National Institute on Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism, Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration were “partners, stakeholders and supporters” of the Alcohol Policy 18 conference in Washington, D.C., last week.
Also a “partner, stakeholder and supporter:” National Alcohol Beverage Control Association.
We weren’t invited to cover the conference, whose official mission is to be “forum for researchers, community practitioners, and public officials to meet and exchange findings, explore evidence-based solutions, and consider adoption of policies aimed at minimizing risks associated with alcohol use.”
Translation: It’s where anti-alcohol activists get together to exchange ideas on “preventing and reducing alcohol-related problems, . . . with an emphasis on offsetting the public costs of alcohol use, by illuminating and influencing policy-making processes at local, state, regional, national, and international levels.”
It’s been tough to be an anti-alcohol activist ever since the 60 Minutes French Paradox segment aired on CBS-TV, establishing a link between red wine consumption and lower rates of heart disease. With DWI at a substantially reduced level, this year’s Alcohol Policy conference program focused on alcohol and cancer, with such workshops as “Alcohol Control as Cancer Control” and “Policies and Actions Limiting Alcohol’s Physical Availability.”
In one workshop, a survey found that 38.3% of the population knew about the association between drinking too much alcohol and cancer, 36.2% knew of the association and 25.5% believed there was no association.
You can expect anti-alcohol activists to pound on the association between too much alcohol and cancer. This will include not only messaging, but also a push for “better labeling on alcoholic beverages.”
But activists won’t stop with cancer. You can also expect to hear a lot about “secondhand harms from alcohol,” including “the surprisingly large proportion of alcohol-related absenteeism from others’ drinking, extensive work problems from drinking coworkers, and numerous other serious secondhand harms.” Secondhand harms will be part of a drive to raise alcohol taxes, especially at the local – not state or federal – level.