www.alkoholpolitik.ch

Alaska Senate Majority Leader Johnny Ellis has proposed directing all tax revenues from sales of alcoholic beverages to paying for addiction treatment and prevention programs, the Associated Press reported Jan. 27.
Ellis recently introduced legislation that would roughly double the $40 million in tax money the state currently directs to treatment and prevention. The current law calls for using half of alcohol tax collections on addiction programs. (Source: Join Together, 2/9/10)

A proposal to use beer-tax revenues to fund an alcohol detoxification program in the notorious town of Whiteclay, Neb., is being opposed by alcohol industry lobbyists, the Omaha World-Herald reported Feb. 4.
Whiteclay is home to four stores that sell only beer, and most of that to residents of the „dry“ nearby Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The reservation is plagued by alcoholism, and Whiteclay has been dubbed the „Skid Row of the Plains.“ (Source: Join Together, 2/8/10)

Drinking at the last chance saloon…or – there is no place for integrity in academic medicine.
Distinguished voices are lining up behind England’s chief medical officer Liam Donaldson in support of a minimum price for alcohol. The BMA and the Royal College of Physicians have made a good case, and this week they are joined by the combined weight of the Faculty of Public Health and the Royal Society for Public Health. These two bodies list a minimum price for alcohol among 12 policy changes that will save many lives and relieve pressure on the NHS. As the faculty’s president Alan Maryon-Davies says, in lean times such act ion is all the more essential…. (Source: Google Alkohol News, 2/7/10) schiwago.blogspot.com, 2/7/10

A Republican member of the West Virginia House of Delegates wants to raise the start’s beer tax from 1 cent per bottle to 2 cents and use the expected $10 million in proceeds to pay for addiction treatment and prevention, the Charleston Gazette reported Feb. 3. Delegate Bill Hamilton said the bill, HB4253, was inspired by his son’s struggle with addiction and the state’s lack of treatment services. The state’s alcohol industry vowed to fight the measure; a similar bill was killed last year. (Source: Join Together, 2/4/10)

Although the content of alcohol advertisements in the UK is restricted, an analysis of previously unseen industry documents published on bmj.com today, finds that advertisers are still managing to appeal to young people and promote drinking. Professor Gerard Hastings and colleagues show that companies are „pushing the boundaries“ of the advertising code of practice and warn that the UK system of self regulatory controls for alcohol advertising is failing. (Source: Medical News Today, 1/21/10)

In a report published on 8 January 2010, the Health Committee of the UK Parliament warns that the drinks industry and supermarkets hold more power over government alcohol policies than expert health professionals.
English MPs’ report calls for radical overhaul of alcohol policy.
It says the drinks industry is dependent on hazardous and harmful drinkers for three-quarters of its sales and if people drank responsibly, alcohol sales would plummet by 40%.
The Committee calls for the introduction of minimum pricing, a rise in the duty on spirits and industrial white cider, tighter and totally independent regulation of alcohol promotion, vastly improved alcohol treatment services, better early detection and intervention, a mandatory labelling scheme for alcoholic drinks, and much better use of expert advice.
The report flatly rejects as a myth the suggestion that minimum pricing would unfairly affect moderate drinkers: at 40p per unit it would cost a moderate drinker (6 units per week) 11p per week more than at present, and a woman drinking the maximum 15 units per week could buy her weekly total of alcohol for six pounds.
Three times as much alcohol per head is drunk as in the mid 20th century, 30-40,000 deaths every year could be alcohol related and liver disease rates are soaring. The total cost of alcohol to society has been put at £55bn. (Source: Eurocare Newsletter December 09-January 10)

The European Union, being the Philippines‘ 4th largest trading partner, has requested the establishment of a WTO panel on the Philippines‘ excise tax regime on distilled spirits. The European Union considers that this regime discriminates against imported spirits and is thereby in clear breach of international trade rules. The EU has raised the issue with the Philippines repeatedly over the past years without success and WTO consultations held with the Philippines in Manila on 8 October 2009 failed to lead to a satisfactory solution.
European Trade Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said: „Unfortunately, WTO consultations have not indicated any clear prospect of a possible remedy to this longstanding tax discrimination against imported spirits. Therefore, the EU has no other option than requesting a WTO panel to rule on this issue. We are convinced the EU will prevail in what is a clear case of tax discrimination but we still hope the Philippine Government would remedy the situation without waiting for the completion of WTO dispute settlement procedures“. European industry has raised concerns since the introduction of a new Excise Tax Regime in the Philippines in 1997.
Those concerns became more serious as discrimination against imported spirits aggravated with subsequent reforms of this regime, notably with the introduction of new legislation in 2004. This has had a significant impact on exports of EU spirits to the Philippine market. More specifically, it is estimated that, from 2004 to 2007, EU exports of spirits to the Philippines have more than halved (from around €37 million to €18 million).
(Source: Eurocare Newsletter December 09-January 10) Comment: WTO protects the industry instead of the people. Let’s hope the consumption went down.

California Assembly Bill 1019, the Alcohol-Related Services Act, would have imposed the equivalent of a 10-cent fee on every alcoholic drink served in California and raise $1.44 billion per year to help offset the billions in public money lost to alcohol-related harm. Would have.
AB 1019 died the first week of 2010 without making it out of its first committee. The bill needed 10 yes votes from the 19 members of the Assembly Health Committee to keep it alive. It only received 5. (You can view a complete list of the certified vote at the end of this article.) (Source: Marin Institute, 1/11/10)

U.K.: Alcohol Content Labels Will Replace ‚Misunderstood‘ Units System Under Tory Plans.
„Labels detailing the precise alcoholic content of drinks will replace the ‚misunderstood units‘ system under Conservative plans to warn the public about the dangers of excessive consumption. Unveiling the party’s public health agenda, Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, highlighted the importance of ‚harnessing the power of social norms‘ to combat obesity, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse and binge drinking. Greater clarity on food and drink labelling would enable people to adopt healthier lifestyles, he maintained, ‚unleashing a new era of individual and social responsibility‘ that would help to change behaviour. Rejecting the swelling chorus of medical experts demanding minimum pricing controls on alcohol to reduce demand, the party promises significant rises in duty on alcopops, high-strength lagers and ciders. It has also announced that it will use legislation to ban supermarkets selling cheap alcohol as a loss-leader to attract customers into their stores — a policy already introduced by Belgium, France, Portugal and Spain.“ (Source: The Guardian, London, Online, January 13, 2010) Comment: A labour government cannot stand against the alcohol industry, why a conservative government could do it better?

A Swiss private banking firm publishes a report on the newly proposed WHO-strategy on alcohol:
Price rises are key to tackling alcohol abuse-WHO
* WHO issues draft global plan to tackle harmful alcohol use
* Executive board to examine strategy next week
* Harmful use of alcohol blamed for 2.5 mln deaths a year
Binge drinking and other growing forms of harmful use of alcohol should be tackled through higher taxes on alcoholic drinks and tighter marketing regulations, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended. (Source: Google Alkohol Alert, 1/13/10) claridenleu.com, 1/12/10 Comment: Perhaps this information may convince some shareholders of the alcohol industry to sell their shares as it is not acceptable to earn money at the cost of public health and our youth.