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Wednesday 12 March 2008

RAPID ROUNDUP: Rudd binge drinking policy - Drug and Alcohol experts react

The Federal Government has announced a new $53 million national strategy to address the binge drinking epidemic among young Australians. The size of this problem is staggering, with a recent report by the Australian National Council on Drugs (ANCD) showing that one fifth of 16 year olds in Australia binge drink in any given week. The AusSMC has rounded up Australian drug and alcohol experts to comment on this new national approach to binge drinking.

If you wish to speak to an expert, don’t hesitate to contact the AusSMC on 08 8207 7415.

Dr Alex Wodak is President of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation and Director of the Alcohol and Drug Service at St. Vincent's Hospital, Sydney.

“The Rudd government is right to identify youth binge drinking in Australia as an area where action is badly needed. Rudd deserves praise for recognising that this area badly needs attention.

Interestingly, Rudd has said that he will be an evidence-based Prime Minister. The interventions best supported by evidence of effectiveness for reducing alcohol related problems in the community are slightly raising the price of alcoholic beverage (by slightly increasing tax) and slightly reducing the availability of alcohol ( e.g. reducing the number of outlets or slightly restricting conditions). Young people are particularly sensitive to price increases because of a smaller discretionary income. Rudd has already increased beer and spirits but this will mainly have the effect of shifting consumption to wine. If Rudd slightly increased alcohol-beverage taxes, community opposition can be overcome by dedicating (hypothecating) a small proportion of the tax to alcohol and drug prevention and treatment.

Clinical treatment for alcohol dependent people is also effective but most of the young people who drink in binges will only do so uncommonly. Therefore clinical interventions won't have much impact on young people.

There is a lot of evidence to show that mass campaigns for alcohol are largely ineffective. If we are lucky we may see small and transient improvement.”

Dr David Caldicott is an emergency doctor and independent drug expert based in Adelaide.

"As a first foray into the political minefield that is Australian drug and alcohol policy, the new Labor Government’s initiative on binge drinking is to be generally applauded. The burden placed on emergency departments around Australia by the effects of alcohol is greater than that of all other illicit drugs combined, more so when the chronic toll is taken into account. Tackling a legal and ubiquitously consumed drug, popular amongst consumers and aggressively promoted and protected by powerful political lobbyists is a courageous move. Although not as glamorous as the populist tabloid “War on Drugs”, if successful, a campaign such as this will have far more significant and long reaching effects on the lives of young Australians.

There is no mention of tackling the advertising millions spent on attracting new drinkers to the drug, particularly younger drinkers aggressively targeted by producers of ever-emerging, ‘ready-to-drink’, high-alcohol formulations. This group of drinkers, especially young women, have been cynically exploited by the alcohol industry, prepared to badge and mix drinks to make them more appealing to the younger consumer. There is no reason why rules regarding this sort of mercenary marketing should not be every bit as harsh as those which now apply to cigarettes.

The issue of how to reach the hearts and minds of young Australians remains problematic. The Rudd government’s Liberal predecessors conducted a campaign against illicit drugs which set Australian drugs policy back thirty years, very successfully ‘poisoning the well’ as far as the credibility of the Government in the eyes of young consumers is concerned. Politicians must tread carefully when it comes to using shock tactics where young people are concerned. They may have worked for HIV/AIDS in the past, but this cohort of young Australians represents a very different demographic group. Emphasizing the danger of certain behaviours can have the paradoxical effect of increasing the glamour associated with that behaviour. This has been seen in the USA with an increase in marijuana consumption attributable to some anti-marijuana advertising campaigns. Campaigns based on wit and satire- such as the highly successful New South Wales “Speeding. No-one thinks big of you”, in which hoon drivers motivations are attributed to their diminutive genital size- are far more likely to enter into popular culture and spread virally, than campaigns designed by fifty year olds trying to anticipate what would scare them into changing their behaviour, when they were a ‘young ‘un’.

The statement that the campaign 'will be evidence-based and non-political' would mark this as a welcome landmark in 10 years of Australian drugs policy; whether it evolves as such depends on the resolution and resilience of our new leaders in Canberra."

Richard Midford is an Associate Professor and Project Leader at the National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University, Western Australia

“I welcome this initiative by the Rudd government as it seeks to tackle the drug that causes most harm to our young people - alcohol. Weekend binge drinking is increasingly becomingnormal practiceamong many young people and we as a society need to change the culture that supports this behaviour. This requires a range of complementary measures including: responsible service in pubs to prevent drunkenness; restricting late openingwhen that causes problems; a rethink of alcohol advertising and marketing aimed at young people; better policing of sales to under 18 year olds; realistic, practical alcohol education in schools. Most young people will drink alcohol, we needan integrated national strategythatmakes responsible drinking the norm.”

Ms Carolyn Corkindale is a researcher in the Department of Sociology at Flinders University.

"Any intervention or media campaign addressing adolescent binge drinking should have as a main objective that young people learn about consequences, and in a manner that engages them affectively as well as cognitively.

This can be achieved by:

• Portraying personal, and felt consequences as well as straight information;

• Using multimedia to simulate the likely consequences which can include the aftermath of risky or unwanted sex, physical side effects of binge-drinking, uncontrolled aggression and violence, acceptance of illicit drugs, and the aftermath of drink driving;

• Showing the impact of these consequences on families and peers.

A mass media campaign (“Drinking: where are your choices taking you?”, National Alcohol campaign 2002), was launched in Australia in 2002. It was aimed at young people, and focused on alcohol misuse, portraying graphically the serious harm that could follow a poor choice. This campaign was successful (King et al, 2003)."