Drink: Still a major issue

It is therefore unsurprising that the force has set up a special five-officer unit to focus on crime related to excessive drinking. If this new Licensing Support Team is effective, it will curb rowdy behaviour – and worse – in St Helier and help to make life more congenial for town-dwellers and law-abiding citizens eager to enjoy a peaceful night out.

The unit will no doubt work closely with licensees – an essential feature of its task – but, of necessity, problem drinking will also be tackled on the streets. The fact that this is where most of the trouble is concentrated is at once regrettable and a benefit. Drink-fuelled public disorder is one of the most visible of crimes and is, as a result, one where intervention and immediate action are possible.

But, manifestly, the Island’s alcohol problems neither begin nor end with late-night public order offences. It is troubling that we drink more alcohol per head of population than any other European jurisdiction and that this level of consumption is linked with serious illness, accidents and premature deaths.

It was recently suggested that Jersey could become a tobacco-free Island. Such a vision of the future probably has more to do with laudable wishful thinking than a likely development. The same would no doubt apply to a vision of an alcohol-free Island. Nevertheless, the goal of limiting not only drink-related crime but other problems served up in bottles and glasses is by no means unattainable.

While the new police unit engages with the most obvious manifestation of problem drinking, health professionals and educators must continue to explain that alcohol is a potentially dangerous drug and the root cause of much unnecessary pain, physical, social and psychological, as well as pleasure.