I agree there has always been an amount of violence. In the past 15-20 years, at least in my opinion, there has been an escalation in the severity of the violence.
As a 20 year old, going out to a pub or club, there was always the risk of getting involved in a fight. At the time that probably would have meant a few punches, probably to the body and a lot of pushing and shoving. We mostly drank beer and maybe some spirits later in the evening (Bourbon and Coke/Scotch and Dry etc). Only fit people and body builders went to the gym.
By my 30's glassing had become a thing in Australia, and quite often women were the perpetrators. So many the pubs and clubs switched to plastic jugs and "glasses". There were a lot more alco-pops (premixed soft drink with vodka) being consumed. More people were going to a gym and boxercise/body combat classes were becoming popular.
Sometime during my 30's Redbull and Vodka (or some other spirit) was the drink of choice for the 20-something set. A lot of people started going to the gym, with the guys training for bulk.
The two trends of increasing consumption of spirits in sugary and caffeinated mixers plus boxing training and bulking up a the gym, to me seem to be underlying causes of the increased severity of the violence.
Drinking beer most of the night makes you slower and sleepier. Drinking sugary soft drinks instead makes you more energetic and less sleepy. Drinking Redbull and other energy drinks means you are now wide awake, twitchy and drunk at the same time.
Combine that with some boxing training/muscle building and the stupid fights over spilled drinks/girls etc will get ugly.
I would prefer to see alco-pops and Redbull as a mixer banned from licensed premises.
Of course, beyond this is the huge problem with Ice/Methamphetamine use in Australia. The mining boom was something of a driver of this as ice is one of the only drugs that will clear your system fast so you won't test positive if you get randomly screened at work.
Sugar and alcohol is a mixture that has always been popular. A lot of traditional methods for making wine, mead, and beer favored residual sugar. For example, harvesting grapes as late as possible or leaving them to dry in the sun so the sugar was concentrated was a common winemaking technique in ancient times.
> energy drinks
A cup of strong coffee contains much more caffeine than most "energy drinks", and a lot of people add sugar to their coffee. Caffeine+sugar+EtOH isn't a new thing either - before Jagerbombs and "alco-pops", drinking "Irish coffee" and similar coffee+liquor recipes were common.
> I would prefer to see alco-pops and Redbull as a mixer banned from licensed premises.
Yet coffee is ok?
Banning something because of personal dislike is one of the larger problems of modern society. The law should not be used to enforce opinion.
> one of the only drugs that will clear your system
Unless you are a habitual (i.e. ~daily) user, most drugs will clear your system by monday if you used them at a friday evening party. The major exception is THC, which lingers for weeks because it is lipid soluble. Most drugs are water soluble and are eliminated very quickly.
This does depends on a lot of factors. A big one is the testing method. Chemical indicator tests are terribly inaccurate, while a full (and expensive) GC-MS can probably detect almost everything (including methamphetamine after a few days).
As a 20 year old, going out to a pub or club, there was always the risk of getting involved in a fight. At the time that probably would have meant a few punches, probably to the body and a lot of pushing and shoving. We mostly drank beer and maybe some spirits later in the evening (Bourbon and Coke/Scotch and Dry etc). Only fit people and body builders went to the gym.
By my 30's glassing had become a thing in Australia, and quite often women were the perpetrators. So many the pubs and clubs switched to plastic jugs and "glasses". There were a lot more alco-pops (premixed soft drink with vodka) being consumed. More people were going to a gym and boxercise/body combat classes were becoming popular.
Sometime during my 30's Redbull and Vodka (or some other spirit) was the drink of choice for the 20-something set. A lot of people started going to the gym, with the guys training for bulk.
The two trends of increasing consumption of spirits in sugary and caffeinated mixers plus boxing training and bulking up a the gym, to me seem to be underlying causes of the increased severity of the violence.
Drinking beer most of the night makes you slower and sleepier. Drinking sugary soft drinks instead makes you more energetic and less sleepy. Drinking Redbull and other energy drinks means you are now wide awake, twitchy and drunk at the same time.
Combine that with some boxing training/muscle building and the stupid fights over spilled drinks/girls etc will get ugly.
I would prefer to see alco-pops and Redbull as a mixer banned from licensed premises.
Of course, beyond this is the huge problem with Ice/Methamphetamine use in Australia. The mining boom was something of a driver of this as ice is one of the only drugs that will clear your system fast so you won't test positive if you get randomly screened at work.