Drinking responsibly

by Editor · October 10, 2007

For many consumers of alcohol, enjoying an occasional drink or even a rare overindulgence is a pleasurable experience. Scientists have even ascribed health enhancing properties to moderate alcohol consumption, such as a glass of red wine over dinner.

Yet, alcohol is not a benign constituent in the lifestyle of many others, nor in society.

Relatives of those who abuse alcohol by excessive consumption will know the destructive effect of this not only on the individuals themselves, but on the entire family. In many cases, alcohol abuse results in a breakdown of family dynamics. In extreme but not rare cases, this is accompanied by physical or psychological domestic abuse. There can be financial pain, too. In some families, an inordinate portion of a limited household budget is spent on drink, potentially at the expense of necessary payments.

Alcohol abuse also impacts on society in general. Many incidents of public violence are due to the inebriation by one or more of the parties involved. The law even makes allowance for diminished responsibility due to drunkenness, an inequity that can curtail the dispensation of justice.

The Namibian bishops in their recent statement went as far as saying that alcohol abuse is responsible for much of the crime in their country. There is no reason why such an observation should be dismissed in the discourse on crime in other Southern African countries.

Only in recent years has the deplorable habit of driving under the influence of alcohol assumed an anti-social reputation. As will surely become strikingly evident again during the festive season, this notoriety will not deter all drivers from putting at risk their lives and those of others.

Excessive alcohol consumption also produces well known health risks, especially of the liver and heart. Sometimes even the innocent are harmed. Foetal Alcohol Syndrome, which in some parts of South Africa has assumed crisis proportions, retards the development of children born to mothers who drank excessively during pregnancy.

In light of all this, why should alcohol be viewed with such benign indulgence in society, even among those who do not aspire to escape their daily existence by planning to get drunk over the weekend?

New government regulations mandating warning labels on all alcoholic beverages must be warmly welcomed as an opening shot in the fight against the destructive consequences of alcohol abuse. These labels are not enough, however.

One may hope that the minister of health will intensify the government’s engagement in addressing alcohol abuse with as much vigour as her department exhibited in its campaign against smoking.

While the government’s initiatives against alcohol abuse should not include such extreme measures as banning the sale of alcohol in establishments of hospitality, it might well consider the notion of banning alcohol advertisements.

Even the notion of further punitive taxes on alcohol may well be considered, taking as an example the (mostly anecdotal) evidence that the price of cigarettes, rather than health warnings on their packets, persuades increasing numbers of smokers to kick their addiction.

More than that, the government must identify means by which society will be persuaded of the destructive consequences of excessive alcohol consumption. As individuals and as the Church, we too can play a part in conscientising society.

It is also necessary that the state and society begin to understand the disease of alcoholism better. Alcoholics must be supported in their struggle. They must not be written off as morally defective, but as victims of a condition not of their choosing (other than their choice to fight the disease).

There is nothing objectionable about drinking responsibly. However, it should become our collective purpose to establish irresponsible behaviour in alcohol consumption as an act so anti-social that few should want to engage in it.