The Star: June 28, 2018
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4<br />
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi<br />
Thursday <strong>June</strong> <strong>28</strong> <strong>2018</strong><br />
News<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong><br />
‘Would I have made 60 if I was<br />
Alcoholics Anonymous<br />
has just marked 70<br />
years in New Zealand.<br />
Reporter Lee Umbers<br />
talks to Jordan Luck<br />
about his battle with<br />
the booze<br />
Jordan Luck wonders if he<br />
would have lived to see 60 if he<br />
hadn’t given up the booze.<br />
“I’d be drinking from the<br />
moment I got up basically to<br />
when I’d fall asleep, so, beer – I’d<br />
get through two to three dozen<br />
a day.<br />
“I’d take periods off, a couple<br />
of days here, a couple of days<br />
there,” Luck said.<br />
<strong>The</strong> former Exponents singer’s<br />
battle with alcohol was so bad<br />
that when he did stop for a time,<br />
he’d suffer petit mal seizures - a<br />
brief loss of consciousness.<br />
“All of a sudden these red<br />
diamonds would come across my<br />
eyes. I’d black out.<br />
“It was just a shock to my system<br />
when I didn’t drink.”<br />
Luck, now 56, who lives<br />
in Little River, spent his 40s<br />
drinking throughout the day.<br />
<strong>The</strong> acclaimed hit-maker,<br />
who penned such Kiwi classics<br />
as Why Does Love Do This to Me,<br />
ROCK’N’ROLL: Jordan Luck was drinking two or three<br />
dozen beers a day.<br />
also had scares with potential<br />
diabetes and liver damage.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n, six years ago, concerned<br />
friends and family staged an<br />
intervention.<br />
“A whole heap of people came<br />
along and said you’re going to [a<br />
rehabilitation centre] tomorrow.”<br />
Luck says he thought “this<br />
is what I need”. But “about 10<br />
seconds later” he started to say<br />
he had projects on.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>y said, ‘No – you’re going.”<br />
He acquiesced.<br />
• 1 in 5 adults drink alcohol<br />
in a way that could harm<br />
themselves or others.<br />
• Hazardous drinking rates<br />
higher in men (27 per<br />
cent) than in women (12<br />
per cent).<br />
• Rates of hazardous<br />
drinking are highest in<br />
ages 18-24 (33 per cent).<br />
• In the year to <strong>June</strong> 2017<br />
more than 4000 people<br />
were hospitalised because<br />
of alcohol.<br />
• <strong>The</strong> highest rate for<br />
females is in the 10-19 age<br />
group.<br />
Luck says during his month-long<br />
stay he realised the extent of<br />
his problem and was able to quit<br />
his heavy drinking.<br />
Luck’s experience can’t be put<br />
down to rock star behaviour.<br />
New Zealanders aged over 15<br />
drink an average of 8.7 litres of<br />
alcohol a year.<br />
One in five New Zealand<br />
adults has what the Ministry of<br />
Health defines as a hazardous<br />
drinking pattern.<br />
That means they have an established<br />
drinking pattern that carries<br />
a risk of harming themselves<br />
physically or mentally or having<br />
harmful social effects on<br />
• <strong>The</strong> highest for males is<br />
20-29.<br />
• In the year to December<br />
2017, total volume of<br />
alcoholic beverage for<br />
consumption rose .5 per<br />
cent, to 476m litres (2<br />
standard drinks a day for<br />
each adult).<br />
• <strong>The</strong> average annual<br />
consumption is equal to<br />
8.7 litres of pure alcohol<br />
per person (aged 15-plus),<br />
behind Australia, 9.7, UK,<br />
9.4 and the US, 8.9.<br />
• 464 weekly Alcoholics<br />
Anonymous meetings.<br />
the drinker or others.<br />
Harm can refer to alcohol’s<br />
effect on rates of disease, and<br />
death and injury through traffic<br />
accidents, drowning, suicide,<br />
assaults and domestic violence.<br />
In the year to <strong>June</strong> 2017,<br />
more than 4000 people were<br />
hospitalised because of alcohol.<br />
Hazardous drinking rates are<br />
higher in men (27 per cent) than<br />
in women (12 per cent) and are<br />
highest in the 18-24 age group<br />
(33 per cent.) And the problem<br />
isn’t new to New Zealand.<br />
Seventy years ago, Alcoholics<br />
Anonymous started helping New<br />
Zealanders.<br />
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