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.

UK Comedians Unite Against Alcohol Abuse

UK Press Association

Russell Kane

Comedian and musician Bill Bailey will feature in a new Government advertising campaign warning parents and young people about the dangers of alcohol.

The 'why let drink decide?' campaign is being launched by Children's Secretary Ed Balls and Bailey highlights the role played by alcohol in fuelling problems such as unwanted teen pregnancies, road accidents and poor marks at school.

His fellow comedians Jo Brand, Josie Long and Russell Kane have already given their support to a related online video campaign, viewed so far by more than 58,000 people.

The television, radio and cinema advertisements will be accompanied by leaflets distributed in GPs surgeries and a new website for parents to obtain tips on how best to advise their child about the dangers of drink. The UK chapters of alcoholics anonymous continue to campaign for awareness of the dangers of alcohol abuse.

Bailey said: "Comedy is a great way to get information across and if people are laughing and enjoying it, you can slip messages or something more serious in under the radar and I think it has more of an impact.

"Parents tend to be hung-up on the other problems that kids can get into like unprotected sex or drugs. Alcohol tends to be put on the back burner a bit but the reality is that these problems are more than likely to be fuelled by alcohol anyway."

Price Rises Key To Tackling Alcohol Abuse: WHO

Reuters

Binge drinking and other growing forms of harmful use of alcohol should be tackled through higher taxes on alcoholic drinks and tighter marketing regulations, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended.

The U.N. agency unveiled its draft global strategy to curb risks linked to alcohol which it estimates causes 2.5 million deaths a year from heart and liver disease, road accidents, suicides and various cancers -- 3.8 percent of all mortality.

"Consumers, including heavy drinkers and young people, are sensitive to changes in the price of drinks... Increasing the price of alcoholic beverages is one of the most effective interventions to reduce harmful use of alcohol," the WHO said.

But a key factor for success in controlling beer, wine and spirits consumption is an effective taxation system, said a report by the WHO, whose campaigning led to a global health treaty controlling tobacco in 2003.

WHO's executive board will examine the draft strategy at its semi-annual meeting next week. The 34-member state body ordered the study two years ago after Nordic countries voiced concern about hazards of heavy drinking.

The Global Alcohol Policy Alliance -- a coalition of medical professionals, researchers and non-governmental organizations such as alcoholics anonymous -- has called on the board to approve the strategy and send it to WHO's annual assembly of health ministers in May for adoption.

But the alliance said it was disappointed that the recommended marketing interventions included industry self-regulation which it said has not been effective to date.

The Global Alcohol Producers Group, whose members include the world's largest alcoholic drinks group, Britain's Diageo, and the third largest brewer, Heineken of the Netherlands, said the draft was an "important and constructive step forward."

But it cautioned against "an over-reliance on strict government controls such as over-taxation or advertising bans" which could lead to illicit products or sales emerging.

Another Defeat for California's Alcohol Fee

Mercury News

A South Bay lawmaker's plan to chase every alcoholic drink served in California with a 10-cent fee was officially put on ice Tuesday, failing for the second time in a year to win support from his colleagues.

The charge, sought by Assemblyman Jim Beall, D-San Jose, would have raised $1.44 billion a year to help pay for some of the billions in criminal justice and public health costs associated with alcohol abuse.

But amid an all-out push from alcohol industry groups, the Assembly Health Committee, just as it did last April, crushed the proposal like an empty beer can.

Only five of 19 members voted in support this time. Six members, mostly Democrats, chose not to vote at all, and one was absent. That was better than last year, when only three members signed off and some didn't even show up for the hearing, but far short of the 10 needed to advance from the committee.

The vote marked another defeat on alcohol levies for Beall, who also proposed a steep beer tax hike in 2008. Sounding like a bar brawler, the lawmaker has vowed to get up and take yet another swing.

"They've given me a bloody nose," Beall said after the vote. "But I'm going to wipe it off and come back in a few weeks with something different." Next time, he said, any proposed fee may be "more modest."

Alcohol taxes and fees have traditionally faced a tough road in California, where beer and wine production are major industries and spend heavily on political campaigns.

The state's excise tax was last raised in 1992, by a penny. A plan by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to hike it by 5 cents a drink last year, to help close the state's budget deficit, was dead on arrival in the Legislature.

And even if Beall's bill had made it past the Health Committee, it likely faced even steeper odds in its next planned destination, the Governmental Organization Committee, the panel that actually oversees California's alcohol industry.

Not that supporters of the doomed bill didn't try hard to make their case this week. Led by the Marin Institute, an alcohol industry watchdog, advocates from labor, religious and health groups stalked the Capitol on Tuesday in hopes of drumming up support.

They also rallied outside the building before Tuesday's vote — with some 100-plus people wearing red hats saying "Charge for Harm" — and they jammed the hearing room before the vote.

"When you cause a problem, you pay for it," Tom Renfree, of the County Alcohol and Drug Program Administrators' Association of California, said during the rally. "We're not going to stand aside and watch people be destroyed."

The Marin Institute estimates that alcohol abuse costs California some $38 billion a year, from lost wages, hospital costs, counseling expenses such as alcoholics anonymous and prison costs — a number seized on by supporters of Beall's bill.

The state Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs estimates the annual cost of alcohol abuse at $22.5 billion.

But the American Beverage Institute, an alcohol industry lobbying group, offered its own statistics Tuesday.

It argued that more than half of the cost of a typical bottle of spirits already goes to the state and federal governments and that new fees — as much as $1 for an average bottle of wine — would be an undue burden on the industry, costing about 38,000 jobs.

"The hospitality industry is already paying its fair share," the institute's managing director, Sarah Longwell, said in a statement.

Beall, however, disagreed and cited surveys showing widespread public support for increasing levies on alcohol. A Public Policy Institute of California poll found 85 percent of respondents supported the governor's tax plan last year.

"The Legislature and the alcohol industry," Beall said, "need to sober up."

University of Colorodo Program Takes On Alcohol Abuse

The Daily Camera

In the wake of the tragic alcohol-related deaths of University of Colorado freshman Gordie Bailey and Colorado State University sophomore Samantha Spady in 2004, the city of Boulder promised to address alcohol abuse in the community.

Since then, the number of committees and groups working on curbing high-risk alcohol abuse among college students and others have ballooned into at least 14 entities in the Boulder area, leaving a confusing mash of agencies that are "numerous, segregated and uncoordinated," according to a city memo released Friday.

In an effort to bring order to that chaos, the city and CU are looking to form a single group -- the Campus-Community Coalition on Alcohol Abuse.

The coalition will combine the efforts of CU's Alcohol Strategies Group, a joint CU and Boulder task force on alcohol and an interagency alcohol group.

Others will be added to the mix, including officials from Boulder County, Boulder County Public Health, the Boulder Valley School District, parents, neighborhood representatives, landlords, the Boulder Convention and Visitor's Bureau, members of the hospitality community, churches and CU students.

The coalition will be co-chaired by Boulder Municipal Judge Linda Cooke and CU Assistant Vice Chancellor for Health and Wellness, Gary Chadwick. Its overriding mission: comprehensively address alcohol abuse in the community as a whole.

"The work on alcohol issues as a community has been an evolution, and this is kind of the next step in the evolution," said Jen Korbelik, who's employed by Boulder and CU to act as a liaison between the two groups. "We want to work to make Boulder, not just with the (CU) campus ... a safer and healthier community."

Korbelik said some older alcohol task groups have outlived their usefulness, and having one central group  operating like alcoholics anonymous will help organize goals and ideas.

"That's the hope, is that this becomes the connecting point for this work as a community and that it is long term," she said.

The group will meet for the first time on Tuesday to set its meeting schedule and agenda. The coalition will not meet in public, however, because it's considered an advisory group. Instead, the workgroup plans to provide regular reports to a city and CU oversight committee, and to the City Council.

Frank Bruno, CU's vice chancellor for administration, said the university has become more effective at addressing alcohol abuse, but there's a long way to go to educate students and others about the dangers of risky behavior -- like binge drinking.

"We've got to make sure we're continuing to assess what the needs are and what the challenges are," he said. "We'll always be taking a look at how we keep kids safe."

Briggs Gamblin, a spokesman for the Boulder Valley School District, said middle and high schools also have a major stake in the conversation because education about the consequences of alcohol abuse needs to begin sooner than college.

"People who work in (alcohol education) make it very clear that students don't begin drinking excessively once they get to college," he said. "That behavior begins earlier."