www.alkoholpolitik.ch

From doctors to bartenders to new year’s resolutionaries, there’s no shortage of people offering advice about alcohol. Now take a look at what scientists have found when they put some conventional wisdom under the microscope. … (Source: Washington Post, 01/11/11)

A family history of alcoholism could make people more likely to overindulge on junk food, Reuters reported Dec. 31. To assess whether familial alcohol dependence was linked to obesity, Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) researchers compared national survey data on obesity and addiction from 1991-1992 with data from 2001-2002. Roughly 80,000 U.S. adults completed the surveys.
Based on the 2001-2002 data, women who reported having an alcoholic parent or sibling had a 49% higher risk of obesity than women with no family history of alcoholism — a much higher association than that shown in 1991-1992. …(Source: Join Together, 01/13/11)

You’d think recent advances in health reform would have made it easier to get mental health and substance abuse treatment. Parity legislation, for example, requires insurers to cover mental health and substance abuse treatment comparably with physical health.
Think again.
In a Jan. 3 New York Times article, „A Long and Winding Road to the Emergency Room,“ Paul Christopher, M.D., a Rhode Island psychiatrist, describes the case of an adult man so dependent on alcohol that he suffered seizures when he went without it.
Despite the fact that he desperately needed medical care, red tape kept him from getting the hospital bed that his insurance was supposed to cover. … (Source: Join Together, 01/13/11)

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller this morning had sobering words for those advocating a hike on beer, wine and liquor taxes: The proposal is „nonsense,“ he said. „It is not going to happen,“ said Miller, who has instead pushed for a hike in the state’s gas tax. Miller, House Speaker Michael E. Busch and Gov. Martin O’Malley participated this morning in an annual legislative issue forum hosted by radio host Marc Steiner.
The conversations were largely dominated by talk of budget cuts. (Source: Google Alcohol News, 01/13/11) weblogs.baltimoresun.com, 01/12/11 Comment: Commentators say he owns a bar. This is only a discussion on fiscal matters. Nobody sees the impact on public health.

Data and Reports Released With Improved Access.
NSDUH is the primary source of information on the use of illegal drugs, alcohol, and tobacco by the civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the United States age 12 or older. The survey is also a source of national estimates on mental health measures such as serious mental illness, other mental illness, depression, and treatment.
The 2009 NSDUH data and documentation files are available for download and online analysis. Also, custom analytic tables can be produced with NSDUH data using Quick Tables—choose from preselected core variables by pointing and clicking from dropdown menus. Results from online analysis or Quick Tables can be copied easily and inserted into documents.
National Findings Report—Presents national estimates of rates of use, numbers of users, and other measures related to illicit drugs, alcohol, and tobacco products. The report focuses on trends between 2008 and 2009 and from 2002 to 2009, as well as differences across population subgroups in 2009. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 01/11/11)

In response to increasing attacks by industry on the rights of states to regulate the sale, distribution, and transportation of alcohol, Marin Institute has launched a new campaign: State Control. This campaign is designed to help protect the authority granted to states by the 21st amendment, guaranteeing their right to use regulation to protect their citizens from the public health dangers presented by an unregulated alcohol industry. Please visit our new State Control campaign page here.

For more than two decades, the codified method to regulate which businesses could sell alcohol in Jefferson Parish had lain dormant. That changed in March, and the newly constituted Alcohol Beverage Permit Review Committee has kicked its operations into high gear.
The Parish Council will weigh the committee’s recommendations that it bar seven establishments, mostly in the Fat City area of Metairie, from renewing their annual alcohol retail permits. And in a sign that the committee is extending its reach beyond that contentious cluster of low-rent apartments, bars and strip mall parking lots, the council will also consider suspending the permits for seven more businesses, including three along Airline Drive. … (Source: Google Alcohol News, 01/12/11) nola.com, 01/11/11

A paper describing a dramatic change during the 20th century in England and Wales in the association between social class and mortality from liver cirrhosis features in Alcohol and Alcoholism. While deaths from cirrhosis were more common among higher social classes in the early part of the century, the pattern changed so that deaths from cirrhosis were much more common among the lower social classes by the end of the century. Data on male cirrhosis mortality by social class were obtained from the Registrar General’s Decennial Supplements. … (Source: Medical News Today, 01/11/11)

Acculturation stress may be part of the reason some Mexican and Mexican-American teens living in the U.S. report high rates of marijuana and alcohol use, Fox News Latino reported Dec. 30. …
The study, led by Jennifer A. Kam, assistant professor of communications at Ohio State University, found that increases in perceived discrimination over time were related to increases in acculturation stress, which in turn were associated with increased risk of alcohol, pot, and tobacco dependence. (Source: Join Together, 01/11/11)

“We offer 20 appointments each day, and for the entire semester we have been pretty much filled every day,” said Linda LaSalle, associate director for educational services at University Health Services.
The nationally recognized program, called Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS), is aimed at reducing high-risk drinking.
Students who were cited for an alcohol violation or had an alcohol-related visit to the emergency room at Mount Nittany Medical Center were required to complete two one-hour sessions with a community health educator and were charged $200. Students who referred themselves were not charged. (Source: Google Alcohol News, 01/11/11) centredaily.com, 01/10/11