The Star: June 28, 2018

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