IAN H. ROBERTSON,
Madam, - John Waters (Opinion, December 9th) thinks that "someone who drinks so much that he/she ends up in A&E is almost surely an alcoholic" and that the Western Health Board is "wrong-headed" in the assumptions it makes about the abusive drinking that is crippling our hospital emergency services.
In fact, it is John Waters who has been misled: the vast majority of people attending A&E for drink-related injuries are young men and women who are not severely alcohol-dependent and are nowhere near the stage of "suffering from the disease of alcoholism".
Mr Water's beliefs about disease causing drink-related injuries - a myth long superseded by overwhelming scientific evidence - have long been used by lobbyists for the drinks industry throughout the world to persuade politicians that their practices have nothing to do with the havoc wrought by alcohol.
Abusive drinking is caused - and this applies throughout the world - by three things: price, availability and drinking culture. The Irish drinks industry ensures that the high price of alcohol here does not deter its young customers from drinking to unconsciousness by three- or four-hour early evening "happy hours" that make sure their customers are too intoxicated to be deterred by the high prices that they then impose for the rest of a long night's drinking.
The availability of alcohol has also exploded since the Government's relaxation of licensing hours, and a particularly unscrupulous genre of alcohol advertising - in flagrant contravention of all codes of advertising practice - has supercharged our teenage drinking culture with images of recklessness, aggression, self-destructiveness and sexual irresponsibility.
Alcohol and suicide are partners. The accelerating suicide rate among Ireland's young men - the fastest-growing in the world - is also strongly linked to the way our young men have learned to drink.
Alcohol is a drug that can make you elated at first but very depressed later on. It is almost certainly a major factor in many recent tragic drownings.
It is a startling fact that alcohol is a much bigger problem for Irish society than heroin: it kills many more people and causes even more misery.
These problems are not caused by disease but by government policies and the practices of the alcohol industry.
We have seen already how many lives have already been saved by Mr Brennan's introduction of the penalty points system for driving. Drinking, like driving, is a behaviour and can be shaped by government policy just as readily as adherence to the speed limit.
The question is: does our Government have the will to overcome the vested interests that will surely resist such moves? - Yours, etc.,
IAN H. ROBERTSON, Professor of Psychology, Trinity College, Dublin 2.
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Madam, - It was good to read your Editorial of November 30th. I hope the recent Prime Time programme will have an effect comparable to that on clerical abuse and result in positive action such as the banning of alcohol advertising, random breath tests and the distancing of sporting organisations from drink companies.
It is nothing short of scandalous that this situation has been permitted to arise with the consequent ruining of so many lives, never mind the actual numbers who have died because of alcohol abuse.
I do not think anyone can dispute that there would be no hospital waiting lists if drink-related accidents and diseases were curtailed.
While I remain hopeful, I am not holding my breath waiting for positive and effective Government action. - Yours, etc.,
Mrs MARY STEWART, Ardeskin, Donegal Town.
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Madam, - I have to admit publicly that I have a problem with the drink. I can no longer afford it. - Yours, etc.,
JACK O'CONNELL, Ballydehob, Co Cork.