Ganzi Muhanguzi
6 October 2008
Kampala — THE POLICE and private security personnel are among the highest consumers of alcohol in the country, a report by a youth advocacy organisation has revealed.
Uganda Youth Development Link in its report 'The State of Alcohol Abuse in Uganda' says up to 500 Police officers were last year reported to have serious alcohol problems.
According to the report, released yesterday by Rogers Kasirye, the executive director, there is no focus on alcohol education and support among these institutions.
In terms of geographical distribution, Karamoja and Isingiro top the districts with the highest alcohol abuse.
"Karamoja recently banned alcohol because people were drinking themselves into poverty," he said.
The research also revealed that 22% of the patients admitted in psychiatric centres across the country are suffering from alcohol-related ailments.
Unlike in Western countries, people in Uganda consume more alcohol as they grow older, the study found.
"This trend is probably one of the major reasons we have such a low life expectancy," Kasirye said.
He added that the accessibility of alcohol to youth was very high, with most education institutions being surrounded by bars and night clubs.
"We discovered that Makerere is surrounded by over 500 bars, with surrounding slums like Kikoni, Katanga and Kinvulu selling both local and conventional brands of alcohol."
He further pointed out that whereas neighbouring countries had banned the production of tot packs containing alcoholic drinks, in Ugandan it was still allowed.
"Some of these packs are sold for as low as sh100, making alcohol very accessible to both underage people and unemployed youth," Kasirye said, adding that they had appealed to government to ban the packs.
He attacked the brewery industry and the media for aggressively advertising alcoholic products without attempting to show the other side of the story.
"No one is emphasising the harmful effect alcohol has on the population. We appeal to the media to be more balanced in their adverts."
The report, which recommended stronger action from the ministry of education, ministry of health and the Uganda National Bureau of Standards, also called upon the Government to increase taxation on alcoholic products.
"If the Government does not increase taxes on alcohol, it will become more accessible to Ugandans, thus worsening our already bad situation," Kasirye advised.
Uganda is currently ranked one of the top consumers of alcohol in the world, with a consumption rate of 19.5 litres per person, according to a 2005 World Health Organisation report.
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