www.alkoholpolitik.ch

The government is waging war on the alarming increase in the abuse of alcohol and drugs, and has warned of stricter legislation – including raising the legal age for alcohol consumption from 18 to 21.
In a hard-hitting statement, Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini said yesterday that the devastating effects of alcohol abuse had spurred the government to „prioritise this as a matter of urgency“.
„Alcohol and substance abuse is destroying families and the fabric of society. The shocking reality of the situation has strengthened our resolve to tackle the problem head-on,“ Dlamini told The Times. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 03/12/11) timeslive.co.za, 03/11/11 Comment: Good luck, my beloved South Africa. You have the political power to succeed. But do it without the alcohol industry! Take the WHO Global Alcohol Strategy.

ll residential colleges held mandatory meetings on Monday night to discuss each college’s response to the recent campus-wide moratorium on hard alcohol and to inform students about the circumstances that led up to the administrative action.
Each college was given the freedom to specify its own enforcement policies, definition of a private party and other aspects of moratorium that were mentioned in the letter from Dean of Undergraduates John Hutchinson on Feb. 24. (Source: Google Alcohol News, 03/11/11) media.www.ricethresher.org, 03/11/11

Alcohol must be made less accessible and more expensive to minimize public health damage, according to Norwegian MP and former Minister of Health Dagfinn Høybråten, speaking at the Second Northern Dimension Parliamentary Forum in Tromsø on February 22nd. The Nordic countries set the agenda in the global fight against alcoholism, he claims.
Alcohol is the second biggest life style related killer in the developed world and we need to change that, Mr. Høybråten said.
– Higher prices and less access to alcohol has been proven to minimize alcohol consumption. Campaigns and education cannot do it alone. Upwards of 600.000 Europeans die annually from alcohol related causes. And nine million children are affected by alcoholism. … (Source: Alcohol Reports, 02/28/11) norden.org, 02/23/11

College students caught breaking drug or alcohol laws often don’t face serious legal consequences. More often, they are sent through campus judicial systems.
David Gayle, a 19-year-old Virginia Tech student, died in September when he fell while trying to climb from a balcony to an apartment roof while intoxicated. Nineteen-year-old Laura Treanor, a sophomore at George Washington University, died from alcohol poisoning in 2009. And in 2002, Daniel Reardon, 19, died a week after going into a whiskey-induced coma during a pledging event at a University of Maryland fraternity.
The tragic consequences of heavy drinking have been felt at several local colleges. But serious legal consequences for students who binge drink and use drugs are rare. (Source: Google Alcohol News, 02/27/11)
Washington Examiner, 02/26/11

… has been released by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE). See press release here.
NICE ‚Alcohol dependence and harmful alcohol use‘ clinical guidelines.
The clinical guidance (CG 115) offers evidence-based advice on the diagnosis, assessment and management of harmful drinking and alcohol dependence in adults and in young people:
Alcohol use disorders: diagnosis, assessment and management of harmful drinking and alcohol dependence pdf] NCIE See here for the full 654 page document.
A 24 page quick reference guide is also available summarising the recommendations made. (Source: Alcohol Policy UK, 02/24/11)

The Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center (UDETC), part of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, is offering national electronic seminars to assist states and local communities in their efforts to enforce drinking age laws, prevent youth drinking, and „significantly reduce harmful consequences associated with alcohol use by underage youth.“
The seminars include audio- and web-conferencing (for those with an internet connection).
The next workshop — called „Alcohol Energy Drinks: They Pack a Killer Punch!“ — will be held Thurs., Feb. 24, from 3:00 pm – 4:15 pm EST.
UDETC invites state and community leaders to participate and find out what others are doing to limit youth access to alcohol and prevent the injuries associated with consumption of alcoholic energy drinks (AEDs).
To register or learn more about UDETC seminars, visit: www.udetc.org/audioconfregistration.asp

Food and alcohol firms are obliged to maximise profit. To include them in health policy planning is a recipe for disaster.
by Anna Gilmore and Jeff Collin
Alarm bells rang in the public health community when Andrew Lansley announced last summer that leading food and alcohol companies were being invited to join a „partnership“ with government to help address the obesity and alcohol epidemics. As further details of the Public Health Responsibility Deal for alcohol emerge, much through investigative work by the Guardian, the bells ring ever louder.
The Public Health Responsibility Deal, part of the government’s „big society“ idea, is just one of several such deals. For alcohol and obesity, it brings together large numbers of food and alcohol company representatives with far fewer government and public health representatives in a series of „networks“ charged with encouraging and enabling consumers to adopt better diets and drink sensibly. However, full details of their function or how they relate to broader public health policies have yet to emerge. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 02/22/11) guardian.co.uk, 21 February 2011 our Comment: This is a very competent article. But most of the readers are not informed enough to understand and accept it. Education is needed. Not in order to reduce alcohol harm but to understand the problem and which control measures are necessary to reduce consumption and alcohol related harm. We are all passiv-drinkers. We suffer from reduced quality of life and we pay without beeing asked to, our whole life for immense alcohol related social costs. This is a big loss of freedom.

This weekend, a Stanford undergraduate was brought to the emergency room at Stanford Hospital with a blood-alcohol level (BAC) of .40. There is evidence that “approximately 50 percent of all people with a BAC of .40 or higher will die.” Happily, because the coin flip landed the right way, the student survived.
While the Stanford community did not have to bury this student, this “coin flip” death should lead to the burial of three extremely destructive beliefs about alcohol. (Source: Google Alcohol News, 01/24/11) standforddaily.com, 01/24/11

Nearly 3,000 substance abuse prevention and treatment specialists will convene Feb. 7-10 near Wash., D.C., for Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America’s (CADCA) annual National Leadership Forum. Headlining the conference are Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy and Howard Koh MD, Ph.D., Assistant Secretary of Health for the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, who will both provide keynote addresses during the National Leadership Plenary on Feb. 8. (Source: Join Together, 01/19/11)

This report presents the results of a study of substance use among young people in Ireland based on information collected in 2008 during face-to-face interviews with 991 people, aged between 15 and 18. The target population comprised school-attending students and young people who, having left school, were attending either a Youthreach centre for education or FÁS Community Training Centre. … (Source: Alcohol Reports, 01/18/11) nacd.ie, October 2010