YES - Lesley King-Lewis, chief executive, Action on Addiction
In the past, alcohol policies have been neglected, but we welcome the publication of the Government's Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy and hope that it will go some way towards reducing alcohol-related harm in the UK.
The Government has highlighted the importance of treatment for alcohol dependence, but more money should be invested in the seriously underfunded alcohol services. Only 95m a year is spent on alcohol services, compared with 500m on drugs.
Alcohol is a far greater problem in the UK, with more than 5,000 deaths directly attributable to alcohol and as many as 33,000 alcohol-related deaths a year. However, only just over 1,000 deaths are directly related to the use of illicit drugs.
More money is also needed for research into alcohol problems, especially into ways of improving treatment and preventing dangerous drinking by young people.
YES - Vivienne Evans, chief executive, Adfam
With no formal Government alcohol strategy until recently, alcohol has inevitably been the poor relation to drugs. The media concentration on drug-related crime has helped make drugs the main thrust of governmental activity.
While alcohol and occasional inebriation continues to be socially acceptable across generations, it will be difficult to build up a widespread call for change that can result in far-reaching policy work.
Taking the example of parents with teenagers, it is easier for families to dismiss occasional teenage drunkenness as youthful exuberance rather than the slippery slope to problematic use. Drugs are disproportionately the greater fear. The alcohol strategy, while it may not go far enough, could encourage people to take seriously the expert opinion that speaks out against drink-related behavioural and health problems. This could lead to greater awareness of why alcohol use needs to be addressed extensively and coherently by the Government.
YES - Wilma Graham, spokeswoman, Phoenix House
The Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy is a significant step forward to address the UK's drinking culture. However, there is a need for greater emphasis on how we expand and increase the capacity of treatment services.
The development and resourcing of alcohol services is somewhat unclear for treatment providers, and yes, alcohol policies are lagging behind when compared with drugs.
However, it is very unlikely and somewhat overoptimistic to assume that investment and policy development across both fields will take place simultaneously.
In the past, the problems of alcohol and drug dependency were dealt with separately. Today, the pattern of substance abuse has changed, as have services, with many people experiencing dual drugs and alcohol problems.
NO - Tom Aldridge, young person's manager, National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse
For under-18s, the term "substance misuse" includes both drugs and alcohol.
In terms of treatment and early interventions, alcohol is the most misused "drug" of all, but it is handled by young people's services as an integral part of their treatment alongside drug misuse and other issues. There is no separation between drugs and alcohol misuse and the strategies used to tackle them within those services.
Many young people with alcohol problems will also be multiple drug users and although they may become addicted to, or dependent on, drugs and alcohol, there is a clear acknowledgement that the use of substances is often the result of underlying problems.
Practitioners following a comprehensive assessment framework will identify a range of needs not limited to the young person's drug or alcohol use and which require a holistic care plan to tackle the root causes.
Therefore, substance misuse interventions for a young alcohol or illicit drug user will focus more on addressing a wide range of the young person's needs than on the actual substances.
