www.alkoholpolitik.ch

The South African government is taking a fresh approach in dealing with the scourge of alcohol abuse, especially amongst pregnant women. It has challenged the liquor industry to re-evaluate the type of advertisements that portray drinking alcohol as prestigious and the myth that excessive drinking is acceptable.
„Alcohol abuse can never amount to acceptable behaviour regardless of the day on which it is consumed,“ Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini told the Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) Indaba, currently underway in Johannesburg.
Dlamini said the call was spurred by the recognition of the complexity of the problem, and that only collective action would yield any results in reducing the number of people dependent on alcohol.
The problem knows no age, race or gender, but it is particularly challenging amongst pregnant women. The legacy of alcohol abuse on the developing foetus is a lifetime of dealing with FAS, or Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). (Source: Alcohol Reports, 11/21/10) buanews.gov.za, 11/18/10

The director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) says that a proposal to reorganize the federal government’s major research agencies on substance abuse and addictions into a single entity „makes scientific sense,“ and has outlined a planning process to create a new Institute for „substance use, abuse, and addiction research and related public health initiatives.“
In a November 18 message sent to NIH employees and in a press release issued the same day, Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., said a new single Institute would „enhance NIH’s efforts to address the substance abuse and addiction problems that take such a terrible toll on our society.“ … (Source: Join Together, 11/22/10)

There is limited information on alcohol problem drinking, which has been associated with sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV, among female bar/hotel workers in Africa. This paper aimed to identify the individual- and facility-level determinants of alcohol problem drinking in this setting. Problem drinking was defined based on the CAGE alcohol screening scale. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 11/20/10) springerlink.com

The evidence from these studies indicated that increasing days of sale leads to increases in excessive alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harms and that reducing the number of days that alcoholic beverages are sold generally decreases alcohol-related harms.
Based on these findings, when the expansion of days of sale is being considered, laws and policies maintaining the number of days of the week that alcoholic beverages are sold at on- and off-premises outlets in local, state, and national jurisdictions are effective public health strategies for preventing excessive alcohol consumption and related harms. (Source: Alcohol Report, 11/16/10)

A statewide commission will urge legislators to create a drug czar to oversee drug and alcohol addiction programs.
Healthcare costs associated with alcohol and drug abuse amounted to $3.2 billion during 2006 in Oregon – while 70 percent of people who were incarcerated had a substance abuse problem. Attorney General John Kroger made this quite clear when he spoke to a legislative health policy committee recently. (Source: Google Alcohol News, 11/17/10) thelundreport.org, 11/15/10

A new report from Health Department suggests the toll is large and, by some measures, growing.
Excessive drinking kills approximately 1,500 NYC adults each year, according to the new report, Health Consequences of Alcohol Use in New York City. Alcohol also contributes to a tenth of all hospitalizations in the city – nearly 100,000 each year – and prompts 78,000 visits to hospital emergency departments, with a rate that more than doubled between 2003 and 2009. Read Full Report (PDF)

Disturbing trends in drug and alcohol use in the Berkeley Unified School District as well as low rates of violence, crime and physical and mental health issues were outlined in results from the 2010 California Healthy Kids Survey, presented Wednesday at a district Board of Education meeting.
The self-reported data – collected from students in grades five, seven, nine and 11 – showed that Berkeley students, except fifth graders, smoke marijuana on a regular basis at twice the national and state rates and have been high or drunk on school property at double or more than double the state rate. However, students binge drink and smoke cigarettes at levels less than or comparable to state and national rates. (Source: Google Alcohol News, 11/15/10) dailycal.org, 11/15/10

A Catholic diocese in southern India has used a Marian rosary procession as an opportunity to campaign against alcohol abuse among its people.
Some 1,000 people attended the Nov. 13 convention and a procession at Kodencherry, a Catholic stronghold in Kozhikode district of Kerala state. They recited the rosary and carried placards urging people to quit alcohol in the major parish of Thamarassery diocese. (Source: Google Alcohol News, 11/15/10) ucanews.com, 11/15/10 our Online Comment: I think the Catholic Church all over the world should stand up against the power of the alcohol industry, which makes us „passive drinkers“, as the WHO said. There is a great need for political action, according to the global alcohol strategy of the WHO resolution in May.

Heavy drinking among college students results in over 1800 deaths each year, as well as 590,000 unintentional injuries, almost 700,000 assaults and more than 97,000 victims of sexual assaults. In a new study published in the December issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers report on the results of the Safer California Universities study, a successful community-wide prevention strategy targeted at off-campus settings. This is one of the first studies to focus on the total environment rather than on prevention aimed at individuals. (Source: Medical News Today, 11/12/10) see also: Joint Together, 11/23/10

Phusion Projects, LLC, which makes the alcoholic energy drink Four Loko — known to college students as „blackout in a can“ — has suddenly gotten „serious“ about alcohol abuse and underage drinking on college campuses.
On Nov. 4, company founders sent a letter to about 300 college presidents, deans, and alcohol counselors with information about its products. They offered to help subsidize alcohol education programming, and sought to work with college representatives to address alcohol abuse and underage drinking, which they described as “both a fundamental priority and an ultimate responsibility that we share with the entire alcoholic beverage industry.” … (Source: Join Together, 11/10/10)