RE: Arthurs day ..... Drinks body tries to deliberately soften wording of damning report relating alcohol to domestic violence and rape

national | anti-capitalism | other press

Friday April 13, 2012 18:52

by lefty

Are we tired being viewed as the drunken idiots of the world yet?

The Examiner has an interesting article today for those of you as horrified as I was to witness first hand the alcohol fuelled breakdown of our society on the streets that was St Patrick's Night. In light of this report, perhaps those in government who still have some semblance of a moral compass remaining could override their complete deference to money, economic considerations and profit as the most important things in our society, and might now consider removing sales of cheap alcohol from supermarkets. This is long overdue as the strains on our already underfunded health system from alcohol related cases and the social breakdown exacerbated by the availability of cheap alcohol, often cheaper than bottled water, are becoming more and more pronounced.

Or perhaps the powers that be are more than happy to have a malleable population in a perpetual state of stupefied inebriation while they busily rush through economic and social policies with long term ramifications that nobody in a sober state of mind would ever countenance

Quote:
"The Alcohol Beverage Federation of Ireland sought to delete paragraphs and dilute the language in a report on substance misuse created by the National Substance Misuse Steering Group. That group, which sat for almost two years, was tasked with formulating an integrated approach to substance misuse, both alcohol and drugs. Its final report was published in February.

However, documents released to the Irish Examiner under a Freedom of Information request show that even though it had a position on the steering group itself, ABFI was deeply critical throughout the process leading up to the final report to Government.

At one point, the steering group created a draft document which it circulated to its members for consideration. ABFI suggested a number of changes, seeking the deletion of paragraphs which read:

* Alcohol was a potential trigger in one-third of cases of domestic violence.
* Among those who experienced severe domestic abuse, 34% of cases had alcohol identified as a potential trigger and in one-quarter of cases, alcohol was always involved.

* Alcohol intoxication is a factor in rapes.

* 45% of complainants and 41% of suspects were severely intoxicated around the time of the rape.

Instead it wanted to insert paragraphs which read:

* A survey of domestic abuse in Ireland in 2005 found that about one-third of cases of abuse were associated with the consumption of alcohol. However, alcohol consumption was always involved in only one-quarter of such cases.

* A Rape and Justice in Ireland briefing paper of September 2010 outlines research which indicates that decisions on the consumption of alcohol made by both men and women can have the effect of facilitating the incidence of rape and make detection and prosecution of rape more difficult and that alcohol consumption affects decisions on whether to report alleged rapes.

Rape Crisis Network Ireland said ABFI was trying to distance alcohol from sexual violence.

"We do not need to talk in these general terms when we have concrete evidence and know the facts," said Cliona Saidlear of RCNI.

She also questioned why the alcohol industry was involved in the decision-making process in the first place. "

FULL ARTICLE HERE....html