There is an urgent need for an alcohol policy, according to Sedqa, the substance abuse agency, as a UK study revealed that drink causes more harm overall than illegal drugs like heroin, ecstasy and crack cocaine.
Social psychologist Marilyn Clark pointed out there was a “laissez-faire response to alcohol” and, although Malta had a very good evidence based national drugs policy, the need for an alcohol policy continued to be felt.
“Sedqa believes that at this point the most urgent step is to have a national alcohol policy, which would bring together, in a coordinated manner, the various measures needed,” it said, when questioned about the results of a study about the harm of drugs in the UK.
The study was led by David Nutt, a professor and former UK government drugs adviser who was sacked for criticising the previous Labour government’s decision to upgrade cannabis from class C to class B. His team analysed and broke down how specific drugs harm the individual and the overall damage they cause to society.
The findings show that, although heroin and crack cocaine cause the most individual harm, alcohol topped the list when wider social effects were taken into consideration.
Sedqa said it agreed with the results, adding it was the sole substance that was the most harm due to its wide accessibility and had always considered alcohol abuse as its main priority.
“Sedqa is seeing more and more clients who use alcohol with other substances and, therefore, we tend to approach our clients from a substance-abuse perspective rather than from a specific substance perspective,” it said, pointing out the isolating of substances in the study was one of its main limitations.
Speaking about the study, Dr Clark commended the emphasis it placed on evidence based policy.
“Research on the issue of alcohol is needed to determine the severity and degree of the problems posed by alcohol in Malta,” she said, pointing out it would form a base for an alcohol policy.
The result of the study, which caused havoc in the UK due to its implications on the alcohol policy, came as no surprise to the expert, who said alcohol had long been recognised by the World Health Organisation as being very harmful.
Studies had shown how unintentional injuries caused by alcohol accounted for about one third of the 1.8 million deaths worldwide, Dr Clark continued, emphasising that more should be done to curb the problem.
“Recently, legislation has been effected that criminalises the use of alcohol by young people under the age of 17 but alcohol policy needs to address more serious issues than the criminalisation of young people,” she said.
The government needs to work on a number of issues, namely drink driving, education and regulation of the alcohol market, among others, she said.