‘Cuts. will retard aid for alcoholics’

Press, 9 May 1980, Page 10

‘Cuts. will retard aid for alcoholics’

The Alcoholic Liquor Advisory Council expects a serious reduction in its services because the Government has cut $BOO,OOO of the council’s revenue drawn from alcohol sales.

Sir Leonard Thornton, chairman of the council, said after a meeting of the council in Wellington that the cut would seriously retard the efforts already made to reduce alcoholassociated problems in New Zealand.

Voluntary organisations would also be affected. The Salvation Army treatment services would lose $62,000, and the National Society on Alcohol and Drug Dependence would suffer a cut of about $lOO,OOO. Sir Leonard said that the grants to the council from alcohol levies were not part of the ordinary tax take of the Government, and the levies had drawn no criticism from the liquor industry. The cut, from $1.4 million to $600,000, would not increase public revenue. In fact, it would cause a decrease in the cost of alcohol.

The council had sought permission to use its reserve funds to maintain services, but no Government approval had been given for this step.

One immediate effect would be to delay, by up to a year, the council’s programme of education dir* ected towards young people and their drinking habits.

Treatment and early' identification programmes would have to be cut 34 per cent; assistance to voluntary organisations would be down 30 per cent: information and education would be cut 43 per cent; and grants to hospital boards for the establishment of treatment units would have to be cut 74 per cent. Dr R. Crawford, medical superintendent of Queen Mary Hospital at Hanmer Springs, which is the national treatment centre for alcoholism, said' that the levy had been axed, but the Government’s excise tax remained intact. “The Government, with its usual short-sighted attitudes, seems addicted to its $350 million excise tax take. It seems worried that the council’s policies, financed by its normal $1.4 million levy, will be effective, and that this might affect the Government’s favourite source of re* venue. An addict always protects his sources," Dr Crawford said. The aim should always be to reduce consumption,

but the Government seemed less interested in this than in “clobbering” the council as soon as it even looked like winning its battle against alcohol

abuse. A spokesman for the national headquarters of the Salvation Army said that the cuts would put the Army’s alcohol services in a “tight squeeze.” Dr N. Walker, president of the New Zealand Medical Association on Alcoholism, said in Christchurch that the formation of the council three years ago was a positive step. by the Goemmcnt which had contributed to significant advances in education and prevention programmes. “An investment in the work of the Alcoholic Liquor Advisory Council is an investment in New Zealand’s future, because the number of alcohol - connected cases in our hospitals is considerable,” Dr Walker said. “The council’s programmes have been cost effective because they have represented a considerable saving in hospital and associated costs.” Any cuts which would retard the progress of steps against alcohol abuse should be deplored, he said.