Government 'should raise tax on alcohol'- Advisory Council on Misuse of Drugs

The Government should seriously consider progressively raising the excise duty on alcohol and introduce a much stricter code for alcohol advertising and sponsorship.

These are two of the main recommendations of the Government’s own Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) in its report ‘Pathways to Problems – Hazardous use of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs by young people in the UK and its implications for policy’.* This is the first report from the Advisory Council which has included alcohol as one of the drugs under review, and the Council also recommends that alcohol should now be explicitly included within its terms of reference.The Council has a duty “to keep under review the situation in the United Kingdom with respect to drugs which are being or appear to them likely to be misused and of which the misuse is or appears to them capable of having harmful effects sufficient to cause asocial problem and to give ministers advice on measures which ought to be taken for preventing the misuse of such drugs or dealing with socialproblems connected with theirmisuse”.

The ACMD has previously focused most of its attention on drugs that are subject to the controls and restrictions of the Misuse of Drugs Act (1971), and has not, so far, considered alcohol to be within its remit. Having now considered the clear scientific evidence that nicotine and alcohol have pharmacological actions similar to other psychoactive drugs, that they both cause serious health and social problems and there is growing evidence of very strong links between the use of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs, the ACMD has decided that they can no longer neglect these two areas.

The report states that numerous recent surveys of schoolchildren in the 11-16 age range have demonstrated that, by 15, the majority of young people in the UK have smoked tobacco or cannabis or drunk alcohol, and a large proportion are using one or more regularly. By the age of 15, and with the exception of smoking among boys, levels of tobacco, alcohol and other drug use in the UK are among the highest in Europe.Concern about the potential harm of early drug use has led to efforts by government, education and health authorities and other agencies to discourage young people from using drugs. In May 2003, the ACMD agreed that it was time to take a fresh look at the patterns, trends and determinants of early use of psychoactive drugs by young people in the UK and it asked the Prevention Working Group (a sub-group of the ACMD, composed of members of the Council itself and other individuals co-opted for their particular expertise) to conduct this inquiry, under the chairmanship of Dr Laurence Gruer OBE.The main aim was to generate new insights and better advice on how to reduce the number of young people whose lives are blighted by their use of drugs.

The researchers found that,in the UK at present, 20-25% of 15-year olds are regular smokers, with females now outnumbering males; around 40-50% are drinking alcohol at least weekly; and 20-25% are using other drugs – mainly cannabis – at least monthly. Regional differences across the UK are not great. Among the 6.8 million 16-24 year olds in the UK, there are an estimated 2.1 million daily smokers, 1.9 million who drink more than twice the recommended daily alcohol limit at least once a week and 1 million who haveused another drug in the past month. Because many young people use more than one drug, there is much overlap between these groups.The most alarming development in the past decade has been the growth in the number of young women who are drinking frequently and toexcess.During this time, the proportion of women drinkingmore than twice the recommended weekly limit has doubled.

The report found that there are many factors which influence whether or not youngpeople will use tobacco, alcoholor other drugs hazardously, butthat it is difficult to predict those who will develop serious problems.The most important influential factors include early life experiences, family relationships and circumstances, and parental attitudes and behaviour.While many young people first use tobacco, alcoholor other drugs in their early and mid-teens, hazardous use often starts in the late teens or twenties.Of all drugs, the use ofalcohol has shown the greatest recent growth and causes the most widespread problems among young people in the UKtoday. It is also the least regulated and the most heavily marketed. Most schools in the UK provide drug prevention programmesbut research indicates that theseprobably have little impact on future drug use.

The Report states that, as their harmfulness to individuals and society is no less than that of other psychoactive drugs, tobacco and alcohol should beexplicitly included within the terms of reference of the ACMD.The ongoing debate about how best to bring up children should be informed by the evidence that goodparenting and stable family life can reduce the risks of hazardous tobacco, alcohol and other drug use by young people. The Government should continue to invest heavily in minimising the number of children and young people in relative poverty and also in protecting and supporting the most disadvantaged and vulnerable young people in the UK.Additional measures are needed to reduce the overall consumption of alcohol in the UK. Among other things, the researchers felt that the Government should seriously consider progressively raising the excise duty on alcohol.There should be a careful reassessment of the role of schools in drug misuse prevention and the emphasis should be on providing all pupils with accurate, credible and consistent information about the hazards of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs, including volatile substances.

* Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), September 2006. Ref: 275432

Taxing time for Health Secretary

Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt got into trouble with the Chancellor of the Exchequer when she followed the advice of the Government’s own Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs and wrote to the Chancellor asking him to increase the tax on alcohol,
especially alcopops, to tackle binge drinking. Evidence from Government research shows that alcopops are popular with young drinkers, especially underage drinkers. The two most popular drinks among 11 and 12 year old boys and girls are alcopops – WKD and Bacardi Breezer.

Ms Hewitt gave the story of her letter to a children’s newspaper, First News. She said: “I am asking Gordon Brown, as the Chancellor, when he comes forward with his Budget next year, to really increase taxes on alcohol. And particularly things like alcopops and some of the stuff that quite a lot of teenage boys and girls are drinking because we’ve got a real problem with binge drinking among young people.”

Ms Hewitt commented on the ‘enormous numbers’ of young people ending up in casualty departments of hospitals because they are drunk, especially on Friday and Saturday nights. She thought that putting up taxes would help discourage young people from spending too much money on alcohol.

In this she was supported by a range of public health bodies, and also the Association of Chief Police Officers.However, she was criticised by the alcohol industry’s Portman Group, and it is understood that her suggestion was not well received at the Treasury. Some media reports suggested that Ms Hewitt was ‘rebuked’ for sending the letter and told that the idea of increasing alcohol tax was ‘not a runner’.

Treasury spokesmen are reported as saying that doing what Ms Hewitt suggested would take at least two years because it would unravel the current taxation structure and also require discussions with the European Commission.However, increased taxes on alcopops have already been introduced successfully in other some other EU countries, France,Denmark and Germany, and, outside the EU, in Switzerland.

Subsequently,Department of Health spokesmen explained that Ms Hewitt’s letter simply expressed her own personal point of view.