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TIME TO PUBLISH ‘EVIDENCE
BASED’ ALCOHOL STRATEGY
A NEW GOVERNMENT ALCOHOL STRATEGY needs to ‘lead
the way internationally’ in reducing the damage caused
by alcohol misuse, according to a document from the
Drugs, Alcohol and Justice Cross-Party Parliamentary
Group and the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on
Alcohol Harm.
The Alcohol Charter – which is published in
consultation with Alcohol Concern, Alcohol Research UK,
the Institute for Alcohol Studies and the Alcohol Health
Alliance, and backed by 30 other organisations including
Cancer Research UK, Blenheim and Adfam – says a new
strategy is essential to protect public health, improve
support and address alcohol-related crime.
It wants to see the government outline ‘concrete
measures’ to moderate harmful drinking and address
England’s million-plus annual alcohol-related hospital
admissions. Without action, alcohol is set to cost the
NHS £17bn over the next five years and lead to 135,000
cancer deaths over the next 20, it states.
An effective alcohol strategy will need to tackle the
increased availability of cheap alcohol, provide proper
support for dependent and non-dependent drinkers, and
‘empower the public to make fully informed decisions’
about consumption. It should also be based on the
‘evidence of what works’ to reduce alcohol harm, as
outlined in PHE’s alcohol evidence review.
Among the specific measures called for are the intro -
duction of minimum pricing ‘following the lead of other
home nations’, adding a 1 per cent levy to alcohol duties to
fund treatment, and mandating local councils to provide a
ring-fenced resource for treatment and early intervention
services. Councils also need to address the issue of age
inequalities in existing services and provide adequate
provision for people with complex needs, it stresses.
The charter also calls for statutory minimum require -
ments for labelling, including health warnings, tighter
restrictions on marketing – also enforced by statutory
regulation – and a government-funded programme of
health campaigns ‘without industry involvement’. PHE’s
recent partnership with Drinkaware for the ‘Drink Free
Days’ campaign proved controversial and led to the resig -
nation of Professor Sir Ian Gilmore as co-chair of PHE’s
alcohol leader ship board (DDN, October, page 5).
‘With dozens
of alcohol-related
deaths across the
UK every day, we
decided that
rather than wait
ages for the
government’s
alcohol strategy
we should
promote a
programme of
actions which
could reduce harm
levels dramatically,’
said co-chair of the
Drugs, Alcohol &
Justice Cross-Party
Parliamentary
Group, Mary
Glindon MP.
‘This Alcohol
Charter is an
important
document which
outlines many
policies that the
AHA has been
calling for,’ added
Gilmore in his
capacity as
Alcohol Health
Alliance (AHA)
chair. ‘The
MaRy Glindon MP
government needs
to ensure that the upcoming alcohol strategy includes
evidence-based policies which work to reduce alcohol
harm and tackle the increased availability of super cheap
alcohol. The best ways to do that are by introducing
minimum unit pricing in England – which we already
have in Scotland and will soon have in Wales – and
increasing alcohol duty.’
Document at blenheimcdp.org.uk/news/alcohol-charter
‘Rather than
wait ages for the
government’s
alcohol strategy
we should
promote a
programme of
actions.’
DUTERTE 2?
HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANISATIONS have expressed
grave concerns about the victory of right-wing
candidate Jair Bolsonaro in the Brazilian
presidential election. Bolsonaro had campaigned
with an ‘openly anti-human-rights agenda’, said
Amnesty International. The new president has
promised to grant prior authorisation for law
enforcement officials to kill, and told Time
magazine that president Duterte of the
Philippines ‘did the right thing for his country’.
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
bolsonaro:
duterte
‘did the
right
thing’
UN-SUCCESSFUL
THE UN’S TEN-YEAR STRATEGY to eradicate the
international illegal drugs market has been a
‘spectacular failure of policy’, says an IDPC
report. More than 30 jurisdictions still have the
death penalty for drugs offences on their
statute books, with almost 4,000 people
executed over the last decade, the document
states. President Duterte’s crackdown on drug
users in the Philippines has seen around 27,000
extrajudicial killings, while restricted access to
controlled medicines has left 75 per cent of the
world’s population without proper access to
pain relief. UNODC strategy is based on a
‘discredited “war on drugs” approach that
continues to generate a catastrophic impact on
health, human rights, security and
development, while not even remotely reducing
the global supply of illegal drugs’, it says.
Taking stock: a decade of drug policy at idpc.net
SPECIALIST
PRESCRIPTIONS
DOCTORS are now able to legally issue
prescriptions for cannabis-based medicines for
the government has announced. This summer
saw a review of the products following high-
profile stories about the concerned parents of
children with severe epilepsy (DDN,
July/August, page 5). The decision to prescribe
the products, however, will need to be made
by a specialist doctor rather than a GP.
DIFFERENT CLASS
THE PRESCRIPTION DRUGS gabapentin and
pregabalin are to be reclassified as class C
substances from next April, the government
has announced. Gabapentin was developed as
an anticonvulsant for epilepsy but is mostly
prescribed for nerve pain such as sciatica,
while pregabalin is used to treat both nerve
pain and anxiety. The ACMD, however, has
previously raised concerns about misuse and
illegal diversion. While the drugs will still be
available on prescription there will be stronger
controls to ‘ensure accountability’ and
minimise the chance of them ‘falling into the
wrong hands or being stockpiled by patients’,
the government says.
COUNTY CRACKDOWN
MORE THAN 200 PEOPLE were arrested as part
of a week long period of ‘intensive law
enforcement activity’ to tackle county lines
drugs gangs, the National Crime Agency (NCA)
has announced. Nearly 60 vulnerable people,
including children, were also identified and
safeguarded. ‘Every territorial police force in
England and Wales has now reported some
level of county lines activity,’ said NCA
national county lines lead Sue Southern.
November 2018 | drinkanddrugsnews | 5