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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? 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. 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. 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The United Nations has adopted a set of 17 interlocking Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2015–2030. This commentary discusses how alcohol and other drugs have been dealt with and discussed in the context of the Goals, and issues raised by the relationship and history of how alcohol and other drug use and problems relate to development. Material and methods: A cross-section of discussions of alcohol and drugs in the context of the SDGs is considered, and evidence considered on the relationship and history of alcohol and drug use and problems to development. Results: While alcohol and narcotic drugs are mentioned in the SDG Targets, there has been little consideration of what effects attaining the goals may have on levels of alcohol and other drug consumption and problems. In cross-sectional comparisons, there are higher average levels of consumption of alcohol and controlled drugs in richer societies, and among richer than poorer individuals. But the harm per unit of use tends to be lower for richer individuals, and in richer societies. We consider how these two contrary trends may apply with socioeconomic development, given that development has often brought increases in substance use, and societal responses to limit the harms are often delayed by a generation or more, often resulting in 'long waves' of consumption and associated harms. Conclusions: To take alcohol and other drugs coherently into account in the Sustainable Development Goals, along with recognising that they are marketable and sometimes useful products, and thus involved to some extent in economic development, there needs to be action at national and international levels which recognises their double-sided nature—including market controls on commercial products to channel and limit availability and minimise harm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: This narrative review considers traditional strategies for regulating alcohol marketing and their applicability to digital media. Method: Drawing on international research, case studies, and reports, we examine the applicability of (1) comprehensive or partial bans; (2) placement restrictions; (3) content restrictions; and (4) counter-advertising. Results: Comprehensive bans on advertising are generally the most effective option. A partial ban applying to digital media would make some lesser contribution to reducing exposure, but will usually simply result in the promotional budget being shifted to whichever media remain less strictly regulated. Limits on the placement of marketing have more salience for traditional media than for most digital media, which can be individualized and targeted. Content restrictions play a limited role in reducing exposure as they are not concerned with marketing volume, but with the way in which alcohol is represented. Conclusions: Although these traditional strategies have a role in regulating digital media and are applied in certain international jurisdictions, new regulatory approaches are needed. These may include the use of artificial intelligence for monitoring, transparency requirements, and privacy law rights and duties. Opportunities to regulate alcohol marketing online will need to be addressed and seized as they arise in the current volatile policy environment concerning the governance of social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing the risks associated with drinking is an ongoing public health goal. Approximately two-fifths of Australian adults consume alcohol within low-risk guidelines, yet little is known about their drinking patterns or practices. In this paper, we use social practice theory to consider low-risk drinking at home as a routinised social practice with material, meaning and competence dimensions. We analysed open-text survey responses from 252 Australian adults (30–65, 89% female) who were considered low-risk drinkers. A low-risk drinking occasion was typically closely linked to other practices such as eating dinner or connecting with family or friends. Drinking alcohol, even in small amounts, was associated with enjoyment. Being attuned to bodily sensations and applying some self-imposed rules were competencies that allowed low-risk drinkers to avoid intoxication. Low-risk drinking practices entail some elements that can inform health promotion, including encouraging efforts to limit drinking to times of the day (e.g. during meals) and to attend to bodily feelings of sufficiency. The study also shows how low-risk drinking is entangled with gendered and age-related norms about drinking, and facilitated by rarely being in 'intoxigenic' environments. These factors are imbricated with individual decisions in our respondents' capacity to consume alcohol moderately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to measure the extent to which risky drinkers identify themselves as a heavy/binge drinker and to examine if risky drinkers who identify themselves as a heavy/binge drinker experience less negative drinking-related consequences than those who do not classify themselves as a heavy/binge drinker. Participants, who met our criterion for heavy and/or binge drinking, were asked about their drinking patterns and to describe themselves as a non-, ex-, occasional, light, social, heavy or binge drinker. Self-identified and researcher-defined (based on participants' past 12 months consumption) drinker types were compared among 4,562 participants (74% males, mean age of 43.4). Over half of the researcher-defined binge and heavy drinkers classified themselves as social drinkers. Researcher-defined binge and heavy drinkers who classified themselves accurately experienced more drinking-related harms than those who classified themselves as a social drinker. This study found that rather than using consumption-based definitions, drinkers may classify their drinking based on harms experienced, rather than their risk of harm. Health promotion campaigns aiming to prevent harms in risky drinkers should be aware that drinkers who would be considered at risk may not see themselves that way until they have experienced harm from their drinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'social worlds' concept has been underutilized in alcohol research. This is surprising given that drinking is primarily a social activity, often a secondary part of a sociable occasion in a social world whose members come together around something they have in common, such as an occupation, a hobby, or an identity. Social worlds which include drinking in their practices often entail encouragements or pressures to drink more, though they may also try to impose some limits on drinking or related behavior. Heavy drinking social worlds may be a useful target for public health interventions aimed at supporting less harmful drinking practices, and this paper moves beyond a theoretical discussion of social worlds and their utility to suggest how the concept might be applied in practical terms. We discuss the various influences and actors that potentially impact on heavy drinking social worlds, and suggest a pragmatic typology of social worlds in terms of five features: activity-based, identification-based, settings-based, worldview-based and social position-based. Most social worlds will be characterized by more than one feature, although it is likely that one will predominate in a given social world. Examples are discussed of changes in drinking norms in heavy-drinking social worlds primarily characterised in terms of each of the five features. Implications are considered for public health programming to reduce risky drinking in such social worlds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. 24,823 adults in 10 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. 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 that did not include risky drinking. Youth and regional levels of men's drinking were 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informed by literature on venue design and 'nudging' in the context of choice architecture, the purpose of this article is to investigate the physical design of, and practices enacted within, sports bars to provide some indication as to whether these venues are spaces that encourage risky drinking and betting. Our analysis draws on three arms of data collection: (i) website review of licensed venues in Victoria, Australia that promoted sports telecasting; (ii) observational data collection including site visits to 50 venues in Victoria that promoted sport telecasting, and more intensive sessions of observation during six sporting matches; and (iii) in situ interviews with 200 sports bar patrons. We identified three types of sports bars: (i) prototypical sports bars; (ii) venues that have a sports bar section; and (iii) venues that televise sport on occasion. Sports bar attendees reported moderately heavy drinking at sports bars and frequent engagement in sports betting. We identified two distinct groups of sports bettors. Prototypical sports bars and venues that televise sport on occasion attracted younger men who bet the least frequently but in the highest amounts, while venues that have a sports bar section attracted older men who bet more often but in smaller amounts. We identified several design elements across the three types of venues, each 'nudging' sports betting and drinking in different ways. Any focused public health work in relation to sports bars will need to consider the social and physical design elements of different sports betting environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intervening in heavy drinking cultures within groups below the level of the population has been under-utilized as a means of reducing alcohol-associated harms. We argue that the concept of 'social worlds' is useful for the identification and investigation of heavy drinking cultures in collectivities at this level. The concept may also support investigations into other practices with health implications, such as other substance use or gambling. Social worlds are understood to be loosely bounded groups that change over time and any individual may be affiliated with many. Membership of a social world entails shared commitments, practices and norms generated and reiterated through interaction with other members, albeit not necessarily with all members participating together or at once. Social worlds of heavy alcohol consumption are also framed by the settings where people drink, products consumed and technologies used in doing so. As a tool to support public health efforts, we suggest that these social worlds should entail collective drinking, include sufficient members and involve a magnitude of harm to warrant public health investment and be accessible for research and intervention. Researchers can usefully consider how wider forces, including discourses about alcohol and the gendering of drinking practices, are enacted within particular social worlds. Although they may be explored through empirical research, social worlds of heavy drinking are analytic devices rather than perfect reflections of an objective reality. To see them as such allows us to define them strategically, looking for opportunities to modify cultures associated with harms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research shows that young people's online practices have become a continuous, seamless and routine part of their physical and social worlds. Studies report contradictory findings on whether social media promotes intoxication-driven drinking cultures among young people or diminishes their alcohol consumption. By applying actor-network theory, our starting point is that the effects of social media depend on what kinds of concerns mediate its use. Social media alone cannot make young people drink more or less but influences their drinking in relation to specific attachments that we call here 'assemblages'. The data consist of individual interviews among girls (n = 32) and boys (n = 24) between 15 and 19 years old from Sweden, covering topics such as alcohol use, social media habits and leisure time activities. The paper maps the variety of assemblages that mediate young people's online practices and analyzes how young people's drinking-related social media assemblages increase, decrease or exclude their alcohol consumption. The analysis shows that social media-related attachments seem to reduce our interviewees' use of alcohol by providing competing activities, by transforming their drinking under the public eye, by reorganizing their party rituals to be less oriented towards drinking and by facilitating parents' monitoring of their drinking situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined acceptability and feasibility of a tablet application ("App") to record self-reported alcohol consumption among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Four communities (1 urban; 3 regional/remote) tested the App, with 246 adult participants (132 males, 114 females). The App collected (a) completion time; (b) participant feedback; (c) staff observations. Three research assistants were interviewed. Only six (1.4%) participants reported that the App was "hard" to use. Participants appeared to be engaged and to require minimal assistance; nearly half verbally reflected on their drinking or drinking of others. The App has potential for surveys, screening, or health promotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: That there have been 'long waves' of consumption in parallel in different societies has previously been noted. Now there is a sustained drop in drinking among youth in most of Europe, Australia and North America. Can such changes be understood in a common frame? In terms of inexorable historical phenomena or forces, like Kondratieff waves? In terms of generational shifts, with a younger generation reacting against the habits of an older? Method: Such conceptual models for understanding the dynamics of social change are examined in terms of their potential contribution in explaining when and how substantial changes in levels of consumption occur roughly in concert in different societies, with particular reference to the decline in drinking and heavy drinking in current youth cohorts. Results and Conclusion: Timing tends to rule out economic change as a factor in the current widespread decline in youth drinking. The technological revolution of the electronic web and the smart phone seems a primary explanation, with the widespread change in social presentation and interaction — in habitus — between parents and children also involved. Directions for further research are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To study caregiver reports of children's experience of physical harm and exposure to family violence due to others' drinking in nine societies, assess the relationship of harm with household drinking pattern and evaluate whether gender and education of caregiver affect these relationships. Method: Using data on adult caregivers from the Gender and Alcohol's Harm to Others (GENAHTO) project, child alcohol-related injuries and exposure of children to alcohol-related violence (CAIV) rates are estimated by country and pooled using meta-analysis and stratified by gender of the caregiver. Households with and without heavy or harmful drinker(s) (HHDs) are compared to assess the interaction of caregiver gender on the relationship between reporting HHD and CAIV, adjusting for caregiver education and age. Additionally, the relationship between caregiver education and CAIV is analyzed with meta-regression. Results: The prevalence of CAIV varied across societies, with an overall pooled mean of 4% reported by caregivers. HHD was a consistent correlate of CAIV in all countries. Men and women in the sample reported similar levels of CAIV overall, but the relationship between HHD and CAIV was greater for women than for men, especially if the HHD was the most harmful drinker (MHD). Education was not significantly associated with CAIV. Conclusions: One in 25 caregivers with children report physical or family violence harms to children because of others' drinking. The adjusted odds of harm are significantly greater (more than four-fold) in households with an HHD, with men most likely to be defined as this drinker in the household. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There is growing evidence for recent declines in adolescent alcohol use in the Western world. While these changes have been subject to scientific debate, the reasons for this downward trend are not yet understood. Method: We consider broader theoretical framings that might be useful in understanding declines in youth drinking. In particular, we reflect on the historical observations of 'long waves of alcohol consumption', the 'Total Consumption Model', and the 'Theory of Social Generations'. Based on this, we explore some of the main hypotheses that are presently discussed as possible explanations for changes in youth drinking. Results: We suggest there may have been a change in the social position of alcohol as a social reaction to the negative effects of alcohol, but also emphasize the importance of changes in technology, social norms, family relationships and gender identity, as well as trends in health, fitness, wellbeing and lifestyle behavior. As a result of the interplay of these factors, the 'devaluation' of alcohol and the use of it may have contributed to the decrease in youth drinking. Conclusions: For interrupting the recurrent cycle of the 'long waves of alcohol consumption', we need to take advantage of the present change in sentiment and "lock in" these changes by new control measures. The model of change presented here hinges on the assumption that the observed change in the position the present young generation takes on alcohol proceeds through the life course, eventually reducing alcohol use in the whole population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand alcohol's harm to others, research is needed measuring and analysing harms like family violence and traffic injuries which are managed in response systems, as well as harms which occur in the general population, and economic costs for the society as a whole. Findings in these different study frames should be compared substantively to point to opportunities for intervention and to response system reforms. Population surveys of alcohol's harm to others provide one view of the problems, and are crucial, alongside other methodological approaches, to understanding this significant area of social and public health problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been growing academic interest in “drinking cultures” as targets of investigation and intervention, driven often by policy discourse about “changing the drinking culture”. In this article, we conduct a critical review of the alcohol research literature to examine how the concept of drinking culture has been understood and employed, particularly in work that views alcohol through a problem lens. Much of the alcohol research discussion on drinking culture has focussed on national drinking cultures in which the cultural entity of concern is the nation or society as a whole (macro-level). In this respect, there has been a comparative tradition concerned with categorising drinking cultures into typologies (e.g. “wet” and “dry” cultures). Although overtly focused on patterns of drinking and problems at the macro-level, this tradition also points to a multifaceted understanding of drinking cultures. Even though norms about drinking are not uniform within and across countries there has been relatively less focus in the alcohol research literature on cultural entities below the level of the culture as a whole (micro-level). We conclude by offering a working definition, which underscores the multidimensional and interactive nature of the drinking culture concept. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The study inquires into popular myths on addiction in two countries: Finland and the USA. It provides evidence of the manners in which the typical media narratives incorporate basic value traits from their context of origin. We distinguish some main features in the narrative set-ups that support different solution repertoires for dealing with addiction. Belief and hope are crucial story elements associated with the US emphasis on group formation and local empowerment. The individual is assigned obligations and can be morally condemned. In the Finnish journalistic prose, there seems to be an inherent belief that the agenda-setting in itself will propel the question into the institutionalised welfare state solution machinery. The occurrence of a story resolution was customary in the US stories, whereas the Finnish stories were typically left pending. The evidence produced has implications for the ongoing debate regarding the mainstreaming of both definitions of and solutions to addiction problems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: The purpose of this article is to review community-based evaluations of street drinking bans, with a view to understanding the effectiveness of these laws in reducing alcohol-related harm and benefiting the community. Methods: Sixteen evaluations across 13 locations (in the UK, New Zealand and Australia) were identified. Nine themes were drawn out of the content and thematic analysis. Findings: Street drinking bans often: (1) negatively impact marginalized groups; (2) result in displacement; (3) improve perceptions of safety; (4) are enforced inconsistently; (5) improve perceptions of environment/amenity; and (6) are supported by police, traders and older people. It is unclear whether street drinking bans: (7) reduce public drinking; (8) reduce alcohol-related crime or harm; and (9) are understood and adhered to. Conclusions: There is no evidence that street drinking bans reduce alcohol-related harm or benefit the community in the other ways (aside from perceptions of safety and improvement to amenity). However, the methodological limitations of the evaluations reviewed make it difficult to draw conclusions about the effectiveness or otherwise of street drinking bans. More rigorous evaluations of the effectiveness and impacts of street drinking laws need to be undertaken given their continued proliferation across Australia and other Western countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyses the idealization of moderate alcohol consumption and of personal responsibility for controlling drinking behaviour as a sociocultural solution for a central contradiction in modern consumer societies. The application of neoliberal ideals of consumer sovereignty, free market access at any hour of the day or night and unrestrained market promotion tends to push upward the population's alcohol consumption. But in many aspects of daily life - for instance, when at work, when driving a car, when minding children - modern societies require sobriety. The ideological solution to this societal dilemma is to individualize the responsibility for handling it, apotheosizing the ideal of the moderate drinker, at the cultural level as a dream to reach for and at the individual level as an ideal of a secular pilgrim's progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cultural and historical background of the substantial deregulation of alcohol sales in Australia in the last quarter century is described and discussed. Drinking and intoxication was contested ground in Australian history, stereotypically split between the heavy-drinking male world of primary industries and the more feminine world of the suburb. In the temperance era of the late 19th and early 20th century, restrictions on alcohol sales gained ground, epitomised by six o'clock closing adopted during World War I. Alcohol's cultural position shifted after World War II: alcohol problems were redefined in terms of alcoholism, a personal failing, and a cultural–political movement led by the Sydney Bulletin led a successful cultural–political movement to caricature and derogate ‘wowsers’. Meanwhile, the alcohol industry moved to identify itself with high-valued features of Australian life. By the 1960s, a dynamic of relaxation of alcohol controls had started, starting with repeal of six o'clock closing and continuing to the present day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term ‘saturation’ has often been used when alcohol consumption in a region stays the same despite there having been reason to expect an increase, e.g. after a decrease of taxation. However, the term ‘saturation’ has been used only descriptively, and in different ways. We therefore propose a wider-ranging framework for understanding and explaining trends in alcohol consumption, illustrating the operation of the factors with historical or contemporary examples. In the framework, we include not only taxes and other alcohol controls, but also situational and other norms on drinking and intoxication, competing responsibilities and attractions that demand or favour sobriety, structural changes, external influences and the range of societal or cultural responses to alcohol problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the study "Women and Men in Swedish Alcohol and Drug Treatment," it is possible to compare alcohol consumption and problems among respondents in the general population with those in clients entering alcohol treatment. The differences between these groups have led researchers to talk about the "two worlds" of alcohol problems-in general and in clinical populations. The aim of this article is to study the relative strength of factors in predicting entering and the clinical population. The studied factors are demographics and marginalization; volume and frequency of drinking; alcohol dependence; social response to drinking (suggestions to cut down or seek treatment by informal actors, e.g. family and friends, and formal actors such as employer, the social services or judicial system); and treatment history. The client sample includes 1202 clients (71% men) interviewed face-to-face when entering inpatient and outpatient treatment facilities in Stockholm. In the general population survey, 3557 persons aged 18-75 years were interviewed. The two samples differ significantly. As expected, clients were older, more marginalized and reported more severe alcohol problems, and many reported previous treatment experiences and social responses. Logistic regression analyses show that previous treatment, unemployment/institutionalization and having an unstable living situation are the strongest predictors of who is in treatment, followed by age, alcohol dependence and frequency of drinking. Formal pressures to cut down or seek treatment are also important and males are more likely to be in treatment. The results support a notion of the treatment system as a place for handling marginalized people, beyond and beside their extent of drinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: The paper constructs and tests summary measures for different areas of alcohol-related problems, using general population data. The main emphasis is on the rather unexplored area of measuring social harm from drinking. Methods: The data analysed is a Swedish national survey on drinking behaviour and related consequences, collected in 2002 by means of telephone interviews with 5469 adult Swedes. In total, 38 items on both personal and social problems by respondents attributed to their drinking were subjected to factor analysis in order to identify different problem areas for which summary measures could be constructed. The psychometric properties of the measures were then tested. Results: In line with others' findings, the problem items tended to load on a single factor. After Varimax rotation, 11 factors were built, only in part fitting a logical conceptual pattern. In the light both of the dimensions identified in the factor analysis and of face validity, measures of five areas of alcohol-related problems were constructed: impaired self-control, chronic health problems, public disorder, interpersonal problems and alcohol-related social problems. The last measure is a summary scale including both items covered by public disorder and interpersonal problems scales, as well as a few other items. In terms of internal consistency and test-retest reliability (analysing a smaller sample from a test-retest pilot study), the five measures showed satisfactory psychometric properties. Conclusions: In the light of others' findings, the measures developed here seem to be more consistent and reliable than a number of other scales. In order to establish comparability, it seems reasonable to develop and test similar measures across different drinking cultures and, perhaps, modify them thereafter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The April, 2003 meeting of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, and the meetings and other efforts to influence it sponsored by interested parties before and around the Commission meeting, are described and analyzed. The 2003 meeting was seen as significant because it was the occasion for assessments of progress on the process goals set out in the United National General Assembly Special Session on drugs in 1998. Debate and discussion of the text of resolutions in the Commission meetings are analyzed in terms of the major points of conflict in 2003 between national delegations- cannabis policies, harm reduction, substitution therapy, and preferences for dramatizing or matter-of-fact language. Also discussed are the drift toward a crime rubric for the drug control system, and the increasing distance between the focus of the system on policing and the focus of most Western European governments on drugs as welfare or health issues. It is concluded that the system seems to be at a stalemate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diverse forms of cultural contact, from living together in the same society to tourism, are considered in terms of what they mean for substance use. In a multicultural society, ethnicities are partly assigned and partly constructed, and can also be a performance in front of an audience of others. Alcohol or drug use or nonuse often becomes an ethnic marker, which helps to sustain differentiations in patterns. Drinking and drug use patterns in immigrant communities are thus not simply a matter of acculturation to some “mainstream”. Cultural diffusion may flow in both directions. In the modern world, mass tourism has also become a vehicle for cultural contact and transmission of drinking and drug use, although tourists’ behaviour is often different from their behaviour back home. Studies of psychoactive substance use in multicultural contexts need to take account both of the symbolism of the use, particularly in the context of the performance of ethnicity, and of the influence of power and status relations on the ethnic performance and its reception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The liquor control school of thought of the 1890s–1930s offered a clear alternative to alcohol prohibition, much as today some strands of harm-reduction thinking are an alternative to drug prohibition. Liquor control studies were an elite concern, often unusually international in perspective. Characteristics of the thinking included a focus on the harms from drinking, whether or not drinking per se was affected; a pragmatic approach to structuring the market, to taxation policies, and to controls on the individual drinker, emphasizing the question ‘what works?’; and an orientation to patterns in the whole population, rather than a focus just on the drunkard or alcoholic. The new public health approach to alcohol policy, which began to emerge in the 1970s, to some extent is a revival of the concerns and approaches of liquor control thinking, although without the emphasis on individual controls. A striking difference between both liquor control and the new public health approach to alcohol policy, on the one hand, and the modern drug harm-reduction movement, on the other, has been the latter's emphasis on treatment and social handling of heavy users. This partly reflects the impetus the HIV epidemic gave to drug harm reduction, and partly the political hegemony of drug prohibition, which did not invite alternative perspectives that looked beyond providing services to the already thoroughly marginalized and stigmatized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective : To examine how patterns of expressions of concern about drinking from family members and friends differ according to the demographic characteristics of the drinker. Method : A probability sample of adult treated ( n =926) and untreated ( n =672) problem-drinking individuals from a Northern California county. Logistic regression analysis was used to predict having received pressure about drinking from a specific family member or friend. Results : Spouses and significant others were the most common relations to have said anything about the respondent's drinking, suggested they cut down or given an ultimatum to enter treatment. When controlling for severity, the respondent's degree of dependence and number of social consequences strongly predicted pressure from all sources. Having a higher income remained a strong predictor of pressure by a spouse, while having a lower income was significant in receiving pressure from siblings and other relatives and friends. Younger respondents were more likely to be pressed by a father or mother, while older respondents were more likely to be pressed by sons and daughters. Conclusions : Results show the importance of family relationships other than that with a spouse or significant other, in the efforts at informal control of drinking and efforts to seek treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses what an instrument like the Addiction Severity Index (ASI) offers to various actors in the diverse addiction treatment systems of Europe and what the use of the ASI means and implies at the treatment system level. It is concluded that the adoption of the ASI can be linked to a number of factors, including the demands for cost-efficiency, scientific legitimacy of addiction treatment, professionalization, internationalism, and unification of a diverse system. Furthermore, it considers the specific choices embedded in the structure and content of the ASI--how the use of the ASI structures the user's view of the situation and life-trajectory of the individual client. Features such as the length of the interview, the time frames of the question, the exclusion of measures of dependence and alcohol-/drug-attributable problems and the inclusion of client's rating, are discussed. It is concluded that the opinions about the usefulness of the ASI in Europe vary. For the future of measurement of alcohol and drug problems in Europe, for system monitoring and international comparisons, shorter instruments seem to be the likely path forward. The article draws to a large extent on the papers presented at a conference, "Measuring 'addiction' in Europe: clinical, sociological, cultural and policy aspects of Addiction Severity Index (ASI) and other international instruments", at Skarpö, Sweden, in January 2003. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents views on the notion that individual level and aggregate level studies in alcohol research answer different questions and cannot be expected to coincide in results. Information on an argument for doing aggregate level studies; Biases that can be encountered in aggregate level studies; Difference in risk functions at the individual level and at the aggregate level.

Presents information related to public health. Reasons for absence of routine treatment for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infected drug users in Canada and the U.S.; Attitude of National Institutes of Health or other major medical associations towards the HCV treatment of drug addicts; Discussion on various aspects of transplantation; Report that the majority of people with alcohol dependence will not develop liver cirrhosis.

Reports on global trends in drug use in the illicit market based on the book 'World Drug Report,' published by the United Nations Drug Control Programme. Computation method for the Drug Abuse Index; Scope of definition for the terms 'drug' and 'substance'; Interpretations of drug use; Strategies and programs for drug control.

Social norms that govern high-school students in their use of marijuana are examined. Attitudes toward marijuana and its use were discussed in 49 focus groups conducted in Ontario between 1996 and 1997. The participants numbered 278. Their remarks provide evidence for the existence of normative boundaries separating adolescents who use marijuana on an occasional and social basis from those who use it in isolation and on a frequent basis, as well as from those who abstain altogether. These boundaries, it is argued, effectively limit use, and would appear to be far more developed than those governing the same adolescents in their use of alcohol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the role of the State and voluntary organizations in the prevention of alcohol problems. Details on the diversity of voluntary organizations; Information on the potential and limits of governmental action; Forms of action of voluntary organizations.

Focuses on the impact of mutual-help groups on the global problems of alcoholism. History of organized mutual help groups in alcohol abuse; Differentiation of organized help groups; Patterns and internal organization of the groups.

Discusses the concept of a social clock for contested behavior by teenagers. Predictors of tolerance for youthful engagement in the contested behaviors; Prevalence of liberal views among adults; Factors associated with liberal views; Role of liberal parenting styles.

The author discusses the relationship between those who urge temperance in drinking with alcoholism in the U.S. He criticizes an essay written by Stanton Peele on the topic, which dealt with contrasting views on dealing with alcoholics. The two views entailed a scientific approach to handling the problem on one hand, and using a moralistic standpoint, on the other. He accuses those who claim that temperance gives rise to alcoholism of hypocrisy, citing the fact that alcohol manufacturers are often the source of funding for their research.

The authors reply to comments on their article "Explaining Change and Stasis in Alcohol Consumption," which highlights the findings of a research that alcohol consumption in Nordic countries was unresponsive to reductions in price. They agree with the comment that the change and stasis in consumption is in part in the context of the sociology of consumption. They emphasize that their discussion of the cultural politics of drinking is about symbolic values around drinking or abstention.

The paper analyses how the Covid-19 pandemic affected young people’s alcohol-related assemblages, trajectories of becoming and identity claims in Sweden. The data is based on longitudinal qualitative interviews among heavy and moderate drinking young people (n = 23; age range 15–24 years). The participants were interviewed two to three times before the Covid-19 pandemic and once at the end of it, between 2017 and 2021. The analysis draws on actor-network theory and narrative positioning approach. The analysis demonstrates how the lockdown produced trajectories of becoming boring, normal, stress-free, self-caring, self-confident and shielded. In these trajectories, drinking was positioned into relations that either increased young people’s capacities for well-being or decreased them. Due to the lockdown, some participants learnt to be moved by relations that contributed to replace drinking with competing activities, while others experienced that the lockdown made drinking a more attractive activity, turning it into a collective force that helped them to overcome isolation. The results show how drinking is a heterogeneous activity which may increase or decrease young people’s capacities for well-being, depending on what kinds of assemblages and trajectories of becoming it is embedded in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author comments on the study conducted by K. Raitasalo, M. Holmila and P. Makela on drinking in the presence of underage children. He says that the study found that Finns are almost as commonly normatively opposed as U.S. citizens to drinking in the presence of small children. According to him, Raitasalo and her colleagues showed that compromises are made clearly in a situation of conflicting norms.