www.alkoholpolitik.ch

The Swedish government Tuesday launched a new comprehensive strategy to deal with alcohol, drugs, doping and tobacco problems together, Xinhua informs.
„The overall objective is to make Swedish society free from illicit drugs and doping with fewer medical and social damage caused by alcohol and tobacco,“ Maria Larsson, Swedish Minister for Children and Elderly, said in a statement.
The goal is to address the overall problem caused by the use and abuse of alcohol, drugs, doping and tobacco.
Statistics show that 15 percent of the total disease burden in Sweden is due to the harmful effects that may be linked to the use and abuse of alcohol, drugs, doping and tobacco.
The strategy is proposed for 2011-2015 and was passed in the parliament at the end of March this year.
The government will invest 260 million kronor (about 40 million U.S. dollars) per year to support effort such as parents whose children take drugs or children who are abused at home. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 04/25/11) focus-fen.net, 04/20/11

French riot police are outraged over plans to end a long-cherished tradition of drinking alcohol with their meals.
Under the terms of an interior ministry decree, riot police will no longer be allowed to wash down their lunch with a glass or two of beer or wine.
Officials were angered in 2010 when photos emerged of riot police drinking beer while policing a demonstration. One police union has called for alcohol to be allowed if meals are taken out of the view of the public. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 04/25/11) bbc.co.uk, 04/22/11

In a recent review, the CDC Task Force on Community Preventive Services concluded that privatizing alcohol sales is harmful to public health. The Task Force „recommends against the further privatization of alcohol sales in settings with current government control of retail sales, based on strong evidence that privatization results in increased per capita alcohol consumption, a well-established proxy for excessive consumption.“ (Source: Marin Institute, 04/20/11)

Final Report in Series 1
The growing financial cost of drug and alcohol abuse puts tremendous pressure on every social sector. The present report, part of a larger Family Funding Study project, is final in the series that examined the cost of drug and alcohol abuse to West Virginia’s criminal justice, healthcare, education, welfare, and workforce systems. This final summative report incorporates estimates from all these sectors as well as includes data from the Governor’s Highway Safety Program (GHSP) and the Commission on Drunk Driving prevention (CDDP). … (Source: Alcohol Reports, 04/21/11) prevnet.org

Ample survey research has shown that alcohol portrayals in movies affect the development of alcohol consumption in youth. Hence, there is preliminary evidence that alcohol portrayals in movies also directly influence viewers’ drinking of alcohol while watching movies. One process that might account for these direct effects is imitation. The present study therefore examined whether young people imitate actors sipping alcohol on screen. … We observed sipping behaviours of 79 young adults (ages 18–25) watching a 60-min movie clip, ‘What Happens in Vegas’, in a semi-naturalistic home setting. …
The findings showed that participants were more likely to sip in accordance with the actors’ sipping than without such a cue. Further, we found that men were more likely to imitate actors’ sipping than females and that participants tended to respond to actors’ sipping at the beginning of the movie rather than at the end.
Exposure to actors sipping alcohol in a movie seems to have an immediate impact on the drinking behaviour of viewers, via the mechanism of imitation. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 04/21/11)

Recommendations to reduce harm
This research project seeks to examine the impact of white cider on dependent drinkers. It examines the history, production and taxation of white cider, and considers the implications for future taxation, health and homelessness policies. (Quelle: Alcohol Policy UK, 04/21/11)

It may have been the most important public hearing on alcopops to date, and yet two major producers of these dangerous products couldn’t be bothered to show up.
The New York Senate Standing Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse held a public hearing on April 12 to discuss the need to restrict youth access to alcopops: sweet, fruit-flavored alcohol drinks, often with alcohol levels as high as 12%. Alcopops producers directly market them to underage drinkers, and cost hundreds of lives and billions of dollars of alcohol-related harm annually.
Setting an example for all states, New York State has conducted studies that revealed the startling availability of alcopops to teens. Senator Jeff Klein (D-Bronx/Westchester), chair of the Committee, recently introduced Senate Bill 4221 to address the problem by restricting the sale of flavored malt beverages to liquor stores. As part of the legislative process, the recent Committee hearing provided a forum for both for both opponents and proponents to make their case about alcopop availability on the record and before relevant lawmakers. … (Source: Marin Institute, 04/20/11)

Study 1 was a randomized controlled trial. Study 2 was a cohort study.
Sixteen science students (laparoscopic novices) participated in study 1. Eight laparoscopic experts participated in study 2.
All participants were trained on the Minimally Invasive Surgical Trainer Virtual Reality (MIST-VR). The participants in study 1 were randomized to either abstain from alcohol or consume alcohol until intoxicated. All study 2 subjects freely consumed alcohol until intoxicated. Subjects were assessed the following day at 9 AM, 1 PM, and 4 PM on MIST-VR tasks.
Assessment measures included time, economy of diathermy use, and error scores. …
Excessive consumption of alcohol appeared to degrade surgical performance the following day even at 4 PM, suggesting the need to define recommendations regarding alcohol consumption the night before assuming clinical surgical responsibilities. Source: Alcohol Reports, 04/19/11)

Doctors who had a lot to drink the previous day appear to have impaired skills when performing surgery, researchers at the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin, Ireland, reported in the journal Archives of Surgery after carrying out simulation tests. The authors wrote that alterations in some surgical skills were observed in virtual reality simulator tests carried out one day after excessive alcohol consumption. (Source. Medical News Today, 04/18/11) our Online-Comment: This could be the content of one of the many medical TV-Series.

“Prevention of alcohol problems is a leadership issue for the whole nation. The issue must be brought to the top of our political agenda”, says Lesotho’s Honourable Minister of Tourism, M. Ramaili. Lesotho’s alcohol policy will now be revised.
In her closing address to an alcohol policy training course in Maseru Ms Ramaili made reference to the current situation of Lesotho: “Alcohol is readily available anywhere in this country, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is an essential part of all celebrations; births, traditional festivals, funerals, sports event. There will be very few attendants at such events if you do not serve alcohol. Alcohol consumption is a complex issue. It brings economic benefits, but these benefits come at very high costs. Even if alcohol is a legal commodity the sale of this product cannot go unchecked”, said the Minister of Tourism.
The training session on evidence-based alcohol policies, which was held in the end of March, was part of a process to revise and improve the existing alcohol policy of Lesotho. Around 30 participants from government agencies and NGOs took part in a three-day program based on the book “Alcohol No Ordinary Commodity”. By their commitment, their competence and by active participation the participants contributed towards a successful training with a high level of energy. (Source: add-recources.org, 04/14/11)