UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF ALCOHOL

IN 1977, Liberal Party senator Peter Baume chaired a crucial Senate
report on Drug Problems in Australia. Subtitled An Intoxicated
Society?, this report perceptively argued that, if drug problems were
to be tackled effectively, all drugs, including tobacco and alcohol,
would have to be dealt with.

But little was done until the declaration of Australia's modern "war
on drugs" in 1985. After that year's drug summit, prime minister Bob
Hawke and NSW premier Neville Wran gave doorstop interviews where
they promised "wire taps", "border interdiction", more police: a
clampdown on heroin. Unsurprisingly, they did not win the day.
Victorian premier Jeff Kennett sensibly refused to sign up to a
national campaign unless all drugs were included and only if
prevention and treatment were given equal weight to law enforcement.
The other states agreed. Thus was born the comprehensive and
multilayered Australian approach to drugs.

A decade later, another prime minister added a further layer. John
Howard announced his Tough on Drugs campaign which stressed, and in
my opinion unduly emphasised, law enforcement. On the ground,
however, better sense prevailed. This involved finding what worked in
treatment and prevention, and testing this against the evidence; that
is to say, learning from experience and critical reflection.

Up to now, Australia has done quite well reducing heroin deaths,
keeping HIV/AIDS at a low rate, and now even cannabis use is
declining. Indeed in these areas we are doing better than most
countries. Plus tobacco use in Australia is now at its lowest level.

But there is an important piece missing. And it is the biggest piece
in the jigsaw: namely alcohol with its massive social, medical and
economic impact. The effects of alcohol misuse overwhelm the
stretched emergency departments in every hospital, it burdens GPs,
mental health units, social welfare organisations and justice systems.

In NSW last year alcohol fuelled the Cronulla riots and the upheavals
in Macquarie Fields. Alcohol fuels myriad outbreaks of violence in
our cities and suburbs and makes us all unsafe. It is easy to blame
others -- the "riffraff", "rednecks", "ethnics", Aboriginal people
and "today's youth" -- but alcohol itself escapes blame.

In Australia, as in Britain, politicians argue that mental health is
the nation's most pressing health problem. Thus at the Council of
Australian Governments, Howard and all the premiers have guaranteed
they will deal with mental health by preparing a comprehensive plan
to tackle mental health issues when next they meet. But the PM and
premiers Steve Bracks and Morris Iemma have potentially diverted
attention from alcohol by highlighting cannabis as the big problem
instead of realising that society's biggest problem is booze.

In Australia, teenagers, especially girls, are increasingly bingeing
on alcohol. Alcohol is directly linked to the main health problems in
young people: depression, suicide, road and personal injuries, sexual
assaults and other mental disorders. Adding to these immediate
deleterious consequences are the long-term adverse effects on
education, skill development and employment.

Those who suffer a continuing mental illness have lives shortened on
average by as much as 20 years; 23 per cent of this is due to
alcohol. Being dependent on alcohol at least doubles and perhaps even
triples the risk of depression and other substance abuse; it also
increases vulnerability to other mental disorders and physical
disease. Up to 23 per cent of suicides in Australia are caused by
alcohol and between 30 and 50 per cent of people who commit suicide
have had a previous history of alcohol use disorder. Suicide is the
commonest cause of death in alcohol-dependent people. Alcohol misuse
penetrates family life, the workplace and the community at large.

Sadly, in relation to alcohol misuse, federal and state governments
are pathetically unresponsive. We see an occasional summit here and
an occasional plan there, but with insufficient or sometimes no funds
allocated for effective implementation.

In the past eight years, the combined governments in Australia have
invested about $2.2 billion in programs specifically aimed at illicit
drugs. However, over the same period the same governments have
allocated only about $50 million to deal with problems caused by alcohol.

What really takes the cake is that while teenage drinking is targeted
in media campaigns, the federal Government picks up $200 million from
underage drinkers through alcohol excise. Where is the public interest in that?

Who's pulling the strings? It's reasonable to suggest that the liquor
industry and its lobbyists exercise undue influence on the federal
and state governments, who should recognise alcohol as the nation's
main drug of harm.