A doctor at the Royal Darwin Hospital in Darwin, Australia, said their emergency room dealt with 350 cases of broken jaws and noses each year, most of which can be attributed to alcohol-related violence. "(This) puts us at about 17 per 10,000 population, which is well above anywhere else in the world," Dr. Mahiban Thomas told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Dr. Thomas said the shockingly high rate of broken bones could be attributed to alcohol-related violence in Darwin. "Only 12 percent of the trauma patients have not been a victim of an alcohol-related assault," he said.
Most of the assaults that lead to hospital admission take place outside Darwin’s busy pubs and nightclubs on Thursday and Friday nights.
Darwin has long had a reputation for alcohol abuse and violent crime, and the situation appears to be getting worse.There were more than 6,000 assaults in the Territory last year, up 18 percent from 2007 figures.
A report released last year also revealed that the Northern Territory has the highest level of alcohol consumption in the world.
Residents of the territory drink 15 litres of pure alcohol each annually, which is three times the global average, the Menzies School of Health report found.
Only the Irish and Czechs come close to matching Territorians at the bar, both consuming 13 litres each year.
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