Alcohol use 'extremely high'

Guyanese consume about 5.8 litres of alcohol annually per capita, Health Minister, Dr Leslie Ramsammy said, adding that his ministry has begun to tackle the issue, through education and plans are in train to address it legislatively.

Ramsammy reiterated that alcohol abuse puts a heavy burden on the nation's economy and its human resources. Alcohol abuse endangers health and it has been found to be the cause of many fatal accidents.

The minister acknowledged that while the issue should have been addressed seriously a long time ago his ministry will spare nothing to holistically take it in hand now.

The minister told Stabroek News that alcohol use is also a major issue among the country's youths and as such the ministry will be targeting schools and families as well. Ramsammy said a recent survey done among boys between the ages of 13 and 15 found that some 46% of those surveyed admitted to having used alcohol at least once in their lives which basically means they'd tried it. However, 40% of that group said they drank enough to become intoxicated while 22% said using the substance had gotten them into trouble with their families and others in authority.

A survey of both males and females of the same age group found that 36% used it once, 28% became intoxicated and 17% got into trouble as a result of its use. Ramsammy said the survey clearly showed that boys imbibe more often than girls and to combat this, the ministry intends to effect programmes in schools. However, he said the laws need to be strengthened to ensure that alcohol is not sold to children.

Health promotion centre

According to Ramsammy his ministry has established a health promotion centre to alert people to the dangers that result from the use of alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs. He said while the centre's objective is to eradicate the use of tobacco and narcotics the same approach is not taken for alcohol use; rather it would be advocating restraint and, for youth, abstention.

The minister said the unit has been in place for about a year but the ministry is now recruiting staff. And, while he said the consumption rate in Guyana is extremely high the ministry will still be conducting a study to ascertain the exact consumption rate and the effects of alcohol abuse in Guyana.

Health and social

problems

Ramsammy said that while the public is aware of the harmful effects of tobacco use the same does not obtain for the use of alcohol. He said whatever personal benefits persons think they get from consuming alcohol, the negatives outweigh them by far. The minister pointed out that alcohol abuse can cause cirrhosis of the liver, reproductive problems and it can create difficulties for pregnant women if consumed during gestation as well as lead to birth defects.

"We have to work with the families and the schools and encourage people not to use alcohol," Ramsammy said. He also said there is need for some form of regulation which would, among other things, prohibit a shop owner from selling alcohol to a person who is clearly intoxicated.

Ramsammy also said the issue of drinking and driving needs to be addressed in a firm and condign manner but this can only be done through regulation.

Guyana is still to pass the law that would enable the police force to use breathalysers which would definitively reveal if a person was driving while intoxicated. The law is also expected to stipulate penalties for those who are found guilty of such.

The minister said that worldwide alcohol abuse is the leading cause of disabilities whether it is due to an accident or a health problem. "So one of the mandates of the health promotion unit to is to ensure all of these messages are taken to the schools, churches, families among others."

Treatment

Ramsammy said the ministry's next goal is treatment which would be implemented through the mental health programme. An alcohol anonymous (AA) programme is expected to be included in that programme.

He said there has always been treatment for alcoholism; that is psychiatric treatment for those who sought it but the ministry would be taking other measures to offer support programmes for persons who abuse alcohol.

Ramsammy said a number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) already provide counselling for those persons but they are not extensive enough.

He said there is need to make such services more accessible to persons nationwide and that this is what the ministry will be focusing on. "But these are all long-term plans, while I would like to see them come on stream tomorrow it would take time," he said. At the same time Ramsammy is encouraging more NGOs to address the issue adding that though many of them focus on HIV/AIDS alcoholism can be included in their programmes. Ramsammy said he would encourage such an initiative as alcoholism has a direct link to risky sexual behaviours which exposes persons to the infection.

Health protection bill

Ramsammy also said that a health protection bill has been drafted and it is now being reviewed. He noted that the bill will address the licensing for persons to sell alcohol; the conditions under which it is sold and who can make purchase. The time of day when a person can buy alcohol may also be included in the bill as persons have been known to visit rum shops from as early as 6 am and this issue, too, needs to be addressed.

The bill will also state whether a licence gives a person the right to sell alcohol 24 hours per day.

Stabroek News

Caution sounded on DIY liver test

A DIY test has been launched giving people an insight into how much their drinking has damaged their liver.

The makers say it will help users to take responsibility for their health, change unhealthy habits, and, if necessary, seek medical help.

However, experts warned against relying too heavily on the test.

The British Liver Trust said it only gave a snapshot of the health of the liver, and warned a good test result might encourage excessive drinking.

It said people concerned about their health or about the risk of liver damage should seek advice from their doctor.

The LiverCheck test, which until now has only been available in hospitals and clinics, measures levels of two enzymes which leak into the blood from liver cells damaged by excessive alcohol intake.

Colour-coded warning

People who use the test send a tiny sample of their blood to a laboratory, and within a week receive the results which come with a colour-coded warning scale.

Those on dark amber or red urgently need to cut back on their drinking, or stop completely.

People whose results are off the scale will get a call from the laboratory, urging them to see a doctor.

Dr Rajiv Jalan, a liver expert at London's University College Hospital, said: "There is no doubt in my mind that it will save lives.

"If someone knew they were going to get liver disease, they would do something about it.

"LiverCheck could avoid them getting to the stage where they are doing themselves real harm."

However, Professor Humphrey Hodgson, of the Royal Free Hospital and spokesperson for the British Liver Trust, said: "Alcohol can affect other organs in the body and a visit to your GP can assess all these areas and paint the bigger picture of your health.

"The last thing we want is the promotion of a false sense of security which results in people drinking at hazardous and harmful levels."

Alison Rogers, chief executive of the British Liver Trust, said many people had no idea that heavy drinking could cause significant damage to the liver.

"It is not just alcoholics who are at risk, but even people who perhaps share a bottle of wine at dinner every night," she said.

"The liver is very uncomplaining, so if you wait until evidence of liver damage shows up on a test or you experience symptoms, you might be at risk of irreversible damage."

BBC News

'I'm a middle-class drinker and it's slowly killing me'

After a new high-tech liver test Lauren Booth found out the real effects of nightly glasses of wine
Most popular stories

According to research into the type of person most likely to be damaging themselves with alcohol, it's people like you and me who are drinking ourselves into an early grave.

Spa towns and villages with golf clubs have up to 26.4 per cent of inhabitants drinking at hazardous levels - between 22 and 50 units a week for men; 15 to 35 for women. Not only is it bad for the liver long term, but it's bad for your blood pressure, brain and fertility.

In recent months - particularly since my 40th birthday - I've noticed it's not just my husband and me, but all the couples we know, who feel the need to 'justify' the amount we drink.

There was a time when we could just about get away with a hangover on a Sunday morning, but a thumping head and nausea on the school run? That's a little harder to justify.

Naomi, a social worker, talks about 'cutting down' as she pours us giant glasses of red wine - you know, the ones that hold half a bottle.

Suzanne, a sculptor, who's been feeling woozy for months, drinks vodka shots 'because it's the weekend'. As for me, three bottles of wine in seven days is a quiet week.

Every time I open a bottle, I say: "Next week, that's it - no alcohol for a month!"

But I always put it off until the following week. The longest I've gone without a drink (excluding pregnancy) is six days. And that was in the Middle East.

To find out what effect years of social drinking have had on my body, I went to Harley Street for a pioneering new test.

Dr Rajiv Jalan is a hepatologist - a specialist in diseases of the liver - at University College Hospital and the Royal Free in London.

First, I am given a straightforward blood test. This is the conventional method, available at any GP's surgery, for checking the liver is functioning well.

The result? Completely normal. I feel like jumping up and down and shouting: "In your face, government goody-goodies!"

Then it's time for the fibroscan, available only privately. A handheld device the size of an orange sends a mechanical pulse through the surface of the skin.

In turn, it sends an elastic wave (a bit like a sound wave) through the liver.

This is tracked to see how easily it travels through the organ - one reading takes just ten seconds.

A healthy liver is floppy, but if it is injured, damaged or infected, it becomes scarred, making it stiffen.

The stiffer your liver, the more difficult for the wave to travel through the organ - and therefore the more damaged it is likely to be.

"If there's fibrosis (scarring), your liver is telling you 'I'm not right' and you need to do something about it," says Dr Jalan.

A reading above five is deemed abnormal and may indicate signs of early liver damage.

Anything over ten could indicate serious problems, such as cirrhosis or liver disease. With a reading of 8.8, my liver is 'abnormal'.

When Dr Jalan asks if I've been experiencing increased fatigue, irritability and problems sleeping - all things I've put down to the stress of everyday life - alarm bells start ringing.

I panic. Why didn't the blood test pick up on anything? Dr Jalan explained that the blood test measures the amount of enzymes that have spilled out into the blood, and this only happens when liver damage is extensive.

"We've picked up on things before that, when your liver is merely stressed," he says.

"A low score doesn't mean you don't drink; nor does a high score mean you drink excessively. What it does do is give us an idea of injury to the liver, which can be caused by anything from drinking to hepatitis.

"Up to five is normal and wouldn't require any further investigation. Between five and seven could indicate early scarring due to minor infection. Between seven and ten, the liver scarring is moderate. Over ten, it's severe.

"A high score for one person may not be as serious as a high score for someone else. The person's lifestyle, habits and what conditions they suffer from need to be taken into account.

"A score of 8.8 may seem slightly elevated, but don't panic, it's not irreversible.

"It simply means you need to do something to change your lifestyle - reduce your alcohol intake or, if possible, stop drinking altogether. Then have the test repeated in three months." Hopefully with a lower result.

Initially, I thought the damage the scan revealed occurred in my teens when I used to binge drink.

From the age of 15, I'd regularly down half a bottle of vodka on a night out. A lot for the time, but by today's standards, it is much the norm.

But I'd continued to drink, so the damage is as much down to my love of a glass of wine today as the vodka in my teens.

Worryingly, Dr Jalan implied there was a danger that if I carried on drinking at the same level, I could end up with liver disease.

What about the notion of detoxing as a route to better health - cutting out the rubbish, drinking gallons of water every January and taking the liver tonic milk thistle?

According to Dr Jalan, this is a waste of time. "None of these things will prevent liver disease if you are drinking too much alcohol," he says.

Although my liver is showing damage, the organ has an extraordinary capacity to regenerate itself, provided an early diagnosis is made and appropriate action taken.

Even hard-core drinkers, as long as they don't have cirrhosis - where damage is permanent - can reverse liver damage by giving up booze entirely.

And I shouldn't feel guilty: some people's livers simply don't cope with alcohol as well as others even though they may drink much less.

However, for me, while cirrhosis or liver disease is not an immediate risk, liver fatigue - that is, when the liver isn't working as well as it should - certainly is.

The symptoms include tiredness, lack of concentration, poor performance, even insomnia.

Recurrent infection is another risk. A poorly functioning liver can make people more susceptible to colds and flu.

"If you push it too far and continue to punish the liver by excessive drinking, it can be irreversible," says Dr Jalan.

The only option left then may be a liver transplant.

"There is nothing wrong with the occasional glass of wine - as long as it's just that," says Dr Jalan.

"The important actions you can take to decrease your chances of damaging your liver are to lose weight if you have a high body mass index (BMI), exercise and stop drinking."

So, after our 90-minute consultation, my prognosis is 'fantastic', he says. Losing weight - a stone and a half in my case - is as important to the liver as cutting out alcohol.

If I do this, I am assured my results could be down to five or six within 12 weeks, and I will be able to say I've never felt better.

I leave the centre excited by my challenge and confident that I can make the changes needed.

After such a mental kick up the backside, I am now officially on the wagon. Unfortunately, a few weeks ago, I drank 20 units of alcohol. But that was because of the Rugby World Cup. Wasn't it?

Daily Mail

Local services, groups support sobriety

Alan Hauber readily admits he allowed alcohol, in past years, to “absorb me” and take over his life.

In 2001 he received his third DUI. Hauber, again ordered to take mandatory substance abuse evaluation and treatment, this time realized he had to change his life for his own sake and for the sake of his wife. Denial had to end.

“I knew I was an alcoholic and was creating a lot of heartache for people around me,” Hauber said this week from his office at the Alcohol Drug Dependency Service, or ADDS, in Ellensburg. “In past treatment I was doing it for my parents. In that last time I had to do it for myself. And I did it for my wife, too, who I was really hurting and stressing out. It got my attention.”

Hauber, now 44, wants to help others who are chemically dependent reach sobriety as he did and maintain a daily lifestyle of recovery from addiction.

Since September 2005 Hauber has worked and studied to become a state-certified chemical dependency professional, or cdp. While completing course work at Yakima Valley Community College, he began work at ADDS in October 2005 as a chemical dependency professional trainee, a required step toward final certification by the state.

His work is supervised by an already certified and experienced chemical dependency professional.

In December he takes his state tests toward official certification.

“I feel I have a personal understanding of the real grip drugs and alcohol can have on someone; I know how hard they are to get off of,” Hauber said. “I’ve been through it.”

He also knows the additional consequences of past denials.

Because of his DUIs, the state will require a supervised probationary period for Hauber as he works as a cdp along with extra evaluations, background checks and other stipulations.

“They really put you through the ringer,” Hauber said. “It’s hard at times because it feels like I’m going back over all the past problems. I understand why they have to do it. I’m still living with the consequences.”

Demand is up

Skip Mynar, executive director of ADDS, welcomes Hauber’s work as a counselor. The demand for help is there; Mynar said there is a long-standing, nationwide shortage of certified cdp counselors at a time when the call for services has steadily increased.

“We really try to maintain, if we can, a minimum two-week waiting list between filling out paperwork and seeing a counselor,” Mynar said. “We don’t like to go beyond that time.”

ADDS is a nonprofit, community-based treatment center that has been designated by Kittitas County government as its publicly funded, outpatient service provider. ADDS provides services to indigent and low-income clients who pay on a sliding scale, but also serves people who can pay for their treatment or have health insurance that covers them.

Between ADDS and the other outpatient treatment provider in the county, the private Cascade Recovery Resource Center, Mynar believes people who need help can obtain it locally, whether they are ordered for evaluation and treatment, coerced by family, relatives or employers, or willingly walk in.

In addition, private support groups in the community, including Alcoholics Anonymous, also encourage a sober lifestyle.

Mynar estimated that 90 percent or more of ADDS clients are ordered for treatment by the courts.

Alcohol continues to be the most-abused drug of choice, said Mynar, who believes it is the toughest to treat because alcohol is legal, abundant and generally accepted in society.

He is seeing an increase in the abuse of prescription painkillers because of what he believes is over prescribing.

He said many are talking about the deluge of methamphetamine and the related personal and law enforcement problems it creates. He acknowledges it is popular because it is relatively cheap.

“Everything they say about (meth) is true; there is no way to minimize the terrible things it does to people,” Mynar said. “Yet it’s no more difficult to treat than other substances. The relapse rate isn’t as high as with alcoholics who can live longer with the disease. But that’s also because meth addicts don’t live as long as alcoholics.”

He asserts that alcohol, by far, is the most dangerous drug, overall.

Very few people seek treatment on their own, without some type of coercion, he said, because denial of a problem is usually always part of chemical dependency. Denial is the hardest part to overcome because the substance changes the way one perceives reality.

Hurdle

Pam Stoneburg, a cdp counselor and administrator of Cascade Recovery Resource Center, said denial is the biggest hurdle because people don’t realize chemical dependency is intertwined with their body and brain chemistry.

It’s also usually symptomatic of reactions to life’s problems that need to be dealt with, she said.

Substance abuse also can trigger genetic predisposition to addiction, and the person must realize that a life of abstinence is their only hope.

“The change involves treating drug dependency first and then dealing with the recurring problems,” said Stoneburg who has helped others in recovery for 21 years.

She said meth addiction is somewhat easier to treat with someone willing to change because the destructive social and physical effects of the drug are so immediate compared to alcoholism.

Most coming to her recovery center have the means to pay or have health insurance coverage, she said. The center also has been made a subcontractor by ADDS to provide two, state-funded services: treatment for families where children are at risk and for people on medical coupons for services.

“Very seldom do we have someone coming in on their own, without pressure, to get help,” Stoneburg said. “It usually takes outside pressure.”

Yet, she said she and her husband, Don, are in that category because they both realized their addiction and were helped through their voluntary participation in Alcoholics Anonymous.

She said the insidious nature of alcoholism is that those with a problem believe they’re doing just what everyone else is doing when they drink. It’s not until personal, legal and family problems related to alcoholism mount to prove otherwise.

Stoneburg said it is essential for a recovering chemical dependent person to be involved in a support group of others in recovery.

“It’s been proven over the decades that Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step resource groups are good for most people in recovery,” Stoneburg said.

The Daily Record

MSP Relives Family Alcohol Hell

MSP's hell growing up with an alcoholic father

AN MSP gave a personal account yesterday of the hell of growing up with an alcoholic dad.

Nationalist Kenny Gibson told Holyrood of his family's dread while they waited for his father to return from the pub at 10pm.

And the MSP made a plea for greater efforts to fight the problems caused by alcohol.

He said he had been on holiday in Austria in 1994 when his mother phoned to say his father had died.

Although she said he did not have to return home for the funeral, he felt it was his duty to do so.

He said: "My father was an alcoholic - a chronic alcoholic. And it killed him at the age of only 57.

"By then, he was a wreck of a man - a pregnant skeleton that doctors will recognise as often being the end stage of being an alcoholic.

"In the last 25 years of his life, I don't think I saw my father sober half a dozen times.

"And I doubt, over those years, if anyone in our home had a decent uninterrupted night's sleep.

"We'd a terror of the clock striking 10 o'clock because the pubs closed and my father was due home."

He said this was why his twin sister Janis left home at 15 and why he went two years later, in the hope that their mum Iris, an SNP councillor and baillie from the Craigton ward in Glasgow, could also escape.

But Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, said his mother felt it her duty to stand by his dad and provide a bed at night and a meal "on the rare occasion he was capable of consuming one".

He added: "My father did not recognise he had a problem until he was completely unable to deal with it.

"In his view, he was able to get up for work in the morning and it wasn't really an issue for him."

Gibson told MSPs: "I have no doubt my upbringing was not so different from many thousands of Scots who have had their lives blighted by the problem of alcohol."

He called on the parliament to do all they could to change attitudes and behaviour in this area and he highlighted the problem of "foetal alcohol spectrum disorder" in kids.

He later explained how he had to be careful with alcohol and did not have a drink until he was 23.

Describing the scale of the problem in Scotland, justice secretary Kenny MacAskill said alcohol abuse cost £1.1billion a year and claimed a life every six hours.

He stressed that the government had brought in tougher regulations on stores selling alcohol and wanted to curb cheap booze deals.

He said: "I have asked for advice on what we could do to end deep discounting of alcohol and I want to take this issue forward as part of our wider alcohol strategy."

Later, Gibson said he had decided to highlight his own case to show how real lives behind the statistics we re shaped by alcoholism.

He added: "Alcohol runs in families and there is a genetic predisposition and it's important that I drink moderately two or three times a week."

He said: "It was extremely difficult growing up in family where my father was a chronic alcoholic, for a number of reasons. The household was not as prosperous as it might otherwise have been. But the main issue was that it was extremely disruptive.

"My father was a very noisy individual. He wasn't violent but he wanted to make sure that when he came back from the pub everybody knew about it.

"He liked to play loud music and sing songs and often we would get woken up and asked if we wanted a chicken supper.

"It sounds, in hindsight, somewhat amusing but it wasn't.

"He wasn't violent. But he was very loud and aggressive.

"A hail-fellow-well-met type of guy in the pub - but not quite the same when he was at home.

"I think it traumatised relationships between myself, my sister and my mum on one hand and him on the other."

He said: "The reason I raised this was because when you are debating a topic like alcohol I think it is important to tell it like it is.

"Everyone is throwing around statistics - people who are behind alcohol success or others who have got involved with the police - but I think you have to explain what it means for an individual.

"It's about real people and real families. It's about folks whose lives have been damaged as a result, not least the person who is an alcoholic."

He said over the years of his drinking, his father - also Kenneth - lost his sense of self awareness and was only interested in his next drink.

His dad had a working class attitude that, provided he put money on the table at the end of the week, he was free to "blow the rest" in the bookies and in the pub .

He said that when his own son Ross was born, he went to the pub to tell his dad that he had become a grandfather for the first time.

But his dad told him: "Can't stop now son, I've got a hot tip for the 3.30."

He said his father had started drinking during national service in the Navy, in the days when there was still a daily rum ration.

He was a telephone engineer but eventually he was unable to do his job. His sister Janis is now living in the US and married to a pilot.

The MSP said: "We thought that as soon as we left home, that mum had been staying at home for us and that she would move out.

"She never did, she took the view she had married for better or worse and stayed with him.

"She loved him for what he was and not for what he had become."

The Daily Record

Deputy Mayor warns of alcohol price war

The Deputy Mayor of Derry, Councillor Patricia Logue has appealed to local supermarkets not to engage in an alcohol price war in the run up to Christmas.

The Sinn Féin councillor made the comment after media speculation that a number of major supermarket chains are planning to cut alcohol prices in a bid to boost pre-Christmas trade.Colr. Logue said the move could mean a bottle of beer would cost less than a bottle of water.

"I have serious concerns about press speculation that the major supermarkets are gearing up for a Christmas price war of alcohol and the problems that could lead to in our city. Of course everyone likes a bargain, the supermarkets want to sell alcohol in the same way that they sell milk or bread, but they can’t.

There needs to be stringent regulations in place to deal with this .There's something completely wrong in Derry when a bottle of beer could cost less than a bottle of water,” she said.

Councillor Logue also expressed concerned that cheaper alcohol could lead to an increase in anti-social behaviour. “This type of price-cutting just encourages people to drink excessively outside of a controlled environment and sadly adds to the problems we see on our city streets every weekend.

"There is a particular worry that groups of young people will pool their money to purchase many of the cheap multi buy offers of alcohol from the leading supermarkets chains. We all know too well the problems created by the binge drinking culture among our young people which is becoming a serious problem in the North. They are causing irreversible damage to their bodies and are unaware of the dangers of alcohol,” she said.

Derry Today

African-American and Hispanic alcohol abusers need more residential alcohol treatment

The negative consequences of alcohol use and abuse have a disproportionate impact on racial and ethnic minorities in the United States. New research findings indicate that racial disparities in treatment completion could be reduced by increasing enrollment in residential alcohol treatment for African American and Hispanic alcohol abusers.

Results are published in the November issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

“Both the National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey from 1991-1992, and the 2001-2002 National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions found that African Americans have similar or lower rates of heavy drinking, binge drinking, and alcohol dependence as White Americans,” said Ricky N. Bluthenthal, senior scientist at the RAND Corporation and corresponding author for the study.

Yet despite these similarities in alcohol consumption, observed Laura A. Schmidt, associate professor of health policy in the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, minorities experience more adverse health and social consequences as a result of their drinking.

“For example, as a white woman, I might drink three drinks per day, which might increase my risk of dying from cirrhosis by 50 percent,” she explained. “A black or Hispanic woman with the same age or health status who drinks the same amount as me might have a 75 percent increased risk of dying from cirrhosis. We think that this disproportionate disease burden has something to do with other factors that ‘go with’ race/ethnicity, such as poorer nutrition. This means that a minority person can do everything possible to avoid alcohol-related problems – cirrhosis, criminal victimization, traffic fatalities, etc. – and still have a higher risk of these problems compared to whites.”

For this study, researchers analyzed the discharge records of 10,591 alcohol-treatment patients who attended publicly funded treatment facilities in Los Angeles County during 1998 to 2000 in order to calculate completion rates. The sample comprised 4,141 African American, 3,120 Hispanic, and 3,330 white patients; furthermore, 5,795 were in outpatient and 4,796 were in residential treatment.

“This is one of the first studies to find consistently lower alcohol-treatment completion rates for African American patients as compared to White patients in a large publicly funded alcohol-treatment system,” said Bluthenthal. “This occurred regardless of treatment setting, that is, outpatient or residential treatment.”

Furthermore, African American patients appeared less likely to be enrolled in residential alcohol treatment despite having more severe alcohol abuse characteristics on average.

“We calculated that if African American patients were assigned to residential treatment at the same rate as White patients,” said Bluthenthal, “the racial disparity in alcohol-treatment completion might decline by as much as 20 percent between African Americans and Whites.” He added that this would also apply to Hispanics, although findings indicated a smaller racial disparity in alcohol-treatment completion between Hispanic and white patients.

“Because it is so much harder for a minority person to get into treatment, only the most persistent, motivated people are likely to get into care,” said Schmidt. “Thus, we would expect that minorities in treatment have higher completion rates and greater success in treatment than comparable minorities. What Dr. Bluthenthal and colleagues are showing is that, despite all this, minorities are less likely than whites to stay in treatment, other factors being equal. Thus, there are multiple racial/ethnic disparities in play here: minorities have a disproportionate risk of alcohol-related harm, they are less likely to get treatment, and when they do get treatment, they are less likely to stay in it and complete the program.”

Bluthenthal suggested that one way to increase access to residential treatment for African American alcohol abusers might be to more consistently assign alcohol-treatment patients with higher alcohol-abuse severity to residential treatment programs, which generally provide more intense services and have higher completion rates, as compared to outpatient treatment programs.

Schmidt agreed. “This is one of several policies that need to be put in place to reduce racial/ethnic disparities in alcohol treatment,” she said. “There are numerous disparities and therefore, more than one policy solution is required. My research shows that the most severely affected minorities are the least likely to receive treatment. When they do get treatment, it is in less intensive settings, and now we see from this report, for a shorter duration of time. Despite all this, minorities who drink at the same levels as whites will experience higher rates of alcohol-related harm. Therefore, the need for treatment is greater in minority communities and yet the care is diminished on multiple levels. It is important to underscore that heavy drinking is not just a problem on its own, but is also a risk factor for a whole host of conditions, including coronary heart disease, stroke, cancers, and trauma.”

Schmidt said that another concern is the growing use of outpatient alcohol treatment in the US. “The trend towards outpatient care began in the early 1990s,” she said. “Currently, about 60 percent of the care for alcohol problems provided in the US is in outpatient settings and this figure will likely grow in the years to come. Based on what this ACER paper reports, we can expect to see a widening gap in completion rates between minorities and whites as more and more care is delivered in outpatient settings.”

Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research

Alcohol seized during clampdown

About 350 litres of alcohol has been seized during a clampdown on youth drinking in South Edinburgh.

The programme in July and August was in response to complaints from residents about unruly youths under the influence of alcohol in their areas.

Morningside, Bruntsfield and the Meadows were the focus of the campaign.

Known 'drinking dens' and off licences suspected of selling alcohol to underagers were patrolled by police and the City of Edinburgh Council CCTV van.

Reinforce legislation

More than 40 youths, aged between 13 and 17, were found with alcohol and letters from the police were sent home to their parents.

Eight referrals were made to HYPE, a voluntary organisation supporting young people with drug and alcohol-related problems in Edinburgh.

About 120 off licence premises were visited by Lothian and Borders Police and council licensing officers to highlight the problem and reinforce the legislation.

No off-sales premises were reported for licensing offences during this operation.

Sgt Bob Walker, of Lothian and Borders Police, said: "Young people and alcohol don't mix. Underage drinking plays a major part in anti-social behaviour and low level crime."

"I hope this initiative reinforces the message that selling alcohol to people under 18 is illegal and will not be tolerated."

BBC News

Revealed - the cost of alcohol abuse

The full impact of alcohol abuse on the health and quality of life of people in Essex has been revealed by shocking new statistics.

The figures form part of a report which is due to be presented to county councillors and urges them to target alcohol-related problems as a priority.

The Essex Drug and Alcohol Action Team report showed:

* 88% of criminal damage and 78% of all assaults were due to the influence of alcohol;

* out of 966 deaths or serious injuries on the county's roads, 387 were attributable to alcohol use;

* 31% of traders are prepared to sell alcohol to underage drinkers;

* as many as one in three cases of domestic violence are connected to alcohol.

EDAAT is now calling for the issue to be part of the revised Local Area Agreement (LAA), which is a list of future priorities for action agreed by the county's key public organisations and central Government.

Members of the Adult Social Care Policy Development Group at Essex County Council will discuss the report at their meeting tomorrow morning.

The report also highlighted figures provided by the Eastern Region Public Health Observatory which estimated that in its area the abuse of alcohol annually cost £6.4 billion in the workplace, £7.13 billion in terms of crime and disorder and £1.7 billion to the health service.

It also had effects on schoolchildren missing classes, contributed to littering, and was the main reason that many people keep away from town centres in Essex late at night.

Clare Butler, strategic manager for EDAAT, who wrote the report, said the issue was not given the importance it deserved - but stressed this was a national problem.

She said inclusion in the LAA would make it easier for EDAAT, which is funded by a number of different organisations, to apply for money for dedicated resources to help people with alcohol problems.

In her report Miss Butler said there was “a significant gap between the provision of alcohol treatment and demand”.

Miss Butler said last night: “The whole purpose is to raise awareness and look to increase resources within the team so we can begin to co-ordinate an effective partnership approach working on alcohol misuse.

“If included in the LAA I would have a much stronger case to go and get additional funding dedicated just within my team and having those dedicated resources would then mean being able to increase funding and service development for people who need support.”

EADT

Alcohol Health Alliance plans revealed

A powerful lobby group is being set up with the aim of increasing tax on alcohol by 10% - and to combat the power of the drinks lobby.

Meanwhile, the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) has hit back claiming doctors know nothing about how markets operate.

The Alcohol Health Alliance will be headed by the Royal College of Physicians and include 21 other groups including Alcohol Concern, the British Liver Trust and the Health Research Trust.

Reports suggest its main aim will be to lobby MPs for an increase in alcohol tax, although talks are at an early stage. The organisation is also expected to push for warning labels, self regulation and greater restrictions on or even a blanket ban on alcohol advertising.

Alcohol Concern chief executive Srabeni Sen told the MA: “It’s basically a collection of organisations that have a shared objective to reduce the amount of harm that alcohol causes to peoples health and society as a whole.

"We will look at how we can work together to achieve common objectives.”

The Alcohol Health Alliance will officially launch in November and define its agenda more clearly.

Increase taxation
The Royal College of Physicians (RCP), who have stated that it is the lead organisation, is in openly in favour of a rise in alcohol taxation.

RCP President Professor Ian Gilmore said: “Research from across the world shows a direct link between affordability of alcohol and level of consumption.

"Raising the tax on alcohol would help reduce our consumption, and reduce the future burden of ill-health from alcohol misuse, while generating more funding for treatment services. This is a win-win for the nation’s health.”

Sen insisted, though, no objective had been decided in relation to Alcohol Health Alliance’s objective on alcohol tax.

She said: “Alcohol Concern as an individual organisation are certainly pushing for a rise in alcohol tax because we believe that there is a significant body of evidence that shows that price is a key way in which you can reduce overall levels of alcohol harm.”

Trade concerns
BBPA director of communications Mark Hastings said: “It just goes to prove that while doctors know an awful lot about medicine they know nothing about markets and how they operate.

“None of the remedies that they propose would have any effect whatsoever on excess drinking in the UK.

“Clearly this is a campaign that our industry is going to have to counter vigorously, the industry will continue to present robustly its long standing arguments around how to tackle alcohol misuse effectively based clearly on actual evidence.”

Morning Advertiser

Underage drinking: It's everybody's problem

It is the weekend, and a group of kids are at a party. By the next morning one of those partygoers, a young man, is taken to the hospital barely breathing. He later dies, a victim of alcohol poisoning. Within a couple of weeks, three other young men — ages 19, 23 and 23 — are arrested and charged with providing alcohol to the minor. Four lives changed forever, all because of underage drinking.

The recent death of Nikolas Gallegos, an 18-year-old SFA student, is just one of 1,700 deaths nationally of young adults ages 18 to 24 caused by alcohol, according to Mother's Against Drunk Driving. Most of those students, 81 percent, will get their alcohol from an adult who purchased it legally, according to the 2007 Texans Standing Tall Report Card.

Sixty-five percent of students will obtain alcohol at a party, according to the report.

Alcohol is still considered to be the most widely abused substance among Texas students, with nearly 66 percent reporting they had used alcohol at some point in their lives. While this statistic is down slightly from the 2004 number of 70 percent, it still shows a majority of students are participating in underage drinking.

"Alcohol use or abuse continues to be the most prevalent problem among college students in Texas, causing adverse personal and social consequences for young adults, campuses and the community as a whole," stated the report.

The problem, according to representatives of some local agencies, is not lack of education. In fact, Gallegos, along with most of the freshman at SFA, completed a mandatory alcohol-prevention program highlighting the dangers of drinking. But as is the case with many lessons, learning what should be done is no guarantee it will be done.

The problem is environmental, experts say.

In his Call to Action released in September, former Surgeon General Rear Admiral Kenneth P. Moritsugu said, "The media and the larger social culture, including how alcohol is marketed and portrayed, contribute to alcohol's appeal to young people."

The thought is echoed by the head of a local agency dedicated to the prevention of youth substance abuse.

"Environmental changes have the biggest impact," said Janet Taylor, executive director of The Coalition.

Because drinking is legal for adults, it is sometimes considered a rite of passage... "just kids being kids," said Moritsugu. "It's important to keep sending the message that the community does not approve of underage drinking."

It is a message taken seriously by local law enforcement.

In Lufkin, in the past year, there have been several arrests of adults who have hosted parties where alcohol was available to minors.

And, in the case of Gallegos, investigators were quick to hold accountable those who held the party and furnished the alcohol.

Underage drinking is everybody's problem, Moritsugu said. "And its solution is everyone's responsibility."

Lufkin Daily News

Underage drinking persists

The hospitalization of intoxicated teenagers at a teen dance and arrests of underage drinkers in the past three weeks show the effect of increased vigilance and stronger laws, but also reflect a continuing problem, parents, police, and others said.

A resident's complaint about a loud party resulted in police breaking up a party where youths were drinking last Friday night on Richmond Hill Road, a civic-minded act that might have prevented an alcohol-related car crash or other mishap, said Nancy Korotkin, president of the Greenwich Coalition to Combat Underage Drinking.

"The thing we keep pounding the pavement about is to talk about it, talk about it, talk about it," Korotkin said. "I kind of believe the coverage this issue has been getting and the response the police have been able to give because of the cooperation of citizens means our efforts are actually working."

On Friday police charged 17 youths, ages 15 to 17, with possession of alcohol at the Richmond Hill Road party, and also charged the 16-year-old girl who lived at the home with allowing her peers to drink there. Three weeks ago seven high school students ages 13 to 17 were taken to Greenwich Hospital after they arrived at an Arch Street teen center dance visibly intoxicated, leading to an ongoing police investigation into who provided the alcohol.

The next night, police broke up a house party on Taconic Road where they said a dozen youths were drinking alcohol. Police charged the 17-year-old boy who hosted the party with risk of injury to a minor, possession of alcohol by a minor, and another girl was charged with interfering with police by fleeing into the woods.

Parents have the first responsibility to maintain an open discussion with their children about alcohol, said Kyle Silver, director of the Arch Street Teen Center said.

Silver said that he hopes the attention caused by police charging teens for possessing alcohol might influence more teens to avoid drinking.

"Focusing in on these recent episodes I'm so thankful that there have been no fatalities or serious injuries from what has happened," Silver said. "We can't be naive to the aspects of growing up and that our children are going to make mistakes, and youth should be able to talk with their parents when they need them."

Police Chief David Ridberg said that clandestine drinking among youth in town is a common occurrence, with increased instances around graduation, school vacations, and other events.

Officers are enforcing the new house party law, which went into effect last October and gave them the power to charge minors with possession of alcohol on private property, but police continue to attend to safety and medical issues first.

The offense carries a maximum $136 fine, and a 150-day suspension of a state driver's license.

At teen parties involving alcohol, police continue to carry out "controlled dispersals," a time-consuming task of detaining youth and contacting their parents to come pick them up to prevent drunk driving, and to assess each teenager's state of intoxication.

Officer Robert McKiernan said that the recently enacted law has allowed police to at least impose some consequences for teenagers who drink.

"It has been positive because there are consequences now, but as for the long term impact, whether there are less parties, and fewer tragedies, remains to be seen," said McKiernan. "But so far it has been a positive for us."

This fall, meetings of the Junior United Way, a group of students from local schools that plans and organizes events for teenagers, will include discussions of underage drinking and some of the factors that contribute to it, said Jennifer Byxbee, the youth coordinator for the United Way of Greenwich who moderates the group.

Most teenagers want to know about ways to curb underage drinking, Byxbee said, and they said that education about the new law and other consequences, such as being suspended from athletics and other activities for violating the law, can rob drinking of its allure.

"Kids want to truly know the consequences of it, whether it is knowing if they show up at a youth event they will be turned away and the police called," Byxbee said. "And they want those consequences to be consistent for everyone."

Byxbee said youth agencies sponsoring alcohol-free events need to reconsider the level of supervision they want at events in the future, and whether additional security and Breathlyzer tests could be necessary.

"We're learning kids need to know what to expect in terms of protocols and level of security but I don't think it will be any one thing which will be the solution to underage drinking," Byxbee said. "On the other hand if kids know they are showing up in this facility and they will be supervised we're hearing maybe they won't even show up then. We're asking all those questions about security, supervision and about the Breathlyzers."

Silver said he questions the mindset of the teenagers who were charged at the Richmond Hill Road house party, which was during Homecoming weekend.

"In my memory Homecoming weekend was one of the most amazing times you can remember from my high school career," Silver said. "I ask why? They had a great place to be yet they weren't there. It's frustrating."

Jenny Lawton, the owner of the Arcadia Coffee Shop, which holds events geared toward town youth, said that using her store as a venue for teenagers requires a firm hand.

Around midnight one night in early August a group of rowdy youths at a Hip Hop Night at Lawton's coffee shop started fighting outside and she called the police, she said.

That night, an ambulance also took an intoxicated 14-year-old Stamford boy to the hospital from the same event, Lawton said."I'm always looking out for kids who might be impaired and my first priority is their safety," Lawton said. "If I can't reach their parents I call 911, which is what I did this summer."

After canceling two events for teens in response to the problems she had this summer, Lawton said the shop will try again and host a party on Halloween night. Lawton said she feels that the new house party law will help discourage drinking, but continually improving nightlife for teenagers should remain a priority.

"I think the police are cracking down," she said. "If there is a keg party down the street they are finding out about it and stopping it, which is what they should do. Kids shouldn't be getting drunk to the point they have to go to the hospital."

Greenwich Time

Dying to get drunk?

North women are among the worst in the country for drinking themselves into an early grave, we can reveal.

An NHS survey ranked all the local authorities in England from one with the lowest alcohol-induced mortality rate down to 354 with the worst.

There were 12 North areas ranked from 300 to the bottom of the table including Chester-le-Street, County Durham at 348, nearby Easington at 345 and North Tyneside stood at 344 on the list.

With teenage girls reported to booze more than boys, and women revealed to be more susceptible to dependency and alcohol induced illnesses, experts fear the booze death toll could increase dramatically over the next few decades.

Nick Heather, Professor of Alcohol and other Drug Studies at Northumbria University, said: “Women often make the mistake they can drink as much as males, but women are much more susceptible to liver damage and dependency than men.

“We don’t fully understand why yet, but generally they are lighter in weight and have a higher fat to body fluid ratio meaning alcohol concentrates in women’s blood faster than in men.

“In the UK up to 90 per cent of 16-year olds have drank alcohol. There is increasing evidence the developing brain in young people is damaged by high levels of alcohol consumption.”

Prof Heather believes women are drinking more because of their changing role in society and the fact they earn more money now.

He added: “The drinks industry quickly noticed and changed their venues to make them more female friendly. They also started marketing alcohol directly at woman and producing drinks that were aimed solely at them. This has all had an effect.”

Elsewhere on the table came Derwentside (340), Middlesbrough (339), South Tyneside (330) Blyth, Northumberland (318), Newcastle (315), Stockton, Teesside (308), Berwick, Northumberland (307), Barrow, Cumbria (304) and Sunderland (303).

According to research by Alcohol Concern nearly 60 per cent of women drink weekly while 13pc drink at least five times a week. The proportion of women drinking in excess of the recommended limit of 14 units a week has increased by 70 per cent from 1988.

A spokesman for Alcohol Concern said: “Women are aping men’s behaviour, especially teenage girls, who now drink more than boys. One in 13 adults is now dependent on alcohol.”

Sunday Sun

Pilots to be screened for drugs and alcohol

Pilots flying domestic and international routes will be subjected to random alcohol and drug tests for the first time from early next year.

A blood-alcohol content less than 0.02 per cent will be set for pilots and tests for cocaine, cannabis, opioids and amphetamines will be conducted under the long-anticipated changes to aviation safety standards.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has been negotiating the new standards with aviation industry representatives for four years, but the changes will now be introduced just months before the Government-sponsored random drug testing of elite sportsmen and women.

It is also likely to increase pressure for emergency and essential service industries and personnel to tackle alcohol and drug abuse in the workplace.

Drug and alcohol testing for the Australian aviation industry was recommended by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau after a fatal accident on Hamilton Island in September 2002.

While the bureau was not able to conclusively establish the reasons for the crash, the then federal transport minister, John Anderson, warned it was time to consider the "impacts of alcohol and drug use on aviation safety".

The current regulations prohibit flight crew from being under the influence of drugs and alcohol, but the system is self-regulatory. The US already conducts random testing and in Britain there is a legal blood alcohol limit of less than 0.02 per cent.

The pilots' federation wants to see the standards enforced across the aviation industry to include engineers, maintenance workers, catering staff and parts manufacturers and suppliers.

Their argument highlights other debates over workplace drug testing, including a five-year stand-off between the Victoria Police and the Police Association.

Victoria's police force has no drug or alcohol testing regime, although random testing is conducted in other states when there is a reasonable suspicion an officer is under the influence or impaired while on duty.

The Age

Could Alcohol and Drug Misuse be Costing You Money?

As someone who is involved in a small business, you know how important it is to get the most out of your employees, and also how costly it can be to hire and train new employees. Yet far too many businesses are failing to prepare for employees with substance issues, and are facing re-hiring costs instead of helping existing employees to rehabilitate.

Recent research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has found that despite 40% of employees believing that alcohol misuse is a significant cause of employee absence and lost productivity; only 60% of businesses have a policy in place to deal with the issue. This is even more surprising considering 31% of businesses have dismissed at least one employee for alcohol problems, and 15% have dismissed at least one employee with drugs problem in the last two years.

The survey also found employers could do much more to support employees with substance dependency problems, with only 38% of employers providing co-ordinated rehabilitation support to help individuals with drug or alcohol problems return to work after treatment. Only a half of employers provide access to counselling or to occupational health services for employees fighting drink or drug problems.

Ben Willmott, CIPD Employee Relations Adviser and author of the report says: “Supporting employees with drug and alcohol problems has a high success rate with many individuals returning to work. But organisations must make employees aware of the policies and support in place otherwise they will not have the confidence to hold their hand up and acknowledge they have a problem and need help.

”Since 2001 the number of organisations with drug and alcohol policies has remained around the same (58%) and where organisations do have policies they are doing very little to actively promote them. Simply adding a policy to a rarely used staff handbook is unlikely to ensure the issue is seen as an ongoing priority. Organisations should engage with their employees to ensure that they are fully aware of its provisions; this can be done via staff briefings, poster or publicity campaigns at work, internal notice boards newsletters and email alerts.

”Training managers so that they are able to identify and manage drugs and alcohol misuse in the workplace is also essential. Yet only a third of employers train managers in how to manage these sorts of issues at work.

”Clearly drug and alcohol misuse is an issue which needs to be taken seriously within the workplace. The Health and Safety Executive currently estimates that up to 14 million working days are lost each year due to alcohol related problems, costing British industry an estimated £2 billion each year.”

The survey found that where businesses refer employees with substance difficulties to specialist treatment or rehabilitation support, more than 60% were able to manage their problem and carry on working for the business. This demonstrates that with your support the problems can be dealt with.

By having a substance misuse policy in place and by helping your employee to deal with their problems; not only can you help them to recover; you help boost their loyalty to your business, avoid having to dismiss them and advertise their job, avoid needing to interview new candidates, and avoid needing to hire and then train the new employee.

Biz Help 24

Calls for all drinks to carry warnings

Ministers are preparing to get tough with the drinks industry in a bid to curb Scotland's binge-drinking culture.

The Scottish Government wants manufacturers to start clearly labelling the strength of alcoholic drinks to better inform drinkers of the risks they are taking. If steps are not taken voluntarily, ministers will look into forcing producers to display the information, such as the number of units in a bottle of wine.

The pledge is made today by Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish Health Secretary, ahead of Scotland's first Alcohol Awareness Week - an initiative organised amid concern people do not realise how much they are drinking. It also comes as doctors make fresh demands for better liquor labelling.

The British Medical Association Scotland, which represents doctors, wants new legislation to force the industry's hand.
advertisement

Dr Peter Terry, chairman of BMA Scotland, said: "Much more should be done to promote sensible, moderate drinking and to move away from the cultural norm of drinking to get drunk.

"The only way that individuals can keep a check on their own drinking patterns is to have access to clear information about what they are consuming.

"By legislating for standardised labelling on all alcohol products, we can avoid mixed messages and help people to make informed choices about what they drink."

The toll alcohol is taking on Scotland's health has become increasingly apparent in recent years. In February a report revealed Scots are drinking themselves to death at twice the rate of people elsewhere in the UK. Male liver cirrhosis mortality rates were 2.5 times those for England and Wales in 2004.

The number of women dying from drink-related diseases in Scotland has more than doubled in 20 years.

Despite this, policy-makers have tended to choose to work with the industry to promote sensible drinking, rather than force change. However, responding to Dr Terry's comments, Ms Sturgeon says today: "We want the alcohol industry to ensure the information people need to know to help gauge how much they're drinking is easily identifiable. That information should be on drinks labels.

"Legislation on this is reserved, but if there are no voluntary developments from the industry, we will enter into discussions with Westminster on how we can strengthen the rules."

Improving labelling is supported by campaign group Alcohol Focus Scotland.

Jack Law, chief executive of the organisation, said: "Alcohol Focus Scotland agrees that the unit content, set in the context of the sensible drinking guidelines, should appear on all alcohol labels to help people better understand how much they are drinking. We also want to see health warnings on labels, particularly for at-risk groups such as pregnant women.

"There seems to be growing concern about what nutritional information appears on food packaging, but far less concern about information on the strength and effect of alcoholic drinks." The Portman Group, the social responsibility body set up by drinks producers, said its members already give details of alcohol units on products.

David Poley, chief executive, said: "Portman Group companies have pioneered ground-breaking initiatives to educate consumers about responsible drinking.

"They all unit label their drinks and promote responsible drinking on containers, brand websites and advertising."

The Herald

Middle class tipplers as bad as binge drinkers

Drinkers in middle-class areas in the UK are more prone to consume hazardous amounts of alcohol compared to their counterparts in poorer areas, a new research has revealed.

In a drive organised by the Department of Health, social drinkers will be warned that more than a glass of winner per day will impair their health, like in the case of young binge drinkers.

"Most of these are not young people, they are 'everyday' drinkers who have drunk too much for too long. This has to change," the Telegraph quoted Dawn Primarolo, the Public Health Minister, as saying.

The research by the North West Public Health Observatory found that people from relatively affluent areas are more likely to cross sensible levels of alcohol consumption than those living in deprived areas.

Consuming 22 units per week will make a man fall into the "hazardous" category, while for women it is 15 units. Some of the country's most wealthy areas were found to have a concentration of the biggest numbers of "hazardous drinkers", making Runnymede in Surrey and Harrogate in North Yorkshire land top spots in league tables.

However, the lowest rate was found in relatively deprived Newham, East London, with 14.1 per cent.

"In order to stop further increases in alcohol-related deaths and admission to hospital, we must reverse the tolerance that most communities have built up by simply consuming too much alcohol on a weekly basis," Professor Mark Bellis, director of the observatory, said.

Karen Tocque, director of science and strategy at the North West Public Health Observatory, said that regular risks are morel likely to be involved in domestic violence.

"Binge drinking has received the most attention because it is connected to violence and anti-social behaviour but those who are drinking regularly are at risk of health problems, domestic violence and behavioural issues," Tocque said.

The research also showed that harmful drinkers are from deprived areas of the country. Topping the table is Manchester with 8.8 pct of adults and Liverpool follows with 8.1 pct.

Liverpool also has the highest rate per 100,000 for alcohol attributable hospital admissions for men and women.

"Both hazardous and harmful drinking patterns are contributing to increasing alcohol-related ill-health and pressures on health services across the whole country," the researchers said.

Daily India

Drink warning for million Scots

More than one million Scots are drinking at potentially harmful levels, according to health campaigners.

The group, which based its calculation on a drinking habits survey, admitted the true number could be even higher.

The study suggested that many people consumed more alcohol than was recommended by government guidelines.

Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (Shaap) said that banning promotions in supermarkets could cut alcohol related illness.

Official figures have previously suggested that people questioned in surveys report drinking less than half of the alcohol actually sold in the UK.

Shaap, which established by medical royal colleges in Scotland, said official policy should be directed at lowering alcohol consumption in the population as a whole.

Chairman Dr Bruce Ritson said: "Alcohol policy has tended to focus on the minority of the drinking population who are the heaviest drinkers.

"However, there is a much bigger number of hazardous and harmful drinkers who account for most of the alcohol-related problems simply because they are a much larger group - over a million people in Scotland.

"What that means is that it's not enough to target only the heaviest drinkers.

"If we are serious about preventing harm, we need to have policies that impact on the whole population as well as the heaviest drinkers."

Drinking day

He said recent measures to ban cut-price alcohol promotions signalled that the government was serious about reducing alcohol-related harm.

He added: "Alcohol policy offers another opportunity for the Scottish Government to show leadership once again and we believe the Scottish people will fully support the government in their efforts."

Shaap based its calculations on a survey which was carried out in 2003.

The study found that 63% of male drinkers said they had consumed more than four units on their heaviest drinking day of the previous week.

Some 57% of women drank more than three units on their heaviest drinking day of the previous week.

BBC News

Calling time on problem thinking

The headlines are familiar: "Kids offered iPods to tackle booze culture", "Hard-up students spend £1bn on booze", "Scotland 10 years too late to solve binge drinking". Similarly, the hand-wringing from politicians, health chiefs and the media is almost as well-known as the terrible parade of health statistics relating to alcohol.

But could the continuing emphasis on Scots' problematic relationship with drink actually be ensuring it continues? That is the suggestion of an American expert on so-called social norms, who is coming to Edinburgh next week to address an event on substance misuse.

The conference, titled Everybody's Doing It?, and taking place at the Scottish Parliament during Alcohol Awareness Week, will examine whether faulty perceptions about others' drinking habits are undermining health promotion work.
advertisement

The event - which will hear claims that health advocacy groups have inadvertently contributed to the problem - is being hosted by Scotland's Futures Forum, the agency created in 2005 to explore solutions to some of the key social policy challenges faced by the country.

The event's title refers to the proposition that if we think that everyone around us is participating in a certain activity, we are more likely to do so ourselves.

Dr Wesley Perkins, of the department of anthropology and sociology at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, New York, established the power of social norms when he researched the beliefs of college students in the US about their peers' drinking habits. Perkins found that most students wildly overestimated the number of their fellow students who drank, how often they did so and how much they consumed.

When students discover the true picture about the habits of others, the effect is to change their own behaviour, with consumption dropping significantly.

Could Dr Perkins's approach provide new directions for public health strategists in Scotland? Members of the Scotland's Futures Forum certainly think so, and they have built the event on October 22 around his ideas, as part of their inquiry into alcohol and drugs.

Perkins also thinks Scotland could do more to overthrow what he catchily dubs "the reign of error".

"Alcohol abuse is a significant problem in Scotland; there is no question about that," he says. "There is a problem in terms of the amounts some people are drinking in Scotland and the harmful and risky ways they do so."

But, increasingly, research evidence is demonstrating the importance of attitudinal and behavioural norms, he argues. This has a significant impact in a country such as Scotland, where the government is working to change the national attitude to drinking.

The then Scottish Executive published an updated plan for action on alcohol problems in February, which states specifically that the goal is to change drinking cultures. Perkins says it may be our understanding of the problem that needs to change. He adds: "It is not about changing the culture, but changing the perception of the culture."

This chimes with some of the messages coming from the drinks industry, which is running Scotland's first Alcohol Awareness week from October 21 to 27 in partnership with the Scottish Government.

Campbell Evans, of the Scotch Whisky Association, is a member of the recently established partnership between industry and government designed to foster a culture of responsible drinking. He says that many in the industry would also like to see a shift in perception.

Evans says: "The question is rather than saying it's bad, it's bad', why don't we emphasise the positive. If 27% of men are drinking in excess of guidelines, that means 73% are not. Would it make more sense to ask people why are you one of the one in four who isn't drinking sensibly?"

Perkins' research work would probably support that approach. However, the main stated goal of the inaugural Alcohol Awareness Week is to get people to "think and talk about what a unit of alcohol is". This is likely to be ineffective, the American academic suggests.

He says: "The research is really clear. Traditional health education - teaching people about the effects of alcohol - doesn't change people's behaviour. The other main approach, health terrorism', tries to scare people by telling them about the bad things that can happen with high risk drinking. That doesn't work either; people say it probably won't happen to me, and mostly they're right.

"But the other issue is that if you constantly talk about the size of the problem, you may contribute to more misperception. The biggest problem is that what we think is normal and what we think others are doing is far more excessive than the reality. The problem with that, especially with young people and young adults, is that if someone doesn't want to drink heavily, but they think everyone else is doing it or expecting them to drink, then they are pressurised into drinking more than they otherwise would."

Meanwhile, genuine binge drinkers don't even consider whether their behaviour is excessive. Perkins continues: "Those who are at the upper end, with frequent, heavy consumption over short periods of time, think they are like everybody else."

Perkins points out that earlier this year, two University of Paisley academics demonstrated a similar effect among UK students. Paisley's social science department observed distorted beliefs and overestimates about other people's drinking in a survey of 500 students. The researchers concluded that normative beliefs about alcohol are also an issue in Britain.

The social norms theory of alcohol consumption- which Perkins pioneered - has now been demonstrated to apply to a wide range of groups, not just students and young people. And it can be used to change behaviour. Perkins and others have shown how US college students drink more moderately if given accurate information about their peers' habits.

In a different field, remarkable results were achieved at the Arizona Petrified Forest National Park, where signs warned visitors not to steal samples of fossilised wood from the protected area, as 14 tons was going missing a year.

Professor Robert Cialdini of Arizona State University, another proponent of social norms, advised that the appeal was actually encouraging more theft, by subliminally giving the message that tourists routinely helped themselves to souvenirs.

The signs were changed to depict thieves as an isolated minority, and a substantial reduction in vandalism was achieved.

In the field of combating alcohol abuse, the next stage is to use social norms to promote safer, healthier behaviour, Perkins will tell the Futures Forum next week. He will describe a scheme in the US state of Montana, where adults aged between 18 and 35 were quizzed about drink driving and discovered to overestimate grossly the number of fellow Montanans who drank while over the limit.

A public campaign was launched to alert people to the fact that only a minority engaged in this risky and illegal behaviour, and rates of offending fell.

Using the strategy to change behaviour isn't simple, but is more effective than any strategy we have now, says Perkins.

He prescribes a "hefty dose of truth" about the reality of our neighbours' drinking, using any method possible including poster campaigns, video clips, websites and even very localised advertising. But, he insists, it needs to be intensive and continuing: "People are pretty entrenched in these notions about how heavily everyone else is drinking. You can't just hang up a poster during Alcohol Awareness Week," he says pointedly.

Speaking for the drinks industry, Campbell Evans welcomes Perkins's ideas, but says a range of tactics are needed to help address the social problems caused by alcohol. He points out that television plays a role in glamourising alcohol, with the Portman Group and the home secretary both recently calling that industry to task for its representations of drink.

Evans says: "The social norming ideas are a useful approach. The question is, how do you change a culture? What does that actually mean? We are not going to solve everything by the end of one awareness week in October, but we can reach those who want to hear the message and it will start to permeate down."

Meanwhile, Perkins stresses that he is not trying to deflect the alcohol industry from responsible marketing, or endeavouring to talk down the problems caused by alcohol. He says: "Some see the industry and advertising as the epitome of evil. The social norms approach is not pro- or anti-industry.

"If beverage companies promote their products in ways that suggest people use them in heavy or irresponsible ways, a social norms approach would be critical of that. But, equally, we would argue that health advocacy groups have contributed to the problem."

Perkins concludes with a hard-hitting prescription: "Some people when hearing this might think we are trying to sugar coat the problem, and saying it is not a big deal. In fact it causes a lot of damage and destroys lives. But the point is that it is not the majority doing it and we need to exploit the power of the majority."

The Herald

Booze injuries up 28%

The number of people admitted to hospital with alcohol-related injuries has shot up by 28.1 per cent, new figures reveal.

The findings come despite recent efforts by the Government to tackle alcohol abuse.

Injuries covered in the figures include victims of assault, alcohol-related poisoning or accidents and people with liver cirrhosis. The number of men admitted nationwide rose from 714 per 100,000 in 2001/02 to 909 in 2005/06 - an increase of 27.3 percent.

The number of women was up 28.9 per cent, from 396 per 100,000 to 510. The data, from the NHS's Hospital Episodes Survey, means about 353,000 people in England were admitted for emergency treatment in 2005/06 because of drink-related incidents.
Advertisement

Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said the figures were "worrying".

He added: "Together with other evidence, these data show we have a serious alcohol problem and measures to date haven't had any discernible effect."

A Department of Health spokeswoman said nearly two million people were drinking more than recommended safe limits.

She added: "Reducing the harm caused by alcohol misuse is a top government priority. We are working hard to help people take responsibility for their drinking and its impact on their health."

The North East has the highest number of admissions - 15,700 men and 8,800 women per 1,000 in 2005/06. The North West was second with 41,600 men and 23,100 women.

The East of England had the lowest, only 743 men and 425 women.

Nine of the 10 areas with the highest admissions are in the North, with Liverpool, Manchester and Middlesbrough in the top five for each sex.

Most areas with the fewest cases are in the South, including Wokingham in Berkshire and Lewisham, South London.

Professor Mark Bellis of Liverpool John Moores University, who helped compile the figures, out tomorrow, said: "The high levels of excessive drinking are contributing to significant ill-health."

1,708 NUMBER of boozing admissions per 1,000 men in Liverpool last year - the highest. Wokingham, Berks, had the lowest at 435. They had 874 and 262 women admitted respectively.

Mirror

England's alcohol problems mapped

People living in Manchester and Liverpool are the most likely to drink alcohol at levels that significantly damage their health, profiles of every area in England have revealed.

Researchers found that over eight per cent of adults in the northern cities drink alcohol at harmful levels, while Salford, Knowsley and Rochdale have seven per cent of people aged over 16 drinking dangerous amounts.

The profiles are based on 22 different indicators and include for the first time the number of people in every local authority drinking at harmful or hazardous levels.

Although harmful alcohol consumption - over 50 units a week for men and 35 for women - is linked to more deprived areas of the country, affluent areas were also found to have a problem.

According to the alcohol profiles, about a quarter of individuals in the relatively affluent areas of Runnymede, Harrogate and Guildford regularly drink at hazardous levels - 22 to 50 units per week for men and 15 to 35 for women.

Both hazardous and harmful drinking are linked to ill-health and increasing pressure on the NHS.

Across England as a whole, local authorities range from 14.1 per cent of adults drinking at hazardous levels to 26.4 per cent.

For harmful drinking local authority estimates range from 3.2 per cent to 8.8 per cent of adults.

The figures were compiled by the North West Public Health Observatory at Liverpool John Moores University's Centre for Public Health.

Professor Mark Bellis, director of the centre, said: "While much attention has been paid to binge drinking less discussion has focused on the damages associated with routinely consuming too much alcohol.

"Across England around one in five adults are drinking enough to put their health at significant risk and one in 20 enough to make disease related to alcohol consumption practically inevitable."

He added: "We need to tackle binge drinking and all the short-term social and health consequences associated with such behaviour. However in order to stop further increases in alcohol-related deaths and admission to hospital, we must also reverse the tolerance that most communities have built up by simply consuming too much alcohol on a weekly basis."

InTheNews

Harvard Students Keep Beer Flowing, Defying Dean

Harvard University's student leaders are defying a dean's order to stop using college funds for alcohol served in dormitory rooms.

After the oldest and richest school in the U.S. said it will no longer release money for private parties, the Harvard Undergraduate Council continued to mete out grants of $100 or more that can be spent on alcohol, according to that body's president. The Cambridge, Massachusetts, school hasn't stopped any parties, hoping the standoff can be ended through talks, Associate Dean Judith A. Kidd said on Oct. 11.

U.S. colleges are growing less tolerant of drinking and more concerned about the consequences of abetting imbibers. Two officials at Rider University, in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, were indicted by a grand jury in August in the death of a student by alcohol poisoning during a fraternity initiation. The charges of aggravated hazing were later dropped.

At Harvard, ``the fact that the school was actually paying for unsupervised drinking is simply stupid and shouldn't have been happening in the first place,'' said David Rosenbloom, 63, the chief investigator of the federally funded Youth Alcohol Prevention Center at Boston University's School of Public Health. ``Kids have far too easy access to alcohol as it is, and they didn't need their university's help to get it.''

Rosenbloom said more schools are moving away from a ``total hands-off view toward student drinking.''

The legal drinking age in Massachusetts, and most other U.S. states, is 21, the highest in the industrialized world, according to the Web site of the World Health Organization.

`Our Money'

Harvard's Undergraduate Council, or UC, said it provided the private-party grants from funds remaining in its account. The council president, Ryan Petersen, a 21-year-old senior, said the university shouldn't have any say in the matter.

``That money is our money,'' Petersen said in a telephone interview on Oct. 11. ``The allocation of funds is completely the decision of the Undergraduate Council.''

The UC began providing money for private parties in 2003, under former Harvard President Lawrence Summers, as students and administrators sought to improve social life at the school. Last spring, the university opened a campus pub, the Cambridge Queen's Head.

``At that particular time, in that particular administration, there was an emphasis on `How can we increase student satisfaction?''' Kidd said.

David Pilbeam, who became the interim dean of Harvard College in September, announced earlier this month that he was cutting off money for private parties. The college is the Ivy League university's undergraduate school.

Abuse Found in Study

``It is quite apparent that the UC Party Grant program, in practice, has funded parties where the focus is on drinking,'' Pilbeam said in a letter to the council leaders, posted on Harvard College's Web site. ``The UC Party Grant program is at odds with the message that students, parents, faculty and administrative leaders of this community should be sending about responsible and safe alcohol use.''

A 2002 study published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol found that 31 percent of college students met criteria for a diagnosis of alcohol abuse during the previous year. The study was based on questionnaires answered by students.

Liability also played a role in Harvard's decision to cut off funding for private parties, Kidd said.

``The legal climate is changing out there,'' she said. ``We collect and distribute the money. Therefore we are responsible for making sure it is used appropriately.''

Arbitration Urged

Petersen said he proposed to administrators that an arbitrator be hired to resolve the dispute.

``Until the Undergraduate Council decides the program has to be eliminated, the program will remain in effect,'' Petersen said.

The money for private parties comes from an optional $75 activity fee for each student that raises about $450,000 a year. Kidd said the UC gives $51,000 annually for private parties. Petersen said the amount is lower, about $30,000 a year.

Students apply to the council for the grants. To qualify for the money, the students must affirm they are 21 or older and promise to obey school rules and local, state and federal laws, Petersen said.

The UC this semester dropped a policy of requiring that private parties be advertised. The location of the events still filters out, through e-mail, Kidd said.

``With the Internet, there's no such thing as a secret,'' Kidd said.

Supervised Events

Generally, the private parties aren't supervised by university employees, Kidd said. Faculty members who live in the dormitories complained that the events often draw more students than can be accommodated in a dormitory suite, Kidd said.

``They are spilling out into the hallways,'' Kidd said. ``We all agreed there was no control possible, so we were going to eliminate the program.''

Harvard will continue to pay for alcohol purchases at events hosted by student organizations and dormitory committees, Kidd said. Those parties are held in larger spaces and supervised by graduate students hired and trained by the university, she said.

Bloomberg

Alcohol-related casualties 'rise'

The number of people taken to hospital because of alcohol abuse has risen sharply over the past five years, according to reports.

The Observer says NHS data shows the number of men admitted as drink-related emergency cases in England rose by 27.3% between 2001/02 and 2005/06.

Among women over the same period, there was a 28.9% rise in admissions.

The figures, which come two years after 24-hour drinking was allowed, suggest the problem is worst in the North East.

The Department of Health statistics, which will not be officially released until Tuesday, also point towards a North-South divide.

The overall number of men in England admitted to hospital with drink-related problems rose from 714 per 100,000 in 2001-02 to 909 per 100,000 in 2005-06, according to the report.

Over the same period, the number of women admitted rose from 396 per 100,000 to 510 per 100,000, a rise of 28.9 per cent.

The North East region had the highest number of admissions per 100,000 population for both men (1,232) and women (689) in 2005/06.

The North West was close behind with 1,215 men per 100,000 and 674 women.

The region with the best record was the east of England with admission figures of 743 men and 425 women per 100,000 population.

North-South divide

Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, told the Observer:"We have a serious alcohol problem in this country and measures to date haven't had any discernible effect".

He suggested increasing the cost of drinking could have the most immediate effect and called for the government to review drink promotions and availability.

Nine of the 10 areas with the highest number of alcohol-related emergency admissions are reportedly in the North and include Liverpool, Manchester and Middlesbrough. Most with the lowest numbers are in the south of England.

The cases, taken from patient records kept by every NHS hospital, include people taken to A&E because of their own or someone else's drinking.

Among them are victims of assault, people in accidents or poisoned through drink and those with liver cirrhosis.

BBC News

Iowa's drinking called epidemic

It has been more than 12 years since the death of University of Iowa student Matthew Garofalo, and it's likely that few, if any, students on campus even know who he was or how he died.

On Sept. 7, 1995, Garofalo, 19, of Elgin, Ill., passed out drunk about 11 p.m. at the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity house, where he was a pledge. It wasn't for another 12 and a half hours that Garofalo's lifeless body was found. In the hours between, Garofalo had vomited while on his back and inhaled some of his vomit. His lungs became irritated and filled with fluid until they stopped producing oxygen. About 7 a.m. his heart stopped, and he died.

Although this may be the most extreme example of the effects of binge drinking, health professionals warn that the culture of excessive drinking in Iowa City and at UI is creating problems for students right now that will continue for the rest of their lives.

They point to Garofalo's death, the death of 20-year-old Joseph Domke -- who fell from a balcony after drinking downtown underage -- drunken driving deaths, countless drunken assaults and attacks and a 2005 Harvard School of Public Health study that states UI has a binge drinking rate of nearly 70 percent -- the highest in the Big Ten -- as reasons for their concern.

Binge drinking is defined as five or more consecutive drinks in a sitting in a two-week period for men and four or more for women.

Harvard's statistics also show that although the percentages of occasional binge drinkers have declined since the study began in 1993; the percentage of frequent binge drinkers has increased.

UI students rate much higher than college students on average, where only two of five students nation wide report binge drinking.

It's for all of those reasons and the adverse health and societal effects of binge drinking that medical professionals and many others are in support of the proposed 21-only ordinance, which would ban 19- and 20-year-olds from bars. Proponents of the legal age measure argue that by restricting access to alcohol, the binge-drinking rate would significantly drop.

Will binge drinking decrease?

However, opponents argue such a measure would not decrease binging and simply would push underage people out into the communities and into unsupervised and potentially dangerous house parties.

Atul Nakhasi, a UI junior who founded the anti-21 group, the Student Health Initiative Task Force, said the proposed ordinance "directly impacts student health and safety," by potentially driving underage students to house parties.

"We're going to end up seeing more underage drinking," said Nakhasi, a pre-medicine student. "Now instead of using ID checks, you could have middle schoolers at the party. Instead of serving checkers (who can control the number of drinks served), you're going to have students with greater underage drinking. And what we're going to see is a likely increase in DUIs (and) sexual assaults."

Richard Dobyns, a clinic professor of family medicine at the UI, said it's difficult to speculate whether or not there would be more house parties.

"Could there be? Sure. You can speculate in either direction," Dobyns said. "There's always been house parties, there's always been pre- and post-drinking. Basically, what this initiative will instigate, not by itself, is a reduced alcohol consumption culture."

Dobyns said he believes the drinking rate among students has reached epidemic proportions. That belief has caused Dobyns to take action and act as a spearhead for the 21-only proposal.

"I mean, if you saw that the state of Iowa had twice the influenza numbers of any other state, you would hope your community would do something about it," he said. "You need to respond. It's not ethical to walk away from something like that."

Dobyns said he has a broad definition of the health effects of binge drinking and although students' binge drinking doesn't do much immediately, there are consequences later on. People who develop alcohol-related issues are more likely to have difficulty forming meaningful relationships and experience trouble holding down a job, as well as an increased likelihood of developing mood disorders, unwanted pregnancies, unwanted sexually-transmitted diseases, premature coronary disease, liver disease, vascular disease and neurological disease.

"If you define health a little more broadly, you would include those things as well," Dobyns said.

Dobyns added that public policy should not be based on random events, such as Garofalo's death.

"It's extremely sad for everyone," he said. "However, you have to look past those sad issues and look at the everyday sad issues."

Effects: now and later

Dr. Peter Nathan, a professor emeritus in community and behavioral health, was acting UI president at the time of Garofalo's death. He said it was hard to predict whether Garofalo's death would have been prevented by a 21-only measure.

"Would this have happened to Matthew if the referendum happened at the time?" Nathan said. "Matthew didn't drink in the bars."

Like Dobyns, Nathan -- an alcoholism researcher for 40 years --said binge drinking at a young age doesn't immediately do much to students, health-wise. However, he said frequent binge drinking can lead to cutting classes, less studying, an increased risk for injury, forgetting things or doing regrettable things.

The long-term effects are more severe, Nathan said. Frequent binge drinkers -- which represent about 46 percent of the student body -- are at a much greater risk to develop alcoholism after college.

"Alcoholism, in turn, is associated with a lot of sociological, psychological and physical problems," he said. "Alcoholics, on average, die several years early."

That's not to say Iowa City is inundated with alcoholic graduates from the university. Nathan said well-educated communities like Iowa City tend to have fewer alcoholics than other places.

Nathan said out of each graduating class, there could be up to 5 to 10 percent of the students who meet the criteria for alcohol dependence. Many of them don't stick around Iowa City, though.

"Students who graduated from here do a whole lot of things," Nathan said. "Some stay here, many don't."

Nathan said if parents are worried about sending their kids to the UI and having them come home with alcohol abuse problems, their concerns are valid, although coming to the university does not doom students to a life of alcoholism.

"The damage is still there"

However, centers that treat people for substance abuse problems, such as MECCA, are seeing people in their late teens and early 20s. Steve Steine, the clinical coordinator for MECCA's Iowa City location, said students are coming to the facility for outpatient programs.

"Most of the college students that we are seeing are those that have had a first or second OWI offense," Steine said. "Or, they may have what we would call recurrent alcohol-related issues; two or more public intoxications, two or more PAULAs, that really would have them meeting the criteria."

Steine said the facility doesn't track whether or not their patients are students, but of the 24 people enrolled in the current outpatient program -- an entry level program aimed at younger people and those experiencing first time substance abuse problems -- there are 10 people 21 or younger. He did not know whether or not they were university students.

"It's difficult to track," Steine said.

Steine didn't wish to weigh in on his view of the ordinance but said the problems with alcohol consumption might not be solved by laws and fines.

"If students get charged with a PAULA in a bar, they usually just get a ticket, pay a fine, that's it," he said. "They don't get any attention until there's something recurrent. I've known some students who have had multiple possession tickets and aren't mandated to doing some substance abuse program."

Ed Haycraft, an abuse counselor for UI Student Health, said the health center already is treating students for secondary effects of alcohol abuse. In 2006, 600 to 700 students came to Student Health for alcohol-related issues. Haycraft said they either attended the Seminar on Substances, an educational program, or the Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS) program.

"There's quite a few young people that come in and say, 'Well, I'm depressed,' and we ask them, 'How much are you drinking?' " Haycraft said.

Haycraft said drinking releases dopamine -- a chemical that triggers a pleasurable feeling -- into the brain. When the drinking stops and the production of dopamine halts, drinkers come down from that high and feel depressed.

However, in terms of physical effects, outside of getting sick or falling and hurting themselves when they're drunk, Haycraft said binging won't do much to younger drinkers.

"When you are 18 to 20 years old, you snap back real quick," Haycraft said. "But the damage is still there. It's one of those things that people don't realize when they're 18 to 20."

But some damage is being done right now. According to an annual report compiled by Student Health, of the 875 surveys completed, 73 percent reported they had experienced hangovers from drinking, 52 percent said they had vomited, 32 percent said they had injured themselves while drinking and 29 percent said they had unintended or regretted sex.

Students like Nakhasi, UI Student Government President Barrett Anderson and many others said they don't refute the negative health effects of binge drinking, just the approach taken by the 21-only measure.

"This is not going to fix these issues of underage drinking," Nakhasi said. "We recognize there's a problem...Our goal is not to only address and oppose this measure, but propose a possible solution."

Still, Ralph Wilmoth, the outgoing director of Johnson County Public Health, a 21-only supporter, said something must be done.

"The whole idea that we have an environment that supports that behavior is a contradiction to the very principles that public health is based on," Wilmoth said.

Press Citizen

Community faces hard facts of underage drinking

Recent suburban drinking parties attracted 70 teens on Grand Island, another 34 in Evans and 22 in Clarence. Eight students in Sloan showed up drunk at a homecoming dance.

Those four incidents all occurred over two weekends.

Once again, alarm bells are ringing across the region about the prevalence of underage drinking.

The alarm has sounded many times over the years, but now the public is starting to learn what educators and advocates for alcohol treatment have been shouting for years:

Teen drinking, always a serious problem, is getting worse.

“They’re drinking younger, they’re drinking more, and they’re drinking for the purpose of getting drunk,” said Sally Yageric, parent program coordinator for the Erie County Council for the Prevention of Alcohol and Substance Abuse. “It’s no longer [primarily] for social reasons. It’s to get drunk.”

Richard J. Gallagher, executive director of Alcohol and Drug Dependency Services, agrees.

“All I can say is, there has been a significant increase,” he said.

Gallagher recalled talking recently with 14 girls on the Renaissance Campus, a residential treatment facility for young people with serious alcohol or drug problems. Several admitted to having started drinking at age 8, 9 or 10.

Local school districts have limited reach in combating teen drinking, which invariably occurs off school property during nonschool hours.

But virtually every school district in Erie County has a code of conduct, spelled out in a contract signed by student-athletes and their parents — and, in some cases, students involved in any extracurricular activity.

“I think it’s being done pretty much across the board now,” said Matt Smith, community awareness director for Western New York United Against Drug and Alcohol Abuse. “If you put that jersey on, you have to adhere to a code of conduct.”

In the four recent drinking incidents that have become public, such contracts led to the suspension of more than three dozen student-athletes, for at leas