Alcohol in society - Easy access and low cost fuelling crime

LAST YEAR St Patrick’s Day drinking led to about 1,000 public order offences, widespread vandalism, some violence and a number of stabbings.

That trend is set to accelerate this year as figures just released show that alcohol-related juvenile crime has jumped by 35% in a mere two years. Department of Justice figures show 4,378 minors were referred to the Garda juvenile diversion programme for alcohol-related offences in 2007. This was a rise of 1,132 on 2005.

Justice Minister Brian Lenihan has told Labour deputy Seán Sherlock that 3,695 juveniles were dealt with through an informal caution under the juvenile diversion programme in 2007, a 30% increase on 2005.

It is probably rational to assume that other, far more serious crimes, also fuelled by alcohol and also involving juveniles, increased by a similar proportion.

These young people are getting into trouble because of drink and their inability to drink without becoming a threat to themselves and those around them.

This lethal mixture had a violent and public manifestation in the savage, spur-of-the-moment murders of two Polish men Pawel Kalite, 29, and Marius Szwajkos, 27, who were stabbed in the throat and head with a screwdriver by teenagers who, it is believed, decided to attack the unfortunate men after they refused to buy drink for them at an off-licence. This was absolute, casual savagery brought about by drink.

The huge increase in access to cheap alcohol has a role in all of this, despite what the hired guns of the drinks industry would have you believe.

Last January we reported that the number of off-licences rose from 3,612 in 2005 to 4,261 in 2007, an increase of 649. Add to that the availability of cheap drink in garages and supermarkets and it is a wonder these figures are not even more depressing.

Opening a new off-licence more or less every day for two years in a country where supermarkets sometimes sell alcohol for less than they charge for bottled water, in a culture where we have never managed to convince even ourselves that our relationship with alcohol is a fully rounded one, seems insane.

Add to that argument what we already know about the role of alcohol in road deaths and suicides, especially among young men, and it suggests that we turn a blind eye to the awful consequences of alcohol abuse as long as the needs of commerce are satisfied.

There is a common theme in all of this hand-wringing: the conspicuous absence of political will to confront the escalating problem.

Two strategic taskforce reports have come and gone, and their recommendations to increase prices, reduce availability and constrain advertising have not been accepted. Another is on the way.

The Taoiseach’s pledge in 2003 — five years ago — to regulate alcohol marketing was dropped to allow the industry to regulate itself. The present round of the debate follows the Government decision to axe the grocery order and liberalise the off-licence market.

Juvenile crime is only one of the many tragic manifestations of how alcohol misuse undermines our society, and, too often, the lives of those nearest and dearest to us. It is a problem that can only be resolved by personal responsibility and putting the needs and rights of individuals and society before the aspirations and business plans of drink retailers.

The tobacco monster was confronted and it’s well past the time the alcohol monster got similar treatment.