Sport and Alcohol

An ethical perspective

Carwyn Rh. Jones

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317613244
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Sports Medicine

There is a clear sense in which sport has played, and continues to play an important role in the normalization and legitimization of routine, excessive and problem drinking; sport and alcohol have become inextricably linked. Alcohol companies provide funding in the form of sponsorship, fans consume alcohol when watching, and players celebrate, bond and relax with alcohol. Sport and Alcohol: an ethical perspective aims to critically examine the various ways in which sport and alcohol interact.

In doing so, the book casts an ethical eye over the following topics:

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• Society's relationship with alcohol

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• Sponsorship and marketing of alcohol through sport and its effect on children

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• Sport's alcohol-tolerant ethos, problematic drinking practices and rituals

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• Punishment and discipline in relation to athletes' drink-related bad behavior

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• Alcoholism in the context of sport and the need for a greater understanding of the condition, how it develops and what can be done

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• The status of athletes as role models

Offering a much-needed critical assessment of an important issue in contemporary sport and society, Sport and Alcohol is essential reading for those interested in the social, cultural or philosophical study of sport in general and sport and alcohol in particular.

1 Alcohol and its harms

DOI: 10.4324/9781315750804-2

Introduction

In this chapter, I provide a brief background to the rest of the book. Alcohol is a toxic mind-altering (psychoactive) drug that causes a number of problems. The extent of harms and costs incurred by many societies and individuals as a result of alcohol testifies to its widespread use and abuse. Despite the risks associated with alcohol, its consumption is at the centre of many cultural practices and traditions, including watching and playing sport, and there is significant resistance to policies infringing our freedom to buy and consume it. Our positive, or at least tolerant, attitudes towards alcohol are entrenched and come into sharp relief when we compare alcohol with other psychoactive drugs; alcohol laws in many countries are liberal in comparison to those governing other psychoactive substances. There is strong resistance to a change of policy in light of scientific evidence and alcohol industries play a powerful role in resisting changes that would affect profits.

Alcohol: no ordinary commodity

Alcohol has always played a central role in a variety of different cultural practices. It has been consumed for intoxication purposes (to get drunk), but has also been used for medicinal, symbolic and ritualistic purposes. Despite alcohol’s ubiquitous presence in our supermarkets, bars and restaurants, and on our television screens, Babor et al. (2010: 11) argue that alcohol is ‘no ordinary commodity’. Although it is bought by consumers regularly, much like other grocery items, it is a drug consumed primarily for its intoxicating rather than nutritional properties. Alcohol, or ethanol (the molecule CH₃–CH₂–OH) is similar to other drugs in this respect. Although it might be taken in various forms and flavours, ethanol is ingested ‘not for the molecules under that description, but for the molecules because of what they do’ (Flanagan 2011: 273). Its universal appeal, its raison d’être, lies with (like other drugs) its psychoactive properties; its ability to change the way we feel or bring about an altered state. It does this by directly changing the chemical state of our brains. Alcohol is a drug that has both depressive and stimulating effects. Alcohol stimulates because it activates the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptor and depresses because it also releases noradrenaline (norepinephrine). Consequently, alcohol can relieve anxiety, help with sleep and relaxation, but can also improve sociability, lower inhibitions and lead to a loss of control. There may be many reasons why human beings as a species are so preoccupied with changing mood, but Davenport-Hines (2002: xiv) suggests that ‘the use of drugs often reflects other sets of human ideals: human perfectibility, the yearning for a perfect moment, the peace that comes from oblivion’. In a more theistic account, Carl Jung’s letter to Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), interpreted one of his patients’ desire for alcohol, or more precisely the desire for its effect, in the following way: ‘His craving for alcohol was the equivalent, on a low level, of the spiritual thirst of our being for wholeness, expressed in medieval language: the union with God’ (cited in Flanagan 2013: 80). The corollary of the transformative property of alcohol and other drugs is their power to harm individuals and communities.

The most obvious negative effects of alcohol – getting drunk and losing control – mean that along with its history of production and consumption, it has a history of opposition. According to Nicholls (2009: 2):

Drink has always existed both as an activity and a set of questions: questions about the rights and wrongs of intoxication, about the role of government in regulating free trade, about the limits of personal freedom, about gender, class, taste and health.

Contemporary concerns about alcohol consumption are nothing new. Different governments or organizations in various countries at different times have, for religious, moral, health, economic and other motives, attempted to paternalistically influence their citizens’ alcohol consumption. Legislation, education, moralizing and prohibition have all been used at various times with different levels of success. For example, in the UK, during the Industrial Revolution, alcohol played a significant role in class relations. In terms of crude class control, ‘the industrialists exploited the cultural power of alcohol to the fullest extent’ by paying the workers in company-owned public houses (Pritchard 2006: 305). Consequently, the men would spend their meagre wages on beer, further exacerbating their reliance on the ‘company’. Both the expenditure and the drunkenness would aggravate the already difficult social conditions prevalent at that time. Temperance movements began to emerge to combat the invidious threat of alcohol in order to protect both the souls of the workers and the well-being of their families. Ironically, at the time, drinking beer (fairly weak in comparison to today’s standards) had advantages. Water purity was poor and cholera was relatively common. The brewing process purified water and it was often safer to drink beer. More recently, the ever-present threat of drink was described by Asquith, the British Prime Minister before the First World War, as ‘a greater threat than Austria and Germany combined’ (Nicholls 2009: 1). ¹ In the USA, the Volstead Act of 1919 marked the start of a period of prohibition where the manufacture, sale and transportation (but not the consumption) of alcohol became illegal. ² In addition to the well-known, and arguably infamous, prohibition period in the USA, various forms of restriction and control of alcohol endure. The production and sale of alcohol continues to be regulated to a greater or lesser degree in most countries. A key difference between alcohol and other marketable products, and the reason it is subject to restrictions, is based on the growing evidence which shows ‘that alcohol intoxication, alcohol dependence, and the toxic effects of alcohol on various organ systems are key mechanisms linking alcohol consumption to a wide range of adverse consequences’ (Babor et al. 2010: 11).

Despite the numerous problems associated with alcohol, there is an enormous appetite for it and paternalistic attempts to control its use are divisive, controversial and unpopular. Opinions are often polarized, with ‘nanny’ killjoy moralizers on one side and the liberal open minded on the other. Nicholls (2009: 251) argues that, historically:

The public discourse on drink has often been characterised by elements of moral panic: over-identification of problematic behaviours with ‘deviant’ social groups, the use of media pressure to effect policy changes, and the tendency to articulate broader social anxieties through an attack on public drunkenness.

In other words, drink, or the behaviour of certain drinkers, has been used by opponents to support stricter regulation and by supporters to back more lenient regulation. Both parties often point to the same phenomena to support their case. Folk devils – the young, working class, students, women, musicians, artists, liberals and football hooligans (visible manifestations of drunkenness) – the argument goes, have been ‘created’ to exaggerate a problem and propound a political agenda. On the one hand, these groups (those who drink too much) provide the evidence that alcohol is bad and more control is needed, while on the other hand their behaviour is proof that the problem is a problem for them. Others are able to enjoy alcohol without these negative consequences. In other words, alcohol per se is not the problem; rather, it is the way certain people abuse or misuse alcohol that is problematic. Currently, there is a focus in the UK and elsewhere on ‘binge drinking’ among the younger generation (the latest folk devils). Young men and women, including high-profile athletes, increasingly choose to get drunk in city centre bars and clubs or holiday resorts, with very visible consequences such as violence, sexual abuse, vandalism and public disorder. Such high-profile alcohol problems can detract from, and often mask, other less obvious alcohol-related issues. While the young binge drinker, beer or shot in hand, is criticized, the middle classes binging regularly on expensive red wine escape our moral gaze because they are enjoying alcohol in a civilized way and causing no obvious harm. Alcohol-related problems, however, are not confined to the young binge drinkers. Older people are increasingly facing alcohol-related health problems, but such concerns are not as newsworthy as stories about binge drinking. ³ Alcohol can be harmful in a number of ways other than intoxication, which means that a significant proportion of drinkers are potentially at risk in one way or another. Furthermore, those who do not use alcohol can be harmed directly or indirectly by those who do.

Alcohol-related harms and risk

We now know that alcohol is overwhelmingly toxic and is affecting the physical health of millions of people. According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global status report on alcohol and health in 2014, alcohol is causally implicated in more than 200 health conditions including HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (WHO 2014). Babor et al. (2010: 16) argue that: ‘No other commodity sold for ingestion, not even tobacco, has such wide-ranging adverse physical effects’. There are 3.3 million deaths a year (5.9% of all deaths) attributable to alcohol, and 5.1% of the global burden of disease is alcohol-related. The WHO (2014: 2) suggest that although the ‘consumption of alcohol and problems related to alcohol vary widely around the world, . . . the burden of disease and death remains significant in most countries’. In Australia, more than 5500 lives are lost every year as a result of alcohol and more than 157 000 people are hospitalized. ⁴ In the UK in 2010/2011 there were 1 168 300 alcohol-related admissions to hospitals, more than double the figure in 2002/2003. ⁵ According to a report by leading experts in the UK entitled ‘Health first: an evidenced-based alcohol strategy for the UK’, ‘alcohol-related deaths in the UK have doubled from 4,023 in 1992 to 8,748 in 2011’ (University of Sterling 2013: 13). In the USA, excessive alcohol consumption is responsible for the deaths of over 79 000 citizens each year (Bouchery et al. 2011). Charles Kennedy, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats parliamentary party in the UK, died recently at the age of 55 from a haemorrhage linked to alcohol abuse. ⁶

Many of the conditions caused by alcohol are chronic, brought about by excessive habitual use. According to Babor et al. (2010: 15), there is clear evidence that alcohol can cause cancer of the mouth, oesophagus, larynx and pharynx, and alcohol is the main cause of liver cirrhosis. In the UK, deaths from liver disease have increased by 400% since 1970, with alcohol being the primary cause. ⁷ These chronic health issues were thought to affect only older drinkers, but are increasingly affecting younger drinkers. Other problems include increased risk of stroke, heart disease and brain damage. Another risk associated with alcohol is dependence or addiction. There is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a correlation between high levels of engagement in alcohol consumption by the general population and the rate of alcohol dependence within that population (Rehm and Eschmann 2002 cited Babor et al. 2010: 20). Despite this correlation, the direction of causality is unclear. ‘Dependence may perpetuate heavy drinking, or heavy drinking may contribute to the developments of dependence, or these two mechanisms may operate simultaneously’ (Babor et al. 2010: 20). Addiction to alcohol or other drugs is not an inevitable consequence, but is a genuine risk, particularly for those predisposed. According to Morse (2011: 176), most people who use ‘potentially addicting substances do not become addicts, but between 15% and 17% do’ (I will talk more about addiction in Chapter 6).

There are also acute physical harms associated with consuming excessive amounts of alcohol in one go, or binging. Binge drinking involves consuming large quantities of alcohol in a short period of time which results in intoxication (and often bad behaviour). Binge drinking and its consequences are well publicized, and, as mentioned above, policy makers and reformers are often preoccupied with it, especially on certain occasions. Acco...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Series
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Alcohol and its harms
• 2 Alcohol and sport
• 3 Sport and its alcohol ethos
• 4 Role models and setting a good example
• 5 Drinking too much and punishment
• 6 Alcohol misuse, abuse and disorder
• 7 Footballer and alcoholic: a life story
• Conclusion
• Index