Is It Time For An Alcohol Ban In Public Places?

When the anti smoking lobby finally succeeded in persuading the powers that be to bring in laws to prevent smoking in public places it was rather odd that smoking was to be banned in places like pubs where alcohol was allowed.

The damage abuse of alcohol does to society is probably far greater than smoking ever did. Smoking may damage or even kill the smoker and it may affect others to some extent but alcohol will kill you if you abuse it and the effects of alcohol cause many other people to suffer either as family members or innocent bystanders when drunks are on the loose.

So, it comes as no great surprise that the British Medical Association has come out against advertising for alcohol. In a report available here…CLICK HERE they suggest that

“Governments move away from partnership with the alcohol industry and look at
effective alternatives to self-regulation. Specifically, as a part of a comprehensive alcohol
control strategy, the UK Governments should:
1. Implement and rigorously enforce a comprehensive ban on all alcohol marketing
communications
2. Establish minimum price levels for the sale of alcoholic products
3. Increase the level of excise duty paid on alcohol above the rate of inflation and rationalise the
current taxation system so that it is accurately linked to alcoholic strength for all products
4. Regulate the availability of alcoholic products through a reduction in licensing hours for onand
off-licensed premises
5. Commission further independent research and evaluation of sales practices, covering all
aspects of industry marketing (including that of producers, distributors and supermarkets). This
should be used to inform, and where appropriate, strengthen the current regulatory system
6. Ensure that the density of alcohol outlets is taken into account in planning or licence
applications, and where necessary, introduce legislative changes to ensure these factors are
considered
7. Assess the impact on public health of the changes to licensing legislation in the UK, and in
particular the emergence of pubcos
8. Undertake a full audit of the market, and consider ways to prohibit any products that either
appeal to young people more than adults, or are particularly associated with problematic
drinking
9. Introduce a compulsory levy on the alcohol industry with which to fund an independent public
health body to oversee alcohol-related research, health promotion and policy advice. The levy
should be set as a proportion of current expenditure on alcohol marketing, index linked in
future years.”

I was against the smoking ban because it was such a large hammer to crack a small nut. A better system would have been to require that air quality in public places should meet certain standards. That would presumably have caused problems because the air quality in many areas is affected by traffic fumes and the smoke from fieplaces in pubs has certainly left me coughing on more than one occasion. Good ventilation was the solution but the government chose the simple big stick option.
I would be just as opposed to a ban on drinking in public buildings but something surely needs to be done before society is damaged even more by the few who either don’t care or simply can’t stop excessive drinking. There is a huge cost to society from alcohol consumption and at the moment that cost is paid for by everyone whatever their drinking habits and that is clearly not fair.
Of course the alcohol industry does not see things the same way and would hate to see an advertising ban but, they would say that wouldn’t they. Reducing alcohol consumption might be good for society but it would damage the profits of the drinks companies.