S FOR ‘STRENGTHEN’

‘Strengthen restrictions on alcohol availability’

Reducing alcohol availability means reducing opportunities for consumption.

This can be achieved by:

- Reducing the number, location, and density of retail alcohol outlets;

- Increasing the minimum legal age for alcohol purchase and consumption;

- Implementing licensing systems to monitor the production, delivery,

wholesale, and sales of alcoholic beverages.

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A FOR ‘ADVANCE’

‘Advance and enforce drink-driving countermeasures’

Driving under the influence of alcohol (drink-driving) is a risk factor that accounts for 27% of road injuries. Therefore, there is a strong need to enforce existing monitoring practices, such as sobriety checkpoints and random breath-testing. Alongside these, lowering the legal blood alcohol concentration by 0.03% (from the current 0.08%) could reduce 18% of injuries and deaths caused by car crashes where alcohol was involved. These measures should be accompanied by:

- Mandatory driver education;

- Provision of alternative transportation;

- Re-educational programmes for repeat offenders;

- Awareness campaigns across all media.

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F FOR ‘FACILITATE’

‘Facilitate access to screening, brief interventions and treatment’ 

Progress should be made to implement prevention and treatment programmes in primary care settings. Important actions to be taken include:
- Increase the capacity of health and social systems in order to facilitate delivery of prevention, treatment, and care of alcohol-related disorders and comorbid conditions;
- Adopt initiatives that allow early identification of hazardous drinking behaviours, including in pregnant women or women of childbearing age;
- Allow enhanced availability, accessibility, and affordability of services for lower socio-economic groups.

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E FOR ‘ENFORCE’

‘Enforce bans or comprehensive restrictions on alcohol advertising, sponsorship, and promotion’ 

Reducing the exposure to alcohol marketing can help prevent or reduce alcohol consumption in a few different ways. Firstly, it prevents children and young people from being exposed, which could lead to the decision to start consuming alcohol or increase its consumption. Secondly, it reduces the presence of alcohol cues, which could be particularly harmful to individuals living with alcohol addiction. Thirdly, it diminishes the influence of the alcohol industry on social norms related to alcohol consumption.

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R FOR ‘RAISE’

‘Raise prices on alcohol through excise taxes and pricing policies’ 

Increasing excise taxes on alcoholic beverages not only allows to reduce alcohol consumption, but it also provides governments revenue to offset the economic costs of alcohol use. The final price of alcohol can be affected in the following ways:

- Domestic taxation on alcohol, which may take into account the alcoholic content of beverages;

- Increased excise taxes on alcoholic beverages, as well as a regular review of alcohol price in relation to inflation and income;

- Ban/Restriction of price promotions, discount sales, sales below cost, flat rates for unlimited alcohol consumption or other types of volume sales;

- Minimum unit pricing for alcohol;

- Reducing/Stopping economic subsidies to the alcohol industry.

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