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This week we take a quick look at the covid crisis unfolding in India. Then we take a deep dive into Scott Morrison’s fossil fuel powered hydrogen fever dream he revealed at Joe Biden’s Earth Day Climate Summit last week.My interview guest is Dr Monica Barratt from RMIT and co-lead researcher for the 2021 Global Drugs Survey, who talks about what’s stopping psychedelics being used to treat mental health issues and psychiatric conditions in Australia.Follow Dr Monica Barratt on Twitter at https://twitter.com/monicabarrattNews Fighters is a comedic look at the week in Australian news, media and political hypocrisy, hosted by ex-Tonightly and Chaser editor Dylan Behan. Watch this episode on Youtube here: https://youtu.be/bc8PpAPOQOsSUPPORT US and get bonus & extended eps: https://www.sanspantsradio.com/plus/Website: http://www.newsfighters.comPast Eps: https://www.sanspantsradio.com/podcasts/news-fighters-2/Follow us on twitter at https://twitter.com/NewsfightersPodLike us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NewsFightersEmail: podcast@newsfighters.comBuy us a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/newsfightersBuy a t-shirt: https://www.redbubble.com/people/dylabdesigns Subscribe:Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2Uh1kmZSpotify: https://sptfy.com/1fkQGoogle Podcasts: http://bit.ly/2YRpZ08Pocketcasts: http://bit.ly/2PHbVT2Stitcher: http://bit.ly/2UrV5wfYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/newsfighters See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hello and welcome to the Alcohol Alert, brought to you by The Institute of Alcohol Studies. In this edition:Chancellor announces a blanket freeze on alcohol duties for a second consecutive year in the spring Budget 🎵 Podcast feature 🎵Irish data highlights ways in which the pandemic has slowed progress in tackling alcohol misuseResearch finds association between alcohol-related violence and deprivation, amplified by the availability of alcohol 🎵 Podcast feature 🎵Doctors in Scotland urge ministers to break sponsorship link between alcohol and sportWe hope you enjoy our roundup of stories below: please feel free to share. Thank you.Budget 2021: Duties for alcohol kept on ice🎵 Podcast feature 🎵All alcohol duties were frozen for the second year in a row in the 2021 Budget, marking the eighth year out of the last nine that alcohol duties have failed to keep up with inflation (03 Mar).According to the Office for Budget Responsibility’s costings, the freeze in alcohol duties – a cut, in real terms – are estimated to cost roughly £1·7bn to the year 2025/26.Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak's statement came ahead of the government's much anticipated response to the alcohol duty review consultation held late last year.Responding to the announcement, IAS Chief Executive Katherine Severi said:It is disappointing that the Chancellor has chosen to freeze alcohol duty today, which represents a cut in real terms. This will do nothing to help the thousands of families across the country whose lives are blighted by alcohol, an issue which has become even more acute during the pandemic.We need to rethink how alcohol is taxed to ensure public health is always given priority over alcohol industry profits. Raising alcohol duty can generate vital public funds to support the NHS and social care services and the public are largely supportive of this policy.The ongoing alcohol duty review is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve a broken system which promotes cheap, strong alcohol that wrecks lives and burdens our NHS and public services. We will continue to work with government to propose a fairer system that produces net gains for society, not just supermarket profits.A good pandemic for HM Treasury?One reason for Rishi Sunak’s decision to freeze all alcohol duties for another year may lie in the increased revenue from heavier drinking during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), HM Treasury stand to rake in £800 million more than predicted for the financial year 2020/21. This makes alcohol duties ‘one of the few tax streams that has outperformed our pre-virus forecast’, as ‘higher sales in supermarkets and other shops have more than offset the loss in receipts from the closures of pubs and restaurants for large parts of the year’.In an article for Alcohol Change UK, alcohol policy modeller Colin Angus suggested that ‘persistently freezing duties changes public perception, encouraging the idea that duty freezes for alcohol are the norm, making it politically more difficult for the Chancellor to increase duties in line with inflation in future years’. You can hear Colin Angus describe this issue in more detail on the podcast.Despite a real terms cut in alcohol duties, some sectors of the industry were left dissatisfied by the Budget, with Society of Independent Brewers chief executive James Calder claiming that it ‘does nothing for independent breweries’ and others believing that approach to beer duty ‘could have been bolder’ (Morning Advertiser, 05 Mar).Yet, this has still not stopped the ‘deluge’ of bookings made for when pubs reopen for outdoor service from 21 April (BBC News Business, 05 Mar), indicating that not only does a pent-up demand exist regardless of the Chancellor’s proclamations on duties, but also that businesses in the hospitality sector could have benefitted from fiscal measures more closely linked to their day-to-day costs, such as rents and business rates.The Budget also neglected to mention any policies to deal with the looming public health crisis in alcohol-related morbidity, as was warned about days before (British Medical Journal, 01 Mar):We are already at crisis point, with the most recent Global Drugs Survey revealing that the UK rate of hospital admissions because of alcohol was higher than among users of any other drug cited in the report apart from heroin and with more than 5% of people under 25 in the UK reporting having sought hospital treatment after getting drunk.Subsequently, a host of public health experts, led by the Alcohol Health Alliance, expressed their disappointment at the duty freeze in the Times (09 Mar). But they did reserve hope for the outcome of a government review to be conducted later this year:… providing an opportunity to overhaul an inconsistent system causing alcohol harm. As a result of the present system it is possible to drink the low-risk weekly guideline of 14 units for just £2·68 in England — about the price of a high-street cup of coffee. This is causing immeasurable damage.The government must create a scaled alcohol duty structure that ensures the strongest products are taxed the most to encourage drinkers to move away from purchasing the most dangerous drinks. With 80 people across the UK dying from an alcohol-related cause every day, we need urgent action to tackle this crisis.Ireland – pandemic slows progress on alcohol misuseNew research findings have shown that while there have been declines in some sections of society regarding Irish drinking habits, the onset of COVID-19 has threatened to reverse them in others.A report titled Health Behaviours, Health Outcomes and Contextual Factors between 1998-2018 found that rates of alcohol use among school-aged children ‘significantly decreased since 1998’ (Irish Times, 08 Mar).Led by senior researcher Aoife Gavin in collaboration with the HBSC research team at the Health Promotion Research Centre in NUI Galway, the study comprised of a sample of 15,557 pupils aged 10 to 17 years from 255 primary and post-primary schools across Ireland, and found a 14 percentage point drop in respondents reporting having ever been drunk over the 20-year period (33% in 1998 vs 19% in 2018).However, the pandemic has led to the dominance of home drinking, which has in turn exacerbated the problem of alcohol’s accessibility to underage drinkers. Reports that on-demand alcohol delivery ‘skyrocketed’ during lockdown ‘with no checks’ on serving children caused Teachtaí Dála (TDs) to call on Justice Minister Helen McEntee to introduce restrictions on delivery services (Irish Sun, 14 Mar).Overall alcohol tax receipts data in Ireland showed a 2·4% decline, suggesting a drop in annual consumption of 6% in 2020, meaning that the country’s public finances ‘experienced little impact’ of the pandemic (Irish Times, 11 Mar). And within the alcohol category, there were significant fluctuations among particular beverages: while excise receipts from beer sales fell 17%, and 11% for cider, wine consumption rose 12% in 2020 ‘even though many restaurants where it would frequently be consumed were closed for a considerable portion of the year’, indicating a sharp year-on-year increase in the number of people drinking wine at home. Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI) expressed their disappointment with the figures, with head of communications and advocacy Eunan McKinney remarking that they highlight ‘the extraordinary shift that has taken place among Ireland’s drinking population and the ocean of alcohol that has poured into the nation’s homes.’Feighan: Ireland to implement MUP with or without the northGiven the urgency of the problem identified by AAI, the Irish government is considering implementing minimum unit pricing, under the 2018 Public Health (Alcohol) Act, asynchronously from its neighbour, Northern Ireland. Frank Feighan, the junior minister for public health, explained that the Oireachtas could ‘not wait any longer for Northern Ireland’ to protect problem drinkers, after their health minister, Robin Swann, elected to defer minimum unit pricing until after the next Stormont assembly elections in May 2022 (The Times (paywalled), 15 Mar).Swann told the assembly: ‘I do not think that we have the scope in [the current assembly term], by way of capacity in my department or the time that is necessary to bring it forward in a meaningful way, but I intend to put it to consultation so that the preparatory work is done for whomever comes into this role in the next mandate.’In response to this development, Feighan said: ‘I will be recommending to government that we have to move. I have talked to minister [for health] Donnelly and I understand he has spoken with the Taoiseach, and I have talked to the Tánaiste. I think it will be discussed in the coming weeks as to what the best way forward would be, and that will be a matter for cabinet. Unfortunately, there may be unintended consequences around excise duties… it would have been ideal to move with Northern Ireland but we cannot wait any longer. I would like to have a short consultation with stakeholders like publicans and off-licences, and then to move with the legislation we have.’AAI said it recognised some consultation may be required to refine the logistics and timing of the measures ‘but we trust that the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and the leader of the Green Party will expedite matters over the coming weeks and that operation will commence in early autumn’.Alcohol-related violence and deprivation🎵 Podcast feature 🎵This week, Lucy Bryant and Dr Carly Lightowlers presented their research on alcohol-related violence and deprivation to an audience at the Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP) and Scottish Alcohol Research Network (SARN) Alcohol Occasionals sessions. Between them, the researchers shared findings suggesting that those in the lowest socioeconomic groups experience disproportionate rates of alcohol-related violence and that increases in alcohol availability and deprivation, when seen together, increase the rates of such violence to a greater degree than when either of these factors appears alone.You can listen to Dr Lightowlers explain the research in more detail in our podcast, and you can also watch the presentation in full on SHAAP’s website.In other researchAlcohol pricing policies such as duty increases and minimum unit pricing appear to target men’s drinking habits more effectively than women’s, according to a new study published in Addiction (02 Mar).Researchers found that each of the three policies modelled – a 10% duty increase, and minimum unit prices (MUP) of £0·50 and £0·70 per UK unit – would lead to larger estimated reductions in consumption and hospital admission rates among men than women. The authors also showed how this is driven by gender differences in alcohol consumption, purchasing patterns and harm among adult drinkers in England, leading women’s spending to increase more than men’s. At full effect – that is, once consumption changes have worked their way through to health outcomes - a £0·50 MUP is expected to lead to a sevenfold larger reduction in consumption and a three times larger reduction in hospital admissions for men compared to women.The level and frequency of alcohol consumption rose among drinkers in the UK during lockdown, according to University College London researchers published in the Drug and Alcohol Review journal (03 Mar). Surveying a self-selected sample of nearly 3,000 participants between 30 April and 14 June 2020, they found that 30% of participants reported drinking more frequently in lockdown, with 16% reporting drinking more units per drinking occasion and 14% reporting more frequent heavy episodic drinking. They also found that ‘deterioration in psychological wellbeing was consistently associated with increased frequency of drinking’.The first UK COVID-19 lockdown saw a “rapid and sustained” fall in violence outside the home in the Welsh capital city, a new study led by Cardiff University has shown (Journal of the American Medical Association, 05 Mar). A research team from Cardiff University’s Crime and Security Research Institute (CSRI) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studied data from Cardiff’s sole emergency department (ED) from March to June 2020, comparing it to weekly data from January 2019 onwards, and found almost 60% fewer attendances per week for violent injury outside the home in the first lockdown. Lead author professor Jonathan Shepherd, from the CSRI, said: ‘This sudden fall in violent injury is the largest any of us has ever seen. It’s likely to reflect closure of city centre pubs and clubs in and around which most violence takes place, and widespread compliance with lockdown restrictions.’ Regarding violence in the home, no significant change was found in any category, which professor Shepherd said was ‘reassuring’. The amount of alcohol consumed during a given drinking occasion is strongly associated with the duration of the occasion combined with the beverage type and serving size, according to a study reported in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research (05 Mar). Researchers from the University of Sheffield, UK, analysed data from over 18,000 adult drinkers in Great Britain who wrote a seven-day retrospective drinking diary and between them recorded the characteristics of over 46,000 drinking occasions, with the aim of identifying which features – and combinations of features – are most predictive of the units of alcohol consumed during drinking occasions in Great Britain.They found that longer occasion duration, drinking spirits as doubles, and drinking wine were the strongest predictors of heavy alcohol consumption, and that the strongest predictors of longer drinking occasions were drinking in both on-trade venues (eg pubs) and off-trade (eg at home), starting earlier in the day, and drinking with friends.A review of the latest evidence and research on liver disease, authored by over 30 leading hepatology consultants and senior figures from the Foundation for Liver Research, British Liver Trust and Public Health England, has found that almost a quarter of patients (24%) admitted to hospital with liver disease die within 60 days (The Lancet, 11 Mar). These patients have not been previously diagnosed and are admitted as an emergency. The report also observes that people with advanced liver disease admitted to hospital as an emergency, are seven to eight times more likely to die than those admitted with a stroke or heart attack.Updated estimates of population level alcohol consumption undertaken in collaboration with the University of Glasgow, have found an estimated net effect of minimum unit pricing (MUP) of -3·5% in off-trade alcohol sales per adult in the year following its implementation in Scotland in 2018 (Public Health Scotland, 16 Mar).Whilst slightly lower than previously reported, both the estimated net effect of MUP and the observed impact of MUP on different drink categories are comparable with the original findings, and the overall estimate for Scotland in 2019 remains at 9·9 litres of pure alcohol per adult, equivalent to 19·1 units of alcohol per adult per week and the lowest level of pure alcohol sold in Scotland since 1994.Sainsbury’s are the most likely of the major supermarkets to push online shoppers in Scotland towards alcohol, according to campaign group Obesity Action Scotland (17 Mar). Their report found that overall, customers are bombarded by around 500 promotions during the average online grocery shop, with around a tenth (11%) of all promotions for alcohol. Sainsbury’s was the worst offender, hosting the most alcohol promotions as a proportion of all food and drink promotions for both healthy (basket 1) and standard (basket 2) shopping trips.Doctors urge ministers to break sponsorship between alcohol and sport in ScotlandDoctors have renewed calls for Scottish ministers to break links between alcohol and sport with a clampdown on lucrative sponsorship deals, after an alcohol producer declared its support for Scotland’s national football team (The Times, paywalled, 28 Mar).Alcohol policy campaigners Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP) said children were especially susceptible to advertising and called for robust restrictions to be considered by the next Scottish government after May’s Holyrood elections.Recent events have exposed a sharp divide between sporting associations that embrace the backing of alcohol producers and those who spurn it: earlier in the month (22 Mar) Tennent’s Lager tweeted its continuing support for Scotland’s national football teams. This stands in sharp contrast to Scottish Women’s Football, who struck up a sponsorship agreement with Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP) in March 2019.‘It’s time for others to follow their lead and protect their fans and players,’ said SHAAP interim director, Lindsay Paterson. ‘Alcohol companies have large sums available for sponsorship and it is understandable but disappointing that Scotland’s national teams have accepted this sponsorship.’In response, the Scottish FA said that Tennent’s was the ‘original supporter’ of Scottish football and had been an integral part of the game dating back to 1974. ‘Over the years they have made a positive impact at all levels of the sport, and we look forward to building on that together in the years to come,’ they said in a statement.The UK Alcohol Alert (incorporating Alliance News) is designed and produced by The Institute of Alcohol Studies. Please click the image below to visit our website and find out more about us and what we do, or the ‘Contact us’ button. Thank you. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit instalcstud.substack.com

Hello and welcome to the Alcohol Alert, brought to you by The Institute of Alcohol Studies. In this edition:The Westminster administration relies on its experiences of managing last year’s lockdowns to enforce a ban on takeaway alcohol in England Researchers find that an app designed to help people drink less received a celebrity boost 🎵 Podcast feature 🎵Pandemic makes this year’s Dry January the toughest yetIrish shoppers are no longer allowed to buy discounted alcoholNew PACTS report finds that a lower drink drive limit ‘would have a totemic impact’ on UK road safetyMember of Parliament for Bury South, Christian Wakeford is to become the new chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Alcohol HarmRegulator clears racy alcohol television ad of wrongdoingWe hope you enjoy our roundup of stories below: please feel free to share. Thank you.Lockdown 3: Westminster uses 2020 vision to enforce alcohol takeaway ban in EnglandThe new year began with a now-familiar focus towards lockdown-induced restrictions on alcohol sales during the pandemic, with the government banning alcohol takeaways from licensed premises (The Independent, 05 Jan):Alcohol takeaways are to be banned… until mid-February in England as Boris Johnson clamps down on socialising under the new lockdown regime. All restaurants, pubs and other hospitality settings must close their doors to customers… under the new rules announced by the prime minister… venues will no longer be able to serve takeaway or click-and-collect alcohol.The other Home Nations tightened their rules too, with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland still permitting alcohol takeaways, but under more stringent conditions and while licensed premises (throughout Northern Ireland, and in tier level 4 in Scotland and Wales) remained closed to normal custom (BBC News Business, 13 Jan).Alcohol industry players claim that the uncertain trading environment faced by the hospitality sector had a significant impact on alcohol sales last year. The Morning Advertiser reported that 37 pubs a month ‘vanished’ in 2020, not because of a shift in operations from wet- to dry-led sales, or the rise of venues such as micropubs replacing traditional outlets, but simply because they had received insufficient support to remain a financially viable concern while shut (11 Jan). Chair of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) Nik Antona claimed that the new lockdown restrictions ‘could tip hundreds of pubs over the edge into insolvency in the coming months’, and called on the government to allow pubs to act as off-licences during the lockdown by selling pints in ‘sealed containers’ (Evening Standard, 07 Jan).However, there were also suggestions that appeals for support should instead focus on compensating venue owners for enforced closures of their premises.According to The Independent, the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) annual market report estimated 5%, 10%, and 15% declines in beer, wine and gin sales respectively in the year to October 2020, despite retailers enjoying ‘a boom in alcohol sales during the pandemic’ (07 Jan).Based on these industry data, the WSTA chief executive claimed ‘it’s a myth that people are drinking more during lockdown’, a statement which runs contrary to evidence from Public Health England and several independent research groups which have reported increased rates of heavy drinking during the pandemic. Two studies published this month reported that a significant minority of people’s alcohol intake had increased. The first examined vulnerable populations, tracking health behaviours during the early days the lockdown: of the 1,044 participants involved, 30% had a ‘COVID-19 at risk health condition’, 37% were classed as deprived and 6% self‐reported a mental health condition, yet relative to pre‐pandemic levels, participants’ drank more alcohol on average and did so more often (British Journal of Health Psychology, 06 Jan).The second, a much bigger study (of more than 30,000 adults, published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence journal) found that roughly the same proportion of drinkers admitted to drinking more as those who reported drinking less (26·9% versus 25·7%) than usual during the first lockdown (The Independent, 14 Jan).The one in four who were more likely to report upping their intake were younger women with post-16 educational qualifications and a household income over £30,000. The University College London research team also found that having an anxiety disorder, being stressed about finances or about catching or becoming seriously ill from COVID-19 were factors associated with drinking more. The authors noted that it is possible that people with anxiety disorders are changing their drinking behaviour to self-medicate or as an unhelpful coping mechanism during a period of increased anxiety. Lead author Dr Claire Garnett said:Women might be more likely to drink more than usual during lockdown because they have been more negatively affected by the pandemic through increased gender inequalities as women are more likely to lose their jobs and carry the burdens of increased childcare and housework.Co-author Dr Melissa Oldham stressed the importance of ‘targeted approaches to provide support for certain groups who are more likely to drink more is needed, particularly with the start of this third lockdown.’Meanwhile, some health experts had some sobering advice for those in line for the COVID-19 vaccine. On BBC Panorama, emergency medicine specialist Dr Ronx Ikharia demonstrated how three glasses of prosecco (4·5 units) was enough to reduce the levels of white lymphocyte cells – crucial for warding off viruses and other pathogens – in the blood by up to 50%, therefore weakening the body’s immune response to the vaccine (06 Jan). However, the message was somewhat undermined by BrewDog’s stunt to offer its closed outlets across the United Kingdom as COVID-19 vaccination centres where those vaccinated could walk away with a ‘special commemorative beer’ (Lonely Planet, 20 Jan).The craft beer brewer is one of many alcohol industry actors looking to exploit the pandemic, according to a report commissioned by Movendi International that provides ‘a comprehensive picture of the individual, societal and policy dimensions of the interaction between alcohol and the coronavirus crisis’.‘Alcohol and the coronavirus pandemic: individual, societal and policy perspectives’ offers the following solutions for governments to reduce the alcohol burden and mitigate the pandemic (26 Jan):Maintain and improve alcohol policy measures;Limit alcohol availability and affordability and make use of evidence-based alcohol pricing policies;Ensure effective public health messaging on alcohol and COVID-19 from health authorities;Make clinical and treatment provisions for people experiencing all types of alcohol-related problems; andIncrease access to mental health services, including online services.In the UK, given the difficulty of accessing treatment services and of maintaining a healthy relationship with alcohol for many adults in 2020 due to the threat of COVID-19, the British Liver Trust fear that the pandemic could lead to tens of thousands more liver disease cases in 2021. They call ‘for every person in the UK to consider their liver health and take a simple quiz to assess their risk’ (04 Jan).Vanessa Hebditch, director of policy and communications said: In early 2020, our Love Your Liver health screening roadshow was ready to tour the nation, offering free liver health checks to the general public at high streets up and down the country.Unfortunately, COVID-19 forced us to postpone the roadshow. That meant that around 4,000 people will have missed out on a free liver health check. If we look at the statistics from previous Roadshows, around 650 of those would have shown signs of possible liver damage.We are very concerned that while thousands will have missed out on valuable liver health advice, some of those people will already have undiagnosed liver disease which won’t show symptoms until the very late stages when treatment options are limited.2020 was a really stressful year for everyone. We know from our research that a lot of people drank more alcohol and ate unhealthier food last year – two major risk factors for liver disease. We also know that some people have missed out on appointments and treatment while healthcare resources have been diverted elsewhere as a result of the pandemic.The Adrian Chiles effect – a natural experiment🎵 Podcast feature 🎵The celebrity influence of broadcaster Adrian Chiles on the Drink Less app caused a spike in middle-aged men engaging with the app, according to a study published in BMC Public Health (06 Jan).Researchers at University College London found that the weekly average of 179 downloads between May 2017 and mid-August 2018 rose to 14,866 total downloads in the week commencing 20 August 2018, when Chiles’s show Drinkers Like Me was first broadcast. He also advised: ‘I encourage anyone, don’t judge yourself, don’t panic you’re not going to drop dead, but go on an app like “Drink Less” and measure what you’re drinking, be honest with yourself for three weeks.’The study reported a ‘step-level increase in app engagement – number of sessions and number of days used – which continued to increase over time’. No effect of media coverage was detected on employment type or on the percentage of at-risk drinkers, though the mean Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test score was lower after the media coverage.In our podcast interview, lead researcher Dr Claire Garnett said of the findings:It shows that celebrity influence and the subsequent national media coverage that comes with it can clearly have a really substantial impact on who uses an app or additional intervention and how they engage with it.In other researchHigher smoking frequency at admission is associated with higher illicit opioid and alcohol use frequency after six months of specialist addiction treatment, according to research released in Drug and Alcohol Dependence (01 Jan).Two cross-lagged panel models* estimated (separately for opioid and alcohol use disorder patients) the relationships between smoking at admission and change in main drug over six months, and between main drug use at admission and change in smoking over six months. Within the alcohol use disorder cohort, alcohol use frequency fell from 21·2 days to 14·4 days while smoking tobacco reduced from 12·6 days to 11·5 days. Higher smoking frequency at admission was associated with a relative increase in alcohol use at six months (0·03 days), and each additional day of alcohol use at admission increased on average the tobacco use reported at six months by an estimated 0·04 days.A study of over 309,000 regular drinkers from the UK Biobank UK has found that different patterns of alcohol consumption could be associated with a lesser risk of alcohol-related negative health outcomes (BMC Medicine, 12 Jan).Researchers from the University of Glasgow found that regular spirits and beer/cider drinkers had a higher adjusted risk of death, major cardiovascular events, liver cirrhosis and accidents/self-harm when compared to those who drank red and white wine, after adjusting for alcohol amount consumed overall. Similarly, drinking alcohol without food was associated with a 10% higher adjusted relative mortality and cardiovascular risk when compared to alcohol consumed with food.The results also showed that spreading alcohol consumption over three to four days in a week was associated with lower adjusted relative mortality, cardiovascular and cirrhosis risk than consuming alcohol daily; and lower mortality and cardiovascular risk than binge drinking similar amounts of alcohol.Commenting on the study’s findings, Dr Bhautesh Jani, clinical senior lecturer in general practice at the university's Institute of Health and Wellbeing, also warned of the health risks of regular alcohol consumption above the low risk guidelines: Of the regular alcohol drinkers we studied, less than half reported consuming the recommended amount for low risk alcohol consumption, so our first suggestion would be for regular drinkers to follow the recommended government guidelines. Other ways to further lower the alcohol consumption related health risks, based on our findings, might be to spread consumption over the course of three or four days – whilst being careful not to increase their overall intake – and consider… drinking with meals where possible.People with epilepsy are at increased risk of dying from alcohol misuse, according to a study published in Frontiers in Neurology journal (21 Jan).An analysis of the relative risk of alcohol-specific mortality in people with epilepsy, and the extent to which problematic alcohol use was previously identified in the patients' medical records, identified a five-fold increased risk of alcohol-specific mortality in people with epilepsy vs. those without the condition.The research team delineated cohort studies in two population-based datasets, the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD GOLD) in England and the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank in Wales between 2001 and 2015, linked to alcohol-related hospitalisation and alcohol-specific mortality records. They concluded that the causality between alcohol misuse and epilepsy could run either way, and stressed the importance of accurately quantifying the risk of death among epilepsy sufferers.England and Scotland have topped the international rankings for drunkenness again (25 Jan). The Global Drugs Survey (GDS) for 2020 suggests the UK’s drink problem is far more dangerous than any other country: more than 5% of people under 25 years of age reported having sought hospital treatment after getting drunk, compared with the international average of 2%.The survey questioned more than 110,000 people from more than 25 countries between November 2019 and February 2020.It repeated last year’s finding that UK drinkers get drunk most often of all countries’ individuals: people in Scotland and England said they had got drunk on average more than 33 times in the last year, more than twice the rate of several European countries, including Poland, Hungary, Germany, Greece, Romania, Spain, Italy and Portugal. Only 7% of Scottish and English people surveyed reported not having been drunk at all in the past 12 months. Only Danes and Australians had a lower proportion, at 5%.Professor Adam Winstock, the chief executive and founder of the GDS, said: ‘We don’t have a culture that is honest about the impact of intoxication. Drinking is a lousy coping strategy and it is putting a higher burden on the NHS. British people have never really embraced moderation when it comes to drinking. While many other cultures regard alcohol as an accompaniment to a social event and frown upon public drunkenness, we’ve often embraced it as a cultural identity. The challenge is making people realise drinking a bit less does not make you boring. In fact, you’ll probably have a better night. It’s like as a country we need to leave our adolescence behind.’Professor Winstock urged the government to stand up to the alcohol lobby and introduce mandatory health warning labels and minimum pricing, and lowering the drink-drive limit, remarking that they were all ‘incredibly sensible things that have been recommended by several commissions, but have been ignored in the face of resistance from the alcohol lobby.’* a cross-lagged panel model is a type of structural equation model that measures two different variables (smoking vs alcohol use disorder) at two points in time (admission vs six months later).Dry January 2021 – attempts at abstinence come under pandemic’s influenceOrganisers of the country’s biggest alcohol abstinence campaign, Alcohol Change UK, rang in the new year with a record number of participants ready to ‘forego booze’ for the first month of 2021, according to The Guardian (31 Dec 2020):The charity Alcohol Change UK said its polling shows more than 6·5 million adults intend to participate in Dry January – up from 3·9 million last year. That is the equivalent of one in five of people who drink alcohol.However, some media coverage cast doubt on the impact of the nationwide initiative. Trade mag Drinks Business quoted a snap poll from ‘creative insight agency’ KAM Media claiming that 2·7 million out of 10.8 million participants who began the challenge on the first of January gave up by the end of the first week (06 Jan).And writing in Prospect Magazine, philosopher Julian Baggini suggested that Dry January would do little to stop the problematic consumption patterns inherent in British drinking culture (13 Jan):Dry January merely replicates the source of the problem it is supposed to be solving. It reinforces the idea that we need to go through a period of complete abstention to make up for our festive excesses. It perpetuates the binge-purge cycle rather than short-circuits it… if you want to change your habits, it is better to start a routine you can sustain, such as limiting drinking days and quantities, rather than going through a one-off challenge in which no new habits are learned.  Away from notions of ‘falling off the wagon’ and purges doing more harm than good, Alcohol Change UK’s chief executive Richard Piper took to social media to explain that the true message of Dry January is less about pursuing an unattainable mode of perfection in abstinence and more about drinkers becoming more aware of their alcohol habits in order to help control them, acknowledging that reducing your drinking is a process, not an event.No more alcohol multibuys and discounts for Irish shoppers The days of discounted alcohol sales by supermarket voucher schemes and multibuy deals in Ireland are over, as the government brings into force another element of its Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018 (Irish Times, 08 Jan).Popular deals such as ‘buy six bottles for €50’ or ‘buy six and get 25% off’ will no longer be permitted. Offering loyalty points on alcohol sales will also be prohibited, while short-term promotions, of three days or less, can no longer take place. Discounts on the price of individual bottles of alcohol will still be allowed.Commenting on the development, Eunan McKinney, Alcohol Action Ireland’s head of communications, said: We welcome this latest step on what is a very long journey to implementing the Public Health Alcohol Act; the operation of these regulations now ensures that people are not further incentivised, or rewarded, for using alcohol.The fundamental action that is required next is the immediate implementation of minimum pricing of alcohol products, which has been interminably delayed by government inertia, yielding to the concerns of the alcohol producers.The country’s chief medical officer Dr Tom O’Connell also welcomed the move, as he considered limiting off-licence opening hours to help stop the spread of COVID-19.Other newsNo more stalling on the drink drive limit: A lower drink drive limit ‘would have a totemic impact’ on UK road safety, according to the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) in a new report, ‘Drink Driving: Taking Stock, Moving Forward’ (25 Jan).In their comprehensive review of UK drink-driving, PACTS analysed casualty and crime drink drive data, and conducted interviews with 30 drink drivers, concluding that with no progress made in several drink drive policy areas – such as the annual number of drink drive deaths stalling at roughly 240 for the last decade – the UK’s drink-driving legislative framework is no longer adequate, recommending several interventions to save lives in future.Commenting on the report, David Davies, executive director of PACTS, said: Drink-driving is often cited as a road safety success story, yet it remains a major killer and progress has ground to a halt since 2010. Not only is better enforcement important but also the problems of mental health and alcohol dependency need to be recognised.Scotland introduced a reduced drink drive limit in 2014, in line with most other countries in Europe. It has been accepted by the public; it has not significantly impacted pubs and restaurants or overloaded the police or the courts. Northern Ireland plans to go further, with a zero limit for novice and professional drivers.A lower limit is not a magic bullet but government polices to reduce drink driving will lack credibility as long as they avoid this change.New Year, New APPG chair: Member of Parliament for Bury South, Christian Wakeford, will become the new chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Alcohol Harm (20 Jan). The next public event will take place on 10 March and will be sponsored by Alcohol Change UK.Racy alcohol ad cleared by watchdog: The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) have rejected calls to ban a television advert said to link alcohol with sex (06 Jan).The complainant challenged whether the ad for Laphroaig whisky was irresponsible because: it linked alcohol to sexual activity; and it portrayed alcohol as indispensable.The ASA ‘considered that the ad clearly showed people’s reactions to tasting Laphroaig whisky, which was well known for its unusual taste'‘ and ‘noted the reference to “You’ll always remember your first” alongside the facial expressions, which showed various reactions after tasting the whisky’.However, despite acknowledging that one could interpret the advert’s catchphrase as a reference to losing one’s virginity, the regulator decided that the ad actually gave an illustration of the different reactions people had encountering a distinctive taste for the first time, and so ‘did not imply any link between drinking Laphroaig whisky and sexual activity, sexual success or seduction’. They also considered that the ad did not portray alcohol as being indispensable, based on the fact that a key scene appeared to be more of ‘a light-hearted expression of [the actor’s] enjoyment of the whisky’s flavour’.The ad watchdog found that the ad was not in breach of its newly updated alcohol rules of the CAP (rule 18·9) and BCAP (rule 19·10) Codes, which now include minor amendments to ‘clarify the language used to describe the ABV [Alcohol By Volume] thresholds at which drinks are subject to the alcohol rules and what strength a “low alcohol” drink is considered to be’.The UK Alcohol Alert (incorporating Alliance News) is designed and produced by The Institute of Alcohol Studies. Please click the image below to visit our website and find out more about us and what we do, or the ‘Contact us’ button. Thank you. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit instalcstud.substack.com

A survey published today from the Global Drugs Survey takes a look at how Covid-19 has changed our relationship with alcohol and drugs. The survey found over half of people have been drinking more frequently since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. I think plenty of  us are guilty of drinking a little more lately, but when is it too much?  Dr. Chris Luke joined me on the show to discuss. Listen and subscribe to Lunchtime Live on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify.      Download, listen and subscribe on the Newstalk App.     You can also listen to Newstalk live on newstalk.com or on Alexa, by adding the Newstalk skill and asking: 'Alexa, play Newstalk'.

Alcohol Alert, May 2019: This episode looks at the stark findings from the latest Global Drugs Survey, which finds that almost nine in every ten incidents of sexual assault involve alcohol. We invited researcher Alexandra Aldridge to explain the issues that the prevalence of alcohol in sexual relationships can raise. By subscribing to our enewsletter, you can receive alcohol-related stories and media directly to your inbox; please visit our website www.ias.org.uk and click on "Alcohol Alert" to read the latest Issue: www.ias.org.uk/What-we-do/Alcohol-Alert.aspx

This year Colorado is expected to generate $125 million in tax revenue from legal marijuana sales. In the first full year of legalization Colorado homicide rates have dropped by 24%. Medically, the (preliminary) research is in: while cannabis has been shown to have deleterious effects on developing minds, it has also been proven to treat a whole host of medical conditions. Dr. Adam Winstock Still, many people remain staunchly opposed to legalization. In the United States, where pot is still illegal federally, the main organizations lobbying to keep pot a Schedule 1 narcotic-- alongside heroin, crystal meth and cocaine-- are private prisons, the prison guard unions, law enforcement, the tobacco lobby and the pharmaceutical industry. (The alcohol industry has since backed off following an uptick in sales post-legalization in Colorado.) Following the election of Justin Trudeau, Canada, a G7 nation, is poised to legalize recreational marijuana across the board-- as is California, the world's sixth largest economy. Meanwhile, the UK shows little interest, either on the streets or at Number 10. Why? Is marijuana really safe? What kind of message does legalizing weed send to kids? What are the medical dangers? And what about Butane Hash Oil-- an increasingly popular preparation with five times the amount of THC as the strongest strain of pot? Unlike the plant itself, the answers are not cut and dried! Click to take the Global Drug Survey Tonight we talk to psychiatrist and addiction specialist Dr. Adam Winstock who runs the Global Drugs Survey, the world's most comprehensive survey of drug use, including alcohol and tobacco. (Teetotaler or total stoner, please do fill out this year's survey). From emergency rooms to psychiatric wards to advising government and law enforcement, Dr. Winstock is perfectly poised to speak to addiction, the drug war, and even -- gasp!-- how some responsible people even use drugs for pleasure. So before you smoke your next spliff-- or even directly after-- check out what Dr. Winstock has to say. His answers may surprise you. Download the show as an audio file Subscribe in iTunes

This year Colorado is expected to generate $125 million in tax revenue from legal marijuana sales. In the first full year of legalization Colorado homicide rates have dropped by 24%. Medically, the (preliminary) research is in: while cannabis has been shown to have deleterious effects on developing minds, it has also been proven to treat a whole host of medical conditions. Dr. Adam Winstock Still, many people remain staunchly opposed to legalization. In the United States, where pot is still illegal federally, the main organizations lobbying to keep pot a Schedule 1 narcotic-- alongside heroin, crystal meth and cocaine-- are private prisons, the prison guard unions, law enforcement, the tobacco lobby and the pharmaceutical industry. (The alcohol industry has since backed off following an uptick in sales post-legalization in Colorado.) Following the election of Justin Trudeau, Canada, a G7 nation, is poised to legalize recreational marijuana across the board-- as is California, the world's sixth largest economy. Meanwhile, the UK shows little interest, either on the streets or at Number 10. Why? Is marijuana really safe? What kind of message does legalizing weed send to kids? What are the medical dangers? And what about Butane Hash Oil-- an increasingly popular preparation with five times the amount of THC as the strongest strain of pot? Unlike the plant itself, the answers are not cut and dried! Click to take the Global Drug Survey Tonight we talk to psychiatrist and addiction specialist Dr. Adam Winstock who runs the Global Drugs Survey, the world's most comprehensive survey of drug use, including alcohol and tobacco. (Teetotaler or total stoner, please do fill out this year's survey). From emergency rooms to psychiatric wards to advising government and law enforcement, Dr. Winstock is perfectly poised to speak to addiction, the drug war, and even -- gasp!-- how some responsible people even use drugs for pleasure. So before you smoke your next spliff-- or even directly after-- check out what Dr. Winstock has to say. His answers may surprise you. Download the show as an audio file Subscribe in iTunes