sexual encounters.

Mark O'Brien, president of the Auckland Students Association, says his
organization and others like it are trying "to change the drinking habits of
New Zealand of old -- the macho type of pioneer country that many of us grew
up in -- to reflect the more sophisticated liberal culture that it has
become. This isn't the 1970s anymore, when idiotic drink-related behavior
was not only condoned but actively encouraged."

Working with the local police department, Mr. O'Brien's group oversees the
sale and distribution of alcohol at the two pubs on the Auckland campus,
insuring that patrons are not served alcohol if they appear to be drunk or
do not hold proper identification.

The last requirement can be a vexing one, however, for New Zealand's legal
drinking age of 20 is riddled with exceptions. An 18-year-old, for example,
may purchase an alcoholic drink if he "intends" to eat a meal with it.
Legislation now pending in parliament would end such anomalies, and the
country's Health Minister, Bill English, recently warned New Zealand's
liquor industry that it ran the risk of a regulatory crackdown if it did not
promise not to make young people the targets of advertisements for some
alcoholic sodas and frozen concoctions.

"Other areas we're concentrating on are a bit more nebulous, but no less
important," says Mr. O'Brien. For example, alcohol will soon be removed from
campus meetings about student-governance issues and elections. "And where
there are events involving drink, we at least try to arrange for transport
home for drinkers," he adds. Most institutions are adopting regulations to
prohibit the use of alcohol at such functions. Many campuses are also
tightening rules on the sale and use of alcohol at concerts, sporting
events, and social activities.

On the national level, the New Zealand University Students Association,
which oversees and coordinates the activities of regional student
organizations, has taken on the issue of alcoholic-beverage producers'
sponsorship of student-related events, a practice it would like to see
regulated. In contrast to advertisements for tobacco, which are banned in
all media here, New Zealand places no legal restrictions on the advertising
and promotion of alcohol.

"The alcohol industry, sometimes not so discreetly, pushes itself into many
areas of student life," says David Choat, vice-president of the national
student group. He works with campus affiliates of his association to develop
policies that encourage "the enjoyment rather than the abuse" of alcohol,
and that seek to achieve "a balance of sponsors for events and occasions,
wherever that's practically possible."

"Balance is the word," agrees Ms. Elliot, the health educator. "It isn't
going to help students if we come across like a bunch of health Nazis. It's
the minimization of harm, not total abstinence, that we're concentrating on
promoting.

"What we are all trying to do," she adds, "is be pro-active, so that,
hopefully, in 10 years or so, 'A Degree in Distinction' will mean only what
it says."

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett