It was intended as a joke, but I fear that this comment on the latest anti-booze lecture on The Punch may one day come to pass:

We should have alcohol rations. Everyone has a ration of 3 standard drinks per day, if you don’t drink them they expire. No extras.

Everyone is issued with their alcohol card after sitting a three week course in responsible consumption of alcohol. No card, no drink.

The article to which this comment was posted is the second such piece on the site spruiking the “results” of the latest report by FARE (or Foundation for Alcohol Research & Education), which makes for interesting (or rather, telling) reading in that it provides only their interpretation of responses rather than the actual wording of questions.

Thus the public has no way to interrogate what leads FARE to conclude that “76% of people believe that Australia has a problem with excess drinking or alcohol abuse”, that “79% of people believe that alcohol-related problems in Australia will either get worse or remain the same over the next five to 10 years”, and that “75% of Australians believe that more needs to be done to reduce the harm caused by alcohol-related illness, injury, death, and related issues.”

Earlier, but recent, Punch submissions have also pushed FARE’s line that we are a nation of pissheads who don’t know our limits: We need to be forced to change our ways and turn our back on the demon grog. To adults who enjoy a snifter of port at Christmas this is offensive and misleading, and it is more than a bit surprising to see a News Ltd opinion site,  where one would expect to see plenty of preaching about personal responsibility served up with healthy sides of “harden up princess”, giving such voice to nanny-state wowserism.