www.alkoholpolitik.ch

A proposed measure would require universal ID checks for anyone buying alcohol in Anchorage, AK liquor stores and bars. An earlier version of the bill included restaurants, but that provision has been dropped, according to The Anchorage Daily News.
The Anchorage Assembly will consider the measure Tuesday. An advisory vote in an April city election favored the bill 2-1. The ordinance is designed to curb underage drinking and to catch people who try to buy alcohol even though they have been court-ordered not to do so. … (Source: Join Together, 5/9/11)

In a new report entitled The High Cost of Cheap Alcohol, Pam Erickson from the Campaign for a Healthy Alcohol Marketplace examines the public health dangers associated with low-cost alcohol availability. The report „is designed to educate the public about the alcohol regulatory system and how it works. It focuses on one of the most powerful tools available to control alcohol problems: price. Time and again, research has shown that when prices go up, alcohol consumption and its attendant social problems go down.“ (Source: Marin Institute, 5/4/11) Comment: Very interesting history of American alcohol policies.

Prom and graduation should be a time of pure joy for high school seniors and the people who love them. But every year, this season can also be a time of sadness for too many families. That’s because along with these important milestones come many opportunities for underage drinking and driving.
Each year, communities across the country mourn the deaths of teenagers involved in a car crash that resulted from underage drinking at a prom or graduation party. A survey of more than 2,500 high school juniors and seniors conducted in 2010 found that 90 percent believed their peers are more likely to drink and drive on prom night and 79 percent believe the same is true of graduation night. However, only 29 percent of teens say that driving on prom night is very dangerous; 25 percent believe the same is true for graduation night. … (Source: Join Together, 5/3/11)

-and why its roots must be cut in other ways
BBC London has published a statistics showing that the number of London teenagers going to hospital with alcohol-related injuries has risen by 40% in the time of 2002 to 2007.
Doubtless a number that forces the British government to act, in order to combat teenage drinking. Their modest proposal lies in raising the legal drinking age to 21. Will older teenagers really behave in a more mature way than the kids of today?
Perhaps you should realize the root of all evil before you can come to a conclusion that definitely helps these pitiful teenagers.
Of course, there are many young people enjoying the taste of alcohol on a party, sometimes more boisterous, sometimes less.
All in all, alcohol is just an addition and not necessarily a forerunner of getting hammered. … (Source: Google Alcohol News, 5/1/11) hausaufgaben-forum.net, 4/29/11 our Online-Comment: I find it positive that somebody takes up this question as one of several possibible measures in order to reduce alcohol problems in London or anywhere.
The question of the age limit is being discussed too in the USA, they have 21 and in News Zealand where it was changed from 21 to 18.
They main medical reason to have 21 as limit is the fact that the brain is not fully developed until 25. The risk of damaging the brain is high and there are many studies which proof it.
Whenever a government or a parliament decides a law it only makes sense when it is possible to push it through. That means it needs a big acceptance. This age limit would need a big acceptance by the adults who want the law but also by the teenagers who are concerned. And that is the main problem. As long as the society is not willing to take responsibility and show an other behavior in drinking and reduce the total amount of alcohol consumption, the young people will not see the necessity of changing their behavior either.
What the government could do in order to reduce alcohol consumption and alcohol related harm is very clear since the World Health Organization has accepted the Resolution on a global alcohol strategy in May 2010, signed by the British Government as well. Instead it cooperates with the alcohol industry and makes the problem even worse.
It is not necessary to drink to become an adult person. I know hundreds of personalities with good characters who never drank alcohol, I should say it makes you stronger if you can say no thanks and you will see who is worth to be your friend.

Attorneys general from 24 states have asked the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to do more to shield teenagers from alcohol advertising. A letter, written by Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and signed by colleagues from 23 other states, proposes a three-step plan to regulate teens’ exposure to alcohol ads, the Deseret News reports. (Source: Join Together, 04/29/11)

There is growing pressure for the government to tighten up New Zealand’s alcohol laws following a report into the death of a teenager from binge drinking.
Sixteen-year-old James Webster died from acute alcohol poisoning after attending a party in Auckland’s Grey Lynn in May last year.
Coroner Gordon Matenga recommended in the report that parents and schools develop alcohol awareness programmes to improve education around the issue.
However principals and health promotion experts have said this morning that it will take more than education to tackle the problem. … (Source: Alcohol Reports, 04/25/11) tvnz.co.nz, 04/21/11 Comment: This is what has to be said to most governments in the western world.

Headline: Alcohol and Non-Communicable Diseases
Also in this issue:
Action needed to reduce health impact of harmful alcohol use
UK Government proposes deal with drinks industry to tackle alcohol harm
EU Focus on Alcohol and Cancer
Liver experts’ consensus: European citizens are drinking themselves to death
Medical Evidence ‘Shows Drinking Age Should Be 21’ …
(Source: ias.org.uk

Political and economic transition is often blamed for Russia’s 40% surge in deaths between 1990 and 1994 (the Russian Mortality Crisis”). Highlighting that increases in mortality occurred primarily among alcohol-related causes and among working-age men (the heaviest drinkers), this paper investigates a different explanation: the demise of the 1985-1988 Gorbachev Anti-Alcohol Campaign. We use archival sources to build a new oblast-year data set spanning 1970-2000 and find that: (1) The campaign was associated with substantially fewer campaign year deaths,
(2) Oblasts with larger reductions in alcohol consumption and mortality during the campaign experienced larger transition era increases, and (3) Other former Soviet states and Eastern European countries exhibit similar mortality patterns commensurate with their campaign exposure. The campaign’s end explains between 32% and 49% of the mortality crisis, suggesting that Russia’s transition to capitalism and democracy was not as lethal as commonly suggested. … (Source: Alcohol Reports, 15.4.11) iis-db.stanford.edu, March 2011) Comment: Amazing how clever Gorbachev and his staff reduced total consumption. Our governments could learn a lot.

Copenhagen’s bars willingly sold alcohol to 15-year old Swedes.
The work of young members of UNF, The Swedish Youth Temperance Association, reveals the actual strength of actions by the alcohol industry in the European Alcohol and Health Forum. Young UNF members from Sweden’s border regions to Denmark went to Copenhagen to conduct mystery shopping and the results give a clear signal: of in total 7 tested bars and pubs, Swedish minors were without problems able to buy alcohol 11 times. 4 out of these 7 places are part of a project of City of Copenhagen and the alcohol industry.
The City of Copenhagen runs a project, called “tryg den af” (engl.: “Have fun. Be safe”) together with the alcohol industry for responsible selling and serving. It is about certified bars and pubs that take responsibility for not selling alcohol to youth under the age of 18. How responsible selling and serving really is in Copenhagen was now revealed by UNF members. (Source: Press release activeeurope.org, 04/08/11)

sponsored by MetLife Foundation.
The annual study shows that teen drug and alcohol use is headed in the wrong direction, with marked increases in teen use of marijuana and Ecstasy over the past three years. The study confirms a disturbing trend that has emerged among American
teens since 2008 and highlights that underage drinking has become more normalized among adolescents. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 04/07/11) PATS KEY FINDINGS: Released April 6, 2011