Addressing alcohol abuse in long-term

IS alcohol abuse a problem in PNG?
If yes, why aren’t the authorities coming up with new innovative strategies to address it?
I share the sentiment that alcohol is the cause of much anti-social behaviour.
Instead of liquor serving as social lubricant to enlighten social gatherings, it acts in the opposite way.
The authorities truly lack innovative ideas and strategies to address alcohol abuse.
They think that imposing a liquor ban is the only effective way to address alcohol abuse and anti-social behaviour.
While I agree that a ban is good, it is a short-term measure, not a long-term solution.
It will contribute to escalating alcohol abuse assisted by bootleggers and production of homebrew will flourish as a result of liquor ban.
Drinkers know where to get their fix.
It would be better if the authorities were to come up with new ways to control the sale and consumption of alcohol instead of imposing a ban.
We need to change our approach.
Since the regulatory functions of dealing with sale and distribution of liquor is vested with the provincial governments, local authorities such as the Provincial Liquor Licensing Commission and Provincial Law and Order Committee must hold dialogues with representatives from churches, business houses, women and youth groups to gauge their views on how best to address alcohol abuse.
We need to create a disciplined environment where drinkers learn to respect their families, themselves and other people when they drink.
This kind of environment can be created by embracing a good community awareness and education programme.
The use of existing media outlets can be powerful tools due to their popular demand and wide audience.
Besides using the media, government authorities, NGOs, church or­ganisations, educational establishments and alcohol producers must have their own educational program­mes to discourage alcohol abuse.
These must come in the form of awareness, counselling services for problem drinkers and production and distribution of informative materials.
The MVIL and SP Brewery have TV commercials for drink-driving that must be continued and amplified so that the intended messages get across to the people.
These must be supplemented by additional commercials with other messages to educate the people about the effects of alcohol abuse and they must run parallel on popular commercial radio stations.
Other alcoholic drink producers and distributors must also share the responsibilities to educate their customers the effects of alcohol abuse.      
A comprehensive education and awareness programme about alcohol abuse and its implications, including financial burden, social problems and burden to the health system must be promoted as an alternative to alcohol ban.
In that way, people are properly educated about the effects of alcohol so that they can make informed decisions.
This, to me, would be a rational approach to addressing alcohol abuse and to minimise alcohol-fuelled anti-social behaviour in the long-term.
The reason being that educational programme can have positive long-term impact on the mindsets of our people.
This would be a logical approach as experience has shown that a hard-stand approach produces negative results contrary to the expectation whilst soft approach tends to be more successful.    
Alcohol abuse must be seen as a development issue, not a social problem.
That way, the government can streamline it with other development issues and provide on-going funding support through the health and community development departments to address it.
The government must allocate a percentage of the excise tax from liquor companies to fund initiatives to address alcohol abuse.
It must be addressed through policy intervention which is more sustainable than to employ piece meal-based tactics only when there is rising law and order problems, and during festive seasons.
Policy intervention must be complemented with effective regulatory measures.
To do this, the entire licensing regime must be revamped and the positions of licensing officers must be made permanent in the public service.
I believe this is a sustainable way to address alcohol abuse in PNG.       

JK
Port Moresby