It’s no secret that Australians love to drink: we drink to celebrate, to commemorate and to corroborate.
Despite our supposedly jovial national relationship with booze and our humorous affectations of love for it, it’s also no secret that alcohol misuse presents as one of the most serious issues facing Australian society.
The increased liberalisation of alcohol – more hours, more outlets and more places we can expect to drink – has only reinforced the substance as a crucial means of social enhancement and has further engrained potential for abuse.
An inquiry by the NSW Parliament into the effectiveness of current alcohol and drug policies has recently found evidence to suggest that alcohol is the substance presenting the greatest challenge to public health.
Committee Chair, the Hon Marie Ficarra MLC, said: “It goes without saying that substance abuse is one of our most pressing social issues. The committee believes that as a community we must continue to think about how we can respond to the scourge of drug and alcohol abuse more effectively.”
According to the inquiry, the negative social and economic effects of alcohol are irrefutably more significant than those caused by other substances. Though knowledge of this is by no means new, the uniqueness of alcohol as a substance – specifically in regards to policy development and regulation – is the potentiality of the drug to be used in both a safe and reckless manner.
A 2010 study released rated the harmfulness of 20 psychoactive substances on 16 different criteria, including harm to others as well as harm to the individual. In terms of the scope of overall harm, alcohol received the highest score of 72 out of 100. Comparatively, the score for cannabis was 20.
Michael Thorn, chief executive of the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE), an independent charitable organisation that aims to help Australia change the way it drinks said: “Alcohol related harms are unquestionably the biggest problem we’ve got in public health.”
“We see the fallout from alcohol misuse in the media every weekend. But that’s not the whole picture and we like to think about alcohol harms as those to the drinkers and those to others. Unlike tobacco, alcohol’s harms to others are much more significant. For example, Thomas Kelly, who was hit in the head in King’s Cross: he’s your classic harm to others case,” said Mr Thorn.
With the clearest casual relation to violence, it’s evident that the burgeoning issue of alcohol misuse is in desperate need of re-address.
In a report released this week, FARE found that in the four years since the Preventative Health Taskforce released its final plan to help combat health challenges caused by tobacco, alcohol and obesity, the government has managed to complete only four of the 32 outlined alcohol-specific actions.
Mr Thorn hopes a newly elected government will yield more positive results in implementing the necessary preventative health strategies to tackle alcohol harms.
“We’ve written to both major parties asking them to commit to convening an alcohol summit within the first 12 months of the new government coming to power,” said M Thorn.
“One of the main reasons is to discuss why so little has been done in terms of progress with the Preventative Health Taskforce, but also the National Alcohol strategy has fallen into disrepair. That strategy dates from 2006 and it really is another fail mark against all governments dealing with issues of alcohol in our community.”
Twenty-six year old Chris Raine, a former advertising and marketing manager, is another leading pioneer in the movement to change Australian’s attitude to alcohol.
He is the founder of Hello Sunday Morning – an online project that encourages users to take a short break from alcohol, all the while blogging about their experience.
Raine’s intention was never to demonise alcohol. By simultaneously acknowledging alcohol’s inherent positives and taking an intensely personal approach, Raine’s goal was instead to create a platform that could help individuals to re-examine their own relationship with the drug.
Where drinking – and even the concept of drinking to get drunk – is such an accepted part of the Australian culture, he believes the first steps towards change must begin on an individual level.
“The thing we really try to encourage at Hello Sunday Morning is not to never drink again … but for people to step back and consider the reasons why they need to drink or why they need to get drunk.”
Raine said: “The tragedy of what we have in our society is that alcohol serves this purpose for many people – they use it to be confident, they use it to deal with problems that they face and they use it to fit in with their friends,” he said.
Although there is no clear-cut solution to such a nationally significant social issue, Michael Thorn asserts that fundamental societal change is difficult without involvement from all levels of government.
“What we need is leadership from our politicians. I think most of them are in denial about the magnitude of the problem; they’re not very courageous in standing up to the liquor companies… Until we get a change of attitude amongst our politicians it’s going to be slow progress in dealing with this issue.”
By Tess Gibney
