Madam, - Your editorial of April 26th on alcohol abuse was a most welcome contribution to the ongoing debate on one of the most serious issues facing Irish society.
In highlighting the disturbing facts that expenditure on alcohol by third-level students has doubled in the past five years, that more money is spent on drink than food by male students, that students now work twice as long at jobs outside college in order to pay for a lifestyle that involves growing expenditure on alcohol, you point to the malaise of which many of us in the health, legal and teaching professions have been only too aware for several years.
As you so rightly state, many young Irish people engage in high-risk drinking behaviour. There can be no doubt that a significant proportion of those who drink heavily during their years in third-level education will continue to do so when they enter the full-time workforce. The student of today will become the partner and parent of tomorrow and it is likely that, for many, heavy drinking behaviour developed at college will be repeated later in life. It is all the more shameful that such high-risk drinking is encouraged and reinforced by heavily funded and cleverly presented advertising and promotional campaigns. I am totally in agreement with your view that much more assertive action in combating alcohol abuse is required of the Government and that such action should include a ban on alcohol advertising.
Many people in Ireland enjoy a drink at family and social occasions. However, as a general practitioner and a county coroner, I see at first hand the consequences of over-indulgence in alcohol: street violence, death and injury from car accidents, unwanted pregnancies and the ever-growing incidence of depression and other mental health problems, leading in some cases to suicide. I am aware too, of the unhappiness caused by alcohol abuse to family members, whether children, teenagers, young married people, those in their middle years and older people. Alcohol misuse is a ticking bomb for our society.
Surely a Government that claims to be working to promote the health of the Irish people must tackle the power of the drinks industry in this country. Where there is a will, there is a way. The question is, does that will exist among our politicians? - Yours, etc,
Dr MICHAEL LOFTUS, Crossmolina, Co Mayo.