YESTERDAY’S District Court sentencing of a young man to jail for an alcohol-fuelled assault which left another young man with a long-term brain injury summed up how fragile life is and why alcohol abuse remains the number one drug problem in our society.
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While there is no shortage of stories about the pitfalls of taking any number of illegal drugs, alcohol is the drug that does the most damage, most often.
Yet viewed through the prism of a legal and heavily-promoted product, alcohol is not often recognised as a problem until the damage is done.
The consequences of impaired judgement after too much to drink can include drink-driving offences, loss of a licence, loss of income and sometime the loss of a life.
But as in the case dealt with yesterday, alcohol can be an exacerbating factor in assaults, where people suffer long-term injuries and others spend time in jail.
Yesterday’s sentencing was the culmination of a textbook case where a young man, who the court accepted was not of a violent disposition and who was genuinely remorseful, had inflicted a shocking injury on another young man after both had been drinking.
If the circumstances had been even slightly different perhaps the incident would have played out without the legacy of the injuries which were sustained.
But that is the tragedy of an event such as this. Too much to drink by both parties and in a split-second reaction a punch was thrown which had life changing consequences.
If sitting in the court and observing the consequences of this scenario had been mandatory for young men and women who have just reached the legal drinking age many a parent would applaud and the court would have been packed.
But of course it was not, leaving a judge to reflect instead on the tragic consequences of events which society currently seems powerless to prevent.