Nigel Latta 3 - The Trouble with Booze (Episode Three)

It's just another way to escape your problems and just forget about everything.

– An anonymous high school student on why she likes drinking

Alcohol is a drug, you know — it changes the way you think.

– Professor Jennie Connor

...for quite some time we'd be drinking Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. What I'm kind of grappling with in my head is, have I literally lost points off my IQ because of that binge drinking during that critical period of my life?

– Presenter Nigel Latta reflects on his drinking days at Otago University, early in this episode

Supermarkets are fundamental to what's happened in New Zealand over the last 20 years ... seventy percent of the alcohol sold in New Zealand comes out of supermarkets. It sounds slightly dramatic, but I think it's fair to say that supermarkets are the biggest drug dealers in New Zealand.

– National Addiction Centre director Doug Sellman, on the accessibility of alcohol in Kiwi supermarkets

You have to understand that the alcohol industry in New Zealand is extremely powerful. It's extremely well funded, and I think governments are very tender when it comes to the alcohol industry. They have big lobbies, they work behind closed doors and they're very effective.

– Former Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer describes the alcohol industry, near the end of this episode

Hey, was there any time during the week that you reckon you weren't underneath the influence of something?

– Youth Drug & Alcohol Counsellor Ben Birks Ang at a high school group session

We have an alcohol-saturated culture.

– Social psychologist Antonia Lyons

This is an enormous international industry. The companies that operate in this industry are big multinationals whose tentacles stretch into every country, and there is absolutely no doubt at all that to stand up to them requires some intestinal fortitude.

– Ex Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer on the power of big corporations, near the end of this episode

I was a functioning alcoholic, you know? I got away with it. There were no consequences crashing down on me. I didn't get arrested, I didn't go to jail, held my job down…so all the external trappings of normalcy were there.

– Recovering alcoholic John Appleby

The difference between having a glass of wine every night and having two glasses of wine every night is a 10 percent increase in breast cancer risk.

– Professor Jennie Connor describes the leap in danger from one glass to two

As a country, we spend roughly $85 million dollars on alcohol every week, and it's estimated that 700,000 of us are regular heavy drinkers — which means it’s easy for people with drinking problems to blend in.

– Presenter Nigel Latta unravels some of the Kiwi statistics

Once you knock out your prefrontal cortex, then you stop caring about that hangover tomorrow. You get more emotional, you sometimes get more argumentative, and you may even end up sleeping with someone that you wouldn't look at sober. Most times, the only thing between you and being a complete dick is your prefrontal cortex, and right from the very first drink, alcohol starts to knock it out.

– Nigel Latta explains the relationship between alcohol and the brain

...as slippery as all get-out.

– Nigel Latta on the alcohol industry, The NZ Herald, 20 July 2014

Alcohol has a direct toxic effect on the brain. It's a neurotoxin, and there is hard evidence of impact on the brain of young people.

– National Addiction Centre Director Doug Sellman, early in this episode

It does seem that the insult the brain takes in that early development time may actually be somewhat permanent.

– Dr Paul Quigley on whether the brain can repair itself, after binge drinking as a young adult