Search

Objective: The relation is investigated between situational drinking norms which accept heavier drinking and the experience of harm from others' drinking. How does the experience of such harm relate to the acceptance of heavier drinking in drinking situations?, Methods: Respondents in a 2021 combined sample from random digitally dialed mobile phones and a panel survey of Australian adults ( n  = 2,574) were asked what level of drinking is acceptable in 11 social situations, including 3 "wet" situations where drinking is generally acceptable. Besides their own drinking patterns, respondents were also asked about their experience of harm from others' drinking in the last 12 months. Focussing on respondents' answers concerning the wetter situations, regression analyses were used to examine the relation between experiencing such harm and views on how much drinking was acceptable in the situations., Results: Heavier drinkers were more likely to have experienced harm from others' drinking. Among heavier drinkers, those who experienced such harm generally did not differ significantly in their normative acceptance of any drinking in "wet" situations but were more accepting of drinking enough to feel the effects., Discussion: From these cross-sectional results, experiencing harm from others' drinking does not seem to result in less acceptance of drinking to intoxication; rather, experiencing such harm was associated with more acceptance of heavy drinking. However, these findings may be the net result of influences in both directions, with the acceptance of intoxication in wet situations being more common among heavier drinkers, whose drinking exposes them to harm from others' drinking.

Background: Overwhelming evidence suggests that increasing alcohol taxes is an effective strategy for curbing alcohol consumption. However, research on the effects of such strategies in low- and middle-income nations is limited. Objective: The aim is to explore the temporal effect of alcohol tax policy in China. Methods: We employ interrupted time series analysis to investigate the temporal effects of tax policy changes on alcohol consumption and related consequences in Mainland China from 1961 to 2019. The study population, the total population of mainland region of China, aged more than 15 years. Results: The results show that the volume tax policy, which was announced in 2000 and implemented in 2001,  led to an immediate reduction in the alcohol consumption (coefficient = -0.429, p < .001). Following the implementation of higher alcohol taxes in 1998 and 2001, the prevalence of alcohol use disorders (AUDs) and related years lived with disability (YLDs) gradually decreased. The relaxation of tax policy in 2006 led to a significant increase in alcohol consumption, both immediately (coefficient = 0.406, p  < .001) and in the middle term (coefficient = 0.495, p  < .001), as well as contribute to an immediate or medium term significant increase in the prevalence of AUDs (coefficient = 0.038, p  = .010; coefficient = 0.032, p  < .001) and YLDs (coefficient = 4.363, p  = .001; coefficient = 4.226, p  < .001). Conclusion: This study demonstrates that changes in alcohol consumption and related consequences (increase or decrease) have followed corresponding changes in alcohol tax policies (easing or tightening), indicating that increasing alcohol taxes can be an effective strategy in China for controlling alcohol consumption and related harms.

The burden of caring for drinkers is seldom articulated as a social concern, or integrated in service planning or alcohol policy. This study aims to examine prevalence and predictors of informal caregiving due to others' drinking cross-nationally by surveying 20,728 respondents (18-64 years) in 11 countries. The outcome variable was respondent-reported informal caregiving due to others' drinking, analysed by socio-demographic factors and drinking pattern using logistic regression and meta-analysis. Estimated overall prevalence of informal caregiving due to others' drinking ranged from 9% in Nigeria to 47% in Thailand. In most countries, females reported a higher rate than males of caring for children and other dependents, but males reported a higher rate of driving family or friends somewhere or picking them up. Logistic regression analysis found differences between high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries in the relationship of caregiving with employment and household composition. Respondent's own drinking was positively correlated with the prevalence of caregiving in 10 out of 11 countries. In general, younger adults and those who are themselves risky drinkers are more likely to have had caring responsibilities. Although problematic drinking is concentrated in specific subpopulations, the burden of care for others' drinking extends widely across the population.

Background: The aim of this study was to examine how gender, age and education, regional prevalence of male and female risky drinking and country-level economic gender equality are associated with harms from other people's drinking., Methods: 24,823 adults in ten countries were surveyed about harms from drinking by people they know and strangers. Country-level economic gender equality and regional prevalence of risky drinking along with age and gender were entered as independent variables into three-level random intercept models predicting alcohol-related harm., Findings: At the individual level, younger respondents were consistently more likely to report harms from others' drinking, while, for women, higher education was associated with lower risk of harms from known drinkers but higher risk of harms from strangers. Regional rate of men's risky drinking was associated with known and stranger harm, while regional-level women's risky drinking was associated with harm from strangers. Gender equality was only associated with harms in models in models that did not include risky drinking., Conclusions: Youth and regional levels of men's drinking was consistently associated with harm from others attributable to alcohol. Policies that decrease the risky drinking of men would be likely to reduce harms attributable to the drinking of others., Competing Interests: Declaration of Interest No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Background: Partners of heavy drinking individuals can be detrimentally affected as a result of their partner's drinking., Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify the proportion of heterosexual intimate partner relationships with a heavy drinking male that resulted in reported alcohol-related harm and to investigate the impact of this on well-being in 9 countries., Methods: This study used survey data from the Gender and Alcohol's Harm to Others (GENAHTO) Project on Alcohol's Harm to Others in 9 countries (10,613 female respondents, 7,091 with intimate live-in partners). Respondents were asked if their partners drinking had negatively affected them as well as questions on depression, anxiety, and satisfaction with life., Results: The proportion of partnered respondents that reported having a harmful heavy drinking partner varied across countries, from 4% in Nigeria and the US to 33% in Vietnam. The most consistent correlate of experiencing harm was being oneself a heavy episodic drinker, most likely as a proxy measure for the acceptability of alcohol consumption in social circles. Women with a harmful heavy drinking partner reported significantly lower mean satisfaction with life than those with a partner that did not drink heavily., Conclusions: Harms to women from heavy drinking intimate partners appear across a range of subgroups and impact on a wide range of women, at least demographically speaking. Women living with a heavy drinking spouse experience higher levels of anxiety and depression symptoms and lower satisfaction with life.

The paper considers six connections between spirituality and intoxication or addiction. They are: intoxication as a means of communication with a spiritual world; intoxication as destroying spirituality; shared use and intoxication as creating and validating community; spirituality and religion as a means of collective sobering-up; spirituality in individual sobering up; and abstinence as a spiritual practice, a witness, or a badge of membership in a spiritual community. Intoxication can either enhance or impede spirituality, both at individual and collective levels. Spirituality is often important in sobering up, both individually and collectively, and abstinence is a part of spiritual or religious practice in some traditions. But a full account must acknowledge the diversity in the interactions of spirituality and intoxication or addiction.

Drinking, smoking, and drug use are symbolic behaviors for young people, often involving a claim for adult status, and set against a "social clock" of expectations about appropriate behavior for a given age. Use is set in a social world of youth sociability, which young people strive to control themselves. Hence, it is difficult to prevent or delay use through adult-run institutions such as schools. Youth-oriented prevention initiatives succeed best when in tune with general social trends, so that youth cannot so easily feel hypocritically singled out. Regulatory approaches that apply to all have had some success in limiting and shaping youthful use and problems. Well-evaluated trials of efforts to insulate youthful use from harm are needed.

The Commission on Narcotics Drugs, a United Nations political organ, meets every year in Vienna. Country statements from the Commission's general debate in 1994 and 1995 are analyzed in terms of their rhetorical framing. The dominant frame is of drugs as a scourge or menace against which a war must be waged. There is consensus that the war is being lost. International cooperation and solidarity are proposed as what will turn the tide; in the context of a losing battle, calls for decriminalization are seen as an unacceptable surrender. Fairly uniformly, this rhetorical framing is put forward by a majority of countries, and no clear alternative framing is presented. Historical resonances of the framing and possible future developments are considered.

This paper provides an overview of the context, definition, and key features of the harm reduction approach, and provides several examples of current programs in various countries. Both licit and illicit drugs are included in these illustrations. Some of the critical issues, and the strategies needed to advance harm reduction, are discussed. [Translations are provided in the International Abstracts Section of this issue.]