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Joint Letter: When Home Is The Most Dangerous Place
When home is the most dangerous place – millions of children are growing up in families with alcohol problems, but society is largely failing them

Making the invisible visible

For too long, these children have remained invisible, left on their own. As their parents cannot provide shelter and often basic support, also society is failing to protect and promote the rights of these children. Without hyperbole, all available evidence shows that the problem is massive:

In the United States, mothers convicted of child abuse are 3 times more likely to be alcoholics and fathers are 10 times more likely to be alcoholics.

• More than 50% of all confirmed abuse reports and 75% of child deaths involve the use of alcohol or other drugs by a parent.
• In the European Union, there are at least 9 million children growing up with alcohol-addicted parents.
• In Australia ca. 1 million children live in households with at least one adult being addicted.
• There are 2.6 million children of school age living with parental alcohol problems in the UK alone.
• The number of children living in homes that are ravaged by alcohol problems sky-rockets considering the countries around the world that are currently not even measuring the issue.

For complete letter

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Hey! While you're here, check this out!

Interesting Fact One! "By 1988, research studies also showed that the younger the age at which children had had their first tipple, the more they would drink in later life; and males drinking more than 4 units of alcohol per week at 16 were more likely to drink 50 units per week at 23 compared with those who did not drink at 16. Furthermore, it had been shown through research that drinking at a younger age and drinking in a licensed premises before the age of 18 are both linked to development of heavy drinking in later life." A few notes on the info/research provided on youth in the book "A lot of bottle" by Derek Rutherford (Institute of Alcohol Studies, UK, 1988)

Over 20 years ago, we had clear indicators that early onset drinking was causing some grief, but was 'buried' by the so called geniuses of the day who didn't want to be wowsers! I'm betting that the now 40 year olds who are struggling with the alcohol now were wishing that was diffrent!

Interesting Fact Two! In one of the latest issues of 'The Globe' "Alcohol is responsible for 1 in 25 deaths world wide!" Unbelievable! But when you look at the following spin you can begin to understand why.

"Comments of senior brewing industry figures well illustrated the conern of the Industry. One such director noted... "Young people seem less prepared to sip beer for hours, culturally they like short sharp fixes...five years ago there were less alternatives to getting abuzz or getting high. The challenge for the [alcohol] industry is to make alcohol part of that choice". Chairman of the huge company Allied Liesure in UK said this... "Youngsters can get Ecstasy for $20 or $25 and aget a much better buzz than they can from alcohol...it is a major threat to alcohol-led business." So faced with losing its traditional market and losing out in the psychoactive youth consumer markret, commentator and author of Institute of Alcohol studies paper 'Youth, Alcohol and the Emergence of the Post-Modern Alcohol Order' made the following observations... "The industry's response was to accelerate the rpocess of recommodifiying alcohol products that it had begun in the eighties. The term re-commodification is deliberately chosen to capture the fact that alcohol was being redeveloped as a 'new' consumer product. In effect, the brewing industry created a post-modern alcohol market."

The key transformations were as follows:

a) A whole new range of alcohol products - ice larges, spirit mixers, white ciders, alcopops and buzz drinks. They have become know as designer drinks.

b) The strength of alcohol products were increased in a direct attempt ot compete in the psychoactive market adn appeal to the new generation of psychoactive consumers.

c) Alcohol products have been increasingly advertised as lifestyle markers in sophisticated campaigns to appeasl to adn develop market niches."(The Globe Issue 2, 2009 pp 6)

Wow! So, it's global, not just Oz! What is completely distrubing for us, is the complete shameless set up of emerging, and for the most part clueless, young people. We don't mean they are stupid, just a combination of post-modern confusion, poorly defined values and consequently boundaries, and being ignorant to the spin that they are caught in... That's why it's so important that we 'get a clue and give a damn!"