Ke Dezemba Binge

Alcohol

Only 46.5% of South Africans consume alcohol, the majority of our population does not drink. This sounds like good news. The not-so-sobering counter point is that the 46.5% who do drink, drink enough to put the entire country well above the global average, consuming a staggering 300 million litres of pure alcohol in a year. The majority of which comes from beer, both legal and illegal.

Further statistics have it that we are consuming much of this in condensed periods, habits known as “Binge drinking.” Bingeing is defined as more than 60g of pure alcohol in one sitting. This roughly translates into three drafts of beer or four glasses of wine. Based on the above, it is statistically likely that a reasonable proportion of you just read that and thought “But that’s nothing!”

Therein lies the problem.

It is clear that serious drinking is serious business. From stokvels that manage the booze budget (some of which can come to more than 1.5 times a month’s pay on the minimum wage) to the blistering article by Dr Barbara Holtmann in the Daily Maverick on the concerning decision by the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) to collaborate with South African Breweries (SAB) on social media - it’s everywhere. In advertising, media and even in the questions we ask about alcohol. “How much can I drink and still drive?” How much can I drink while I’m pregnant?” “Isn’t some alcohol good for me?” The answer really should just be “Nought, bru” but we find ways around it and convince ourselves it’s fine. We even go so far as to try and dress it up as a point of pride; celebrating how much we can drink before we pass out. This competitive spirit is reflected not only in our global ranking for alcohol consumption, but in the extreme prevalence of Foetal Alcohol Syndrome amongst our kids (World Number 1), and our continued achievements in alcohol-related accidents accounting for more than half our national road deaths each year.

Alcohol being legal, there are loads of statistics available because most of us are happy to answer questions about our drinking habits. The other substances we abuse tend to be illegal, like Tik, Nyaope and Heroin. These are not so easy to track but are still hugely problematic.

Drugs

According to Dr David Bayever, Chairman of the Central Drug Authority (CDA) 15% of South Africans had a drug problem at the start of the last decade. With many of the socio-economic factors that encourage drug addiction getting worse since then, the latest instalment of the National Drug Master Plan 2019-2024 has had to tackle a horde of new problems and new drugs. With “designer drugs” popping up, and the obvious lack of standardized production and distribution channels, it can be almost impossible to track usage. At the moment, much of the data comes from pharmacies where individuals try to get hold of medication without a prescription, and treatment centres after individuals have been admitted. For those who are not lucky enough to have the option of checking into a treatment centre and who manage to avoid getting arrested, it is very difficult to measure their consumption. What we have been able to work out from research programs and treatment data, is that the problem is growing.

Each year, increasing numbers of South Africans find new ways to escape our realities. Worsening inequality, growing poverty and a high unemployment rate mean that’s perfectly logical to try and escape one's day to day life. Especially when the way out is so easy, and the more sustainable avenues of education and social development seem so far away. While the Central Drug Authority (CDA) has said that punishment to curb substance abuse has had little to no effect on the rates of consumption, there needs to be a shift in how we approach the causes of dependency, and how we learn to value substance abuse as a way out.

From the historically unethical dop-system, to being presented with a bottle of sparkling wine as a thank you for hard work, South Africa has an unusual relationship with alcohol. We see it as a reward. After a long day, we feel we deserve that beer or that glass of wine, and its numbing effects are our comfort for making it through the hardships of life. And when things get rough, we crave that same sense of comfort tenfold and try to replicate it by taking it to the extreme with a case of beer or bottles of wine, or a handful painkillers. Each time we do this, we reinforce the idea that being sober is something to be cured to give way to the better state of being high or drunk.

South Africa will not fix poverty and inequality overnight, but this festive season we can start to interrogate our relationship with drugs and alcohol. We have worked long and hard this year, and there is much that deserves a reward. But can we look at rewards that don’t cause cirrhosis of the liver, or spike road fatalities, or even just the headache and dry mouth the following day?

With Legal&Tax you’re not alone

If you fear that you might need help with alcohol or drugs, you can get expert advice on how to deal with this problem through our Trauma Assist benefit.

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