Trauma, loss and other psychosocial drivers of excessive alcohol consumption in Karamoja, Uganda

This article investigates the trends, drivers and effects of alcohol consumption in Karamoja, a primarily pastoralist area of Uganda. Although locally brewed alcohol from sorghum and millet has an important and long-standing place in Karamojong tradition, the emerging trend of excessive consumption of hard liquor is a cause for concern among government and health officials, development practitioners and, especially, community members themselves. This article explores the varied reasons for this rise in hard liquor consumption, particularly in Karamoja’s post-disarmament period. The article is based on data collected in mid-2018, as well as information gleaned from the authors’ engagement in the region over the past decade. The peace and security ushered in by the disarmament exercises of the 2000s has, on the one hand, opened up the once isolated region politically and economically. Conversely, it has accelerated external interest in Karamoja’s economic wealth, leading to further disenfranchisement of its people due to dispossession of land. Emerging from the trauma of the disarmament exercise, the drastic loss of livestock and livelihoods and the continuing negligence of pastoralism by the state, Karamoja’s rural as well as peri-urban communities are undergoing a remarkable loss not only of their economic systems, but also of their socio-cultural identity. Acknowledging the specific trauma and loss experienced by individuals and communities provides a lens through which to better understand the excessive alcohol consumption. These psychosocial factors, along with the economic and political aspects, must be considered in efforts to address this continuing crisis in the region.

MOTIVACIJA I NAVIKE PIJENJA ALKOHOLNIH PIĆA ADOLESCENATA GRADA DUBROVNIKA

ALCOHOL DRINKING MOTIVATION AND HABITS OF ADOLESCENTS IN THE CITY OF DUBROVNIK Adolescent alcohol use is one of the biggest public health problems of youth worldwide. Studies conducted in the Republic of Croatia confirm a high prevalence of this phenomenon in high school students with the data showing that almost 92% of young people under the age of 16 have tried some of the alcoholic beverages. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of beer and spirit drinking among high school students according to gender, type of school, and beer drinking of people closely related to them. The study also explored high school students’ motivation for beer drinking and differences in motivation between genders. The study included 789 students from 2nd and 3rd grades of high schools in Dubrovnik. The results showed that 92% of students have tried alcohol at least once. A higher percentage of male students consumed beer and wine than female students, and when it came to hard liquor, female students drank an equal amount of hard liquor as male students. The students in vocational schools, particularly in three-year programs consume more alcohol than the students from grammar schools. The study showed a correlation between adolescent drinking and drinking habits of people close to them, in particular partners and close friends. The study also showed the link between adolescent drinking and parents’ beer drinking. The most common motivation for drinking beer in adolescents is having fun and relaxing from everyday worries. They drink beer when they feel happy or bored as beer drinking increases their good mood and contributes to feeling relaxed. This study results indicate the need for implementing science-based alcohol use prevention programs and programs of high school students’ mental health promotion. The importance of involving parents in prevention programs, the role of the community in promoting healthy lifestyles and organizing ways of constructive leisure and fun for young people are also emphasized. Key words: adolescents; alcoholic drinks; beer; drinking; motivation

Pia Desideria: Entre el aguardiente y la vida ascética. Las calaveras borrachas claman por el chinguirito (México, 1836)

ABSTRACT: The allegory of the body as a prison of the soul was visually depicted as a skeleton that imprisons a figure with childish features. One of the earliest examples of this image is the emblem «Infelix ego homo!» included in Herman Hugo’s Pia Desideria (1624); however the pictura was incorporated in other media and contexts allowing its survival even to the end of the 19th century. In Mexico, it evolved from an ascetic-moralistic book to a popular pamphlet of ghostly apparitions revealed in dreams. How did this emblem –based on Neoplatonic philosophy– evolve from a book written in Latin to a popular nineteenth century pamphlet? Did it conserve part of its original meaning? KEYWORDS Death; Soul; Hard Liquor; Mexico. RESUMEN: La alegoría del cuerpo como cárcel del alma se representó visualmente como un esqueleto que aprisiona a una figura de rasgos infantiles. Uno de los ejemplos más tempranos de esta imagen lo encontramos en el libro de emblemas de Herman Hugo, el afamado Pia Desideria (1624), sin embargo, la pictura se trasladó a otros soportes y contextos lo que le permitió continuar vigente hasta finales del siglo XIX. En el caso mexicano pasó de una publicación de corte ascético-moral a una popular en la cual apariciones fantasmales se manifiestan a través de revelaciones oníricas. ¿Cómo fue que este emblema –con visos neoplatónicos– pasó de un libro en latín a una hoja popular decimonónica? ¿Conservó algo de su significado original?

3. Prohibition

January 16, 1920 was the last day that Americans could legally buy a drink before both the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act went into effect. Whenever a substance is banned, the price goes up and the product returns in a more concentrated form, or a replacement appears. ‘Prohibition’ explains how beer was replaced with distilled spirits; prohibition brought back the very hard liquor that the original temperance movement had despised. Bootleggers supplied imports, home distillation of moonshine increased, prices soared, and criminal gangs quickly gained control of urban distillation. Prohibition did not stop drinking, but it did promote thugs like Al Capone, who both got rich and paid no taxes.

Ethanol content determination in hard liquor drinks, beers, and wines, using a catalytic fuel cell. Comparison with other two conventional enzymatic biosensors: correlation and statistical data

A catalytic fuel cell has been employed to check ethanol content in several samples of commercial wines, beers and hard liquor drinks. Two other conventional biosensors, based on catalase or alcohol oxidase enzyme, were also used, to the same purpose, on the same samples. Data obtained by three sensor methods have been compared and correlated. Lastly t-test and F-test were applied.

Breaking Bad in Mississippi: Do County-Level Alcohol Sale Bans Encourage Crystal Methamphetamine Production and Consumption?

If alcohol has substitutes, changes in its relative price can encourage the production and consumption of other illicit and harmful drugs. This paper considers if county-level bans on the sale of alcohol in the state of Mississippi encourage the production and consumption of crystal methamphetamine. We estimate the parameters of a drug production function in which the inputs are the density of people and firms, underscoring the importance of learning and knowledge spillovers to production and consumption. Poisson and Negative Binomial parameter estimates reveal that county-level bans on hard liquor sales; but not on beer and wine, increase the number of crystal methamphetamine labs. In the absence of such laws, there would be approximately 308 fewer crystal methamphetamine labs in the state of Mississippi. Our findings suggest that in Mississippi, which is the least healthiest state in the nation, county-level bans on hard liquor sales are not welfare improving as they encourage substitution for a drug that is potentially more harmful to individual health than alcohol.

The Wines of West Africa: History, Technology and Tasting Notes

For centuries West Africans have made wines from palm sap, and hard liquor (“gin”) from palm wine. This essay describes the role of palm wine in West African society, attempts to regulate its production and consumption since colonial times, the basics of the production process, and the appearance, bouquet and flavor of unpasteurized palm wine as it ages through its useful life of a day or two. (JEL Classification: L66, L51,118)

Analyzing the Impact of the Liquor Industry's Lifting of the Ban on Broadcast Advertising

Using evidence from available academic studies, the author provides insight into three issues of the liquor advertising policy debate: (1) Will hard liquor advertising increase hard liquor consumption? (2) What effect will hard liquor advertising have on public beliefs? and (3) Will warning labels or massages be effective? The author also provides recommendations for policymakers and advertisers.