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May 2013 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 21
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Andy Stonard
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
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DDN’s monthly column
offering a platform for
a range of diverse views.
QUALITY NOT
QUANTITY
The drink debate has become
stuck on quantity.Why can’t we
acknowledge that booze is a part
of our lives and have an
intelligent discussion about harm
reduction, asks Andy Stonard
Drinking alcohol in Britain has again become a perilous pastime. There have been
periods in history when the people have drunk more – much more, in fact – and there
have been periods of time when drinking levels have fallen because of laws or
circumstance, such as the 1914-18 Great War.
Our overall consumption has decreased slightly in recent years, but alcohol-related
ill health is climbing alarmingly. So there is something seriously wrong.
We need to consider the drinking of alcohol in relation to individual drinking
patterns, our behaviour, our culture and our attitudes. We cannot just talk about
quantity and arrange our policies and public education around quantity. It’s about
discussing Alcohol UK – how its people consume alcohol, how alcohol relates to ill
health, social disorder and violence, child care and domestic violence. Our social and
moral frameworks are all framed within our drinking and how we drink.
Drinking for some is an occasional pleasure. For many it forms a significant part of
their social and personal lifestyle. Then for a large number of people it has become an
essential aspect of life – drinking as an integral daily activity.
For up to two million people it is a daily occupation, often from the moment of
waking until the end of the day, encompassing psychological and physical dependence.
For this group and some of the above, drinking and alcohol-related problems sweep
through and affect loved ones and family, neighbours and friends, work colleagues, as
well as strangers on streets and in bars.
Alcohol consumption is a significant factor in domestic violence and child abuse, in
violent incidents and in accidents on the roads, in the workplace and in the home. The
NHS services (especially A&E), GP surgeries, the police service and the courts are often
overwhelmed with drunkenness and the accompanying chaos. We know all this of
course. Such statistics appear regularly in our newspapers and other media.
Against this reality we have a range of political and economic commentaries on how
best to tackle this from the government, but with no action and never anything concrete.
The drinks industry advertises and promotes brands and sells alcoholic beverages very
successfully. The supermarkets sell vast amounts of discounted lager and wines as part of
their marketing strategies. Local corner shops have to have a licence to sell alcohol or go
out of business.
On the other hand, the British Medical Association (BMA) and health lobby, the
police and local authorities all caution against the wave of alcohol-related ill health
and harm. Our hospital services are overrun, while whole city centres are drunk, with
serious disorders and violence, often on the brink of major confrontations and disaster.
And what about our politicians? Our members of parliament have historically
offered nothing coherent and their views and opinions usually divide equally into
three. One third will stand up for freedom of choice for the consumer and free trade
for the industry – because it suits them as shareholders, or directors, or as members of
parliament of a constituency with brewing and distilling interests as donators to party
funds and so forth. Another third will be talking about public health because of their
interests; and the third will ignore the debate.
Why change the status quo? For the aforementioned combatants, it is a good living
working for either side; for the government it is a massive earner and, anyway, the
people of the UK like a drink and getting drunk. No one forces anyone to drink. We all
have free will.
No one wakes up one morning and decides to have a drink problem, to be an
alcoholic. For many it is a slow journey over years. For others it is an unfortunate
accident or incident. For some, alcohol covers up anxiety; a drink makes socialising
easier and for many of us it becomes a daily habit – a bottle of wine at home, a
weekend drinking with friends, the pub after work. It builds, it wanes, it builds again.
How do we even try to address such a widespread issue? My starting point is that I
have yet to meet or hear a politician prepared to do anything about it, so we all need
to look to ourselves and one another. We need to understand our own attitudes to
drinking alcohol, what these attitudes are, how they have been formed and how
others’ beliefs and attitudes impact on each of us.
Unless there is a cultural shift across our entire society and its institutions and,
most importantly, its people and our attitudes and beliefs, then all the tampering of
pricing policy, licensing and moral panics will continue to be like pissing in the wind.
Andy Stonard has spent most of his career in alcohol treatment and charities and is
former chief executive of Rugby House. His new book, A Glass Half Full: Alcohol Harm
Reduction, is available on Amazon