Alcohol meeting cancelled

Organisers of an upcoming public meeting on alcohol have cancelled the scheduled event in Kaikoura next Monday due to perceived lack of interest.

Professor Doug Sellman was to have delivered a public lecture on the topic, "Ten things the alcohol industry won't tell you about alcohol',' focusing on the national alcohol crisis of heavy drinking involving at least 700,000 New Zealanders.

"Seven hundred thousand citizens equates to the total population of Wellington and Christchurch combined," said Professor Sellman, "but perhaps Kaikoura does not have an alcohol problem like other localities in New Zealand."

This public meeting was part of a series of more than 40 being held across New Zealand at the current time and is the first to have been cancelled.

The timing of these lectures coincides with the Law Commission's public consultation meetings around the document Alcohol in our Lives.

Professor Sellman is part of a team of medical experts who, through these meetings, are launching Alcohol Action NZ and promoting a 5+ Solution based on the best international alcohol and public health evidence.

The 5+ Solution outlines practical steps that health professionals in New Zealand now agree must be taken if we are to measurably reduce the human carnage our heavy drinking culture currently inflicts.

It challenges the alcohol industry to take more responsibility for the way it aggressively targets young people while hiding behind claims that problem drinking is purely the responsibility of the individual.

"This industry spends $200,000 per day in New Zealand on advertising and sponsorship to saturate our lives with their message and despite their claims to the contrary they have our young people firmly in their sights," said Professor Sellman.

There will be a public meeting in Blenheim on Tuesday, November 10 at the Wesley Centre hosted by Mayor Alistair Sowman, at 7.30pm.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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