Manx Drug and Alcohol Abuse: Defusing the Moral Panic

There has been a flurry of sensationalist stories in the Manx press suggesting island residents have serious drug and alcohol problems. A particular concern to Manx humanists is that the creation of such folk devils and moral panics aids right wing Christians in general and evangelical organisations seeking public subsidy in particular.

A seminar at Nobles Hospital in February 2008 organised by the Alcohol Advisory Service was a good chance to review the evidence and consider our response. Speakers were Professors Martin and Moira Plant from the Centre for Public Health Research at the University of the West of England, Thea Ozenturk, Kay Mychreest, and Jenny Fong of the AAS, Dr Kirsten Wafer from the Manx Health Services Drug and Alcohol Team and David Gawne from the Crossroads ‘Caring for Carers’ scheme.

Martin Plant began by putting Manx alcohol problems into international perspective, followed by Moira Plant on women and alcohol. Thea Ozenturk and Kay Mylchreest spoke on AAS policies to reduce local alcohol consumption in general, with Jenny Fong later explaining her work as AAS’s youth worker. Kirsten Wafer outlined an ideal ‘tiered’ approach to the problems (given adequate resources) involving government and other agencies, and David Gawne concluded by explaining the new government Drug & Alcohol Strategy on tackling substance abuse through involvement of ‘significant others’ (i.e. the families of those with problems).

In general, despite a determined effort to demonstrate doom and gloom, the actual figures show the island problems are moderate compared to the adjacent isles – which in turn (despite efforts to claim moral degeneracy) only show that while the hardest drinking European countries have drastically reduced their intake, the UK increases only take us upwards to a point where we meet Italy or France coming down.

Severe, life-threatening alcoholism is still rare on the island, with most Manx ‘problem drinkers’ in the middle groups (i.e. drinking far more than is healthy, but not enough to require hospital treatment for some years). While there are concerns about the heavier drinking of young women, these are not ‘binge drinkers’ by UK standards yet. On the other hand, a sharp rise in elderly women drinkers should worry us.

On the plus side, there is a much higher percentage of temperance than the UK, the age of first drinking has gone up since 2003 and the identifiable ‘problem drinkers’ are now 15 -16 year olds. It is worrying (but perhaps not unusual) that incidents amongst young men of drink-related petty crime are high, but this could also be explained by the ease of gathering statistics compared to the UK. Youth workers at the seminar said bluntly that drug and alcohol education doesn’t work, and neither does a crime-related approach. The real question may be how (perhaps even if) we must change a culture which (outside the temperance lobby) does not view regular social drinking as a problem.

For ‘proper’ research, rather than anecdote, the enclosed essay, kindly forwarded to us by Martin Plant, gives an overall picture, which differs from local scare stories in that it is presented according to the rigorous expectations of academic research.

In 2003 the island for the first time took part in the European ESPAD survey of youth drink and drug use, and the 2003 and 2008 Manx surveys are also interesting reading. Sadly, the 2003 Manx report still only exists in full as an internal government document, though an outline can be found on ESPAD’s website at http://www.espad.org/sa/node.asp?node=664. An expanded academic survey of the results, ( 'Powell J., Plant M., Steriu, A. and Miller P. (2006): "Alcohol, tobacco and illicit drug use among teenagers in the Isle of Man (ESPAD 2003)". Journal of Substance Use, February; 10(2):1-9.' ), can be downloaded on Google Scholar for around £10. An initial summary of the 2008 Manx survey can be found at http://www.gov.im/lib/docs/dha/ceo/DandA/espad2007initialresultsfeb08rep.pdf

For social scientists, there are basic problems which prevent all three of the above being considered as providing a full picture of the issues. These are, in essence, that they take the respondents at their word. For example, all social researchers know that adolescents surveyed on ‘controversial’ topics notoriously exaggerate, and so seek independent verification of teenage boasts. The answers of mature adults in the first survey (e.g. assessment of their health) are also personal opinion. In all three cases the research, to be considered a rounded picture, would need to be cross-checked against (for example) police, court, and hospital admission records as well as health statistics for known alcohol-related illness rates. 

Dr Wafer’s talk revealed a general concern that the Manx public health system for dealing with drug and alcohol dependency is overstretched, and if one tier is damaged the whole pack of cards could collapse. Of particular significance for humanists is that there are only two ‘voluntary’ agencies who can help with counselling, one being AAS, the other Alcoholics Anonymous. Should AAS fail to get future funding (a strong possibility) this means that non-Christians wishing to curb problem drinking have no-one to go to for non-medical support.

To understand why AA is totally unable to help see http://en.wikipedia.org:80/wiki/Twelve-step_program. You should read Jeffrey Schaler on ‘AA as cult’ at http://www.schaler.net/fifth/cultbusting.html and also try Arthur H. Cain’s older article on the same subject at http://www.legacyaa.com/articles/cult_or-cure.htm . Also try searching the web for the work of Stanton Peele on learning to drink sociably but moderately, rather than total abstinence, as a solution to ‘problem drinking’.

The approach of involving families of substance abusers in treatment (IoM implementation plan) is less problematic, though if insensitively done would constitute further undue interference of the state in family life. On an island where religious extremists are firmly embedded in some public services this could, if not carefully monitored, lead to serious human rights abuse.

For humanists, a good starting point when considering our response is the John Stuart Mill book ‘On Liberty’, and in particular Chapter 5 (‘Applications’), where he opposes the temperance lobby. See the Mill website at http://www.utilitarian.net/jsmill/  and read the book for free at http://www.utilitarianism.com/ol/one.html .

Manx humanists have a particular problem in that historically the Manx arguments on this topic have been religious, but their development is hidden from the modern reader. Unfortunately an emphasis on ‘heritage’, rather than history, means that even current ‘academic’ local historical research is produced for the tourist trade. A more objective line of enquiry might be to echo E.P. Thompson in studying how the culture of working people was changed by the industrial era, and the efforts of their new masters to keep them in place.

For example, this would show how on the island in the 19^th century there was a ‘moral panic’ which ended most local ‘holy days’ as farming became more intensive, the mining industry and the new model factories appeared and employers needed compliant staff to work at set hours. To aid this process, employers built churches and demanded compulsory church attendance as a means to build discipline. Methodism and the Rechabite movement spread much faster on the island than in the UK, but it is also worth reading Samuel Norris’s Manx Memories and Movements (now available as a Manx Heritage reprint) to understand how this also contributed to the fight back against Anglican privilege, the arrival of popular democracy in the late 19^th century and the eventual abolition of church tithes, nearly a century after the UK.

With such a history it is not suprising that current government Drug & Alcohol policy is still heavily influenced by religious sentiment. See http://www.gov.im/cso/drugsalcohol/welcome.xml to find downloads of strategy documents over the last decade. When government consults, it will automatically invite lifelong teetotallers with no discernable expertise (such as Methodists and Salvationists) to contribute, but not people of other faiths – even if they are the only local parties professionally qualified to do so.

‘Mainstream’ humanism has been slow to adequately criticise press and government propagandising about ‘binge drinking’ or ‘24 hour drinking culture’, though it is worth looking on the BHA site (see links page) for short pamphlets on ‘social issues’ and publications by the Humanist Philosophers Group. However other humanists return to Mill and make a fierce critique of paternalism, as well as arguing for a ‘rights based’ rather than ‘social welfare’ model when considering alcohol and drug abuse. See for example Frank Furedi’s explanation of ‘advocacy research’ in an article attacking NSPCC policy . The article has gone from the original website but is mirrored at http://www.inquisition21.com/article64.html )

Finally, the Spiked website is highly recommended as a rare source of truly critical argument on such topics and Furedi is a regular contributor.