Hope UK, the Christian drug and alcohol education charity for children and young people, welcomes the call by MPs to add a recommendation of two alcohol-free days per week to drinking guidelines. However, this assumes a willingness on the part of drinkers to take responsibility for their own health and wellbeing and the evidence is that this is not always the case.

The need to review drinking guidelines has been prompted by the failure of current guidelines to curb excessive and harmful drinking, as is evidenced by increasing numbers of young adults with alcohol-induced liver disease (as well as other conditions linked to alcohol).

But it’s not just the health of young adults that is causing concern. A recent report to the House of Commons by Under-Secretary of State for Health, Anne Milton, found that 7,074 people under the age of 18 years were treated for alcohol-induced illness in NHS hospitals last year 1; this, despite statistics for the last two years indicating that more children are choosing not to use alcohol 2. Unfortunately many that do drink are drinking more than is good for them.

Hope UK is convinced that education is an important part of the answer. Yet the Drug Education Forum found last year that “over 60% of schools say they only teach drug education once or less a year. This is not enough to help ensure that our children have the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to take on a world in which drugs [including alcohol] are all too prevalent.”

Education is needed from a young age to help people understand alcohol units as well as the serious consequences attending ignorance, willful or otherwise, of what constitutes safe drinking levels. However, education and revised guidelines will only go so far in changing an entrenched drinking culture.

The anti-smoking campaign was successful in reducing the number of people who smoked and making it socially unacceptable to smoke in enclosed public places because of an unambiguous message – smoking is dangerous and should be given up altogether. The same uncompromising message needs to be delivered in respect of alcohol, which is arguably even more dangerous since it not only affects health adversely but also behaviour, increasing the risk of accidents, unplanned pregnancy and violence.

Many people simply do not ‘get’ the sensible drinking message. This is helped by the fact that alcohol reduces inhibitions and self-control, thus making it easy for those who start drinking with the best of intentions to end up exceeding their intended intake.

If the Government imposed minimum pricing, banned advertising, reversed the trend to 24-hour opening of alcohol outlets and had compulsory health warnings on every bottle, we might begin to see a change in the UK’s drinking culture.

If alcoholic drinks designed to appeal to young people were prohibited, restrictions were placed on supermarkets in the sale of alcohol, and the strength of drinks popular with young people (like Vodka) was reduced, we might see a reduction in the level of alcohol-related harm. Anything less than this is unlikely to make much of an impact.



Notes
1)www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011

2) www.ic.nhs.uk