Alcohol, the individual and society: A call for coherent alcohol policies

While the rationale for government action to tackle harmful alcohol use is strong, the challenges involved in designing, implementing, and building consensus around effective policy measures are daunting. The interests at stake are so powerful and so diverse, and the views of the problem so polarised, that inertia has often been the norm in the past. But action has been gathering new momentum with the emergence of compelling evidence of the health and economic consequences of harmful alcohol use and of the effectiveness of policies to address them. Voices from civil society have been growing stronger, and governments have increasingly recognised their own role in alcohol policy making with major national and international policy initiatives. The evidence available today, to which this book contributes, provides solid foundations for the development of comprehensive, wide-ranging policy strategies to change the social norms upon which long-established harmful drinking habits are based. Initiatives promoted by the alcohol industry may contribute to addressing harmful alcohol use, as part of a multi-stakeholder policy framework, provided that evidence of their impact is available from rigorous and independent evaluations.