Drinking to excess: Let’s start at the very beginning …

Yes I, like thousands of other Islanders who had a few too many drinks with friends on Saturday night, had a hangover on Sunday morning.

It is a common scenario that plays out in homes across the Island every weekend and, in the most part, is laughed off as a bit of harmless fun where people pledge to ‘never drink again’ and then go out the following weekend and do it all over again.

But, this is just the surface, the bit we can all see, of Jersey’s worrying relationship with alcohol.

And the biggest problem is that most of us, rather irresponsibly, never scratch any deeper below the surface to the issues of liver disease, heart problems, alcoholism, anti-social behaviour and everything else that a society that drinks so much inevitably encounters.

Instead, we get drunk, feel rubbish the next day and laugh it off, telling each other that drinking too much is just what we do, that it’s harmless, fun and everyone is doing it – even if it’s just a couple of glasses of wine after a hard day at work.

But the truth is that Jersey does have an alcohol problem and we, even those of us who just drink every couple of weeks on a night out in town or knock back a glass or two of pinot with dinner, are a part of it.

As Dr Susan Turnbull, the Island’s Medical Officer of Health, said last week during a meeting to mark 60 years of Alcoholics Anonymous in Jersey, the number of alcohol-related deaths in Jersey is almost twice as high as that in England.

On average, Islanders drink more alcohol than residents of any other country in Europe, and the number of deaths from chronic liver disease, which is often caused by excessive drinking, is 50 per cent higher than in south-west England.

Not so funny now, is it?

Now consider the cost to society that alcohol can cause. Not only does it cost in terms of health care, but it also counts when it comes to crime, road accidents, lost working days and so on and so forth. It is a costly problem in more than just lives.

And that is why we should all be concerned. Even if you don’t think it affects you, that your drinking is under control, or that you don’t drink altogether so it’s nothing to do with you, it really is, because it’s your tax that pays for the consequences of an Island with a drinking culture that seems to be spiralling out of control.

And it is a political problem, too. We often talk, myself included, about how much money our politicians waste on things like steam clocks, caverns, empty swimming pools that have been left to rot, and pay-offs to senior civil servants. But just think about how many millions of pounds must be wasted every year on sweeping up after a society that drinks so much. From social drinkers like myself to full-blown alcoholics, our actions all come at a cost.

Of course, caring for people with a problem with alcohol, stitching people up in A&E who have had an accident while drunk, and prosecuting people for being drunk and disorderly has to be done, and in that regard is not wasting money. But it all costs. It is also a social problem and, on so many levels, a personal one that will affect so many Islanders during their lives.

WITH all of this in mind, it most definitely is a political problem and perhaps one of the most important of our time. Yet it is one that has gone largely unnoticed for far too many years.

Now, surely, is the time for some action. OK, so politicians aren’t there to protect us always, and nor should they be. There is also a part of me that believes government should take a hands-off approach to issues of this kind. But our recent history tells us that this hasn’t been working when it comes to alcohol, that the argument against a ‘nanny state’ has only served to worsen Jersey’s problem with alcohol.

So it is time for a rethink, to spend some money to save some money, as it were, and try, at the very least, to change things.

So what can our government do about it? Tough question, that one. A new minimum price per unit of alcohol – a scheme currently being drawn up in the UK – would push up the price of some cheaper types of beer and cider that are routinely drunk in litre bottles at super-strength. But the effect on the wider problem would be minimal.

Raising the drinking age to 21, as has been talked of in the past, would also have a limited effect and could worsen the problem of under-age ‘secret drinking’ in parks and on street corners where it cannot be monitored.

THE States could introduce tougher penalties for drinking-related offences, crack-down on people being drunk and incapable in the street, and tighten up on establishments which routinely serve more alcohol to people who have already surpassed the ‘merry’ stage of being drunk.

But all of these would have only a limited effect and would not solve the problem as a whole. The answer, therefore, has to be education. Jersey’s problem with alcohol goes back decades and is being handed down from generation to generation. So we must start young, educate children from an early age about the dangers, about units and safe drinking and, importantly, about the signs of alcohol addiction.

Adults, too, need to be educated about exactly the same things and need to learn to be socially responsible and set a good example to younger Islanders.

But, most importantly, we need to start at the very beginning. And, like the first of the 12 steps used by Alcoholics Anonymous, we need to realise and admit that we have a problem.

Jersey’s worrying relationship with alcohol has been ignored and laughed off for far too long. Yes, we live in a small place; yes, many of us work too hard and get stressed out by the pressures of everyday life; and yes, we are in an economic downturn where those issues only become more acute.

But, Jersey really is addicted to alcohol and we all need to work together to stand up and admit that. Then, and only then, can we begin to work out how to change.