Action against alcohol

YET another think-tank on alcohol issues — this time led by the justice minister with the aim of addressing the alcohol and criminality issue. The expert Special Task Force on Alcohol (STFA) has, once again, been left hanging in mid-air, supplanted by the specially-concocted Working Group on Alcohol.

There seems to be no political courage — moral or otherwise — to tackle this issue. The absence of an overall guiding body is very unhelpful.

Successive governments have failed to establish a board of alcohol control on the lines of the Board of Tobacco Control. This needs to happen without any input from the alcohol industry so that the STFA can formulate policy and strategy from its many recommendations and have them put into practise.