January 21, 2005
WHO Wants Your Alcohol
Back in 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) commissioned researchers affiliated with the neo-prohibitionist Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to study the efficacy of various alcohol policies. Following in the footsteps of their anti-tobacco and obesity campaigns, this week WHO's Executive Board threw its substantial weight behind RWJF's anti-alcohol proposals. While WHO claims it is trying to combat problems associated with alcohol abuse, its plan taxes, regulates, and penalizes everyone who drinks adult beverages, regardless of how much or how little they consume.
WHO's "best practice" guidelines call for government monopolies of alcohol sales; restrictions on the hours, days, and location of alcohol sales; increased taxes; roadblocks; and more extreme restrictions on moderate consumption before driving. WHO calls these policies "population-based" because they target the entire population, not just alcohol abusers.
Since these policies don't even try to target hard-core alcoholics -- who will go to great lengths to abuse alcohol -- it's no surprise that they fail to address the real problem. Does anyone really think that increasing alcohol taxes will have an effect on alcoholics? Taxes will, however, become a needless burden to the vast majority of people who drink responsibly. It's the same story with roadblocks, which are specifically intended to scare people away from moderate drinking, and which actually catch very few drunk drivers.
By implementing sweeping anti-alcohol regulations aimed at decreasing overall consumption, WHO threatens the substantial health benefits of moderate alcohol consumption. Even the WHO report admits: "Low or moderate consumption of alcohol has been shown to benefit people who are 40 years and older because of its protective effects for coronary heart disease."
