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A first of its kind study has quantified the secondhand alcohol harm in Australia. It amounts to nearly $20 billion in 2016.
Bystanders bear almost 90% of the costs of harm caused by others’ alcohol use, while the government footed the rest of the bill.
The findings illustrate the strong case for improved alcohol policy solutions in Australia to reduce the alcohol burden on bystanders and improve the lives of all Australians.
The cost of the harm caused to others is about the same as the cost of the harm caused by alcohol users to themselves and to response agencies serving them. When the second-hand harms are added to the direct harms to alcohol users, the total harm due to alcohol is about double that of tobacco.
This brings the total cost of the alcohol burden in Australia to about $40 billion
“The findings make a strong case for an active role of governments in reducing burdens that [alcohol use] causes to non-users or bystanders, including active intervention in alcohol markets to reduce these externalities,” (as per La Trobe University News.) Dr. Jason Jiang, Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, La Trobe University
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Indigenous Call for a Return of Alcohol Bans
AMOS AIKMAN
The Northern Territory government’s refusal to maintain Intervention-era grog bans is undermining one of its own best measures for stopping alcohol-fuelled violence, say experts who have urged the government to rethink.
The scheme has been credited with a swift drop in alcohol fuelled and domestic violence in places such as Alice Springs.
Allowing grog bans to lapse in about 400 communities and outstations means people living there can buy booze again.
Donna Ah Chee, head of the health service Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, says her organisation’s clinics have been struggling to cope with more intoxicated patients on top of an already-crippling pandemic burden, since the alcohol rules changed on July 17.
The emergency response (dubbed the Intervention) was opposed by many Indigenous groups that were concerned about discriminatory policy. Ironically, some of those groups are at the forefront of arguing for the Intervention-era grog bans to be reinstated.
A coalition including Aboriginal Medical Alliance Services NT, National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation and the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency wrote to Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney on June 9.
In their six-page letter, they argued the provisions were “not …racist or negative discrimination”. “Rather, they are … positive and beneficial special measures in keeping with the High Court’s latest definition,” they wrote.
NT Chief Minister Natasha Fyles insisted in parliament this week that her government’s decision to scrap the grog bans was based on consultation with “hundreds” of communities.
Sources in the Aboriginal community service sector denied this and said they believed the government acted on an incorrect legal interpretation.
Ms Fyles spokeswoman said her government “cannot extend a commonwealth law, nor will we support paternalistic policies which criminalise Aboriginal communities”. The government has not answered requests to provide evidence about its consultation process or to show the changes are not causing harm.
Opposition domestic violence spokesman Steve Edgington said levels of domestic violence were “unacceptably high”, up 42 per cent since 2016.
“The catastrophic increase in domestic violence across the Territory under Labor’s watch has got to stop,” he said. “Unlike Labor, we will always put the rights of victims above those of offenders. The Fyles government has failed Territorians and failed to keep them safe. In Alice Springs last week, police reported 54 cases of domestic violence over a 48-hour period.”
This is our voice: tackle grog and violence
SARAH ISON JESS MALCOLM
Remote Australia’s Aboriginal female MPs have united to demand the nation tackle domestic violence and alcoholism ravaging Indigenous communities, with Labor’s Marion
Scrymgour likening the removal of grog bans to “pulling forces out of Afghanistan”.
…Senator Price and Ms Scrymgour – who are both based in Alice Springs – were united on a tough approach to alcohol fuelled violence affecting Indigenous women in the red centre.
Ms Scrymgour, who was elected to the Northern Territory seat of Lingiari in May, said grog ban measures in place for 14 years since John Howard’s Intervention could not suddenly be
revoked with no plan on how to manage the fallout.
“When a government puts a protective regime of that kind in place, and leaves it in place for that long, you can’t just suddenly pull the pin on it without any protection, sanctuary or plan for the vulnerable women and children whom the original measure was supposed to protect,” she said in her maiden speech to the lower house.
“To do that is more than negligent – at the level of impact on actual lives it is tantamount to causing injury by omission. It’s like pulling your forces out of Afghanistan but leaving your local workers and their dependants in harm’s way on the ground without an escape plan.”
The speech came as the Territory government decided not to extend alcohol bans covering about 400 Aboriginal outstations and communities, prompting concern over a “massive”
increase in rates of violence and abuse fuelled by the abuse of alcohol. Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney is urgently seeking a meeting with Chief Minister Natasha Fyles amid concern over the lifting of the grog bans.
Senator Price began her day with her grandfather’s sister, Tess Napaljarri Ross, who has spent all week with her at parliament, with the pair participating in a traditional ceremony in the grounds of Parliament House before the maiden speech.
As she spoke emotionally of the recent murder-suicide of a young woman and her baby at the hands of the woman’s male partner in Alice Springs last week, Senator Price slammed the end of alcohol bans and said it was one of the most “appalling examples of legislation”.
She also criticised the federal government’s moves to abolish the cashless debit card.
“We see two clear examples this week over failure to listen. The news grog bans will be lifted on dry communities, allowing the scourge of alcoholism and the violence that accompanies it free reign,” she said. “Couple this with the removal of the cashless debit card that allowed countless families on welfare to feed their children rather than seeing their money claimed by kinship demands from alcoholics, substance abusers and gamblers in their own family group.”
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The study, published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, breaks down this $20 billion into:
- $1.6 billion for the child protection system due to an adult carer’s drinking;
- $560 million for alcohol related domestic violence
- almost $3 billion in lost productivity due to people having to care for a drinker.
“This is the first study to also measure the cost to those impacted by others’ drinking through alcohol-related traffic accidents, crime, violence and aggression, family hardship, caring for drinkers and their dependents, and healthcare and social services,”
Overall, the amount expended on those impacted by drinkers and their drinking is equivalent to the same amount again for those who drink, bringing the total annual bill to about $40 billion. This forensic analysis, by La Trobe University researchers, reveals the cost of everything from alcohol-related violence, car accidents, child services, impacts on quality of life and damage to property.
Complete article https://www.latrobe.edu.au/news/articles/2022/release/alcohol-bystanders-burden-revealed
(Dalgarno Institute comment: Our 160 plus years of challenging this outcome has seen such before – in fact our movement was really started as a result of these outcomes. Note to, it is the ‘legal’ drug that is causing these egregious harms. A protected and commercialized drug that has become completely engrained into the culture.
What is of even greater concern, is that pro-drug activists want to give the same carnage inducing ‘pass’ to currently illicit substances such as cannabis, cocaine, mushrooms, and crystal meth.
We know that high THC cannabis alone causes psychosis and all its accompanying chaos. The ‘Kincare’ industry in South East Queensland is ‘booming’ because of ‘Ice’ impact on parents ability to not just care for their kids, but shocking harms done to them.
The insanity of promoting ‘permission’ models for substance use cannot be overstated. It is time to #preventdontpromote and focus on the first priority pillar of the National Drug Strategy - #DemandReduction)
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This study found that consuming alcohol alone during adolescence predicts future alcohol use disorders, especially for women. This finding holds true even after controlling for other factors such as binge alcohol use, frequency of alcohol use, socioeconomic status, and gender.
The study found that about 25% of adolescents and 40% of young adults reported using alcohol alone.
The odds of having alcohol use disorder (AUD) symptoms at age 35 were 35% higher for adolescents who used alcohol alone and 60% higher for young adults who used alcohol alone, compared to those who consumed alcohol only in social settings.
According to previous research by Creswell and colleagues, young people mostly consume alcohol alone to cope with negative emotions. This pattern of alcohol use has consistently been linked with developing alcohol problems. Young people are now at even more risk of developing alcohol use problems since the pandemic as their anxiety and depression levels have also gone up.
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By CHLOE TAYLOR, July 16, 2022
People under the age of 40 start risking their health if they consume any more than two teaspoons of wine or two and a half tablespoons of beer per day, a new study suggests.
The analysis—part of the wider Global Burden of Disease study—was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and published in published in The Lancet medical journalmedical journal on Thursday.
It found that for young adults between the ages of 15 and 39, there were zero health benefits—only risks—associated with drinking alcohol.
Researchers said that for people aged between 15 and 39, the recommended amount of alcohol that could be consumed before risking their health was “a little more than one-tenth of a standard drink.”
They defined a standard drink as 3.4 fluid ounces of red wine or 12 fluid ounces of beer.
By this definition, the study’s findings suggested that alcohol stops being “safe” to consume for under-40s after around two teaspoons of red wine or two and a half tablespoons of beer.
The Global Burden of Disease study is massive in scope. It has been ongoing since 1990 and uses data from 204 countries and territories, and is described in the Lancet as "the most comprehensive effort to date to understand the changing health challenges around the world.
The study echoes findings from some earlier studies that have suggested there is no safe level of alcohol consumption.
Last year, an Oxford University study of more than 25,000 people found that there was “no safe dose of alcohol” when it came to brain health.
“Our message is simple: Young people should not drink…” Dr. Emmanuela Gakidou
Also see
- Poor Representatives in Alcohol Cohorts: The Nail in the Coffin of the ‘Heart Health Benefits’ of Moderate Drinking? click here
- No Amount of Alcohol Use is ‘Safe’ click here
- Predatorial Liquor Industry still largely unchecked! And who is paying the awful price?
- Alcohol use and harm during COVID-19: Second Report – F.A.R.E.
- Hospo’ Drinking Culture – Having the Healthy Conversation!
- The New V.G.C.C.C (Victorian Gaming & Casino Control Commission) & Liquor Licensing… Hmmmm?