The Salvation Army has launched its Alcohol Awareness Week releasing a study on why Australians drink.

The findings show the majority of drinkers are doing so to get drunk or to just “feel normal”.

Catherine Niven reports.

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TRANSCRIPT

The Australia-wide study shows one in three 18 to 24 year olds are drinking only to get drunk leading to questions about the influence alcohol has on our society.

The results show some Australians have been making an effort to have a week off the booze some admitting drinking is a hard habit to break.

Gerard Byrne, Salvation Army: “I think the fact that people are using alcohol to moderate their feelings in relationship to feeling down or depressed and also to make themselves feel normal.”

Over the weekend, police across the country conducted “Operation Unite” to stop alcohol-related crime in known hot spots.

There were more than a thousand arrests with Perth recording the least number.

Chief Supt Katarina Carroll, QLD Police: “When you’re very proactive and we go out to the media to say this is happening and for us to still get those statistics is certainly disappointing.”

Police also released CCTV footage of a man and woman wanted for questioning over a glassing in Sydney’s Kings Cross in February.

The man was leaving a takeaway shop when he was struck in the neck severing his carotid artery.

Catherine Niven, QUT News.