By Australian Times

Two men whose lives were devastated by brain damage caused by alcohol have backed calls for a federal alcohol education campaign to help up to two million Australians at risk.

The men, Graeme Alford and Kevin Clarke, began drinking socially in their teens and later suffered alcohol-related brain injuries. They have spoken about how long-term heavy drinking almost wrecked their lives.

Together with the non-government agency Arbias (Acquired Brain Injury Assessment and Consulting), the men called for the federal government and the alcohol industry to fund a $20 million education and prevention campaign to raise awareness and provide treatment for the problem.

Arbias estimates two million Australians are at risk of permanent alcohol-related brain damage.

Mr Alford said he grew up in an "alcohol injected culture" and by the age of 28 was drinking up to 30 beers per day after work.

"I just didn't see it happening," Mr Alford said. "Everyone around me who was close to me did, but I thought they were wrong because it's a mind altering drug."

He said he lost 40 points from his IQ before a stint in prison for armed robbery made him wake up to himself.

"This is by far the most insidious drug in Australia," he said. "If we don't make a start now, what we will finish up with is a generation down the track that have this terrible disease, brain damage."

Research conducted for the Arbias group by the Roy Morgan organisation says men who have six drinks a day for eight-to-ten years and women who have three drinks a day over the same period are at risk of alcohol-related brain injury.

Link to story on Australian Times website: Calls to tackle alcoholism