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Vital Stories

Tobacco policy experience could help limit harmful alcohol use

By Rebecca Perl, Director, Parternships and Initiatives, Policy, Advocacy and Communication

In his circa 375 BC play, Semele or Dionysus, Eubulus, a statesman from Ancient Athens, has Dionysus God of Wine say:

“Three bowls do I mix for the temperate: one to health, which they empty first; the second to love and pleasure; the third to sleep. When this bowl is drunk up, wise guests go home. The fourth bowl is ours no longer, but belongs to violence; the fifth to uproar; the sixth to drunken revel; the seventh to black eyes; the eighth is the policeman’s; the ninth belongs to biliousness; and the tenth to madness and the hurling of furniture.”

Then as now, excessive drinking causes problems.

Consider these staggering statistics:

  • Half of all homicides in the U.S. alone involve alcohol
  • One in ten deaths among U.S. adults are due to excessive drinking
  • Alcohol is responsible for 3.3 million deaths globally
  • Alcohol also plays a defining role when it comes to violence against women, traffic fatalities, suicides, cancers, heart disease, mental health problems and STDs
  • Many of these issues are of particular concern among the underage and university students.

Recently, I attended Alcohol Policy Conference 17 in metro Washington D.C. Since harmful alcohol use is known to be one of the four leading risk factors of non-communicable disease globally, Vital Strategies is interested to find out more about this important area of disease prevention, policy and advocacy.  Government officials, researchers, advocates and counselors are focused on reducing the harmful use of alcohol, primarily a result of binge drinking.

Nearly 400 people participated in the three days of programs at the conference. Attendees were mostly from the U.S. where the movement against harmful drinking is the strongest. Some 11 countries were also represented, though activities across the world are nascent.

For those of us who have been working in tobacco control, it’s of interest to note that many of the same policies that work to discourage tobacco use also apply to alcohol, with tax increases topping the list for both substances as the most effective intervention, and quantifiable evidence that an increase in price results in reduced drinking.

Other critical interventions discussed at the conference include:

  • Reducing the density of outlets that sell alcohol and the hours one can buy alcohol
  • Enforcing laws that keep retailers from selling to minors and the inebriated
  • Limiting alcohol marketing geared toward the young

Another similarity with tobacco is the state of the alcohol industry: just eight transnational companies control the world’s sales of alcoholic beverages and represent an extremely powerful lobby. Those in attendance last week are hoping that turning the tide on the harmful use of alcohol will constructively borrow from tobacco control’s playbook, but in a much shorter span than 50 years.