CANBERRA, May 13 (Xinhua) -- Welfare groups in Australia's Northern Territory (NT) have called for the sale household items containing alcohol to be regulated as alcoholism in the region continues to grow.
Under the proposal put forward by the People's Alcohol Action Coalition (PAAC) and Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE), buying mouthwash could require photo identification.
The NT Government has introduced its liquor bill to counter the rise of alcoholism by giving police the power to search, seize and dispose of substances including alcohol such as mouthwash.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) there were 16.7 alcohol-related deaths per 100,000 people in the NT in 2017 compared to 5.1 nationally.
In its submission on the liquor bill, the PAAC and FARE called for all products containing alcohol to be kept behind the counter at stores in the NT and only sold to adults with identification.
"Some of the heaviest drinkers will try and shift to products like mouthwash, that are freely available, that really sell at less than 20 cents a standard drink," PAAC's John Boffa told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Monday, referring to the minimum standard drink price legislated by the NT.
According to the Central Australian Youth Link Up Service (CAYLUS) there has been a spike in methylated spirits sales with people inhaling the high-alcohol cleaning product for recreational purposes.
"It's only in the last three months that there's been a really big spike in the council picking up metho in parks and places like that and telling us about it," Blair MacFarland from CAYLUS said.
"By following those up, we've been able to ascertain that one particular person bought 21 litres of metho over a two-week period."
