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The adverse effects of alcohol consumption are massive. Alcohol is deemed to be the major factor in four per cent of the global burden of disease mortality (World Health Organisation, 2004). It has been suggested that there are two quite separate approaches to alcohol control policies. These supposedly different approaches are called the ‘public health approach’ and ‘harm minimisation’ or ‘harm reduction’. In fact, while there has been a clear difference in emphasis between some expressions of these two approaches, so much of what their exponents advocate is the same that there would appear to be no merit in continuing to regard them as mutually exclusive or in conflict. The public health approach emphasises curbing the level of alcohol‐related problems by reducing the per capita alcohol consumption (eg. Bruun et al, 1975; Edwards et al, 1995; Babor et al, 2003). Harm minimisation or harm reduction is intended to reduce the level of alcohol's adverse effects without necessarily reducing per capita alcohol consumption (Plant et al, 1997).

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.

In this paper the aim is to explore what modes of governance, brief alcohol interventions in natal care, such as screening and motivational interviewing (MI) represent, and what social consequences this mode of governance might lead to. Traditionally the Nordic public health research on alcohol control policies gives priority to general control measures aimed at the population. However, the paper seeks to argue the relevance of a governmentality perspective to analyze the mode of governance in brief alcohol interventions which aims at individual level of control.

The empirical base of the paper rests on the contents of a brief intervention educational program aimed at midwifes and medical doctors in natal care in Norway. In light of the governmentality perspective the author analyzes screening and MI used in natal care as a mode of governance which fosters the process of responsibilization and the creation of the “irresponsible other”.

It is argued that brief alcohol intervention in natal care is a perfect example of a neoliberal mode of governance, because it is an indirect way of governance, which casts healthcare workers as a part of the state that wants to make pregnant woman self‐governing and responsible. Further this neoliberal mode of governance might lead to four different social consequences: blurring the line between the power of the state and the power of the self, which blurs the distinction between objective health hazards and moral judgment; spreading of powerful therapeutic‐tools to non‐therapeutic professions further neutralizes the moral dimensions; individualization of responsibilities for fetal health decontextualizes females' drinking habits; and drawing the attention of the healthcare worker towards regulations of normality and away from helping females with severe drinking problems.

Traditionally the Nordic public health research on alcohol control policies gives priority to general control measures aimed at the population. However, this paper shows the relevance of a governmentality perspective to analyze the mode of governance inherent in brief alcohol interventions which aims at an individual level of control. Alongside the general control measures in Norwegian alcohol policies, the state engages women at an individual level, through brief and early interventions. Hence the state has double targets of governance; first the general risk‐avoidance regulations directed at the population, and then the state also facilitating the targeting of individuals.

In Chapter 4, the author will discuss the youth drinking epidemic regionwide, in order to demonstrate why the impacts of alcohol products on youths are concerning. The author will present the major youth drinking trends within SEA, to further study how the rampant alcohol trade regionally has adversely affected local youths to a troublesome degree. The author will point out the causes of the youth drinking epidemic, which are susceptibility and toxic culture. Next, the author will evaluate the national and regional costs of youth drinking, discussing how such a lifestyle results in consequences in relation to delinquency. The author will recommend policies for alcohol control that the SEA governments should take into account when amending or forming their policies to contain the epidemic of youth drinking. The outputs of Chapter 4 will draw a close association between youth smoking, youth drinking, and youth sexual misconduct. Therefore, the author indicates that these youth delinquency problems should be addressed simultaneously in order to eradicate the issues of holistic youth misbehaviours in the long term.

The purpose of this paper is to assess to what extent the Smoking and Alcohol Drinking Behavior Survey (SADBeS), the national alcohol survey, could be used in monitoring goals and cost-effective measures suggested by the National Alcohol Strategy (NAS) issued by public health authorities in 2010.

The NAS was reviewed. Strategies, measures, and corresponding indicators were extracted. Questionnaire items used in the 2014 SADBeS were assessed in comparison with those indicators.

Four primary indicators indicate overall success of the NAS. In all, 6 out of 15 measures were in accordance with best-buy or good-buy policies – cost-effective policies suggested by the World Health Organization. After excluding indicators unlikely to be obtained from population-based surveys, the SADBeS could be used in monitoring 5 out of 14 indicators corresponding to best-buy or good-buy measures. Of 103 questionnaire items, 26.2 percent of items could be used to monitor primary indicators of the NAS; 34.0 percent could be used to estimate indicators corresponding to best-buy or good-buy measures. Overall, only 35.0 percent of questionnaire items provided useful information for monitoring primary indicators and cost-effective measures suggested in the NAS.

The SADBeS questionnaire items should be added or replaced to cover feasibly obtained indicators corresponding to best-buy or good-buy policies in the next wave of the survey.

This is the first study addressing the compatibility between the national strategy and the national alcohol survey. It also includes the overview of Thailand’s alcohol strategy, which is, to the author’s knowledge, never presented in any English articles.

The purpose of this paper is to present a review of the literature on alcohol consumption, the externality cost of alcohol consumption, and the effectiveness of policy options.

Evidence on the cost to society of alcohol consumption, the amount of excise tax collected, the demand response of consumers, and the effectiveness of alcohol‐control policies is reviewed.

Alcohol excise taxes generally, but not everywhere, fail to recover the externality costs placed on society that arise from alcohol consumption. Where externality costs are greater than excise revenue higher excise taxes are one effective and appropriate policy response. Complementary policies to higher excise taxes are likely to include: the provision of more information about harmful effects to consumers, especially the young; greater enforcement of drunk‐driving laws and zero tolerance drunk‐driving laws for young drivers. Restrictions on the opening hours of late night venues may have a modest impact on reducing costs, while advertising restrictions are unlikely to be effective.

Typically. articles on alcohol consider a single issue. This review paper brings together information from both the health stream of alcohol studies and the economics stream of alcohol studies and provides a useful survey and synthesis of the literature.

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.

Purpose – The aim of the chapter is to understand why, in a country that has such strict government alcohol policies, sport is allowed – and allows itself – to be associated with, and source income from, alcohol consumption.

Design/methodology/approach – The analysis builds on previous research on the government–sport relationship in Sweden, and on documents produced by the government and sport.

Findings – The chapter shows how a close and long-standing relationship between the government and sport has created a ‘drinking problem’ for sport, and that this is nurtured by the government through its actions vis-à-vis sport in matters related to alcohol. These actions are at odds with the overall aim of Swedish alcohol policy, and distinctive from the government's actions vis-à-vis actors outside the realm of sport but aligned with government sport policy and the long-standing government–sport relationship. In that sense, the association between sport and alcohol has less to do with alcohol than with the mutual dependence between the government and sport, and with both parties' interest in maintaining common agreements and good faith. In addition to providing these tentative explanations, it is suggested that ‘the politics of forwarding’ is one of the systemic effects that follow from the particularities of the Swedish government-sport-alcohol nexus.

Research limitations/implications – Research from other contexts is needed as the chapter is only a first tentative step in uncovering the government's role in the sport–alcohol link in countries with sport systems that are characterized by a combination of extensive public support to sport and an autonomous member-based sport system.

After a period of 20 years of successful growth in sales in the international wine business, the upcoming International Alcohol Policy is endangering the economic sustainability of the wine business. To reduce alcohol‐caused hazards and harm, the International Alcohol Policy favours taxes and minimum prices for all alcoholic beverages. This policy is based on a large number of empirical studies on the price elasticity of alcoholic beverages. The purpose of this paper is to ask whether higher taxes on alcoholic beverages can solve the problems caused by excessive alcohol consumption or whether they are largely ineffective while producing other sustained damage at the same time.

The paper evaluates the results of studies on the price elasticity of alcoholic beverages by using the available results of studies on consumer decision making, focusing in particular on the relevance of price elasticity in comparison to the relevance of individually available budgets and prefer ences. In that case the contrast between alcoholics (consumer segment causing alcoholism) and average consumers is analysed using knowledge of the great differences in preferences between consumer segments.

Wine is highly affected by this alcohol policy due to the expectation of a decrease in overall consumption and the very high costs of alcohol content‐related taxes paid by all wine consumers. The price elasticity of demand for wine is analysed to be much higher than for beer and wine consumers are far away from alcoholism.

The big social problem of alcoholism has to be underlined here. This problem and its spread internationally demands an examination of the effectiveness of this alcohol policy on prices and the development of and checks on new instruments for the direct control of alcoholics.

The international alcohol policy is an important field which needs to be analysed scientifically in more depth and in the framework of sustainability, with a focus on harmonizing social, economic and environmental aims. The paper shows that the current instruments used internationally in the alcohol policy cause large economic problems for wine consumers, as well as for wine producers and merchants, without solving the social problems of alcohol‐related hazards and harm.

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.