Liquor laws failing to protect those vulnerable to alcohol-related harm

Stuff co.nz 15 December 2016
Family First Comment: We didn’t need a report to tell us the obvious! The alcohol industry is laughing all the way to the bank because of weak liberal laws around alcohol abuse. And be warned – the same will happen in the marijuana industry if we adopt dopey laws.
Liquor laws promising to increase community control of alcohol use are failing under the weight of the alcohol industry, a new report shows.
The Alcohol Healthwatch report, released on Thursday, found at-risk communities are devastated that their attempts to control alcohol use are being pushed back by the alcohol industry.
Researcher Dr Nicki Jackson said the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act and Local Alcohol Policy Act had done little to control alcohol sales.
Jackson said it was very clear that communities wanted stronger restrictions on where and when alcohol could be sold, but what had happened was upholding the status-quo.
Local Alcohol Policies (LAP) were the central feature of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012, and would allow each council to develop its own policy addressing community concerns relating to the location and number of liquor stores, as well as their trading hours.
The report found that, as of July, 19 of 67 local councils in New Zealand were yet to develop their own alcohol policies.
Of the 31 policies that had reached provisional stages, the alcohol industry had appealed all but one.
None of the 19 policies which were adopted had measures in place that could reduce the existing number of alcohol outlets in an area.
The report also found that Maori and Pacifica communities were more likely to live in areas where no local alcohol policy has been established.
READ MORE: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/87599294/liquor-laws-failing-to-protect-those-vulnerable-to-alcoholrelated-harm