Committee Reports::Report No. 09 - The Inclusion of Alcohol in a National Substance Misuse Strategy::01 July, 2006::Report


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Committee Reports > List of Committees > Joint > 2006 > Committee on Arts, Sport, Tourism, Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs > Report No. 09 - The Inclusion of Alcohol in a National Substance Misuse Strategy

TITHE AN OIREACHTAIS

AN COMHCHOISTE UM GHNÓTHAÍ EALAÍON, SPÓIRT,

TURASÓIREACHTA, POBAIL, TUAITHE AGUS GAELTACHTA

An Naóú Tuarascáil

Alcól a Áireamh i Straitéis Náisiúnta um Mí-Úsáid Substaintí

HOUSES OF THE OIREACHTAS

JOINT COMMITTEE ON ARTS, SPORT, TOURISM, COMMUNITY, RURAL AND GAELTACHT AFFAIRS

Ninth Report

The Inclusion of Alcohol in a National Substance Misuse Strategy

Iúil 2006

July 2006

CONTENTS

	Page
Acknowledgements	5
Foreword by the Chairman	7
Recommendations of the Joint Committee	9
Appendix A:
Consultants’ Report and supporting material	11
Appendix B:
Membership of the Joint Committee	51
Appendix C:
Orders of Reference of the Joint Committee	55

Acknowledgements

The Joint Committee would like to thank Dr Shane Butler and Mr Barry Cullen of the Addiction Research Centre at Trinity College Dublin who acted as consultants to this project and assisted in drafting the final report. Dr Butler and Mr Cullen were assisted in this task by an advisory group consisting of :

Dr Joe Barry, Senior Lecture in Public Health Medicine, TCD;

Dr Ann Hope, Research Associate, School of Social Work & Social Policy, TCD;

Dr Declan Bedford, Acting Director of Public Health, HSE Dublin/North East.

The Joint Committee also wishes to thank all those who came before it to give evidence. Those proceedings may be viewed on the Oireachtas Website: oireachtas.ie

FOREWORD BY THE CHAIRMAN

As spelt out starkly in this report alcohol is no ordinary commodity: it is a toxic or poisonous substance, it is an intoxicant and it is also a drug of dependence. Yet between 1989 and 1999 our per capita consumption rose by 41%. The latest EU research indicates annual consumption per capita of some 15 litres of pure alcohol.

And have we not seen and continue to see the results: huge numbers of binge drinkers, street aggression and violence even fatalities, streetsides running puce with vomit, fistfights in accident and emergency wards and of course the inevitable fracturing of relationships and family groupings. And even though we have all held forth at length at the awfulness of it all yet not much has happened either at an individual or Governmental level.

This report completes the talking of the talk and makes one signal recommendation which if adopted would make significant inroads into this pernicious social problem by including alcohol in a new national substance misuse strategy accompanied by proper resourcing.

Given that the National Drugs Strategy is coming to the end of its term and did not incorporate Alcohol, it is vital that any future strategy dealing with substance alone should include and prioritise alcohol.

I must point out that while the consultants were charged with the preparation of a Report on the Inclusion of Alcohol in the National Drugs Strategy, which they have done, the Committee has taken a slightly different approach in that they were loath to have alcohol classified alongside heroin and cocaine etc., and all that that entails.

Cecilia Keaveney T.D.

Chairman

July 2006

Recommendations of the Joint Committee

The Joint Committee recommends:

THAT ALCOHOL SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN A NEW NATIONAL SUBSTANCE MISUSE STRATEGY.

This will have the effect of cementing alcohol policy at the Governmental level satisfying growing public demand for an integrated policy response to alcohol-related problems.