The article ‘Binge drinking must be tackled urgently’ (The Sunday Times of Malta, January 25) certainly highlights the need to understand more our evolving culture of alcohol consumption. Malta, traditionally a country portraying a typical Mediterranean lifestyle, which generally tends to consume alcohol in moderation, has to be increasingly wary of the influences of modern society’s impact on drinking behaviour.
Binge drinking is not alcoholism. It is a ritual practised most often in groups that leads to excess, primarily when young people are in bars or other social occasions.
We have not seen the actual report quoted in the article and therefore we are limited as to what actual conclusions can be arrived at.
However, the results from questions used in the survey have to be analysed in more detail.
Are the six drinks or more consumed at least once in a specific period (for example in the last month) and do they include drinks consumed during a restaurant dinner with food paced over a number of hours? If they are all drinks consumed in quick succession in a specific time period, then it is cause for concern.
In any case the Parliamentary Secretary for Health’s comment referring to a “more systematic manner” to tackle the issue is a sentiment we share completely.
As always we stress that superficial solutions have never worked and only a strategy that focuses on proper enforcement and long-term sustained education will be effective.
Only a pooling of resources by all stakeholders can produce positive results and arrive at proper conclusions without the need to make generic statements that derail us from stressing on the core problem areas. The Sense Group’s ‘Be Drink Aware’ campaigns over the last 18 years directly focused on the dangers of binge drinking.
Those who identify themselves with the scenes projected in the audio-visual productions aired on TV, social media and www. drinkawaremalta.com last year need to take stock of their rapport with alcohol and understand that it’s a precarious road that they are treading and will only end up harming themselves or worse innocent others.