Alcohol policies and regulation Flashcards
Describe Australians’ perceptions of the most harmful drugs
- Meth
- alcohol
- tobacco
- heroin
- pharm/script drugs
- ecstasy
DEscribe the extent of alcohol harm
- Alcoholic products are harming 10 million Australians every year.
- 48.1% of Australians have experienced harm from another person’s drinking.
- 7.5% reported having been “harmed substantially”.
- men who drink at risky levels, but not women, more likely to come to harm by someone else’s drinking
- Source: Alcohol’s Harm to Others in 2021: Who Bears the Burden? – April 2023
Key Statistics of Alcohol Harms in Australia
- An Australian dies every 90 minutes, and another is hospitalized every three and a half minutes because of alcohol. – well below average of developed nations
- Alcohol harms cost $67 billion annually.- tangible 18 bil: occupational injuries, health, absence, crime, road accidents; YLL, DALY, victims of alcohol-caused crime
- 5 alcohol-induced deaths per 100,000 people.
- Alcohol ranked fourth highest risk factor contributing to health spending, $2.1 billion.
- $4.3 billion increase in alcohol retail turnover from 2019-2022.
- Sources: National Drug Research Institute, 2018, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Alcohol, Tobacco & Other Drugs in Australia, 2022, and Australian Bureau of Statistics, Retail Trade, Australia, 2023.
Harms of Alcohol to the Individual
- 140,000 alcohol-related hospitalizations annually.
- 8.3% increase in alcohol-induced deaths (1452 deaths) from 2019-20.
- 90% of suicides associated with mental health, alcohol/drug use, and family issues.
- Causes at least 7 different types of cancer.
- Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)
Describe trends of drinking in young people
- Uncertain futures
- Health consciousness
- Concern with work
- Changing family relationships
- Binge drinking isn’t cool
Note: people who DO drink are drinking at higher levels
Note 2: non-drinkers may be due to cost of living crisis
Note 3: relationship to education and SES
Describe the history of alcohol policy
- Medicinal use ie sterile, heart health
- Generator of economic activity
- Alcohol harms under the public health jurisdiction
- note international regulation varies widely; no control board compared to other narcotics, but…
- WHO Burden of Disease estimated to be 6x greater use than other drugs
colonisation and other narcotics control
Describe the regulation fo alcohol in Au
- Regulation on all levels of government - state based
- low alcohol beer is a soft drink in WA
- Kombucha in Victoria over a certain threshold
- Alcohol regulation of the alcohol industry; conflict of interests:
- Labelling
- Advertisements
- Sale of alcohol
- Tax
Describe alcohol labelling
- Foods and Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ)
- Warning labels mandated in July 2020
- FARE’s open letter to promote labelling
- Pregnancy warning labelling: 1996-2023
- Labelling in Ireland
- cancer and pregnancy warnings
A note: saturation on labels
- cancer and pregnancy warnings
Descrube the effect of alcohol lobbying
- Gambling and alcohol lobby plough $2.165 million into political parties, up 40% from the previous year.
- These donations were split almost equally between Labor and the Coalition, with Labor receiving $1.12 million and the Liberal and National parties receiving $1.05 million.
- Companies and lobby groups with interests in both alcohol and gambling disclosed $905,000 worth of donations in 2021-22, while entities that profit from gambling but not alcohol and their lobby groups disclosed $678,000. Entities that profit from selling alcoholic products but not from gambling, and their lobby groups, disclosed $583,000.
- There is a considerable amount of “dark donations” made to parties that are not required to be disclosed because they are below the threshold, which was $14,500 in 2021-22 and is $15,200 for the current financial year.
Descrieb alcohol advertising and online sales
- Self regulation through code
- complaints not heard or taken on board
- kids tv advertising
- data collection of minors and targeted advertising
-
Online Sales and Delivery: Convenience or Risk-Enabler?
- regulation widely varies
- no oversight of underage buying
- In 2020, one in 10 Australians who bought takeaway alcohol purchased it online – a threefold increase from 2019. It is estimated that one in six Australians who drink alcohol purchased it via delivery.
- 78% wouldn’t have if online alcohol wasn’t a thing
- rapid delivery associated with domestic violence; no protections
- note: regulations in place not enforced re: IDs, regulation deliver re: drop-off at door
- note also: element of risk with workers being poorly compensated
Describe alcohol lobbying on a global level
- WHO, FARE and stopping meeting with lobbying groups and closed door meetings; WHO and donations
- Campaigning against alcohol ads on Netflix, backed off
Describe the imapct of language
- Defining Stigma: “The situation of the individual who is disqualified from full social acceptance” (and the source of it is something that marks a person or a group out as) “different … of a less desirable kind.” – Erving Goffman, Sociologist
Stigma and language inform each other
People-First Language
- Not ‘drinkers’
- High-risk drinking – not alcohol ‘abuse,’ ‘misuse’
- Alcohol dependent or experiencing Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) – not ‘addicted to alcohol’
- People experience or are impacted by harms like violence – they are not ‘victims’
