Grant Hewison: Communities Against Alcohol Harm Secretary on the concerns over high-strength beers

Communities are voicing concerns over high strength beers being a 'court case in a can'. 

The products are being sold as singles in supermarkets and liquor stores and are stronger than RTDs, ranging from 7% to 16%. 

Communities Against Alcohol Harm have been raising the issue of the beers at a number of public hearings in Auckland. 

Secretary Grant Hewison says the beers present a much bigger issue compared to some other products. 

He says they're designed to be consumed quickly, are in 500 millilitre single cans, are cheap and are easy for someone vulnerable to stow in a pocket or bag. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So alarm bells are being raised about these high strength
beers taking roots in the marketplace. Single bottles of beer
are being sold with alcohol contents ranging from eight percent
up to as high as sixteen percent. They're being sold
in supermarkets. Grant Hewison as the secretary at Communities against
Alcohol Harm and joins in now haligrant.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Good morning, how are you very good?

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Why have these beers suddenly become a thing? Why have
they become so popular?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yeah, look, these beer products have very high alcohol by
volume content. Back in the day RTDs with that level
of alcohol by content, we're described as court cases and
a can, and the industry came round to the view
that should be voluntarily prohibited, so they reduced the volume

(00:49):
to seven percent. But now we've sort of seen the
beer market develop into these extra strong and mega strong
beer products.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
And yet my supermarket is full of wine with twelve
percent alcohol content and they don't call that crime in
a can.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
The wine isn't intended to be drunk in one session.
So these are five hundred milk cans. You pop them open,
they're fizzy, They're going to go flat pretty quickly, so
they're designed to be drunk pretty quickly.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
So that's the risk is do you have some sort
of studies that can actually prove that, because I'm pretty
sure most people I know who open a bottle of
wine tend to get through it.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Oh, they're not the sort of people PEPs. I know. No,
wine's wine, you know, generally has drunk over the course
of an evening. These are designed to be drunk in
a very quick manner.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Okay, I did know. I've already told the story. I've
had a twelve percent beer in front and it was
pretty pretty full on you know. One, you were happy too,
you were squiffy. Three. Honestly, you were hallucinating. Is there
something about high alcohol content in a carbonated beverage like
a beer means that the alcohol gets them better?

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, Look, it's probably probably just the case that you
drink and consume much more quickly. What's also important is
that these products are sold as singles, often for quite
a cheap price, under six dollars. What's the problem, I see, Well, again,
you're just consuming it very quickly. It's designed so that
you can PEPs. If you're young, you can secrete them

(02:17):
on your person pretty easily. You can purchase them as
a single for a very cheap price. So they have
that high risk associated with them as well.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
So are you just warning against these beers or would
you like them band?

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Well, look, this is what the government did back in
twenty thirteen with RTDs of that alcohol contents. They were
looking to prohibit them. The industry realized this was an issue,
this was a court case in the can and the
industry came around pretty quickly to saying there's very high
strength products that are carbonated that are in single cans.
We're not what we should be selling.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Good stuff. Grant, have you had one?

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Have I had one? I've had a taste of one,
the sixteen percent one. Yes, they're not pleasant, but they
will get you intoxicated very quickly.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Go on. Yeah, thank you so much. That's doctor Grant Hewison,
who is from Communities Against Alcohol Harm. He's the secretary
for more.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
From Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to news Talks.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
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