Thursday, 6 September 2007 - Belinda Sanders

PRESENTER BELINDA SANDERS INTERVIEWS ADAM SHAND, THE BULLETIN, ABOUT THE PROBLEM OF ALCOHOL IN THE AUSTRALIAN COMMUNITY.

BELINDA SANDERS: Every year, the death toll in Australia from alcohol is three times that of illicit drugs. The Federal Government has committed $150 million to fight amphetamine use, but five million to alcohol programmes like DrinkWise. So why has alcohol abuse become the norm? The Bulletin journalist Adam Shand asks that question. Adam, it's interesting that we separate the term 'alcohol' from other drugs all the time when in fact alcohol is a drug. What are you thoughts?

ADAM SHAND: It's a much more - it's certainly a drug and it's a much more damaging drug in Australia. I mean, three times more people die of alcohol-related issues than all illicit drugs combined. So we have this sort of cultural positivity towards alcohol that actually flies in the face of the reality. And the Government's responses, you know, to amphetamines has been to spend $150 million over three years battling ice and amphetamine, meanwhile they spent $5 million on a campaign to encourage a change in drinking culture called DrinkWise.

So we have this sort of strange blinkered attitude with alcohol. It's smashing our indigenous communities, it's the leading cause of assault and battery issues amongst young men, the list goes on. And yet we don't have a fair dinkum attitude to actually stamp it out because guess what, there are huge political donations from the alcohol companies firming up governments' attitude to it. And it's the old story. You don't need to persuade everyone of a dubious fact, just enough people. That's what they've done.

BELINDA SANDERS: Is it the degree of impact, though? So, for example, we take ice or cocaine, the [indistinct] and level of impact it can have on someone's life is remarkable, whereas alcohol can take some time to have that sort of impact.

ADAM SHAND: I think they're very similar. They're all addictive, habit-forming drugs and they have their own particular tolls on people. And I think you look at, for instance, the alcohol-related brain injury, which the alcohol industry just simply doesn't accept. You know, they say that, you know, the jury is out on this but there's clearly studies show that if you drink six or eight standard drinks a day over eight years, you will damage your brain, and just the same as if you take speed or coke, it will have a physical effect. And the experts will say, you know, that they're all the same and should be treated the same way.

BELINDA SANDERS: So you think the spending anomaly between alcohol and illicit drugs is down to economics?

ADAM SHAND: It is. I mean, the Government is the biggest pusher of drugs in our country, let's face it. They get something like $7 billion in excise and taxes from tobacco and alcohol, so they have a vested interest. I'm not saying that they're complicit in this, but they certainly - there's certainly incidents of - to play a dead hand on this, and the ability of lobby groups to get in to government to actually smooth the message, in the same way as the tobacco industry did for decades, trying to make ambiguous what most people realise is fact.

You see the level of engagement the alcohol industry has with government and you see, you know, the drug dealers don't get the same access. Their PR and lobbying is a little less effective.

BELINDA SANDERS: Is Australia different to other countries in its attitude towards alcohol?

ADAM SHAND: I don't think so. I think it's a worldwide industry and they've honed their techniques in America and Britain and the rest of the world, and we simply get the same sort of schtick down here. And Australians love a drink, so it tends to play into our sort of cultural positivity. And so it's really the same the world over.

But I think certainly in other areas, there's a recognition - say, in America, if you export wine to America now, you need to put a product warning label that this may damage your unborn foetus, you shouldn't operate machinery but that same wine does not carry a product warning label here in Australia.

If I buy some cough medicine, it carries a warning. Why is alcohol different? Why have we not got, you know, a law on cough medicine, you know? It's just all these anomalies abound because we have this incredible lobbying power that, you know, that have swayed government into thinking, as you said at the outset, that alcohol is not a drug. It's the world's drug of choice.

BELINDA SANDERS: Is the problem getting bigger?

ADAM SHAND: Well, I think it is. We're seeing the fact that underage drinking, binge drinking, is at record levels. We're seeing the alcohol manufacturers steadily increase the amount of alcohol in these ready-to-drink cans, like the Bundaberg Rums and the Smirnoffs and things, to up between seven and nine per cent, which is far in excess of the content in a can of beer, and clearly it's designed to get off your face as fast as you can.
And I think it's only a matter of the fact that governments around Australia have taken away the right to sue for personal injury for most people that we won't see major class actions against the alcohol industry.

BELINDA SANDERS: To be fair, Adam, there has been some recognition of the problems of binge drinking. For example, there has been outrage over marketing to younger generations and bottles with alcohol in it looking like it attracts a teenager, and also the happy hour that once was very common 15 years ago no longer exists, the list goes on.

ADAM SHAND: Listen, that's true but - and our consumption has fallen overall, but the amount being drunk by the under 25s is skyrocketing. We've seen a whole new range of products, these so-called alcopops, the ready-to-drink vodkas and rums and so forth, have just absolutely bloomed.

The next level of this are the energy drinks. We're probably familiar with the Red Bulls and all these sort of things, these energy drinks with caffeine and guarana. They're now about to put out a range of products called, you know, alcopops plus energy. You get these tins that have got guarana, caffeine and alcohol, up to eight per cent. They look like energy drinks but they're in fact alcoholic drinks.

So what you're seeing is the sort of gradation, of people graduating from energy drinks into alcoholic energy drinks, and there's virtually no regulation. So the images out there of alcohol as a positive thing, it's to be used for times of celebration and virtually every day - it's just going unfettered.

Meanwhile, the - you know, we're spending hundreds of millions of dollars on the illicit drug campaign which - all that's done has created the underworld and a war on our kids.

BELINDA SANDERS: Thank you for your comments this morning, Adam Shand.

ADAM SHAND: Thank you.

BELINDA SANDERS: That's Adam Shand, a journalist who has been investigating the issue of alcohol and why it is not treated in the same manner as other illicit drugs.