The Minister of Public Security recently made an intervention on the issue of alcohol consumption in the country when he suggested the minimum legal age at which alcohol could be sold to individuals be raised from eighteen to 21. The intervention followed his earlier edict that bars be prohibited from selling alcohol beyond 2am. While welcome, both suggestions are not enough to address the tremendous damage excessive alcohol consumption wreaks on our society.
But, in all fairness, a more effective holistic approach would have to involve the entire spectrum of governmental activities, and this is what we are proposing.
Using figures, starting from 1961, obtained from the WHO website, it appears that alcohol consumption was historically high in Guyana, which is not surprising. The Sugar Planters allowed the newly time-expired Portuguese and Chinese immigrants to open “rum shops” near the pay offices of all the sugar plantations, to groom the remaining predominantly Indian indentureds as their clientele. In India, alcohol consumption and abuse was rare in the 19th century. It is interesting that while the WHO figures did not capture this fact, anecdotal evidence suggests that the descendants of this demographic remain those most adversely affected by the alcoholism scourge.
Analogously, African-Guyanese, descendants of the freed slaves, the majority of whom had left the plantations to start the Village Movement, are not as severely and widely affected.
While always high compared to average global consumption, the WHO figures show that alcohol consumption in Guyana started to climb in the 1970s, and by 1992 the rate had astonishingly quadrupled. It then dropped immediately afterwards back to its historical rate. This timespan, of course, corresponds to the period when the economy started to deteriorate under the socialist co-operative principles of the PNC after the Declaration of Sophia until its ouster by the PPP/C in 1992.
During those years, the Opposition-PPP supporters, who were already among the heavier imbibers of alcohol, were facilitated to increase their consumption by a proliferation of “rum shops” in the villages that were allowed to flout the regulations without governmental censure. At that time, the suicide rate in the same demographic also rose precipitously, but unlike that of alcohol consumption, there was no dramatic drop after 1992. Since the new millennium, however, the rate of alcohol consumption has been inexorably rising, and official interventions are imperative as have been implemented in suicide.
The Government can do worse than begin by regulating much more rigorously the licensing of “rum shops” in the “sugar estate” villages, where the heavier imbibers reside. If cigarette smoking in the public space can be forbidden because of its social and medical impact, then the number of rum shops in the villages can certainly be reduced administratively by the GRA. When those villages were established in the 1950s, there were regulations that commercial establishments should be located only on the “front streets”. This regulation should be enforced immediately.
From a medical standpoint, an official interventionist programme exists only at the Georgetown Hospital, and this should be extended by the Government into the rural areas where alcohol consumption is rampant. Civil society should become more involved by sponsoring the programmes, such as the 12-point one developed and run by Alcoholics Anonymous. These are effective because they provide an alternative social network for alcoholics away from the usual “drinking buddies”.
The statistics also reveal that Guyanese youths are starting to imbibe at an ever increasingly younger age. This must be countered by the Ministry of Education including in its curriculum the dangers of excessive alcohol consumption — especially to the brains — of young people. The Ministry had also promised a greater emphasis on sports in schools, which would provide an alternative outlet for the energies of youths; but, sadly, this has not materialised. The Ministry of Information should increase its public awareness programme on alcoholism via billboards and public service announcements.
Excessive alcohol consumption contributes to almost all societal dysfunctional behaviour — teenage pregnancy, domestic violence, suicide, road accidents and fatalities, brawls at public functions. It is time to take action.
