Peter on Drugs in Australia

In Australia, the most popular and commonly used drug is alcohol. People use alcohol all the time for numerous reasons. People drink wine with meals, especially dinner, where it is also common to serve small quantities to children. I remember the excitment of my first small glass of wine at a family dinner when I was around twleve years old! Australians drink beer when they go to teh pub to relax with friends, or at the traditional Aussie barbecue. I'm not a very good Aussie: I hate beer and I don't much like barbecues either! But I was very fond of nice wines when I was at university: a dinner party with friends just wasn't teh same without a couple of wines, and formal dinners at my college at Sydney Uni, were always accompanied by appropriate wines. 

Unfortunately, alcohol is not a very nice drug, much worse than some illegal drugs like marijuana and heroin, so teh biggest drug problems in Australia, as in most countries, are caused by alcohol. It is very weird that alcohol is legal when other, less harmful drugs are not! I think everyone in my family uses alcohol, but like most people who use alcohol and other drugs, including illegal drugs, they do not have any problems from the alcohol they use, even when a couple of my brothers sometimes get drunk, it doesn't cause any real problem. However, alcohol is also a cause of violence, because a lot of people do become violent then they drink wine and things. Alcohol also used to be a major cause of car crashes in Australia, but that is not a problem now. The laws about drinking and driving are very severe and very strictly enforced, so people do not drive when they use alcohol.