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Alcohol availability is strongly related to excessive alcohol consumption. This study aims to examine social marketing’s response to concerns about retailers’ noncompliance with the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) law by proposing and evaluating a social marketing intervention directed at sellers in off-premise stores.

The study is based on a non-randomized quasi-experimental design, focusing on an evaluation of the implementation of the “18 rules!” intervention in four cities in Slovenia. Two waves of underage purchase attempts were conducted pre- and post-intervention in 24 off-premise businesses, following a mystery shopping protocol.

The initial rate of retailers’ noncompliance with the MLDA law in off-premise establishments was high. After the social marketing intervention, an increase with compliance with the law was observed; the proportion of cashiers selling alcohol to minors after the intervention decreased from 96 to 67 per cent. Qualitative insight suggests an existence of retailers’ dilemma in complying with the MLDA.

A social marketing approach could contribute to a better understanding of the social working of the MLDA law.

A social marketing approach could complement the usual enforcement strategies and contribute to a better understanding of the social working of the MLDA law, and encourage deliberate retailers’ compliance with it while developing valuable exchanges among people and stakeholders.

The paper conceptualizes retailers’ dilemma in complying with the minimal legal drinking age law and offers social marketing response to it. Results of the study show that also solely non-coercive measures have the potential in increasing retailers’ compliance with regulations.

The purpose of this chapter is to empirically estimate the propensity for alcohol-related policies to influence rates of child abuse. Child maltreatment is measured by the number of abused children and the number of child fatalities due to abuse. The alcohol regulations of interest include beer, wine, and liquor taxes and prices, drunk driving laws, and measures of alcohol availability. Results indicate that higher excise taxes on alcohol and reductions in availability may be effective in reducing the incidence of child maltreatment.

Many countries have banned sales of alcoholic drinks from retail motor fuel outlets (known as petrol stations in the UK). This survey aims to determine what proportion of retail fuel outlets also sell alcoholic drinks in England and Wales. A cluster randomised telephone survey based on listings in a national online telephone directory was used to collect the data. Contact was made with 779 out of 1,012 outlets (a 77% response rate) in 20 areas in Britain, of which 241 (31%) sold alcoholic drinks as well as fuel. The findings from the survey reveal that the sale of alcohol at fuel outlets is common and may encourage drink driving.

Alcohol use by adults at school events and alcohol promotion through school fundraising activities is common, but little is known about secondary school parents' attitudes towards these practices. Parental attitudes may influence principals' decision-making on this topic, particularly in jurisdictions where education department guidance is limited. This study explored parents' attitudes towards the consumption or promotion of alcohol in schools or at school events.

Parents (n = 298) from five non-government secondary schools in Western Australia completed an online survey and provided responses relating to the promotion and availability of alcohol through their child's school.

This sample of parents were evenly divided in support of alcohol consumption or support of schools as alcohol-free zones. Parents reporting higher alcohol consumption were more supportive of alcohol promotion and use through schools, and those with higher education supported use of alcohol for school fundraising. Almost 20% of parents were neutral on several measures indicating they could be swayed by social pressure. Engaging parents is an ongoing challenge for school principals and alcohol may play a part in engagement activities. The results from this small, exploratory study suggest even engaged parents may have very differing views on alcohol use in schools.

Education departments are encouraged to explore these issues carefully and introduce changes incrementally to assist decision-making and minimise potential parent disengagement.

This paper addresses a knowledge gap about parents' attitudes towards alcohol in secondary schools. These findings can support those involved in the development of school alcohol policies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what degree scientific evidence supports contemporary paternalistic alcohol policy practices targeting fully competent adults.

Paternalism may be acceptable if it is effective, fair and protects the safety of the citizen or a third party from the harms caused by the citizen’s autonomic actions. To be justifiable, paternalistic actions should bring about clearly more benefits than harms. Otherwise, autonomy should prevail. The evidence related to alcohol control policies is assessed against these principles.

In peaceful civilized societies, alcohol control policies (high prices, restrictions on supply and marketing) have no or only insignificant effectiveness. Some policies are unfair and may bring about more harms than benefits. There is strong evidence showing that brief interventions aiming to reduce alcohol intake are inefficient. Wide-scale screening for such interventions is likely to waste health service resources. There is sufficient evidence to refute the claim that the previously mentioned policies are effective measures to reduce alcohol-related harms. Heavy alcohol use during pregnancy and driving motor vehicles while intoxicated may bring about harm to others than the user. Behavioural interventions to reduce heavy use in pregnancy have been shown to be inefficient. Light alcohol use may have no harmful effect on the developing embryo, whereas heavy use is likely to cause harm. There is moderate evidence for enforcing legal blood alcohol concentration limits to reduce traffic accidents and fatalities.

This is the first review on the acceptability of paternalism in currently recommended alcohol policies. It shows that in only a few cases, paternalism is effective and compatible with freedom and fairness.

This is the second of a two‐part article on cultural aspects of alcohol use. Part I introduced the primary and secondary characteristics of culture and the current information on drinking patterns of selected ethnocultural groups. Part 2 includes other selected primary and secondary characteristics of culture such as age, gender, religious affiliation, education, socioeconomic status, and sexual orientation. The article concludes with measures whose effectiveness has been questionable in promoting responsible alcohol use and includes some proven and new recommendations.

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the role of alcohol policies in reducing the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among youth. Previous research has shown that risky sexual practices (e.g., unprotected sex and multiple partners) that increase the risk of contracting an STD are highly correlated with alcohol use. If alcohol is a cause of risky sexual behaviour, then policies that reduce the consumption of alcohol may also reduce the incidence of STDs. In this chapter, we examine the relationship between alcohol policies (e.g., beer taxes and statutes pertaining to alcohol sales and drunk driving) and rates of gonorrhea and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) among teenagers and young adults. Results indicate that higher beer taxes are associated with lower rates of gonorrhea for males and are suggestive of lower AIDS rates. Strict drunk driving policies in the form of zero tolerance laws may also lower the gonorrhea rate among males under the legal drinking age.

On-premise trading hours are generally decided at the local level. The purpose of this paper is to identify relevant advocacy coalitions and to assess to what extent and how these coalitions used research in the alcohol policy-making process concerning changes in on-premise trading hours in Norway.

Theory-driven content analyses were conducted, applying data from city council documents (24 Norwegian cities) and Norwegian newspaper articles and broadcast interviews (n=138) in 2011-2012.

Two advocacy coalitions with conflicting views and values were identified. Both coalitions used research quite extensively – in the public debate and in the formal decision-making process – but in different ways. The restrictive coalition, favouring restricted trading hours and emphasising public health/safety, included the police and temperance movements and embraced research demonstrating the beneficial health/safety effects of restricting trading hours. The liberal coalition of conservative politicians and hospitality industry emphasised individual freedom and industry interests and promoted research demonstrating negative effects on hospitality industry turnover. This coalition also actively discredited the research demonstrating the beneficial health/safety effects of restricting trading hours.

Little is known about how local alcohol policy-making processes are informed by research-based knowledge. This study is the first to analyse how advocacy coalitions use research to influence local alcohol policy-making.