Curbing alcohol misuse

During the past few years public concern in Britain has periodically moved from one health or social problem to another. Topics such as youthful heroin use, child abuse, and the upsurge of AIDS have, quite rightly, received a considerable amount of interest. Although media — popular and political — interest tends to single out particular ‘topical’ issues for attention, the sad fact is that, although health and social problems ebb and flow, they exist concurrently and some of the oldest and greatest problems often receive relatively scant concern. This is certainly true in relation to the misuse of alcohol and of the massive mortality attributable to tobacco smoking. The latter exceeds the health damage due to all other drugs (both legal and illegal) and it has been estimated that over 100,000 people in the United Kingdom die of tobacco‐related diseases each year. Fortunately, although tobacco is the cause of a horrifying toll of health damage, the use of this drug has declined dramatically and smokers are now a beleaguered and dwindling minority, roughly a third of the adult population.