Alcohol harm, addiction and the impacts of trauma in the NT
Thursday October 27, 11am-noon WST, 2-3PM EDT
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The social costs and harms of alcohol consumption in the Northern Territory (NT) equate to $1.38 billion annually. Harmful levels of alcohol consumption – both binge drinking and sustained high and moderate levels of drinking – increase the propensity for risk-taking associated with violence, crime, drink driving, unsafe sex, alcoholic poisoning, drinking while pregnant, and a raft of anti-social behaviours and chronic or acute alcohol-related health conditions. The impacts of alcohol also extend to family and friends, with harms relating to domestic violence, child neglect, diminished industry productivity and other third party harm.
These understandings, alongside an independent review of NT alcohol policies and legislation, have led the Territory Government to invest in a series of alcohol policy measures as part of its approach to alcohol harm minimisation, including:
- Reintroducing the Banned Drinker Register (BDR), an intervention that is unique in its focus on individualised control of problems around packaged liquor
- introduction of a Minimum Unit Price (MUP) for alcohol, sometimes referred to as the ‘minimum floor price’, and
- investing in 75 extra police auxiliaries to be trained as Liquor Inspectors.
This presentation will contain preliminary findings and discuss some of the ramifications of these findings.
Director of the Deakin University Centre for Drug use, Addictive and Anti-social behaviour Research (CEDAAR), Peter Miller is a Professor of Violence Prevention and Addiction Studies at the School of Psychology, Deakin University and an Adjunct Professor at NDRI, Curtin University. Peter has recently completed five of the largest studies ever conducted into alcohol policy, licensed venues and violence, comparing 12 Australian cities over 10 years and talking to more than 25,000 patrons, and is currently running major studies assessing the impact of policy initiatives in the Northern Territory, including Minimum Floor Price and the Banned Drinker Register. He has published more than 200 journal articles, books and peer-reviewed reports, and is Co-convenor of the Trauma-Informed Policing Special Interests Group of the Global Law Enforcement and Public Health Association.
Click here to watch the recording
Posted on: 26 Sep 2022
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