www.alkoholpolitik.ch

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

New Zealand’s first ever FebFast ends tomorrow, having raised thousands of dollars for youth charities and given participants a break from drinking alcohol. Nearly a thousand people have given up alcohol for all of February as part of the Drug Foundation’s FebFast fundraiser, and so far more than $75,000 has been raised.
Coordinator Catherine Milburn says people can continue to make donations via the FebFast website (www.febfast.org.nz) throughout March. „There’s still time to show your support.“
A number of well-known New Zealanders have also supported the event, including teams of Labour and National MPs, ZM host Polly Gillespie, chef/food writer Jo Seagar, actor/writer Pinky Agnew, singer Maisey Rika, TV3 journalists Mike McRoberts and Paula Penfold, social media editor Greer McDonald, and The Edge radio hosts Jay-Jay Feeney and Dominic Harvey. (Source: Google Alcohol News, 02/28/11) voxy.co.nz, 02/28/11 our online-comment: Congratulations for that splendid idea. I wished our politicians and media people would have the same courage. Maybe then they could better get involved into work for an effective alcohol policy.

… Than In Other European Countries
The UK, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Australia, and New Zealand have similar cultures, genetic backgrounds and drinking cultures, and, until the mid-1980s, had similar death rates from liver disease. However, while liver death rates in most of these countries have remained low since then, the UK has seen a doubling of its liver death rate from 4.9 per 100,000 population to 11.4. In a Comment published Online First by The Lancet, three experts, including Royal College of Physicians Past President Ian Gilmore, discuss the thousands of deaths from liver disease that can be avoided if the UK adopts appropriate alcohol policies. (Source: Medical News Today, 02/22/11)

by Sally Casswell in The Lancet, 02/05/11
It was heartening to read of the forthcoming UN high-level meeting on chronic non-communicable diseases and the excellent strategic analysis by Robert Geneau and colleagues (Nov 13, p 1689),1 which addressed the links between chronic disease and poverty and the reasons for inaction.
As Geneau and colleagues‘ Series paper states, alcohol (a fast-growing risk factor in the populous, disproportionately young countries with growing economies) is a contributor to important chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and tuberculosis. It therefore qualifies for attention in this forum because of its contribution to premature mortality, the basis on which Geneau and colleagues suggest that resource allocation should be made. However, alcohol differs somewhat from other risk factors mentioned in the Series in that its contribution to the global burden of disease and injury is, in large part, via its effect on morbidity (injury from violence and motor vehicle crashes, alcohol dependence, and depression). Much of the effect is in young people, and disability-adjusted life-years are equivalent to those of tobacco globally.

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)

By Joseph A. Califano, Jr.
The New Year is a time for resolutions and here are my suggestions for some of those responsible for curbing drug and alcohol abuse and addiction:
For doctors: Resolve to take responsibility to treat substance abuse and addiction with the same medical professionalism devoted to other diseases.
For medical schools: Resolve to give more than the usual two or three hours to teach the subject of substance abuse and addiction. Then medical students won’t have to wait until their clinical training, residencies and fellowships to learn how alcohol and other drug abuse and addiction cause and exacerbate most ailments and accidents they will confront as family doctors, general surgeons or cancer or other specialists. …. (Source: The Chairman’s Corner, 01/03/11) our Online-Comment: I find the wishes to the Obama-administration and to all of us are too weak. We have to inform about the WHO-Resolution on a global Alcohol-Strategy, which gives exact proposals what we can do to reduce the alcohol related harm. The people and the politicians cannot discuss the matter without this information. That’s why the lobbying of the alcohol industry is still too strong and effective.

Excessive alcohol consumption has a huge hidden cost to Victorian society, Premier Ted Baillieu said today.
Visiting the Alfred Hospital Emergency and Trauma Centre with Minister for Mental Health Mary Wooldridge, Mr Baillieu said the Coalition Government’s Operation Unite campaign to be launched this weekend will highlight the dangers of over-consumption of alcohol.
Operation Unite will stage a weekend of action by police on 17 and 18 December across Australia and New Zealand to reduce alcohol misuse and related threats to public safety and order. (Source: Google Alcohol News, 12/20/10) ausfoodnews.com, 12/20/10 our Online-Comment: It sounds nice, those words for a stressed audience. But asking for awareness is not enough. It needs an alcohol policy which implements the global alcohol strategy of the WHO (World Health Organisation) in order to reduce alcohol consumption in general. This is the duty of politicians and governments.

President Obama declared December National Impaired Driving Prevention Month, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) blog, Of Substance, reported Dec. 2.
According to Obama’s proclamation, thousands of Americans lose their lives to „drunk, drugged or distracted driving“ every year. Obama described drugged driving as a „growing problem“ and specifically pointed to the danger of driving under the influence of prescription drugs as well as illicit drugs. He referred to distracted driving — texting or using electronics while driving — as „life-threatening,“ and recommended the Distraction.gov website as a prevention tool.
Obama said the federal government had taken several steps to prevent impaired driving. The government has banned its employees from texting while driving, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is working with law enforcement nationally to increase identification of drunk drivers during the holidays, and the ONDCP will be educating the public about the increased incidence of drugged driving. (Source: Join Together, 12/09/10)

ALBUQUERQUE – The alcohol scandal that cost two La Cueva High School football coaches their positions has now led to activity suspensions for four seniors on the team, News 13 has learned.
The four players allegedly consumed alcohol on the team bus while returning from the team’s playoff loss to Mayfield High School in Las Cruces on Nov. 26. They have been suspended from extracurricular activities for 45 days. (Source: Google Alcohol News, 12/09/10) krqe.com, 12/08/10

Three federal agencies — including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) — recently acted in concert to halt the sale and distribution of caffeinated alcoholic drinks such as Four Loko and Joose. Agency officials made their decisions based on research into the effects of combining caffeine and alcohol, and several recent incidents linked to the beverages where individuals (mostly young people) have been hospitalized or killed.
In response, David L. Rosenbloom, who directs Join Together, published an editorial in The New York Times arguing that caffeine isn’t the only problem with sweetened high-alcohol drinks. Rosenbloom pointed out three looming concerns: … (Source: Join Together, 11/30/10)