27/05/09
Dear Colleague
As promised in my first progress note about the Liquor Control Campaign two weeks ago, I am attaching the itinerary of the national lecture tour that is being used to launch the campaign. You will see that it spans 30 different towns and cities from Invercargill to Kaitaia (Sept 10 - Nov 19). Locate your city/town's date and put it in your diary. The tour begins at Te Papa, Wellington during the annual addiction treatment conference, Cutting Edge, with the first presentation of the lecture: "10 things the alcohol industry won't tell you about alcohol".
The time for each of the first ten lectures in the national series, before daylight saving begins in October, is 7.00 - 8.30pm; and thereafter 7.30 - 9pm. There is also going to be an "after party" following the main event at each venue for those from the lecture who want to be part of a Liquor Control Group in that locality. The "after party" will be at 9pm prior to daylight saving and 9.30pm following daylight saving.
One of the most exciting things about the upcoming campaign is the coming together of the various fields and sectors (health, social welfare, police, councils, iwi, churches, etc) that have a stake in seriously trying to reduce the enormous health and social damage that alcohol causes - estimated recently to be $5.3 billion per year (Slack et al 2009). As a member of the addiction treatment sector I am particularly excited to feel the bridging between the treatment field and the public health field, where scientific expertise and knowledge lies about how to reduce New Zealand's alcohol related damage and out of which the 5+ Solution has come. Remember, the 5+ Solution being publicised by the Liquor Control Campaign, is based on the WHO sponsored "Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity" (Babor et al 2003):
1. Increase the price
2. Increase the purchase age
3. Decrease the accessibility
4. Decrease the marketing/advertising
5. Increase drink-driving surveillance
PLUS Increase intervention opportunities for regular heavy drinkers
Budget? Yes, we need money.
Although we now have the basic costs of running the lecture series covered, we need money for publicity - pamphlets, cards, posters, newspaper advertisements, ?billboards. We are currently setting up a bank account the details of which I will give in the next progress note, so hold onto your money for another two weeks :).
All the best in the meantime
Sincerely
Doug
