The Press FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1974. Addiction to alcohol

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33460, 15 February 1974, Page 8

The Press FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1974. Addiction to alcohol

The warnings of experts at the summer school on alcohol and drug addiction studies held this week in Christchurch on the " alarming ” increase in the consumption of alcohol in New Zealand should not be ignored. A higher per capita consumption of alcohol is not necessarily bad. If it indicated that New Zealanders were cultivating a greater capacity for enjoyment in defiance of outmoded social conventions and attitudes, it might be no cause for alarm: but the experts fear that if the consumption of alcohol continues unchecked the result will be not a happier society but more alcoholism, a larger number of deaths on the roads, an increase in random vandalism and violence, and economic loss because of absenteeism.

The consumption of alcohol is increasing evidently because New Zealand society is failing to provide alternative pursuits to heavy drinking. In an ideal society people would feel no need to misuse alcohol and other drugs. The first imperative is to provide adequate facilities for the treatment and rehabilitation of the true alcoholics (of whom there may be as many as 50,000 in New Zealand) whose dependence is a burden to themselves and their families. This is, as one speaker at the school admitted, stationing an ambulance at the foot of the cliff rather than building a fence at its top. But to deny individuals at present troubled by problems stemming from involuntary dependence on alcohol, and their families, the help they need to cope with their difficulties would be cruel. The Government should not stint funds for this purpose. Speakers were less ready with measures which would check excessive consumption of alcohol among the rest of the population. Prohibition is obviously no answer — although in 1970 almost 15 per cent of those who voted in the licensing poll thought it might be. They should reflect that the experiment was abandoned in the United States 40 years ago. Some have suggested that advertising of liquor be curtailed or banned. But restrictions on the advertising of cigarettes in the United States have not checked the rising per capita consumption of tobacco there. Little would probably be achieved by shortening hours or otherwise making the purchase of alcohol more inconvenient. A selective tax on alcoholic beverages might have some effect. In the 1920’5, Denmark imposed heavy taxes on spirits. Drinkers turned to less powerful drinks and the total consumption of pure alcohol dropped by 60 per cent. The law can never play more than a minor role in solving complex social problems. The best hope lies in that most difficult of tasks: seriously considering how to eliminate the shortcomings of New Zealand society that lead people to drink to excess because healthier, more creative and more satisfying alternatives to drinking are not offered. Efforts must at the same time be made to educate people to use alcohol moderately and to break down those social attitudes which encourage excessive drinking. Young people should be taught that although alcohol can assist in social relaxation, there is nothing sophisticated or manly about heavy drinking, and that it does not guarantee social success. The liquor interests * should be encouraged to emphasise this aspect in their advertising, as some wholesalers are already doing.

The speakers at the school rightly insist that to concentrate on the misuse of the “ exotic ” drugs — marijuana, the opiate narcotics, and LSD — and to ignore the misuse of New Zealand’s main drug, alcohol, would be dangerously short-sighted.