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Source: ONE News -
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Public submissions have just closed on a Law Commission review of the country's liquor laws.
Among those keenly interested in the outcome are staff treating alcohol-fuelled patients at hospital emergency departments around the country.
ONE News was invited to see first hand to witness a typical nightshift at one of the busiest emergency departments during the weekend and the picture was disturbing.
One of the first cases of the night at Christchurch Hospital's Emergency Department was a case of alcohol poisoning and it would not be the last.
A 17-year-old had drunk Jagermeister and home brew and then started vomiting before he lost consciousness.
His friends brought him to the emergency unit fearing for his life.
"It's a major threat... they can vomit and they can aspirate on that vomit and that puts themselves at serious risk," says Dr Scott Pearson, the emergency physician.
The next case involved a 16-year-old girl. Her friend says the teenager was drinking wine - the cheapest available.
"She was just kind of drinking and started spewing up blood and we didn't know what was happening& now she's kind of coma-d," says Grace, one of the girl's friend.
Grace told ONE News that drinking was just fun.
"At a party it's not really just hanging out its kind of drinking to sort of you know, have fun. Drinking is having fun and getting drunk."
But others who turn up on the streets drunk can be a bit too outgoing.
"Usually on a weekend night we would see intoxicated people who are rowdy, very dis-inhibited and they become intimidating, threatening, certainly abusive towards staff here," says Pearson.
At reception, they see what comes in off the streets.
"They get quite aggro towards you, they want instant gratification&I'm here, I want to be dealt with now and why aren't you doing it?" says Jan Tregea, the emergency nurse.
Those kinds of action hold up staff from dealing with the acutely ill, like a female victim of an alcohol-fuelled assault.
The cop says her head was shoved through the jib board.
Just after 4AM and a young man named Courtney is next in line, fresh from a party where he'd taken part in drinking games.
His night was going well and he'd downed around 10 standard drinks until someone threw Tabasco sauce in his eyes.
"I ended up punching the kitchen window," he says.
His injury is not pretty. There was a partial tear of a tendon - Courtney's big night out ended in surgery.
The people keep coming through to the early hours of the morning - staff say they are fed-up, have had enough and are demanding that the law be changed.
"I don't think it's been a success - the age coming down to 18 - so we'd like to see it go straight back up to 20," says Pearson.
