LET’S DRINK RESPONSIBLY

“Excessive beer drinking among youths in the country has reached alarming levels hence the decision of coming up with a piece of legislation to regulate drinking,”

THE re-introduction of multi-party democracy in 1991 in Zambia came with the liberali-zation of the economy and this move saw the placement of sev-eral para stat al organizations, including Zambia Breweries, into private hands. Within a short period of time, the number of breweries in-creased rapidly owing to the booming business as outlets con-tinued making huge profits, en-ticing more players to invest as there was ready market for their product. With an abundance of tavern sand bars, permanent and make-shift liquor stores and other nu-merous points of sale both legal and illegal scattered across towns and cities, it comes as no surprise that World Health Organiza-tion( WHO) statistics as at 2002 showed that 76 percent of men and 23 percent of women in Zam-bia consume alcohol. Despite a minimum legal drink-ing age pegged at 18 in Zambia, many young people well below that age, mainly schoolboys and girls have continued to violate this statutory requirement with impunity while most of those who are in the business admit these un-der-age in their drinking facilities either inadvertently or on purpose in order to make money. Arguments that have been put across as the reason for the causes of alcohol abuse and the number of imbibers of the intoxicating liquids include lack of recrea-tional facilities, inadequate laws to curb the vice as then current laws offer very low fines for the offence and lack of implementa-tion for the existing pieces of leg-islature by authorities, as well as peer pressure. Lack of effective parenting, es-pecially in broken homes, avail-ability of alcohol, peer influence and identity crisis, experimenta-tion, freedom; in search of free-dom from pain, problems, in secu-rities, boredom and rules are some of the reasons that lead teenagers, especially pupils, to indulge in drug abuse while unemployment is among the reason stopping the list. The effects of alcoholism in Zambia have been grave espe-cially among school children with teenage pregnancies resulting from illicit sexual activities after drinking sprees, abortions, and the number of children dropping out of school after falling preg-nant despite then re-entry police by Government. There are many social and eco-nomic problems associated with alcohol abuse as its consumption is linked to many harmful conse-quences for the individual who drinks and his or her immedi-ate environment and society as a whole. According to the WHO Global Status Report on Alcohol which was released in 2004, such social consequences as traffic accidents, workplace-related, family and do-mestic problems, and interperson-al violence have been receiving more public or research attention in recent years, indicating a grow-ing interest in a broader concept of alcohol-related consequences. Ultimately, however, these events have an impact on society as a whole insofar as they affect economic productivity or require the attention and resources of the criminal justice or healthcare sys-tem, or of other social institutions. Heavy drinking in most work-ing places in Zambia may poten-tially lower productivity. Sickness absence associated with harmful use of alcohol and alcohol de-pendence entails a substantial cost to employees and social security systems. The Chainama Hills Mental Hospital has bemoaned the rise in cases of mental illness among youths, due to alcohol abuse, es-pecially the infamous tujili-jili. Experts at the health institution told the Daily Nation recently that patients, mostly male youths as young as 16 years, are being treated for mental illness due to alcohol abuse.The Non-Communicable Dis-eases (NDCs) Strategic Plan (2011-2015), identified alcohol abuse as a major risk factor for NCDs in Zambia in particular for trauma and injuries, cardiovascu-lar diseases, cancers, diabetes and mental illnesses. CHAMP-Zambia, a non-profit-making organization that spear- heads child advocacy on sexual reproductive health, reports that a total of 1928 individuals in Lu-saka participated in a 2001 sur-vey looking at the relationship of drinking to sexual behavior and the risk of acquiring HIV infec-tion.About half of the participants were in the 25-34 years age group (53.2 percent), and a third of the respondents had attained second-ary level of education (35.8 per-cent). The study results showed that 43.7 percent of men and 73 per-cent of women stated that they had never taken alcohol and that 26.7 percent of road traffic acci-dent cases showed a blood alco-hol concentration higher than the statutory limit of 80 mg percent. It is well established that drink-ing can severely impair the indi-vidual’s functioning in various social roles. Alcohol misuse is as-sociated with many negative con-sequences both for an alcoholic partner as well as their children. Maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy can result in fe-tal alcohol syndrome in children, and parental drinking is correlated with child abuse and impacts a child’s environment in many social, psychological and economic ways.

Drinking can impair performance as a parent, as a spouse or partner, and as a contributor to household functioning. There are also other aspects of drinking which may impair functioning as a family member.

In many societies, drinking may be carried out primarily outside the family and the home. In this circumstance, time spent while drinking often competes with the time needed to carry on family life.

Drinking also costs money and can impact upon resources particularly of a poor family, leaving other family members destitute and this also has a telling effect on national economic development as the workforce, even in the civil service, is negatively affected when members devote most of their time to alcohol consumption.

In Zambia, the legal age limit for drinking alcohol is 18. For those who take alcohol, healthcare providers still advise limiting how much you drink. This is called drinking in moderation, or responsible drinking. Responsible drinking means more than just limiting yourself to a certain number of drinks. It also means not getting drunk and not letting alcohol control your life or your relationships.

Health care providers attest to the numerous benefits from moderate drinking such as reduced risk of heart diseases or heart attacks, reduced risk of strokes, lower risk of gallstones, and lower risk of diabetes.

In order to regulate alcohol abuse in Zambia, has come up with a number of pieces of legislature aimed at curbing the vice.

The new liquor licensing Act of 2011 was earlier promulgated to regulate the sale and supply of intoxicating liquors with local authorities given the mandate of taking law reinforcement seriously but the hindrance has been low fines for offenders both traders and parents.

As one of the measures to curb the vice, the production, importation, packing, distribution, selling and consumption of Tujili-jili, alcohol packed in small sachets, was banned by the Ministry of Local Government and Housing through a Statutory Instrument of April 2012.

However, Tujili-jili resurfaced in bottles with unlimited access, low prices and high alcohol content of 46 percent, unrestricted alcohol ads and added to that, the removal of SI number 96 of 2011 which was much stronger re-placed with weaker 2012 number 64 proved to be a drawback.Among the positives recorded in the fight against alcohol abuse however, is the establishment of the Civil Society group called the Zambia Network Against Harm-ful Use of Alcohol (ZNAHUA) has played an import role in the on-going sensitization and imple-mentation of programmes against harmful use of alcohol, advocacy and lobbying. The media houses continue to support the development of the legal reforms which resulted in the ban of Tujili-Jili. Addressing parliament last month, President Edgar Lungu stressed the need for more efforts in curbing alcohol abuse adding that Government was working hard in the area of youth empow-erment to make the youths more productive so that they stayed away from drug and alco-hol abuse. “Mr. Speaker, alcohol and substance abuse is an area of great concern af-fecting the moral stand-ards of our peo- ple.W ea re aware that when the youth are not involved in any productive activity, they tend to resort to alcohol abuse and other vices. Government is, therefore, making progress in strengthening the enforcement of the relevant laws and regulations to curb this vice .“In order to address the issue of in activity among the youths, Government has intensified the implementation of youth em-powerment programmes aimed at equipping the youth with skills, equipment and start-up capital for income generating activities. Notable achievements under this programme in 2017, included supporting 2,667 youth street vendors with loans, empower-ing 1,000 youths with motorized cargo tricycles, and provision of information and communication technology equipment for the es-tablishment of business centres to 600 youths, across the country ,” President Lung us aid. Last week, Religious Affairs and Guidance Minister Godfridah Sum aili revealed that Govern-ment will soon introduce an Al-cohol Bill to parliament as a con-trol measure against the increased levels of alcohol consumption in the country. Ms. Sum aili said once enact-ed, the bill will regulate alcohol consumption especially by the youths .“Excessive beer drinking among youth sin the country has reached alarming levels hence the decision of coming up with a piece of legislation to regulate drinking ,” Reverend Sum aili said. While the Ministry of Health and local authorities’ lack of hu-man resources to respond to the challenges related to harmful use of alcohol and scarcity of resources render a challenge to the effectiveness for monitoring and evaluation of the designed programs, there is need for the ministry to continue lobbying for more resource mobilization to ad-dress the problems related to the harmful use of alcohol. Harmful use of alcohol has negative consequences not only to the individual user but also to those around them, the com-munity and the society at large. Therefore, addressing harmful use of alcohol indirectly helps to prevent risk behaviors such as Gender Based Violence (GBV) and child abuse. Cohesion, orderliness and san-ity are enhanced in society when harmful use of alcohol is reduced and therefore, this is a fight which should not be left to Govern-mental one but the private sector and all citizens at whatever level they are.