In this issue: Online ad ban draft; New FASD guidelines; NZ policy support strong: New alliance launches; Brits back health; Top doc doubt. Plus: Approaching addiction through environment; And US alcohol normalisation after Prohibition
Alcohol Review 2025: The entire programme of 14 sessions is available to watch in full, as well as in some concise takeaways.
News
Online ad ban: Ethiopia’s food and drug regulator is reportedly drafting a law to ban alcohol ads on social media, having banned them on TV and radio five years ago.
FASD guidelines: Australian health professionals now have access to the first officially approved clinical practice guidelines to help assess and diagnose fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
Support strong: A large majority of New Zealanders agree with almost every alcohol policy out of ten polled: 71% agree alcohol industry should pay no part in forming alcohol policy; and 62% agree with a complete ad ban.
New alliance: This month saw the launch of the European Health Alliance on Alcohol, WHO backed collaboration between 20 pan-European medical societies committed to reducing alcohol harm.
Health over profit: Around three-quarters of Brits want the government to prioritise the public’s health over business growth, a new survey found. A similar proportion back alcohol health labeling, while just under two-thirds support a “polluter pays” alcohol levy.
Top doc doubt: Controversial US Surgeon General pick Casey Means, a wellness influencer, has recognised there is no safe level of alcohol and reset her own alcohol intake. But she has also been called “breathtakingly misinformed” and a “grifter”.
Features
Interview: Making alcohol okay again — rehabilitating alcohol after Prohibition
The US alcohol industry restarted from ruins in 1933 after 14 years of Prohibition, with its shattered reputation its biggest challenge. Yet by the end of WW2 alcohol had regained respectability. Cultural historian Professor Lisa Jacobson explains how.
Addiction isn’t just about brain chemistry, nor is it just bad choices
Rather than blaming individuals or pathologising them as brain-damaged, we can focus on reshaping environments to make non-drug alternatives more visible, available and valuable, writes psychology professor Matt Field.