Alcohol
Addiction to alcohol ranks within the top ten of serious health threats in the Netherlands. Every year, more than 3.000 people die as a result of harmful alcohol use.
Consumption of alcohol per capita has slightly decreased during the last few years, but excessive alcohol use among children, especially girls, is still increasing. Alcohol, mainly in the form of beer, is the most commonly used intoxicant.
Dutch Alcohol Policy
The aim of the Dutch cabinet is that children do not drink before the age of 16 and that youngsters drink less. The Dutch government also wants to reduce the harm done by alcohol to family, working place, traffic safety and nightlife.
Mildly alcoholic beverages as beer, wine and low alcohol content spirits are sold only in grocery shops and licensed alcohol shops. High alcohol content spirits are sold only in licensed alcohol shops. On premise consumption is allowed in licensed bars and other drinking places.
Seven kinds of policy instruments are used:
education and prevention (projects for youngsters, parents, schools and drivers)
treatment and rehabilitation
licensing laws (Alcohol Licensing and Catering Act)
age limits (16 for mildly alcoholic beverages and 18 for spirits 15% ABV or more)
rules on alcohol advertising ((combination of legislation and self regulation)
DWI-laws (0.2 promille for novice drivers and 0.5 promille for others)
taxation
An important principle in Dutch alcohol policy is, that only a well-balanced coherent package of measures is considered to be effective.
New policy plans
In December 2007 the Dutch cabinet discussed in Parliament new measures to reduce harmful alcohol use. The most important element is that local authorities will get more competences. Some proposed new powers:
to forbid price promotions, such as happy hours in bars and price breakers in supermarkets and liquor stores;
to determine that youngsters below a certain age are denied access to cafés and discotheques after a certain point in time;
to enforce all the rules regarding the selling of alcohol (at this moment the enforcement is in the hands of Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority);
to prohibit the sale of alcoholic drinks by supermarkets frequently violating under age drinking regulations.
Other elements of the 2007 plans are:
a ban on public possession of alcoholic drinks by children below 16;
local experiments with one age limit of 18 years;
a ban on alcohol advertisements on television and radio from 6 am to 9 pm (realized 1 January 2009);
an increase of the beer tax by 2.3 eurocents per pipe (realized 1 January 2009).
References
- Opting for a healthy life, Public Health policy in the Netherlands 2007-2010 The public health policy document, Opting for a healthy life, lays down the broad outlines of the public health policy for the period from 2007 to 2010.
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Trimbos: report on the drug situation 2007
- Being Healthy and Staying Healthy: A Vision of Health and Prevention, The Netherlands In this document, the government outlines how it sees health policy being reformed and what principles will apply in the context of that reform.
- Prevention In the Netherlands, prevention and early tracing of life-threatening and chronic diseases is accomplished by immunisation and screening programmes. Apart from classical prevention, government policy also aims at the improvement of public health.
- Mental health care The ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport has defined mental illness as one of the priority disorders.
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National Foundation for Alcohol Prevention
The National Foundation for Alcohol Prevention is a national, independent non-profit organisation that advocates effective alcohol control policies and works towards public awareness of the risks of alcohol.
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European alcohol information system
Website about the European alcohol information system (EAIS). The EAIS provides data to track and assess the alcohol policies and situations within and across countries.
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European Commission: alcohol
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EU: overview alcohol policies member states
Website of the European Commission with an overview of member states policies aimed at reducing alcohol-related harm.
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WHO: global status report on alcohol 2004
