Opinion: Doctor Ignores 12-Step Success

Lexington Herald

Recognizing that Dr. Bankhole Johnson is a renowned authority in the field of alcoholism and addictions, his Sept. 12 column, "Medicine needed to treat addiction," is the ultimate of intellectual arrogance. There are millions of recovering alcoholics and drug addicts living happy and productive lives who could challenge his assumptions.

He, like many academicians, assumes Alcoholics Anonymous doesn't work because there are no long-term controlled studies on the efficacy of AA. There will never be. These studies cannot be accurately performed because it is anonymous, which is one of the very strong reasons AA works. Also, AA is a recovery program and not a treatment program.

I have no problem with Johnson questioning the efficacy of treatment centers; some are good and some bad. I have observed over 32 years that all the good centers get their patients started on a 12-step recovery program.

It is unrealistic to think all patients are going to quit drinking with any treatment. Alcoholism and drug addiction are chronic diseases, subject to relapse, and need lifelong attention to maintain abstinence and healthful living — if they do the 12 steps. Many never get it and die.

I also would challenge Johnson to produce any long-term studies to show that psychiatry and behavioral medicine approaches have proof they work. It also is expensive; AA alone costs virtually nothing.

Many in AA have failed every form of known treatment and finally accept AA after exhausting all available resources. Johnson wants to treat them with a pill. What pill works over the same long-term follow-up he demands of AA?

While Johnson searches for a pill, he should visit Lexington's Hope Center recovery programs and observe the many restored lives and families for hopeless street alcoholics and drug addicts.

Alcoholics need lifelong attention to their problems, and they get that in AA, if they continue. The No. 1 cause of relapse is failure to continue in their maintenance program. These people are destined for death, prisons or institutions without help.

The Hope Center has 100 percent follow-up in our jail recovery program. Those completing the program are on probation, are required to report frequently and are subject to random drug screens.

With seven years of experience, 61 percent are sober, most are working and the return to jail rate has been cut by 60 percent with up to two years follow-up. It is a win-win program for the patients and society.

Fortunately, the University of Kentucky is more understanding and tolerant and has many research studies going on — some involving the Hope Center, Chrysalis House and other AA recovery programs in Kentucky.

They also have many millions of dollars of research into not only advanced neuropharmacology, which is Johnson's field, but many other behavioral, genetic and neuroscientific studies involving advanced neurobiology. This is facilitated by Dr. Carl Leukefeld, who occupies the Bell Chair in Alcoholism at UK and who supports AA because he has seen it work.

There is a real danger publishing a column like Johnson's; it may delay many in seeking help in 12-step programs. For example, a RAND study in the 1970s advocated controlled drinking, causing many to try it.

A study 10 years later of people following that study showed only one was able to control his drinking; over 90 percent had further severe problems with alcohol and 20 percent had died.

I do support Johnson's efforts to study these illnesses and develop treatment. We need more research and understanding of what goes on in the human brain. It should be remembered that much of Johnson's research is necessarily funded by pharmaceutical firms. But when he writes distorted accounts of AA, there is a conflict of interest.

Hopefully he will finally come to see (as do doctors at UK) that 12-step programs have a real place in the treatment of addiction diseases.

Combination Treatment May Help Depressed Alcoholics

Business Week

Taking antidepressant plus naltrexone improves odds of not drinking, researchers say

Combined treatment with the antidepressant Zoloft (sertraline) and the alcoholism drug naltrexone improves the likelihood that people with both major depression and alcohol dependence will be able to stop drinking, U.S. researchers report.

Their 14-week study of 170 patients found that 54 percent of those who received the combined alcohol treatment were able to stop drinking, compared with 21 to 28 percent for patients who received a placebo, Zoloft only, or naltrexone only.

The patients who received the combined treatment also went for a longer period of time before they started drinking again -- 61 days compared with 15 days for patients in the other groups.

The findings may prove an important advance in the treatment of patients with alcohol dependence and depression, said the University of Pennsylvania researchers, and should be of interest for programs like Alcoholics Anonymous.

"When depression and alcohol dependence occur together, each condition has a negative influence on the outcome of the other, so not only does this pairing of illnesses affect a lot of patients, it also makes the individual disorders worse," study author Helen Pettinati said in a news release. "Combining sertraline and naltrexone could be a practical approach for these patients because both have (U.S. Food and Drug Adminstration) approval."

Alcoholics' Relapses Better Understood

Business Week

Brain mechanism could be key, and an existing drug might help, scientists say

U.S. scientists say they've learned new details about molecular mechanisms associated with alcohol addiction treatment and relapse. The findings could lead to new treatments for alcoholism.

The University of California, San Francisco researchers gave lab rats free access to alcohol or sugar for nearly two months, followed by a few weeks of abstinence. The rats who had consumed alcohol, but not those that had consumed sugar, showed increased electrical activity in a part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens (NAcb) core, which plays a role in motivation and goal-directed behaviors.

This increased activity in the NAcb core after abstinence resulted from the inhibition of small-conductance calcium-activated potassium channels (SK). These findings can help explain why alcoholics often relapse, even after treatment programs such as alcoholics anonymous have helped them quit.

Futher tests showed that drug-induced activation of SK channels resulted in greater inhibition of NAcb activity in the alcohol-abstinent rats and significantly reduced their desire for alcohol. This type of effect did not occur with sugar-abstinent rats.

The results indicate that decreased SK currents and increased activity in the NAcb core play a critical role in alcoholics' relapse after quitting drinking, said the researchers.

The study appears in the March issue of the journal Neuron.

"Our findings are particularly exciting because the FDA-approved drug chlorzoxazone, which has been used for more than 30 years as a muscle relaxant, can activate SK channels," senior author Dr. Antonello Bonci said in a UCSF news release. "Although SK channels are not the only target of this drug and it can present a variety of clinical side effects, it provides an unexpected and very exciting opportunity to design human clinical trials to examine whether chlorzoxazone, or other SK activators, reduce excessive or pathological alcohol drinking."

Tigers' Cabrera 'Comfortable' in His Recovery

The Detroit News

Lakeland, Fla. -- One word, "serenity," is irresistible when you observe Miguel Cabrera at work during these early days of camp, or more tellingly, hear him speak.

"Serenity" is a word Cabrera would view as accurate.

"I'm comfortable with what I do right now," he said this morning, a few minutes before joining his teammates for a 9:30 workout.

Today's Cabrera is vastly different than the one who could sometimes be uncomfortably aloof during earlier years. He smiles easily now. When he converses, he is engaged with the other party. He listens.

He clearly is at peace six months after his life was beginning to careen dangerously. Immediately after a trouble end to his 2009 season, Cabrera confronted alcohol abuse and a general recklessness that had created even deeper concern for him than it had for the Tigers and their baseball community.

"I don't want to hide what I do," he said of his decision to spend much of the offseason in the company of his doctor as they addressed problems that appear to have involved various layers of physical and psychological challenges. "I want to be a man and say I make a mistake.

"It's a part of life to be a man. I don't try to hide."

Cabrera, of course, had an 0.26 blood-alcohol level when police took him into custody the morning of Oct. 3 following a domestic incident at his Birmingham home. The trouble occurred on the final weekend of the regular season, a critical juncture for a team that missed the playoffs by one game.

Although details were not revealed until Cabrera spoke in January, he decided immediately to consult a doctor with whom he worked rigorously during an offseason that appears to have been transformative.

"I don't think he's different, I think he's matured," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said this morning. "He looks absolutely tremendous."

Cabrera has not had a drink since last October. He says he does not miss it, not at all, and that when he is at dinner or with friends he drinks water, or perhaps apple juice or orange juice.

"I knew what I was doing was bad, and I had to say this is not right for my life, for my work, for my family," he said. "The first thing you've got to think about is yourself.

"When you've got a problem, you need some help. You can't find the problem by yourself. You find the problem and fix it."

Cabrera insisted his difficulties were not a clinical case of alcoholism. He has not required any recent attention from his doctor. He does not go to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

"It's not that bad," he said, smiling, as if to reinforce thoughts that everything was under control.

And anyone observing him at Tigertown during spring training's first week would be persuaded to agree.

Parent Notification Policies for Underage Drinking Evolve

The Washington Post

For years, Virginia Tech had a complicated system for deciding when to let parents know about their underage children's alcohol-related transgressions. Visits to the hospital or police station warranted immediate notification, but Mom and Dad didn't have to know about less-serious offenses, such as sneaking a six-pack into the dorm, unless it happened more than once.

But this semester, Virginia Tech joined a growing list of colleges that notify parents every time a student younger than 21 is caught drinking, drunk or in possession of alcohol. George Washington University also tightened its notification policy last year after a student died of alcohol poisoning.

Concerned about injuries, deaths, rising alcoholism rates and lawsuits, colleges and universities have realized that, in addition to levying official penalties, seeking parents' help can bolster anti-drinking efforts. Research shows that parents can have a significant influence on their children's drinking habits.

"Students are more concerned about their parents being notified than they are of the legal consequences," said Edward Spencer, vice president for student affairs at Virginia Tech.

Privacy laws prohibit university officials from communicating with parents about much more than tuition bills, but for more than a decade schools have had the legal authority to notify parents of students younger than 21 about alcohol- and drug-related matters. Many do so only for the most serious incidents. Others restrict parental notification to drug crimes.

Schools have found themselves in a delicate balancing act. Officials want to protect students' heath and honor parents' demands for information, but they also want to help students develop a sense of independence.

Kevin Williams said he didn't know that GWU notified parents of all alcohol violations until he was busted for hosting a Halloween party in his dorm room when he was a freshman in 2008. He received a $50 fine and had to go before a school judicial hearing but was relieved to learn that the incident would not go on his permanent record. About a week later, his mother called from New Jersey with a form letter from the school in hand and a lot of questions.

"It was not good," Williams said of the conversation. "She said: 'You're in college. I know you are going to be drinking. But are you going to be dumb and get caught?' "

Williams, now 20 and a sophomore, said he thinks parents should be notified if a student has a serious problem or is rushed to the hospital but "not if it's a minor getting-caught-having-fun-with-your-friends-on-Halloween thing."

Virginia Tech has long had some of the strictest alcohol sanctions in the region, including a three-strikes policy: two strikes for serious offenses, one for minor offenses. Students who rack up three or more strikes during their school careers are asked to leave for at least a semester.

The university decided to change its notification policy because officials had received complaints from parents who wanted to know whether their child had a drinking problem long before it got serious. The policy also applies to illegal drugs, including marijuana, but students caught with drugs are usually suspended.

Student body President Brandon Carroll said students were "shocked" when they heard about the new approach. Even though the university is legally able to share such information, that doesn't mean that it should, said Carroll, 21. "If the school calls someone's parent, that could put a lot of pressure on them. And how is that going to help?" he said.

College drinking is getting worse, according to researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Between 1998 and 2005, the latest period for which figures are available, binge drinking rates increased, more students drove drunk and the number of alcohol-related deaths increased more than 25 percent, from 1,440 to 1,825.

"The problem is not getting better, but I think it can be turned around," said Ralph Hingson, the director of epidemiology and prevention research at the institute. "Interventions at multiple levels make a difference."

The federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 prevents universities from sharing most student information, but it allows them to contact parents if a child's health or safety is at risk. In 1998, the act was amended to give colleges and universities permission to notify parents anytime a student younger than 21 had any alcohol or drug violation.

That legislation was introduced by then-Sen. John Warner after five Virginia college students were killed in alcohol-related incidents in fall 1997, prompting a state investigation. Three were Virginia Tech students who died in two incidents over Halloween weekend.

Deaths at other campuses also have resulted in policy changes and, sometimes, lawsuits. In 2000, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology paid $6 million to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the parents of a freshman who died of alcohol poisoning after a fraternity party in 1997.

Last year, a University of Kansas freshman died of alcohol poisoning less than two weeks after he was kicked out of campus housing for alcohol violations that his parents knew nothing about. Within months, the university began to notify parents about serious or repeat alcohol violations.

In 1997, the University of Delaware became one of the first schools to implement an "every time" notification policy. School officials say the policy, along with aggressive penalties and encouragement of Delaware alcohol treatment, has reduced binge drinking on campus and curtailed the university's party-school reputation.

GWU soon followed and enhanced the policy last year, after the death of a student. The school now contacts parents within 24 hours in a serious case and follows up with parents when the student begins an alcohol education program. For a less-serious case, they send parents educational materials.

In the past five years, several schools have joined the movement, including the University of Georgia in 2006 and the University of New Mexico in 2007. In 2008, Tennessee passed a state law that requires all public higher-education institutions to notify parents of alcohol violations.

"There is no magical line here between May of their senior year of high school and college. When do they really become a responsible adult?" said John Zacker, director of student conduct at the University of Maryland alcohol treatment, which notifies parents when a student's drinking threatens to get him or her kicked out of the dorms or school.

At the University of Virginia, students are usually given about 48 hours to call their parents before school officials do. The calls are made in the most serious cases, such as an arrest or hospitalization, or if a student shows an ongoing pattern of intoxication. But in most cases, Dean of Students Allen Groves said, he trusts his instincts.

"The easy thing to do is say, 'Here's a cookie-cutter process, and we are going to use this process the same way for every single case,' " Groves said. "But every case is not the same."

The effects of parental notification have not been widely studied, but the concept seems to work best when universities coach parents on how to react to the news, said Thomas Workman of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, who chairs a committee focused on alcohol education. Officials need to be mindful of family dynamics and cultural differences, he said, in the same way that a behavioral program such as Alcoholics Anonymous operates.

"We can't assume a parent knows what to do and that they would do the right thing," he said. But if approached in the right way, parents can be the perfect partners for an intervention, he said.

"Even with cellphone technology, no student would call home four or five times a day a generation ago," Workman said. "We have a very different generation. And it's smart of institutions to say, 'We should take advantage of that.' "

Opinion: Deal with Addiction

Tallahassee.com

Florida needs leaders who will address the growing public health crisis that is substance abuse. To date in Florida, both alcohol and drug abuse are treated largely as a criminal justice issue, but that is an unsustainable, unaffordable and fundamentally unhelpful approach that does almost nothing to change behaviors so costly to society.

"We need to get rid of the stigma," said Mark Fontaine of the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association. "Substance abuse needs to be front and center as a health care issue."

Mr. Fontaine, along with Ellen Piekalkiewicz of the Florida Substance Abuse and Mental Health Corp. and Leon County Commissioner Bryan Desloge, met with the Tallahassee Democrat Editorial Board this week to advocate for a multipronged, community-based approach for addressing substance abuse in our state.

Resetting current policy to address this public health issue, which severely affects our criminal justice system including county jails, will take the dedication of statesmen willing to reframe the arguments and address the ramifications caused by substance abuse and its serious economic costs.

In local communities, public health groups must come together to develop models that support community-based care at every step, from prevention and early intervention through ongoing recovery. Individually, addressing substance-abuse issues will take candor in admitting that every person knows someone (or knows someone who knows someone) who has battled with a drug and or alcohol addiction.

Bottom line, bottom dollar

Although drug abuse and alcohol rehab and abuse made a $43 billion annual impact in Florida by robbing the state's economy of viable workers and production and adding to health care, law-enforcement and other costs, there are few resource exclusively committed to addressing the issue.

An excise tax on alcohol, stagnant since 1999, has been swept into the state's general revenue fund instead of being used (like money from the state's tobacco settlement) to address alcohol-abuse related issues.

Most city and county budgets, including ours in the capital city, lack provisions to specifically address drug abuse, and end up paying the price in wholesale incarceration and some temporary treatment of individuals who grapple with addiction. As Mr. Desloge said Tuesday, Leon County spends $30 million to run the jail and $30 million for the sheriff's office, and the city spends about $40 million for the police department — but how much less the figures might be if well more than half of jail inmates weren't housed for addiction-related violations. They belong in treatment programs such as alcoholics anonymous.

Continuing to operate at such high costs without isolating and addressing the root causes cannot continue. Yet diversionary and treatment programs aren't politically popular in our lock-'em-up state, and candidates or sitting lawmakers likely wouldn't see a return on their investment during their short terms in office.

With redirected funds, Leon County could better address local need — as with a recent addiction treatment program at Bond Community Health Center and Apalachee Center. Our law-enforcement officers do benefit from training to recognize substance-abuse issues when they apprehend a subject — another step wise application of our resources.

It starts with you

But legislation, spending reform and the promotion of centers equipped to deal with the needs of the addict are only parts of the solution. To truly advance viable alternatives, individuals must come forward and acknowledge their support for such changes.

Ms. Piekalkiewicz reminds us that substance abuse "is on every street, it's in every community," yet at every turn, this public health pandemic is treated with silence, shame and anonymity.

As Mr. Fontaine pointed out, with substance abuse, there is no "Walk for Recovery," no well-orchestrated campaign to battle it.

The first step to encouraging our lawmakers to revisit current policies is to express community support for such a change. It can begin with the simple admission that we know someone who struggles, and we are committed — with our votes, our time and our dollars — to changing the final impact on our communities and our economy by speaking up.

Actor Torn Ripped Again

Examiner Detroit

Actor Rip (Elmore) Torn, age 79, was taken into custody at the Litchfield Bancorp and booked on charges including illegal possession of a handgun while intoxicated, first-degree burglary, first-degree criminal trespassing and third-degree criminal mischief. He is currently being held on $100,000 bond and is scheduled to appear Monday in Bantam Superior Court according to reports from The Associated Press.

A resident of Salisbury, CT, where he lives with third wife actress Amy Wright, Torn has appeared on television, the stage and big screen. He has won numerous awards for his work in all three media, but is, perhaps, most recognized by the younger generation for his role as in the Men In Black films starring opposite Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. He is also an accomplished painter and video artist.

Despite this, Torn has been deeply troubled by alcoholism. He was arrested in New York City in January 2004, after his car collided with a taxi. He was arrested again for drunk driving in North Salem, New York in December 2006 after colliding with a tractor-trailer. In April 2007, Torn pleaded guilty and had his drivers license suspended for 90 days and was required to pay a fine of $380 and needed alcohol rehab.

Another arrest occurred on December 14, 2008, when Rip Torn was picked up on suspicion of drunk driving. A bartender at the White Hart Inn in Salisbury, is reported to have served the actor, but apparently noticed he appeared intoxicated as he was leaving the establishment, according to a police report. Torn reportedly refused a ride home and got into his vehicle and drove away. He was convicted and sentenced to probation in May 2009. Torn was given probation in the drink-driving case and granted permission to enter an alcohol education program with alcoholics anonymous.

Alcohol abuse can have serious consequences that impact every system in the body, causing a wide range of health problems such as poor nutrition, liver diseases (including cirrhosis and hepatitis), high blood pressure, muscle weakness, irregularities with heart rhythm, anemia, clotting disorders, decreased immunity to infections, gastrointestinal inflammation and irritation, acute and chronic problems with the pancreas, low blood sugar, high blood fat content, interference with reproductive fertility, and weakened bones, as well as memory loss and difficulty with balance.

In addition, a special report prepared for the U.S. Congress by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, illustrates its severe effect on society as a whole, including "violence, traffic accidents, lost work productivity, and premature death, costs our nation an estimated $185 billion annually. It is also estimated that approximately one in four children (19 million children or 29% of children up to 17 years of age) is exposed at some time to familial alcohol abuse, alcohol dependence, or both."

Stanford Expands Efforts to Curb Alcohol Abuse

San Francisco Chronicle

Stanford's successful effort to exempt itself from Santa Clara County's new rules on underage drinking has put a focus on the university's growing effort to curb alcohol abuse on campus.

 The county's new ordinance, which took effect last year, makes it easier for police to cite anyone hosting a party where underage drinking occurs. It can mean a fine of up to $1,000 plus costs anytime the police are called in.

About 95 percent of Stanford's 6,600 undergraduates, many of them younger than 21, live on campus in university-owned housing. As the landlord, the school could have found itself facing plenty of potential liability under the new county rules.

But the financial question didn't play a role in the university's attempt to persuade county officials to free Stanford from the regulations, said Jean McCown, the school's director of community relations.

"We already have a significant commitment to curbing underage drinking and require that on-campus parties be registered," she said. "We were concerned that the county rules would send those parties underground and out of sight."
 

Student deaths

Campus drinking is a growing concern at universities and colleges across the nation. A study released last year by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism found that there were 1,825 alcohol-related deaths among 18- to 24-year-old students in 2005, the last year with available figures.

Those include not only the rare but widely reported alcohol-poisoning deaths linked to out-of-control parties and fraternity hazing, but also the drunken-driving crashes and falls that claim many more lives.

While Stanford has never had an alcohol-poisoning death on campus, its students aren't immune to the problems that arise from heavy drinking.

"We get students cited on campus every weekend," said Ralph Castro, director of the university's Substance Abuse Prevention Project.

In the 2008-09 academic year, 44 underage students were taken to a hospital emergency room because of alcohol abuse. Seventy-three were arrested for possession of alcohol by a minor, 13 for being drunk in public and five for being a minor driving under the influence.

To combat campus drinking and encourage alcohol rehab at Stanford, university officials have for the past four years required each incoming freshman to take a three-hour online course on alcohol abuse. Groups hosting parties have to register them with the school and provide the name of the person in charge.

"When (the ordinance) came up at the Board of Supervisors last year, we brought them information about our programs," McCown said. "We asked them to watch us for a year and see how it worked."

Stanford received a 12-month stay of the new law last year and then worked with the county to do what was needed for a permanent exemption.

"We already had a program on board that our students understand and believe in," Castro said.

But with the shadow of increased county regulation hanging over the university, Stanford toughened its alcohol policies.

Tighter policies

Move-in day for resident students was moved a week closer to the first day of school, trimming the number of party-hearty nights before classes begin. Stanford police boosted their presence on nights when parties were scheduled. A few on-campus fraternities were temporarily banned from having alcohol at parties because of incidents of underage drinking last year.

The effort worked. Last Tuesday, Santa Clara County supervisors unanimously approved a new version of the ordinance that "explicitly exempts officers and agents of institutions of higher learning."

There's drinking, legal or not, on every college campus, and Stanford is no exception, according to alcoholics anonymous. Students 21 and older are allowed to have alcohol in their rooms and the university cops aren't tossing the rooms of younger students to search for illicit booze, Castro said.

"We treat students as adults," he said. "Our fundamental standard is that students will do the right thing. But if they don't, there are consequences."

Stress Hormone Could Be Key to Alcohol Addiction

Business Week

Researchers are linking a stress hormone to alcoholism in animals, and they report that blocking it could become a strategy to help stop the addiction in people.

The research "represents an important step in understanding how the brain changes when it moves from a normal to an alcohol-dependent state," lead researcher Marisa Roberto, an associate professor at the Scripps Research Institute, said in a Scripps news release.

"Our study explored what we call in the field 'the dark side' of alcohol addiction," Roberto said. "That's the compulsion to drink, not because it is pleasurable -- which has been the focus of much previous research -- but because it relieves the anxiety generated by abstinence and the stressful effects of withdrawal."

The hormone, known as corticotropin-releasing factor, plays a role in the body's response to stress and is found in the brain.

Romero said it's possible that blocking the hormone "may prevent excessive alcohol consumption under a variety of behavioral and physiological conditions."

The researchers also found that rats exposed to the hormone-suppressing chemical didn't become immune to the chemical's effects over time. That suggests that people might be able to take it repeatedly without facing a loss of effectiveness. This could greatly enhance behavioral treatment such as that offered by alcoholics anonymous.

Still, rats aren't people, and it's possible that humans won't act the same way when exposed to the chemical.

The findings will appear in an upcoming print edition of the journal Biological Psychiatry.

Alcohol Affects Baby's Pain Regulation

Business Week

Exposure in womb caused blunted response to needle prick, researchers say

Exposure to alcohol in the womb can alter a child's developing pain regulatory system, a new Canadian study suggests.

Researchers assessed 28 newborns -- 14 whose mothers drank heavily during pregnancy and 14 whose mothers were light drinkers or abstainers. The children exposed to alcohol in the womb showed a "blunted response" to painful heel-lance blood collection.

"Our study had three key findings," Tim F. Oberlander, a professor in the developmental pediatrics division at the BC Children's Hospital, the Child and Family Research Institute and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, said in a news release.

"First, in alcohol-exposed newborns, physiological responses to the heel lance, such as heart rate and parts of the nervous system that controls heart rate, were blunted or dampened compared to infants with little or no alcohol exposure," Oberlander said.

"Second, we observed that, in response to this painful event, the stress hormone cortisol decreased in exposed infants while [remaining] almost unchanged in our control group. Finally, we looked at behavioral responses. Using very specific measures of facial expressions ... we found no differences between the two groups. However, using a measure of behavioral responsiveness ... we found that the exposed infants were less aroused."

It's believed the blunted response seen in alcohol-exposed infants may result from the effects of alcohol on a child's developing pain regulatory system. The study emphasizes the question of why a pregnant woman would expose their developing baby to alcohol at all, and for those with a chronic problem to seek help from a treatment center or group such as Alcoholics Anonymous.

"What these findings mean for long-term development and behavior [of children] is unknown at this point," Oberlander said. "However, we do know that altered stress regulation early in life can set up risk and vulnerability for poor mental and physical health and social and academic failure across the life span. In this sense, we think our findings may reflect a first glimpse at how prenatal alcohol exposure might 'calibrate' or 'program' emerging stress systems in early life."

The study was published online in advance of print publication in April in the journal "Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research".

Rolling Stone Keith Richards Gives Up Alcohol

Telegraph UK

Keith Richards, the Rolling Stones guitarist and wild man of rock-and-roll, has given up alcohol, it has been reported.

The 66-year-old finally quit after getting strict orders from his doctor and watching fellow Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood's life unravel through alcoholism, it has been reported. Richards has apparently not touched a drop in four months.

Doctors have been telling Richards to stop drinking for years. He once famously claimed that he would never stop because he had outlived several doctors who advised him to give up.

But four years ago he suffered a brain haemorrhage after falling out of a palm tree during an alcohol-fuelled trip to Fiji with Wood. And he has been told that his hedonistic lifestyle is finally taking its toll.

A source close to the guitarist told The Sun: "He has always quite enjoyed the fact that he seemed to be able to carry on drinking as much as he liked with no real negative impact on his health.

"But he has watched Ronnie fall well and truly off the wagon last year and he doesn't like what he sees. Plus he has started to feel for the first time like it might do him some good to give up the booze for a while."

It was not known as of press time if Richards had enrolled in a treatment program such as Alcoholics Anonymous.

'Our Mother's Drinking Was Wrecking Us'

Times Online

Children of alcoholics can escape the emotional chaos at home with the right support. Here, three young people explain how their lives have been changed

Katelin doesn’t say a lot but what she does volunteer is pin-sharp. What’s her dad like? “Nice. Hard to trust.” Why does she think he drinks? “ ’Cos he’s lonely. To take his problems away.” She’s just done her nails and can’t stop looking at them. To be fair, when you’re 15, shy and don’t know how pretty you are, that is infinitely easier than confronting painful questions.

Fortunately Katelin lives in Sheffield, one of the few British cities where specialist support is available to the children of alcoholics. If your parents are drug users you have a reasonable chance of finding support because the association between drugs and crime means that drug dependency attracts funding. If your parent’s dependency is alcohol, help is harder to find. While the Government focuses attention on binge drinking by proposing to ban pub and club promotions, the forgotten victims of alcohol misuse are the 1.3 million children whose parents depend on it.

When Katelin’s mum died five years ago, Katelin’s instinct was to stay with her father, but it was tough as he sometimes left her on her own. She is happier now that she is settled in foster care. Two years ago a family worker referred her to SHED, the support service for the children of alcoholics, run for ten years by Turning Point in Sheffield. Since then she has learnt to speak about her feelings and, an even bigger shift, to accept that she isn’t responsible for her dad. She has stopped skipping lessons at school, is making progress, and has become a mentor there. “I like it when people talk about me in a good way,” she says. “I like SHED because it’s given me someone to talk to.”

SHED’s main tool is one-on-one counselling, which may not sound revolutionary but which can be transforming for isolated children such as Katelin, and for others such as Sam, whose life was chaotic until, remarkably, at the age of 10, he wrote to his headteacher saying that his family needed help. As a result, Sam and his older sister, Cheryl, were introduced to SHED.

Sam is now 13, confident, funny and highly practical, though when he talks about his mum his poise falters. “My mum drinks,” he says. “It was wrecking everyone’s life. Didn’t know what was happening. Didn’t know what you were coming home to. Nobody knew what anyone else was doing, there was no communication.

“ I didn’t have friends, didn’t want to have people back at my house, didn’t go to their houses. Had to keep an eye out for my mum. See she didn’t drive. But she did lose her licence. We were really, really hungry and she was going to get food. Five minutes later my dad would have been home. I don’t know, she was always breaking promises.”

How did that make you feel? He looks away, drops his voice because he likes to be loyal to his mum: “Rubbish, that we were both rubbish.”

Sam no longer feels quite so rubbish now that his parents have separated and he lives with his dad and sister. “Everyone’s calm and relaxed, there’s not that raw feeling in the air,” he explains. “You walk into the house, no one snaps, ‘What do you want for tea?’. It’s said in a nicer way: ‘Have a look and see what you’d like.’ There’s more routine. In the past I didn’t want to go to school because I wanted to look after my mum. Now I want to get to school, there’s nothing holding me back.”

The key breakthrough has been the understanding that his mum’s choices about the way she lives are her own, that she is not Sam’s responsibility. This is a major step for a 13-year-old and one that many adults struggle to make when they live with an alcoholic, says his support worker at SHED, Imogen Powell.

“We try to get children to understand what’s happening in their family without them being drawn into it, or hating their parent,” she says. “Without this kind of intervention it can take 10 or 20 years for someone to learn this.”

Sam is an instinctive problem-solver who pours his energy into a church youth group where he designs the website and leaflets. He has also been looking at setting up a youth peer-mentoring scheme.

“It’s all well and good talking to Imogen but sometimes it might be better talking to someone my own age. I’ve been through it, now I can help someone else to get through it. This kind of youth provision wouldn’t cost a lot but there isn’t the money for it.”

At 17, Sam’s older sister, Cheryl, is also mature for her age. She was 11 when her mum’s drinking got out of control after the collapse of a business she ran. “I became accustomed to the arguing,” she says. “It became normal and that was strange because it was like she wasn’t my mum.

“I’ve had to grow up quickly, look after my brother, make sure it didn’t affect my school life. I pushed myself and probably pushed Sam more than I should have. I became the mother doing the cleaning, the cooking. I didn’t want people to know what was happening and I became ashamed. Mum was a smart, nice woman, now she can be violent, prone to being nasty.”

Cheryl says that going to SHED helped her to get away from what was happening. “I wouldn’t have opened up otherwise, but knowing there was someone who would listen to me released everything so that I didn’t feel under so much pressure at home. That made me more confident.

“Having to be a mum at 15 to your brother, who doesn’t want you to be his mum, he wants his mum, is hard and stressful. But you can’t take out your frustrations in front of him. That wouldn’t be fair and would make him feel even worse. Through the one-to-one support I learnt how I could get away from the situation if it escalated. Then, when I talked within a group of other young people, I realised it’s not just me on my own. I made friends here.”

Sam and Cheryl want to use their experiences to help others, Sam as a youth worker, Cheryl as a drugs and alcohol counsellor, and she is already working as a support worker in a day centre.

“Mum has good days and bad days but she isn’t my problem any more,” says Cheryl. “I’m proud of dad for putting us before his marriage and it means we’re in a stable home. It’s upsetting to think that mum puts drinking before Sam and me. Doesn’t mean I don’t love her, I do. I can’t make her change, she has to do it for herself.”

SHED sees between 50 and 70 young people a year and is familiar with the themes: social isolation, conflict, violence, neglect, parental separation, financial problems and children taking on parental responsibility. There is also plenty of literature that suggests that the children of alcoholics are likely to have problems with alcohol themselves. But thinking is changing on this as researchers become aware of children such as Sam and Cheryl, who react to their circumstances with extraordinary resilience.

Lorna Templeton is research manager at the Mental Health Research and Development Unit in Bath and has evaluated some of Turning Point’s work. She is also the co-author of a 2007 study on the impact of parental substance abuse on children. “Services like SHED and Alcoholics Anonymous allow these children to be heard, and to understand that the problems aren’t their fault. That’s vital,” she says. Historically, services to support children have focused on intervention to reduce the risk of neglect or abuse. Lorna values Turning Point’s work because it helps to build resilience.

“We need to know more about the protective factors that help some children to come out of this situation with such strength,” she says. “Some children come through this on their own because they have the determination not to be like their parents, some are lucky to have a supportive parent. There is growing evidence that if a supportive, consistent adult is present, whether a parent, a SHED worker or a teacher, then the risks the child faces are more likely to diminish.

“Early intervention is essential and the key is to focus on the needs and circumstances of each child rather than soley on the parent’s problems.”

Drink, Drive, Arrest, Repeat

Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune

In Minnesota, 46,748 drivers have at least 4 DWI arrests. They form a dangerous group that's hard to treat or punish.

Danny Lee Bettcher was back in an Otter Tail County courtroom this month, again for driving drunk. This time, he was facing his 27th DWI conviction -- a Minnesota record.

Bettcher, who spent more than four years behind bars for a prior drunken driving offense, was arrested after downing a few rounds of beer and Jagermeister and sailing his motorcycle through a four-way stop. He was released from prison nine months earlier. "I drink to get drunk,'' said Bettcher, 57.

Though his lawyer pleaded for leniency, Judge Mark Hansen decided the roads would be safer with Bettcher locked up. Hansen sentenced him to four years in prison, the recommended penalty in Bettcher's case. "I don't want you to kill somebody," the judge said.

State officials say Bettcher is one of 139 people who have been charged with at least 15 DWIs. Altogether, 46,748 drivers have been arrested at least four times for driving while intoxicated. Minnesota legislators took aim at this group in 2001, when they passed a felony DWI law creating stiff penalties for those with four DWI convictions in 10 years. Since then, at least 4,400 drivers have been sentenced under the statute, which carries a minimum of three years in prison, typically converted to probation with some jail time for first-time felons.

But the prospect of prison might not be much of a deterrent. The number of people with a second felony DWI has increased each year, reaching 156 in 2008, or 20 percent of all felony DWI convictions.

For many chronic offenders, the issue isn't whether they're going to drink and drive again. It's how to get away with it. Experts say repeat offenders are often alcoholics who simply don't respond to treatment or tough punishment. They drive without licenses. If their vehicle is taken away, they drive someone else's car. They've driven drunk so many times they mistakenly believe they're in control of their vehicles, even if they can't walk a straight line.

"There's the offender that gets one or two DWIs, and then there's the offender that just continues," said Lisa Portinga, a treatment consultant with Ramsey County DWI Court.

How do you stop them? "Well," Portinga said, "you'd literally have to sit on them, because if they're going to drink, chances are that particular kind of offender is then going to go drive."

Drivers with at least four DWIs were involved in 24 traffic fatalities between 2005 and 2007, or about 5 percent of all alcohol-related crashes, according to the state Department of Public Safety.

Some say the state should probably focus its limited resources on dealing with first-time offenders, who are linked to 60 percent of alcohol-related traffic fatalities.

"You wouldn't save a huge amount of lives if you focused all your energy on [chronic offenders]," said Jean Ryan, alcohol programs coordinator at the state's Office of Traffic Safety. "I'm not saying they're not a problem, but the number of lives possibly saved would not be as significant as possibly some other direction."

Victim advocates say the threat posed by chronic offenders can't be understated. Bettcher and other repeat offenders are a "time bomb," said Sharon Gehrman-Driscoll, director of Minnesotans for Safe Driving. "It's a terrible frustration," she said. "Nobody knows what to do with them."

A lethal mix

Gerald D. Beaulieu had five DWIs and a canceled driver's license in March 2007 when he got on his snowmobile after a night of drinking at a bar in Mille Lacs County. A witness told police that he found Beaulieu's damaged snowmobile near the body of Timothy J. Kasper, who was struck while walking home from a house where bar patrons had gathered. Beaulieu pleaded guilty to criminal vehicular homicide.

He was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison but spent just one year in jail as part of a plea deal that required him to refrain from drinking for 10 years, complete 120 hours of community service and get evaluated for chemical dependency, according to court records.

Prosecutors agreed to the plea because hard evidence was scarce.

"A lot of the witnesses were very intoxicated," Assistant County Attorney Tara Lopez said.

For Richard P. Papenfuss, who was convicted of his 20th DWI in 2005, drinking and driving have always gone together. He liked to grab a case of Pabst Blue Ribbon before heading out on a weekend road trip or an evening cruise. Drinking, he said, made driving more fun.

Papenfuss said he would be careful if he saw a squad car, but a swerve or other mistake always gave him away. He hasn't had a driver's license since 1980.

Experts say some drivers go to great lengths to avoid detection, including driving used cars without changing the registration so police won't see their records when checking license plates. Chronic offenders never think they'll be caught, Portinga said.

Papenfuss was using his brother's van to show a friend around Otter Tail County in 2005 when he stopped at a bar for popcorn chicken and ordered beers. The probation paperwork from his previous DWI hadn't been transferred yet, Papenfuss figured, so he thought he could risk a couple of drinks. The beer tasted so good he swung by a liquor store and picked up a 12-pack for the road.

When he spotted a police car outside the small town of Battle Lake, Papenfuss slowed sharply because he didn't know how fast he was going. The 11-year-old van's dashboard lights were broken and he couldn't read the speedometer. Suspicious, the officer followed and pulled him over. A breath test showed Papenfuss was legally drunk with 0.117 blood alcohol concentration, over the legal limit at the time, 0.10 (the legal limit is now .08).

It was yet another DWI but his second felony DWI, which carries enhanced penalties. Papenfuss, 60, served about five years in prison.

Since leaving prison in July, Papenfuss has been living in a Fergus Falls sober house. By most accounts, he's working hard to make new friends and find new interests. A former farm laborer, he now volunteers at a local truck repair shop. He has many regrets: two divorces and other ruined relationships, a handful of alcohol-fueled burglaries and thefts. He knows he's lucky he hasn't killed somebody.

Papenfuss said he has been through substance abuse treatment six or seven times. He swears he's going to remain sober this time.

"Really the bottom line is two things," Papenfuss said. "One is that I don't want to drink again, OK? And number two? I don't want to go back to jail anymore. They got my attention."

'Very hard to treat'

In some ways, Papenfuss is a living reminder of how easy it was to rack up a slew of drunken driving convictions in the 1970s and early 1980s, back when society forgave such crimes more easily and there were few substantial penalties for repeat offenders. Experts say there shouldn't be as many drivers like this in the future, in part because repeat offenders will spend more time behind bars and ordered to treatments such as those offered through Alcoholics Anonymous.

In 2008, about a quarter of the 779 people sentenced for felony DWI went to prison, with an average sentence of 51 months, according to the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission. A majority of offenders were locked up in local jails, where the average sentence was 202 days as a condition of probation.

Treatment is usually required for multiple DWI offenders, but Portinga said the typical recovering alcoholic goes through treatment seven times before kicking the habit.

Steve Allen, director of behavioral health services at the state Department of Corrections, said individuals with high numbers of DWI convictions often suffer from multiple problems and are "very hard to treat."

"At a certain point you can think about acquired brain injury because the person has consumed so much alcohol and/or drugs that they've actually done neurological damage," Allen said.

Otter Tail Assistant County Attorney Heather Brandborg said Bettcher was ordered to treatment at least a dozen times. Bettcher didn't complete treatment in prison, according to his fiancée, because he didn't want to show weakness to other inmates.

Bettcher said he was doing well in treatment when he got his most recent DWI. He can't explain why he decided to throw it all away by drinking and crawling onto his motorcycle last May.

He said he never considered the threat he posed when driving drunk.

"You just go blank more or less,'' said Bettcher, who has mostly worked at construction or handyman jobs that didn't require a license. "You're out to have a good time and you're not thinking of nothing else."

TV Anchorwoman Admits Drinking Problem

Chicago Sun-Times

Veteran WGN-Channel 9 anchor Allison Payne is publicly acknowledging a 20-year battle with alcohol addiction, but she says that's not what kept her off the air for part of 2008.

During a live interview Thursday with former Blackhawks star Theo Fleury, Payne mentioned that she and Fleury shared an Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor.

On Friday, she told the Chicago Tribune, which is owned by the same parent company as WGN, that she mentioned her now late sponsor to let go "of some of my shame that I've held on to."

"There is no shame in all of this. That's why I was so happy to talk to Theo," Payne told the Tribune. "Because he was coming clean and he was letting go of his shame. In saying to Theo that [this person] was my sponsor too, I was letting go of some of my shame that I've held on to."

Payne, 45, has said on-air instances of slurred speech and occasionally erratic behavior stemmed from a series of mini-strokes. On Friday, she said those on-air problems were not from drinking.

"No way I was drunk on the air," she told the Tribune.

And she said her prolonged absences from newcasts in 2008 were tied to the mini-strokes, not drinking.

Alcohol Industry Targeting Young People

The Guardian UK

Market research data on 15- and 16-year-olds used to inform campaigns, says research paper

The alcohol industry is sidestepping advertising rules by targeting young people, implying that drinking will bring friends and fun, and making light of drunkenness, according to an analysis for the British Medical Journal published today.

Documents obtained by the Commons health select committee from drinks firms reveal that market research data on 15- and 16-year-olds is being used to inform campaigns and that there is a focus on promoting drinking to those just turning 18.

"Upcoming generations represent a key target for alcohol advertisers," says the paper, published online by the BMJ. "Although the documents mainly refer to this group as starting at the legal drinking age (18 years), this distinction is sometimes lost. Thus market research data on 15- and 16-year-olds is used to guide campaign development and deployment, and it is clearly acknowledged that particular products appeal to children (Lambrini, for instance, is referred to as a 'kids' drink').

"Many references are made to the need to recruit new drinkers and establish their loyalty to a particular brand; WKD, for instance, wants to attract 'new 18-year-olds', and Carling takes a particular interest in the fact that the Carling Weekend is 'the first choice for the festival virgin', offering free branded tents and a breakfast can of beer."

The industry code says that advertising must not appeal strongly to people under 18 or be associated with, or reflect, youth culture.

The documents were obtained by the select committee in the course of its recent inquiry into alcohol. It commissioned the analysis from Prof Gerard Hastings and colleagues of the institute for social marketing at the University of Stirling. Because alcohol advertising is such big business, worth £800m a year, the committee focused on just four manufacturers, yet it obtained thousands of pages of paper and electronic documentation from companies and their communications agencies. They included notes of meetings, client briefs, creative briefs, media briefs, advertising budgets and market research reports.

Campaigns aspire to be associated with youth, say Hastings and colleagues. "Smirnoff Ice wants to 'become the most respected youth brand (overtaking Lynx [deodorant])'," they write. New media channels, such as Facebook and other social networking sites, are used because of their youth audience. "Lambrini's 2007 television campaign set out to be 'a cross between Myspace and High School the [sic] Musical'."

Other documents showed that marketing campaigns aimed to suggest drinks were potent and that they would enhance the drinker's social success, both of which contravene the self-regulated code of practice. Lambrini is described as a "social lubricant", while WKD's message is that it "is all about having a laugh with your mates".

The analysis drew a furious response from the industry. Alcohol company Diageo GB claimed the article was a gross misrepresentation and a distortion of the evidence it provided to the inquiry. Its managing director, Simon Litherland, argued that "inappropriate consumer views and early proposals" pitched in the marketing process were rejected at an early stage.

"We are extremely disappointed that the confidential and commercially sensitive information shared with the committee, in good faith, has been made available for Prof Hastings's use in pursuing his own public agenda," he said.

While £600–£800m a year is spent on alcohol advertising, something like 40,000 people a year in England and Wales die of alcohol misuse.

Research Sheds Light On Binge Drinking

Medill Reports: Chicago

One drink… Two drink… Three drink… Floor.

For many Chicago residents, a typical night out can turn into a nightmare as one drink turns into four or five and eventually we lose track of how much we have had, only to be reminded the next morning.

According to a study done in 2007 by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Chicago topped the list for binge drinking among the 15 largest cities in the country. The study said 25.7 percent of Chicagoans are binge drinkers, well over the national average of 22.7 percent.

University of Chicago researchers are studying social drinking and specifically why some drinkers are more prone to binging than others and how binging on alcohol at a younger age affects drinking habits later in life.

The Chicago Social Drinking Project began in 2004 and has studied over 200 subjects since then. The laboratory does not resemble the standard scientific research facility. There are leather couches, a TV and lab assistants bringing participants snacks and alcoholic beverages, while monitoring their consumption and behavior.

Patrick McNamara, project coordinator, said the main goal of the study is to predict a pattern. “We are looking at different models of why people actually progress into alcoholism later in life,” he said. “The overall goal here is to ask: Can the subjective response during the rise and decline of the blood alcohol curve be predictive of future drinking patterns?”

Participants must meet the eligibility criteria, including being between the ages of 21 and 29, weighing between 110 and 210 pounds and consuming alcohol at least once a week. Once selected, candidates must attend two separate four-hour experimental sessions in which they are provided drinks and monitored. They will be asked to complete several performance tests and submit breath and saliva samples. Quarterly and annual follow-up interviews are then conducted to evaluate progress and how their drinking habits change.

McNamara said the point of the project is to study the long-term effects of alcohol and determine how a person’s drinking history can affect their subjective response to alcohol throughout their lifetime. Several specific tests such as how drinking affects the need for cigarette smoking, the affects of alcohol on blood pressure and even the changes in general motor functions are evaluated.

Many experts, including the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism,  and alcoholics anonymous define binge drinking as “a pattern of drinking that brings a person’s blood alcohol concentration to 0.08 or above.” This typically happens when men consume five or more drinks and when women consume four or more, in a span of several hours. Several factors can influence the affect of alcohol on an individual however, such as body weight and food consumption, so the number of drinks can vary.

Researchers are unsure as to why Chicago tops the chart of binge drinking cities.

But Jake Colton, a therapist with Open Avenue Therapy, a downtown Chicago clinic, said cold weather can take a toll on those who might not be used to the dreary winter. He treats patients dealing with alcohol abuse and said factors such as difficulty dealing with emotions, anxiety, childhood trauma, or even just the need for control and escape can contribute to overconsumption.

“Many people choose Chicago as a place to start their lives over,” Colton said. “Some leave the East or West Coast and head here to start fresh. Often they find themselves alone and have a hard time dealing with the depression that can come with the cold weather.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that approximately 70 percent of binge drinking episodes involve adults over the age of 25. Over 75 percent of the alcohol consumed by adults in the U.S. is in the form of binge drinks. According to this 2008 national survey, men are twice as likely to binge drink than women.

Colton said, generally, men tend to use alcohol as an outlet for their emotions. “A lot of men who come to therapy, it’s just so foreign for them to share feelings of sadness or fear or anxiety,” he said. “To them these are feelings of weakness and that gets built up and breaks them down. Alcohol is a release. They decide to drown themselves instead of opening up and being vulnerable.”

Elizabeth Thomas, 27, a business analyst and occasional social drinker, said she considers binge drinking as an extreme. “Binging to me is if you’re drinking to the point of throwing up or blacking out,” she said. “But if I’m still able to function in society and hold a conversation, than I don’t consider that binging.”

Thomas said that a night out involves drinking throughout the evening, but she does not feel like she is overdoing it or will continue to, as she gets older. “If I have a big night, I know I won’t have a productive day the next day. If I have more responsibilities in my life, like kids or something, then I won’t be doing that anymore.”

The Chicago Social Drinking Project recently received a grant to continue its research and is enrolling new participants, obtaining follow-up data via quarterly interviews and conducting five-year retest experimental sessions with the original subject groups. The project is working on a comprehensive paper on the trends discovered in the test subjects who have enrolled since the start of the study six years ago. Many of the finds have been published and McNamara says there are many more to come.

UK Restricts Drinking Contests at Bars

The Canadian Press

LONDON — Officials will ban drinking contests in bars and force pub owners to offer patrons tap water in a bid to help tackle Britain's boozy culture, the government said Tuesday.

Doctors and health lobbyists said, however, that the government had failed to wield its most effective weapon - the imposition of minimum price controls on alcohol.

The raft of new measures is "better than nothing," according to Carys Davis, spokeswoman for the Alcohol Concern charity. She said "it does seem tame," although she acknowledged that the ban on drinking contests and other promotions could help control bingeing.

Alcohol consumption has emerged as a political issue in recent years in Britain. Weekends see many town centres awash with young people staggering from one bar to the next, and government statistics suggest the country's alcohol-related death rate has doubled since 1991.

Last year Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson suggested price controls could lead to nearly 100,000 fewer hospital admissions and 45,000 fewer crimes a year.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson told BBC radio Tuesday that he hadn't ruled out minimum pricing, but he didn't want to penalize "responsible drinkers on low incomes."

The new rules - expected to come into affect this year after being approved by Parliament - would ban speed-drinking competitions and all-you-can-drink offers. Bars would be required to offer drinks in smaller measures and tap water for free.

The rules are similar to a voluntary code drawn up by the Beer and Pub Association and adopted by much of Britain's alcohol industry in 2005. The code called for ending "irresponsible promotions," including all-you-can-drink offers, but a 2008 government-ordered report said the standards were being widely ignored.

"The industry has so far proved that it isn't able to regulate itself," Davis said.

The Beer and Pub Association said it supported measures by the government and alcoholics anonymous to deal with problem drinking, but said the government was unfairly targeting bars because most of Britain's booze was now being sold through supermarkets.

"Pubs are struggling, and the country is in recession. This is not the time for the Home Office to be burying business in yet more unnecessary red tape," association chief executive Brigid Simmonds said.

Brewers Sue State Official For Slander

The Moscow Times

Brewers in Russia including Carlsberg and Heineken filed a defamation suit against the government’s top substance abuse official for claiming that they spike their beer with pure alcohol to boost sales.

The Russian Beer Producers Union filed the suit in the Moscow Arbitration Court in a bid to compel a public apology from the Health and Social Development Ministry’s Yevgeny Bryun for “demonizing” beer, the union said in a statement Monday.

Bryun said in an interview with Interfax last month that brewers cut production costs and increase the alcohol levels of their products by using spirits to speed up the fermentation process. Bryun couldn’t be reached on his mobile phone, and the ministry declined comment.

Such remarks “distract people’s attention away from the real causes of alcoholism — poor quality of life, corruption and bootleg liquor,” the union said in the statement.

The government tripled its excise tax on beer this year to 9 rubles (30 cents) a liter from 3 rubles as part of President Dmitry Medvedev’s campaign to end what he has called “colossal drinking” by Russians., according to alcoholics anonymous. Regulators are also considering limiting retail sales of alcohol by time and location, as well as increasing restrictions on advertising.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday instructed the Health and Social Development Ministry to spend 350 million rubles ($11.8 million) on ads promoting a healthy lifestyle, including warnings against alcohol and cigarette use, RIA-Novosti reported.

British Government Sets Minimum Alcohol Prices

All Headline News

London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) - To curb binge drinking among Britons, the British government will soon set minimum prices for alcoholic drinks. Health authorities have blamed cheap prices of beer, wine and spirit in supermarkets, pubs and similar night establishments for the rise in alcoholism among residents.

Under the new pricing guidelines, a six-pack of large would rise to $9.77 (6 pounds), a bottle of wine would increase to $7.33 (4.50 pounds), while cider would cost four times more current prices.

Hiking the prices of alcoholic drinks is the brainchild of Health Secretary Andy Burnham in a bid to reduce alcohol-related deaths and hospital admissions across the country and assist organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous. It is a turnaround from the previous Labor party stand to ease alcohol laws by permitting 24-hour drinking.

The rival Conservative party is considering putting precise and more specific contents on the labels of alcoholic drinks to replace the current units of measurement, which is misunderstood by many Britons.

Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said more clarity on food and drink labels would help Britons pursue a healthier lifestyle and battle obesity, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse and binge drinking.

Russia Turns Up The Heat On Campaign To End Country's Rampant Alcoholism

United Press International

Russia, calling it a national disaster, has opened a campaign against alcohol abuse, the government said on its official Web site.

In a plan approved by Prime Minister Vladamir Putin, the aim is to cut consumption of alcohol in half by 2020 and attack illegal production and sales through criminal prosecution, officials say.

Authorities also are considering drastic cuts and possibly a total ban on alcohol advertising, especially ads that target young people, the RIA Novosti news agency said. The health ministry was reported to be mulling a ban on movie scenes involving alcohol.

Official statistics in Russia show more than 23,000 people die of alcohol poisoning annually.

The World Health Organization, in a report, said men in Russia have an average life expectancy of just 60 years, well below that of Western European countries where men have an average life span of 77.

Alcohol consumption per capita is currently about 18 liters, nearly 5 gallons, a year, double the normal amount as set by WHO. Clearly, Russian chapters of Alcoholics Anonymous have their hands full.

The report said further that much of the alcohol consumed was either homemade or non-beverage alcohols, such as perfume.