• 'The chapters effectively summarise and synthesise the current state of knowledge, and provide a tremendous resource for those interested in alcohol-related problems and their prevention... This book, prepared with support from WHO, builds directly on two similar volumes from previous decades. It will obviously be a central reference used by those specifically working on alcohol, but also makes key contributions to understanding and designing effective prevention policies and programmes for the full range of contemporary health problems.' -The Lancet

From a public health perspective, alcohol is no ordinary consumer product. On a global level, it is a major contributor to disease, disability, and premature mortality. It also has an adverse impact on many aspects of social life. Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity – Research and Public Policy describes recent advances in alcohol research that have direct relevance for the development of effective alcohol policies at the local, national and international levels. It covers the search for policies that protect health, prevent disability, and address the social problems associated with the misuse of beverage alcohol. This book is, at its core, a scientific treatise on what alcohol policy is, why it is needed, which interventions are effective, how policy is made, and how scientific evidence can inform the policy-making process.

The book opens with an introduction to the policy agenda. The second section then presents a snapshot of drinking patterns and alcohol-related problems throughout the world, providing a global panorama of the challenges faced. The third section critically reviews the evidence for six strategies that have often been used as a basis for alcohol policy: taxation and pricing, regulating the physical availability of alcohol, modifying the drinking context, drinking-driving countermeasures, regulating alcohol promotion, education and persuasion programmes, and treatment and early intervention services. Section four provides an international analysis of the policy making process. The book concludes with a consumer's guide to effective alcohol policy, synthesising what is known about how communities and nation states can effectively manage this extraordinary commodity.

Readership: Health policy specialists and researchers, service planners and providers, epidemiologists, social workers and clinicians with an interest in addiction and other alcohol-related problems (psychiatrists, clinical psychologists).

Section I: Introduction; 1. Setting the policy agenda; Section II: Epidemiology: establishing the need for alcohol policy; 2. Alcohol: no ordinary commodity; 3. Alcohol consumption trends and patterns of drinking; 4. The global burden of alcohol consumption; Section III: The toolkit: strategies and interventions; 5. Section overview: strategies and interventions to reduce alcohol-related harm; 6. Pricing and taxation; 7. Regulating the physical availability of alcohol; 8. Modifying the drinking context; 9. Drinking-driving countermeasures; 10. Regulating alcohol promotion; 11. Education and persuasion strategies; 12. Treatment and early intervention services; Section IV: The process: formation of effective alcohol policy; 13. Alcohol policymaking: putting the strategies into effect; 14. The international context of alcohol policy; 15. The policy arena; Section V: Conclusion; 16. Alcohol policies: a consumer's guide

Thomas Babor and Raul Caetano and Sally Casswell and Griffith Edwards and Norman Giesbrecht and Kathryn Graham and Joel Grube and Paul Grunewald and Linda Hill and Harold Holder and Ross Homel and Esa Osterberg and Jurgen Rehm and Robin Room and Ingeborg Rossow