`Distressing' advice on children and drink

Commenting on the recent report of the National Council on Alcoholism, the Rev A. C. Davies, general secretary of the Temperance Council of the Christian Churches, described as "distressing" the fact that the NCA supported the view that teaching children in the home how to "appreciate alcohol" was the best way of preventing subsequent alcoholism.
He said: "It is to be hoped that none who read the sentences implying this remarkable advice (in an otherwise good report) will assume that it is the consensus opinion of all who work in the field, or, indeed, of all the members of the National Council on Alcoholism.
"Actually, the expert whose name was referred to with the greatest respect at the Council's
meeting Dr Max Glatt, of the World Health Organisation's Advisory Committee on Addictions— has written recently 'the hypothesis that early introduction of' children to drinking in parents' homes to some extent immunises them against the later risk of alcoholism can at the present state of knowledge — by no means be regarded as proven.'
"The face that France, where everyone takes his first drink at home, has the highest rate of
alcoholism in the world, shows ethat e a this is not too strong a
This being so, continued Mr Davies, the idea that parents should he encouraged to teach their children to drink would only be seen as a "leap in the dark" with the most dangerous potentialities.
At present there was a substantial minority of the population (possibly as high as 20 per cent of both sexes and all adult ages) who were in no danger of becoming alcoholics because they had learned from childhood how to enjoy a fully satisfying life without any alcohol.
"If abstaining parents adopted the idea now mooted all these would be added to the number at risk. And what then if the vaunted. but unproved, preventive or addiction laded? I he result could be a moral and social catastrophe analogous to the physical devastation of the thalidomide tragedy.
"In any case, parents should remember that if. despite their own moderation, a child of theirs does become an alcoholic. the earlier he started drinking, the harder he will be to cure."
The NCA report said: "We have to learn to live with alcohol, treating it with respect, since it is a drug which produces changes in the central nervous system.
"The majority of society can use it with no adverse effect but there are persons who, in a heavy drinking environment or possessing vulnerable and inadequate personalities, find it difficult to use alcohol in an ordinary way.
"The home, school and employer must recognise the role they have to play in preventing and alleviating a drink problem. Parents must create a sound and secure family background and it should be under home influence that young people should learn to appreciate alcohol.
'Young people should neither have their first experience nor acquire their later drinking habits from outside the home.
"The desire of those parents who wish to bring their children trip in an alcohol-free environment must he respected but teetotal parents must recognise that in our present culture and environment their children will be confronted with alcohol requiring a personal decision about its use.
"It certainly cannot he taken for granted that they will accept their parents' views — in fact it is more likely that they will react against them. All parents must show understanding, tolerance, discipline and responsibility over the use of alcohol."