The two-day Deep South Alcohol and Drug Harm Reduction Hui started yesterday in front of a crowd of about 80 people.
Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) Otepoti president Max Phillips said the hui aimed to generate a ‘‘harm reduction movement’’ in the Deep South by bringing people together for productive conversations.
It was likely the hui was one of the largest conversations about alcohol-related harm the city had ever seen, and was deliberately scheduled the day after St Patrick’s Day to illustrate the harm caused.
‘‘St Patrick’s Day in Dunedin is the day of greatest alcohol-related harm in Dunedin,’’ he said.
‘‘Scheduling the hui around that was in order to bring everyone together around that larger state of harm where it is able to be emphasised in an important way . . . when you see it so clearly on what was a very harmful day.’’
Mr Phillips said both police and Campus Watch had put in ‘‘massive effort’’ to reduce harm in the student community, but on a day like St Patrick’s Day, these efforts were often ‘‘like Band-Aids to a big wound’’.
Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick, who attended the hui virtually, said it was ‘‘incredibly valuable’’ to see spaces where those with expertise could come together to advocate for harm minimisation.
Alcohol companies were ploughing tens of millions of dollars into communities to glamorise the consumption of alcohol, and people needed to ‘‘be grown-ups’’ and have honest conversations about the reality of advertising, she said.
‘‘No-one’s coming away to take away your beer, mate.
‘‘That’s not the conversation that we’re having.’’
‘‘We’re having the discussion about how we create an environment where people can make better informed decisions and we stop shoving this stuff in the face of our kids.’’
An amendment to the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act had removed the special appeals process from local alcohol policies, which stopped ‘‘big commercial players’’ from challenging local authorities, she said.
‘‘We’re yet to see what the new government is going to do in this space on alcohol regulation . . . but nonetheless, the ball now is really in the hands of the Dunedin City Council,’’ Ms Swarbrick said
The hui continues today.
