EU URGED TO COMBAT "MISERY" OF ALCOHOL ABUSE

BRUSSELS, Dec 17 (Reuters) - European Union governments should step up
efforts to fight alcohol abuse, which drains public budgets and causes far
more misery than illegal drug use, a report by a group that studied the
issue said on Thursday.

The report, financed by the European Commission, said governments should
consider raising excise taxes and imposing special levies on alcohol sales
to finance treatment and prevention programmes.

"It is clear that the problematic consumption of alcohol affects millions
of families...across the European Union, causing harm and misery on a scale
which dwarfs the problems associated with illegal drugs," it said.

"Despite this, national governments often devote more resources to
campaigns against illegal drugs".

The report was prepared by representatives of EUROCARE, an association of
alcohol abuse organisations; the Confederation of Family Organisations in
the European Union (COFACE), and the World Health Organisation European
Region.

They said an estimated 14 percent of men and four percent of women -- or 42
million people -- in the EU have experienced alcohol abuse or dependence
sometime during their lives, resulting in marital problems, domestic
violence, child abuse and other severe family stress.

"Unknown but necessarily large amounts of public money are expended in all
member states each year on health and social services in dealing with the
consequences of alcohol problems in families," the report said.

It urged the EU to set up a programme to determine the economic costs of
family alcohol problems, expand drug awareness campaigns to include alcohol
and disseminate information on treatment methods to East European countries
that are seeking EU membership.

It also asked national governments to set up better systems to monitor
family problems associated with alcohol abuse, require local health and
social service authorities to draw up plans for tackling such problems and
ensure that social workers and other professionals were trained to deal
with them.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski