PAUL ANDREWS, SJ,
Sir, - So Irish consumption of alcohol rose 41 per cent in 10 years, compared with a drop in 10 other European countries. It is good to see Micheál Martin and his committees continuing to tackle this huge health problem. May I suggest a way in which the news media could help?
Every day you report several tragedies in which drinking has played a part: traffic accidents, domestic batterings, brawls, rapes, screaming matches, stabbings and other violence. To raise public awareness of the effects of alcohol abuse, would you, sir, highlight the link to the drug by appending a small icon to all such stories: a glass of beer, perhaps?
The suggestion may not please everyone. The drinks lobby here seems to have the same sort of powerful, irrational hold on public policy as the gun lobby has in the US. No matter what shape the glass, or colour the contents, some vocal group will feel unfairly targeted.
The issue is not about drinkers, of whom I am one, but about the effects of alcohol abuse. The real target of the suggestion is public complacency about a drug problem for which the price is paid by families, the health services, the Garda and an ever-growing number of drink-abusers, young and old. Here is a simple way of signalling the damage. - Yours, etc.,
PAUL ANDREWS, SJ,
Manresa House,
Dublin 3.