Citation

Gruenewald P. Addiction 2008; 103(10): 1585-1587.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1360-0443.2008.02332.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A great deal of community-level alcohol research has examined statistical relationships between alcohol availability and problems related to alcohol use. This literature is very large and defies the brief summary, but here I will express my general opinion about the findings of this work [1]. Research on alcohol outlets has demonstrated that greater numbers of bars and off-premise drinking places are related to greater problems, could be related to drinking levels (if we include restaurants in our counts) and are probably related to dependence and addiction in some way. Put simply, more outlets mean more problems, might mean more use and likely have something to do with the addictions. Beyond these actuarial facts we know little else. A useful question to ask then is, ‘Why?’

[1] Stockwell T., Gruenewald P. J., Toumbourou J. W., Loxley W. Prevention Harmful Substance Use: The Evidence Base for Policy and Practice. New York: John Wiley; 2005.