www.alkoholpolitik.ch

16-year-olds can currently buy beer and wine in stores, but must wait until they are 18 to be served in bars.
In an Opinion poll of 1,126 Danes conducted for Retail Institute Scandinavia, 73 percent said it was “a good idea” or “a very good idea” to forbid the sale of alcohol to individuals under 18.
Sharing that opinion was the health minister, Astrid Krag of the Socialistisk Folkeparti (SF).
“Danes’ high alcohol consumption is to blame for poor health and a lower life span, and especially among the younger population we have a problem that we must tackle,” Krag said to Berlingske newspaper. “Therefore, I’m happy to the see the opinion results and I believe that the age limit is one of the things we should adjust.” … (Source: Alcohol Reports – News, 01/09/12) theCopenhagenpost, 01/06/12

Abstract:
Aims: Minimum alcohol prices in British Columbia have been adjusted intermittently over the past 20 years. The present study estimates impacts of these adjustments on alcohol consumption.
Design: Time series and longitudinal models of aggregate alcohol consumption with price and other economic data as independent variables.
Setting: British Columbia (BC), Canada.
Measurements: Data on alcohol prices and sales for different beverages were provided by the BC Liquor Distribution Branch for 1989 to 2010. Data on household income were sourced from Statistics Canada.
Findings: Longitudinal estimates suggest that a 10% increase in the minimum price of an alcoholic beverage reduced its consumption relative to other beverages by 16.1% (P<0.001). Time series estimates indicate that a 10% increase in minimum prices reduced consumption of spirits and liqueurs by 6.8% (P=0.004), wine by 8.9% (P=0.033), alcoholic sodas and ciders by 13.9% (P=0.067), beer by 1.5% (P=0.043) and all alcoholic drinks by 3.4 % (P=0.007).
Conclusions: Increases in minimum prices of alcoholic beverages can substantially reduce alcohol consumption.
(Source: Alcohol Reports, 01/10/12) Full Report (pdf)

An article in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization raises concerns regarding conflict of interest in a partnership where SABMiller, the world’s second largest brewer by sales volume, receive funding from the Global Fund for a HIV/AIDS prevention project in drinking establishements in South Africa.
„No conflict of interest“ replies the Global Fund.
The recent issue of Bulletin of the World Health Organization carries a round table section: „Global Fund collusion with liquor giant is a clear conflict of interest. The First article is by Richard Matzopoulos, Charles DH Parry, Joanne Corrigall, Jonny Myers, Sue Goldstein and Leslie London. They describe how the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) has recently included SABMiller as a recipient of funding for an education intervention aimed at minimizing alcohol-related harm, including HIV prevention, among men in drinking establishments.The authors think Global Fund support for this initiative is cause for concern.

The article discusses whether men in drinking establishments are the best target group for the intervention, whether a drinking establishment is the best location, and whether the educational intervention itself is effective. Their experience is that the liquor industry is inclined to support alcohol interventions that will not affect drinking rates at a population level. These interventions allow the industry to simultaneously fulfil social and legal obligations to address the harmful use of alcohol while ensuring that sales and profits are maintained.

Providing funding for a highly profitable industry that could afford to fund its own interventions also reduces the funds available for less well-resourced organizations.

Ask the authors: „Do we take it that the problem of “corporate capture” has now spread to one of the largest health funders in the world?“ …
(Source: Alcohol Reports, 01/08/12) add-recources.org, 01/05/12
Comment: At least the industry accepted the role of alcohol regarding HIV.

In Serbien hat die Parlamentsverwaltung den Abgeordneten verboten, Alkohol mit zum Dienst zu bringen. Jeder sechste Volksvertreter soll Alkoholiker sein.
Serbiens Abgeordnete sitzen künftig auf dem Trockenen: Das Parlament hat den Ausschank und Konsum von Alkohol in seinen Gebäuden verboten. „Das Verbot gilt für jeden, ohne Ausnahme“, sagte der Generalsekretär des Parlaments, Veljko Odalovic, am Freitag Berichten der Nachrichtenagentur Tanjug zufolge. … (Quelle: welt.de, 6.01.12)
Kommentar: Wie viele Beschlüsse kommen wohl in Parlamenten unter dem Einfluss von Alkohol zustande?

On January 1, 1991, the federal excise tax on beer doubled, and the tax rates on wine and liquor increased as well. These changes are larger than the typical state-level changes that have been used to study the effect of price on alcohol abuse and its consequences. In this paper, we develop a method to estimate some important effects of those large 1991 changes, exploiting the interstate differences in alcohol consumption.

We demonstrate that the relative importance of drinking in traffic fatalities is closely tied to per capita alcohol consumption across states. As a result, we expect that the proportional effects of the federal tax increase on traffic fatalities would be positively correlated with per capita consumption. We demonstrate that this is indeed the case, and infer estimates of the price elasticity and lives saved in each state. We repeat this exercise for other injury-fatality rates, and for nine categories of crime. For each outcome, the estimated effect of the tax increase is negatively related to average consumption, and that relationship is highly significant for the overall injury death rate, the violent crime rate, and the property crime rate. A conservative estimate is that the federal tax reduced injury deaths by 4.7%, or almost 7,000, in 1991. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 01/02/11) NBER Working Paper No. 17709, Dec. 2011

Fürbitte-Gebet im heutigen Neujahrsgottesdienst zu St. Martin, Effretikon:

Zwischen den Bitten wird gemeinsam gesprochen:
Schenk uns deine Zukunft, Gott des Lebens!

***************

Es ist Zeit, die Zukunft nicht mehr durch den Blick nach hinten erahnen zu wollen.
Es ist Zeit nicht mehr zu sagen: Das haben wir nie gemacht.
Es ist Zeit genau das zu tun, was wir noch nie gemacht haben.
Nur das wird uns retten.

Es kann unser ganzer Lebensinhalt sein, Leben zu fördern, es zu schützen,
zu erneuern und es mit aller Kraft zu lieben.
Wo wir sonst genau und gewissenhaft nach Vorteilen für uns selbst gesucht haben,
können wir jetzt nach den Vorteilen anderer Ausschau halten
und ihr Leben unserem gleichstellen.

Es ist Zeit, uns nicht mehr auf das zu konzentrieren, was nicht geht.
Es ist leicht noch einmal, zum tausendsten Mal die lange Litanei der Unmöglichkeiten herunterzubeten und zu betonen, dass der Mensch kleinlich, egoistisch und böse ist.
Kommt, wir wollen uns auf das Unglaubliche, das in uns steckt, konzentrieren.
Wir wollen es hervorlocken und gestalten.

Wir brauchen nicht noch einen Film über Hitler, Napoleon, über Krieg und Gewalt.
Wir brauchen Vorbilder, die unser Leben berühren und andere Werte verkörpern.
Wir brauchen Regisseure, die uns mit der Sanfheit ihrer Bilder Mut machen,
erwachsen zu werden.

Wir brauchen Menschen, in der Politik, bei den Medien, in den Gewerkschaften,
in den Kirchen und Religionen, in den Familien und in den Schulen,
Menschen, die die Welt spirituell verstehen,
die keine Dogmen vertreten,
sonden die Menschen mit einer solchen Innigkeit LIEBEN,
die Wunden heilt und Wunder wirkt.

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Zusammengetragen aus dem Buch:
„Wenn wir hoffen, sind wir stark“,
Das Buch der Zuversicht

Ulrich Schaffer – Herder Spektrum 2004