Mal Fletcher comments

As much as our children - and for their sakes - we need also to rely less on alcohol for emotional relief.

As human beings, we often engage in behaviours that we know may damage our health simply because those behaviours offer emotional pay-offs in the short-term.

This is especially evident in tough times. The recent recession and the rapid rate of change in our society are just two factors leading to higher levels of distress in our community.

On all kinds of levels, we just can't afford to let alcohol become our default means of dealing with that distress.

This is not a problem we can lay simply and squarely at the feet of politicians. Yet governments can and should do much more to help, on two fronts.

Firstly, they must invest more in educating people - young and old - about the dangers of excess drinking.

A few years ago the government initiated very graphic advertising campaigns to make people aware of the dangers of smoking. They backed this up with anti-smoking drives in schools and workplaces and government-backed programmes for people who wanted to quit.

Those measures, combined with tighter regulation of sales and advertising led to a drop in the number of people taking up smoking for the first time. The eventual ban on smoking in public buildings was in part a by-product of this change.

The ban wouldn't have been possible unless public attitudes had shifted to accept it.

We need a similarly proactive and consistent approach to promoting awareness of alcohol abuse. Yes, money is tight, but this would eventually cost society much less - in NHS costs and lost productivity alone - than continuing with the status quo.

Of course, public education schemes only work when they're supported by fair and balanced laws. You need to have legislation in place for when education fails. It provides the 'stick' which can be applied when the carrot of education hasn't worked.

In particular, governments must do more to regulate how and where alcohol is sold.

The NHS report points to the cheap price of alcohol as a major factor in the current problem with youth drinking. Alcohol is now 75 per cent cheaper in real terms that it was in 1980. This must change.

Yet we also need tighter regulation of the number and types of venue where alcohol can be sold. We need better rules governing sales in supermarkets, for example.