Comment: Uphill fight against the demon drink (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Comment: Uphill fight against the demon drink

2:18pm Friday 17th August 2012 in Opinion By Telegraph comment

SADLY, large parts of East Lancashire have featured at the wrong end of a number of bad health tables for some time.

It is well known also that there are strong links between poverty and illness and we do have significant unemployment and lower average household incomes than many parts of the country.

But despite this backcloth, it is still a surprise to learn that Burnley and Blackburn with Darwen are in the national top ten for people on benefits because of alcohol-related ill health.

The boroughs came third and sixth respectively for the number of incapacity benefits whose main medical problem was alcoholism.

This high incidence of alcoholism does not just cost more in benefit payouts, but will also inevitably mean bigger bills for NHS treatment.

Significant numbers of crimes can also be attributed to alcohol.

But there is no single magic way of reducing alcoholism and the scars it leaves on so many lives.

Stopping supermarket price cuts which can make some booze cheaper than bottled water would be one helpful move.

Comprehensive education and treatment programmes would also be a big step forward.