National Alcohol Action Planning - Essay Example

?National Alcohol Action Plan Proposal and Rational The proposal takes into consideration the existing rules and regulations on the consumption of alcohol and tries to identify major strengths and flaws of the law and how it can be made better. Secondly, the proposal takes into consideration all four components of jurisprudence due to the fact that the law ought to have the real concerns and deliberations of the people at heart. Having put these points across, it would be said that there is a ministerial proposal to focus attention of non-consumption on children, namely, those people who are less than 18 years old and on a strong advocacy for adults to consume alcohol with caution. The rational for this proposal is in a number of legal contentions. First, children are considered as people who are not mature enough to take decisions on their own (ALAC). Knowing that the consumption of alcohol comes with a number of chemical effects that limit the degree at which a person can take decisions decisively, it is purported that in case with children who have to take decisions while they are intoxicated their judgmental abilities could be worsened. What is even worse, because children are generally thought to be people who cannot take tangible decisions, they are mostly not held accountable for their actions including times when they are drunk. For adults, they should face the consequences of breaking other laws and regulations if they do not heed to the advocacy to be prudent in their drinking and get themselves into any form of trouble (Babor et al., 2001). Overview of the Existing Law The existing law has mostly been referred to as extradition of torture. This accolade might have come about due to the public perception associated with the harshness of the law in trying to control the issue of alcoholism in the land. A little scientific overview on alcoholism or the act of getting intoxicated shows that there could be a number of very negative repercussions on offenders (Centre for Social and Health Outcomes Research and Evaluations, 2006). First and foremost, alcoholism comes with a very perilous health risks including those that affect the heart, lever and lungs (Department of Corrections, 2004). The practice of getting intoxicated also affects the rationality of a person and could be associated with distorted thinking. Such distorted thinking causes people to act abnormally. In the face of legal positivism, which looks at the application of law from social facts, it be said that once a person begins to think irrationally, that person is bound to break other laws; including natural laws such as the peace that people ought to enjoy, physical assault, verbal assault and some forms of vandalism. In effect, a law that seeks to stop people from getting intoxicated would not be readily condemned as pessimistic. However, here comes the argument that the present law is not based on the provisions of legal realism as it has its reprimanding attributes from the Bible – a document that is not accepted by the people as the binding constitution from which they should be rules. Strengths of the Existing Law The fact that the present law seeks to bring sanity among people by preventing them from what has been perceived by the society as the devil’s nectar is a positive thing. As in the name, there is nothing that comes from the devil that could be judged as being right. Again, the fact that the present law, which has been dubbed extradition of torture with particular emphasis on alcoholism seeks to protect other components of the law is also a positive sign about the law. This is said against the backdrop that once people are made to engage in such irrational acts as getting intoxicated by alcohol, they become a threat to other forms of the law (New Zealand Police, 2006). In a typical scenario, a person who was once intoxicated, breached the basic human rights of others when he entered a church and started disturbing the peace there. Weaknesses of the Existing Law The need for this present proposal and its further discussions emanates from the weaknesses of the existing law as enumerated as follows. First, in modern application of law where globalization is making it almost a must that laws of all sovereign states should be based on the basic provisions of the Union Nations Charter on Human Rights, it becomes out of place to place the laws of the nation on the provisions of the bible (Nuffield Council on Bioethics, 2007). This is particularly alarming as the authenticity of the bible is not totally proven in the light of diversity of religious practice in the country. Another weakness on basing the law on the bible is that it defeats the natural law of persons that gives them the right to choose their religious alignment. What is more, the law seeks to undermine the intelligence of adults in the country and tends to see them as people who are not in a position to take responsibility for their own actions. If not, the law would not try to generalize all adults of the State as people who cannot control their alcohol in-take in such a way that they would not be intoxicated. This point is very important because it is important that the law draws a distinction between taking in alcohol and becoming intoxicated. Finally, it is important to mention that the existing law is too harsh on its prescribed punishment. It seems that the law refused to take into consideration the legal basis for the fact that punishments are meant to reform and change people (OECD, 2007) Anticipated Issues which May Arise in the Legal Interpretation of the Proposals The legal interpretation of the proposed law may be subject to a number of issues. First, there could be the issue of morality whereby there legal reality aspect of jurisprudence may be seem undermined in the sense that the call for consumption of alcohol among adults without any form of inhibition may be interpreted in the legal sense as the promotion of immorality, which is against societal values (Easton, 2002). There could also be legal issues that have to do with the delimitation of the law. By this, legal experts may want that the proposed law makes clear distinction on the scope of use of alcohol, even by adults. For instance there should be specific instances where the use of alcohol should be entirely prohibited such as in the case of driving a vehicle or operating a heavy duty machine. In the face of it, people who may raise such issues may deem themselves as having very strong points in the light of the fact that since the proposed law may be introducing the consumption of alcohol newly, there should be a lot of restrictions to ensure that all loopholes are not loosed at a go. Advice on Issues which May Arise in the Legal Interpretation of the Proposals In the face of the issues which may arise in the legal interpretation of the proposal, it is advised that the implementation of the proposal into law should be done amidst careful scrutiny and subject to public debate. Though the idea behind such scrutiny and public debate may not be to judge the propriety of the law (because the proposal is deemed very ideal to replace the existing law), the public debate and scrutiny will make room for a lot of education to be done on the legal implications of the proposal and the need to replace the current law. For example, it is very important to make people understand that the proposal is not merely promoting the use of alcohol but that the law is drawing a distinction between people who can take legal responsibilities for their action and those who cannot – thus children and adults. This therefore brings to bare the issue of discretion whereby people are expected to use alcohol according to their rational discretion. Anticipated Issues which May Arise in Attempting to Put the Proposals into Action As far as enforcement of the proposed law is concerned, one area that is most likely to face any major challenge has to do with the ban of people less than eighteen years of age from taking in alcohol. First, it must be explained that the ban of children from taking in alcohol is not limited to any discretion whereby the children can have a say to the level of alcohol they want to take. Therefore, some recalcitrant people under the age of eighteen may want to be smart people of the total ban and try to claim to be over eighteen years though they may not be. As a matter of fact, this could result in a whole lot of legal grudge as any mistake made in denying someone who is genuinely qualified to take in alcohol would also come to amount to abuse of the person’s right as an adult (Grant and Dawson, 1997). Essentially, there is the possibility that the issue of effectiveness of the proposal may come to play because it may be very difficult to effectively execute the proposed law to its logical conclusion. Advice on Issues which May Arise in Attempting to Put the Proposals into Action In response to the issue of effectiveness of the law to permit adults and only adults to have access to alcohol and exclude children, function is suggested as a useful solution. By function, the advice is being given that enforcers of the law should make provision for the execution of the proposed law; especially when it comes to checking children against drinking. In this direction, it would be important to create a taskforce whose function will be to ensure those operators of bars and other spots, where alcohol is likely to be sold, should check and verify an identification card of persons whose age may raise suspicions. In effect, a functional role should be laid in such a way that a person who cannot product an identity of his or her age should not be allowed to buy alcohol – especially at the early stages of introducing the law (Graves et al., 2002). Anticipated Issues with Regard to Power and Equality in Attempting to Put the Proposals into Action The fact that the proposed law draws a line between adults and children brings to mind the need to cater for issues that will deal with power and equality. On the surface, it would appear that there is being some kind of discrimination in the application of the rules. In fact, a very strongly anticipated scenario would be the use of alcohol for medical purposes (Habgood, 2001). As the proposed law makes general reference to the banishment of use of alcohol among children, there is likely to be legal basis for the explanation of the term “use of”. By this, there are going to be some who would have the idea that all forms of spirits that are used in medical cases constitute the use of alcohol. Advice is given that the term “use of” should be interpreted not in terms of “to whom it is used” but “who uses it”. This means that medical professionals will have the right to use alcohol on children for medical purposes. However, there should be a strict provision in the law that ensures that people do not use alcohol on children wrongly. Such a provision is very important so that the term “to whom it is used” will not be abused (Jackson, 2005). Conclusion To conclude, it would be said that there is the urgent need for a replacement of the existing law that has come to be known as the extradition of torture. With a vivid application of law in action, it is important that the laws of the State conform to international laws and standards. By this, every effort needs to be made to ensure that the proposed law that makes it illegal only for children to possess or use alcohol be enacted. But even with adults, it is important that avenues be created so that people do not abuse their rights to do wrong things (Maxwell, 2004). For example any adult to breaks other rules for the sake of this new law should still be made to face the full rigors of the law by standing trail. In essence, the rational and sprit behind the proposal is not to promote alcoholism but to make adults responsible for their own actions – including their rate of alcohol intake. REFERENCE LIST ALAC. Our Strategic Direction: 2008–2013. Wellington: Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand. Babor T, Caetano R, Casswell S, et al. 2003. Alcohol: No ordinary commodity: Research and pubic policy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Centre for Social and Health Outcomes Research and Evaluations. 2006. CAYAD Final Impact Assessment. Auckland: Centre for Social and Health Outcomes Research and Evaluations. Department of Corrections. 2004. Strategy to Reduce Drug and Alcohol Use by Offenders: 2005–2008. Wellington: Department of Corrections. New Zealand Police. 2006. Alcohol Action Plan. Wellington: New Zealand Police. Nuffield Council on Bioethics. 2007. Public Health: Ethical issues. URL: http://www.nuffieldbioethics.org (accessed 30 November 2007). OECD. 2007. OECD Health Data. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Easton B. 2002. Taxing Harm: Modernising Alcohol Excise Duties. Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand: Wellington. Grant BF, Dawson DA. 1997. Age at onset of alcohol use and its association with DSM–IV alcohol abuse and dependence: results from the National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey. Journal of Substance Abuse 9: 103–10. Graves TD, Graves NB, Semu V, et al. 2002. Patterns of public drinking in a multi-ethnic society: a systematic observational study. 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