Government's drinking plan attacked

04/09/05 ~ Daily Mail ~ Health news section

An expert who advised the Government on its strategy for tackling alcohol abuse has attacked new laws which could lead to 24-hour opening for pubs and clubs.

Professor Colin Drummond said the Licensing Act, which comes into force this November, did not do enough to look at the root causes of alcohol abuse.

Speaking at a conference in Canterbury, Professor Drummond said he was not even sure if his own advice had been taken on board by civil servants and politicians.

The Professor of Addiction Psychiatry at St George's Hospital Medical School in London said the new Government policy was aimed at clamping down on drink-related violence.

"But at the same time it relaxes the rights of individuals to drink at any time they want or at any price. That has to be balanced against the rights of the rest of the public," he said.

"I feel the Government has a responsibility to invent a strategy that will reduce the majority of the adverse effects of alcohol but instead it talks about the rights of drinkers."

He added that more research needed to be carried out on how to tackle the "alcohol epidemic" in the UK which placed it as the "capital of binge drinking" in Europe.

"There needs to be some political will to do something about it. There are significant implications for someone like me. Am I wasting my time, am I doing research that is likely to have any impact on Government policy?"

He also attacked the alcohol industry which he said was only interested in its shareholders and making profits and therefore would not be keen to enter into voluntary agreements on areas like advertising.

Professor Drummond gave advice to the Government as it prepared its National Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy, published in 2004, but he told the conference: "I'm not sure how much of that advice was taken."