14 DAY TRIAL // The World Health Organization (WHO) is planning to draft its first sketch of a global plan of acting out against alcohol. Between now and January 2010, options will be analyzed and stitched together, providing the agency with the first-ever plan of combating the world's fifth leading cause of premature death. The WHO intends to treat alcohol in very much the same way it treated tobacco, bringing the habit from its once-top position in people's ideas of “cool” to its rightful place as a dirty practice.
Humankind has never managed to get along nicely with alcohol. It has always been a reason of dissent and arguments, and many individuals have never learned to drink with moderation. As such, they either became a menace to society and had to be locked behind bars, or ended their own lives with alcohol-induced illnesses. The new set of measures is, naturally, not aimed at people who drink occasionally and with therapeutic purposes, such as, for instance, a glass of wine before a meal, NewScientist reports.
The WHO and European Union (EU) health consultant and adviser on alcohol, Peter Anderson, called the initiative, unveiled last week in Geneva – where the WHO is headquartered –, a “landmark document,” which represented the collaboration among the 193 countries that were part of the agency. The new set of measures, which will be put up for voting at the World Health Assembly, in May 2010, will not be legally binding, but will rather attempt to raise awareness on the issue. Plans are to make the people of these countries aware of the dangers they expose themselves to, and also to encourage governments towards elaborating their own legislation against alcohol.
Anderson adds, “It will provide knowledge and awareness about the size of the problem, and advice about the most cost-effective policies.” The document will also feature an extensive set of guidelines and pieces of advice for governments, all of which have been shown to work in the past. The goal is to provide the best possible scenarios, that both work and do not infringe on people's freedoms. The document also “challenges the neoliberal ideology which promotes the drinker's freedom to choose his or her own behavior,” Massey University expert Sally Casswell explains.