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Milwaukee comes out top in America’s 40 drunkest cities, published by The Daily Beast, followed by Fargo, San Francisco, Austin and Reno. The average adult in Milwaukee consumes 12.76 alcoholic drinks each month, 7% of all its people aged over 18 years are alcoholic, while 21.9% are binge drinkers. 3.9 people per 100,000 in Milwaukee die from alcoholic liver disease. (Source: Medical News Today, 12/31/10)

Government, producers, law enforcement, sellers and parents all have a role to play in bringing about a better drinking culture in this country, writes Tim Salt from the alcohol industry.
Another year, another silly season. Over the past few weeks we have seen the inevitable reports of people getting drunk and behaving badly. During schoolies week it was images of teenagers celebrating the end of school by drinking too much. And on the eve of the new year, we will no doubt see more reports of people drinking to excess and creating a headache for society. Inevitably, anti-alcohol groups have responded as they always do – by attacking the product rather than the behaviour. … (Source: Alcohol Reports, 12/26/10) theage.com.au, 12/26/10 Comment: The alcohol industry complaints that its self regulation doesn’t work. It cannot understand that better prevention measures are needed, e.g. the proposals of the World Health Organization’s global alcohol strategy. We have now the result of decades of alcohol marketing.

Polk County, Fla.’s County Commission will ask state legislators to allow it to seek a 1 percent tax on retail alcohol sales to pay for substance abuse treatment and related services.
News Chief reported Dec. 16 that the Polk County Commission is modeling its effort after an initiative in Miami-Dade County, where commissioners won legislative approval to pursue a local option food and beverage tax to finance services for the homeless, including drug and alcohol treatment. Polk County would like an alcohol tax to fund substance use treatment services for all residents in need. (Source: Join Together, 12/20/10)

Excessive alcohol consumption has a huge hidden cost to Victorian society, Premier Ted Baillieu said today.
Visiting the Alfred Hospital Emergency and Trauma Centre with Minister for Mental Health Mary Wooldridge, Mr Baillieu said the Coalition Government’s Operation Unite campaign to be launched this weekend will highlight the dangers of over-consumption of alcohol.
Operation Unite will stage a weekend of action by police on 17 and 18 December across Australia and New Zealand to reduce alcohol misuse and related threats to public safety and order. (Source: Google Alcohol News, 12/20/10) ausfoodnews.com, 12/20/10 our Online-Comment: It sounds nice, those words for a stressed audience. But asking for awareness is not enough. It needs an alcohol policy which implements the global alcohol strategy of the WHO (World Health Organisation) in order to reduce alcohol consumption in general. This is the duty of politicians and governments.

Alcohol abuse among Native Americans has lead to many woes for these tribal nations. Many tribes have banned alcohol on their reservations, but there is much controversy over what is best for these people.
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, on the border between South Dakota and Nebraska, has been wrestling with their alcohol ban for decades. This reservation was created in 1889, but the prohibition of alcohol sales to American Indians dates back to 1832. Even though it has been an alcohol free reservation since its origin, the tribe has a huge alcohol problem. Four out of every five families in this county have an alcoholic member, and the alcoholism has severe effects here. Unemployment is at 80%, it is the second poorest county in the nation, and life expectancy is the second lowest in the whole Northern Hemisphere. 90% of adult trials on this reservation are directly related to alcohol. Police are swamped with enforcing the alcohol ban and dealing with the mess of those that break the law. (Source: Google Alcohol News, 12/19/10) bloghealthwolrd.blogspot.com, 12/17/10

…By Explaining The Danger Of Alcohol Poisoning
Most of us know a friend, co-worker or relative who passed out at a holiday party. Never assume they are not in danger, especially if it is a teenager, according to the Science Inside Alcohol Project of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Many teens don’t know their capacity for alcohol, specialists say, and that can put them at risk for alcohol poisoning. Nearly one million high school students nationwide binge drink, which means consuming four to five drinks in a two-hour period, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). Binge drinking can lead to alcohol poisoning. (Source: Medical News Today, 12/19/10)

Substance abuse and addiction have a profound impact on all sectors of society. They are major contributors to a wide range of health and social problems, including domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, crime, chronic health problems, increased mortality, higher healthcare costs, and lost productivity.
The real economic impact of substance abuse is difficult to quantify empirically because there are both direct and indirect consequences…. According to our analysis, a total of $7.3 billion in allocations can be attributed to substance abuse; representing a per-capita share of $1,145. Most of Indiana’s funding is allocated to address the consequences of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use rather than to prevent or reduce its occurrence.
For every dollar Indiana spends on services dealing directly or indirectly with substance use, 66 cents are used for healthcare, while only 1 cent pays for prevention/intervention initiatives. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 12/17/10)

Raising prices on alcohol and tobacco products through taxation is a proven strategy to stem their respective use. As nearly 25% of the U.S. population uses alcohol and cigarettes concurrently, it is important to know whether increasing cigarette prices may impact alcohol use–a ‘cross-price effect.‘
This study examines the effects of changes in state cigarette prices on current, binge, and heavy drinking patterns among demographic groups. Six years of cross sectional data are pooled from the 2001-2006 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System surveys (BRFSS), a nationally representative household telephone survey conducted annually with random samples of adults 18 years of age and older.
Preliminary findings indicate that each $1 increase in cigarette price is associated with an 8% increase in the predicted odds of drinking in the past month (p< .05) and a 7% increase in heavy drinking (p<.1). For binge drinking there was no significant effect in preliminary analyses. ... Source: Alcohol Reports, 12/17/10)

Multiple studies have shown that risk for lifetime alcohol dependence is higher in those who initiated drinking at an earlier age; however, few studies have examined this relationship by sex and race subgroups.
The purpose of this study is to investigate sex and race differences in age at first drink and development of alcohol dependence. This study uses data from Wave I of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), a nationally representative sample of 43,093 adults. Those meeting DSM-IV criteria for lifetime alcohol dependence (12.5%) were included in the current analyses. Linear regression was used to compare men and women and Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics on ages at first drink and onset of dependence. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 12/17/10)

Alcohol abuse and dependence constitute important health threats across the life course. This is particularly true among young males, who tend to have higher levels of abuse and dependence than females of all ages.
The purpose of this study is to identify the determinants of DSM-IV alcohol abuse and dependence among young men from adolescence to young adulthood.
Data for the study are from four waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). The sample for this study includes 4597 men who entered the panel between ages 11 and 19, and who persisted to wave 4 at ages 24 to 32. Latent growth modeling is applied to examine the patterns of alcohol abuse and dependence over time and to understand the major determinants of these patterns. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 12/17/10)