Michael McShane, an ex-police officer and current managing director of the company that produces Jack Daniels (!) wants to ban public drunkeness and give the police resources to enforce this ban.

Giving the police the power to enforce a law that is by it’s very nature ambiguous (there is no real sure way to know someone is drunk as one man’s drunk person is another man’s exhuberant idiot), and then telling them to enforce it in a high-stress high-hostility situation like a city street full of night clubs is just asking for trouble.

But of course, it suits the liquor industry to have the public purse pay for high-visibility policing rather than to have to bear the cost of reduced sales and higher taxes.

Police will also be over to pull-over taxis so they can issue fines to people drinking during their ride into the CBD. This comes on top of the police already having the power – without a court order – to ban people from the CBD for 24 hours. Bad news for work tomorrow if you work in the city but get too drunk at after-work drinks on a thursday night.

The question is, will these kinds of policies work to reduce problematic drinking in Australia? Having worked in a bar for six years, I can tell you that the answer, in my opinion, is a resounding “no”. This is a cultural problem that exists in among all groups – not just the young men who are obviously the targets of this type of legislation.

Futhermore, giving police more power to exact harsh punishment on any drunk idiot who annoys them is only going to lead to trouble -  as this story about a man who was tasered while walking away from police on Oxford Street, Sydney shows.