Senior Sergeant Anthony Bond, of Dunedin, said police spotted about 100 1.25-litre bottles of alcoholic lemonade outside the front of a flat’s Flo-week event while out on patrol in Castle St North on Wednesday night.
One of the occupants of the flat earlier told the Otago Daily Times BEE Alcoholic Lemonade gave them 280 bottles of its drinks for free as a sponsorship for the night.
The company subsequently posted pictures of the alcohol at the party on its social media.
Snr Sgt Bond said providing such a large quantity of alcohol was a breach of section 237 of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act, which said the supply of free alcohol as sponsorship was deemed irresponsible.
Police did not confiscate the bottles, but did express their disappointment with BEE Alcoholic Lemonade for its decision to provide the flat with such a large quantity of alcohol.
Alcohol harm prevention officer Sergeant Steve Jones said police would be pursuing the breach of the Act further.
"The student community is one of our most high-risk and vulnerable communities arguably in New Zealand at some time of the year. For a supplier to be so naive or negligent to supply this community with free alcohol is baffling and quite concerning from an emergency services point of view.
BEE Alcoholic Lemonade director Edward Eaton declined to comment.
Students for Sensible Drug Policy Ōtepoti-Dunedin president Max Phillips said he was horrified Mr Eaton and the other directors of The Buzz Club Ltd, which owns Bee Alcoholic Lemonade, would allow such an extreme volume of alcohol to be provided to the Fridgette flat.
"The 280 1.25-litre 5% ABV bottles reported to have been received by the Fridgette flat represents 1372 standard drinks, or enough for 228 people to be binge drinking.
"Beyond not caring about the alcohol-related harm created by giving away this volume of alcohol, it’s also extremely lazy.
"If alcohol-related businesses want to engage with the student community and provide sponsorship then there are safe and responsible ways to do this, such as food, live entertainment, or providing party ‘hosts’ for a flat party to engage with students while providing a sample of their products."
By supplying such an extreme amount of alcohol, the company poured petrol on the fire of student alcohol-related harm, which could include both physical and sexual violence, Mr Phillips said.
