Sorry Sandblasted, just confirm by saying that drinking is tolerated by the police, that what you are really saying is that yes, unless you have a liquor license then you are breaking the law by drinking on an Etihad flight, even if you stop drinking before entering UAE territory. If so this needs to be shouted from the loudest roof top in Oz and every other country in the world where drinking alcohol is a choice every adult can make, not something you have to apply to a government to be allowed to do. People need to be warned that by accepting the in flight hospitality on offer they are leaving themselves open to conviction on arrival in Abu Dhabi.
We have established already over and over again that these guys probably were way out of line and for that should have been charged. The issue here is why were they charged with drinking alcohol and using prescription sleeping pills when they were served the alcohol by the airline and they legally purchased and used the pills as per the laws of the country they were bought in.
And sorry could you confirm that you would be drug tested in the same situation in Singapore and you would be locked up for longer than 6 weeks for a positive trace of a prescription sleeping pill taken legally. I don't think so!