The Network for Addiction Care (UNAD) has urged the various political formations, ahead of the general elections on 29 November, to acquire a firm commitment to move forward with the law on preventing alcohol consumption by minors and to ensure its implementation with sufficient funding and resources.
Coinciding with World No Alcohol Day, which is observed every 15 November, the organization has emphasized that this regulation represents a "fundamental step" in defending public health and protecting children and adolescents.
UNAD proposes that the future law provide adequate resources to ensure its effective compliance and that it incorporate specific actions in schools, in the family setting, and in community environments. It also considers it essential to provide differentiated attention to people in situations of greater vulnerability and for specialized social organizations in addictions to become involved in the design and development of the measures, bringing their experience and direct knowledge of reality.
The Network also highlights the need to reduce exposure to 'online' advertising and the promotion of alcoholic beverages. It points out that these environments are part of the daily lives of adolescents and young people and can become channels for access to commercial content that links alcohol with fun, success, attractiveness, or social relationships, they explain from the network.
Although the protection of children and adolescents is a priority, UNAD warns that alcohol consumption in the adult population continues to be a problem that requires attention. In its view, the broad social acceptance of this substance makes it difficult for many people to recognize when their consumption starts to become problematic and delays the decision to seek help. Indeed, it notes that alcohol is the substance that generates the highest number of treatment requests in the entities that make up the UNAD network, for both women and men.
For this reason, the organization considers it essential to facilitate early detection of problematic consumption and to ensure access to specialized resources, from a public health, rights, and comprehensive care approach, avoiding the stigmas that still weigh on people with addictions.
24.7% of students have binged in the past month
In this scenario, the entity has warned about the normalization of alcohol consumption among adolescents and has called for strengthening prevention and protection policies, as well as promoting public measures that reduce its consumption from an early age.
UNAD has cited the results of the latest Survey on Drug Use in Secondary Education in Spain (ESTUDES), prepared by the Government Delegation for the National Drug Plan. The study indicates that 73.9 percent of students aged between 14 and 18 have tried alcohol at some point in their lives and that 51.8 percent have consumed it in the last 30 days. In addition, the average age of initiation for the consumption of this substance is 13.9 years.
To these figures is added that 24.7 percent of students say they have engaged in binge drinking during the last month, that is, having taken five or more alcoholic drinks in the same occasion. These data show that contact with alcohol occurs at very early ages and that, in part of the adolescent population, patterns of intensive consumption are also observed.