Alcohol: no ordinary commodity

Andrew Varley

This is a major publication and a landmark in the development of our understanding of public policy as regards alcohol. It includes sections on epidemiology and the need for an alcohol policy; strategies and interventions; and the formation of effective alcohol policy. Its contributors include the leading international scholars in the field and their combined experience and ideas provide compelling evidence for the importance of effective alcohol policy around the world.

The authors are ambitious in their claims and not afraid to stress what they perceive to be the contemporary importance of the subject: “People consume not only goods, but also services, and alcohol policy is one such service. In any jurisdiction alcohol policy serves two purposes: to enhance benefits resulting from the use of beverage alcohol, and to contain and reduce alcohol-related harms. Citizens have the right to assess and audit policies on health care provision, education, and crime prevention. They also deserve to know whether enacted alcohol policies are apt and well-chosen. Alcohol policy issues overlap with almost every aspect of the public policy domain. Alcohol-related issues are pervasively important for the state at both central and local levels; they cannot be minimised or ignored. In an age of consumerism, it behoves policy-makers to ensure that alcohol policies are fashioned with public health interests in mind.”

Referring to the fact that alcohol consumption plays a major role in morbidity and mortality on a global scale, the authors point to the progress made during the last fifty years in the scientific understanding of the relationship between alcohol and health. “Ideally, the cumulative research evidence should provide a scientific basis for public debate and governmental policymaking.” It is inevitably the case, however, that a great deal of this scientific evidence is reported in academic journals and often appears to have little reference to prevention or treatment policy. This led to the formation in 1992 of the Alcohol and Public Policy Project: a small group of experts brought together with the intention of providing “a policy-relevant review of the literature”. In fact, a very effective start to the process had been made almost twenty years earlier when Alcohol control policies in public health perspective appeared in 1975. Under the impetus provided by the APPP, the successor publication, Alcohol policy and the public good, appeared in 1994.

At an alcohol policy conference, held in Chicago in 1998, a group of APPP experts agreed to begin plans for another volume. This book is the welcome result. Alcohol: no ordinary commodity sets out to describe recent advances in alcohol research that have direct relevance to the development of alcohol policy throughout the world at all levels. The intended audience of the book includes, of course, researchers, addiction service providers, clinicians, and prevention planners, but the authors have especially had in mind policy-makers – the people who have immediate responsibility for public health and welfare. It is to be hoped that they keep it by them and apply its lessons: the world will be a healthier place if they do.