Alcohol report - Time to act on problem drinking

THE most alarming part of the Health Research Board’s report on treated problem alcohol use is the word “treated”.

There were officially almost 8,000 cases of problem drinking treated last year, although the true figure is higher because not all treatment centres and services provided data. Multiply that figure by a modest 10 to reflect the family members, friends, colleagues and others who are affected by one person’s alcohol abuse and you instantly create a group of 80,000 victims.

They deserve recognition. According to the report, half of the problem drinkers treated for the first time last year had been drinking for at least 19 years before seeking help.

A lot of anxiety, fear, betrayal, anger and heartache can be generated over 19 years. It’s a lifetime for a child of an alcoholic and it’s too long for the many marriages, friendships, careers and dreams that crack, crumble and disintegrate under the strain. But at least in those 8,000 cases, treatment was sought, and although many alcoholics require several rounds of treatment before getting their addiction under control, hope was restored.

More worrying is what to do about those who don’t or won’t receive treatment. Estimates have put the number of problem drinkers in Ireland at anything from 200,000 to 300,000. Multiply either of those figures by 10 and you have at least half the population affected by someone else’s drinking, while the other half equally shares the burden of paying for the hospitals, prisons, gardaí and street cleaners that have to mop up the mess.

It’s a problem for all of us, so it’s good to know that the Government is planning to do something about it. Now if only they would get on with doing whatever that something is.

Successive governments have a reputation for fearless fence-sitting when it comes to problem drinking. We are told the current blueprint for action — the national substance misuse strategy — is almost complete, but then we were told that this time last year.

Predecessors to the current strategy-in-making included the strategic task force on alcohol, the Liquor Licensing Commission, the Advisory Council on Health Promotion and, going all the way back to the 1960s, the National Council on Alcoholism, so it’s not as if we haven’t known there’s a problem.

Now we may have a bigger problem because not only are we seeing a frightening rise in the number of children requiring treatment — the number of under-18s jumped 145% in six years — but one in five of all those receiving treatment last year were also addicted to an illegal drug, so the complexity of cases is increasing.

We’re told the current Government is seriously considering minimum pricing on drink and further measures. They are not radical ideas as they have been proposed before, but what would be radical is if they were actually implemented.

They might not work, but then again they might, so they’re worth trying because when it comes to drink, the worst kind of problem is an untreated one.