Caroline Nodder: Nutt's findings didn't match the headlines

By Caroline Nodder

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Alcohol Drug addiction

If you want to grab attention in the media these days you need a catchy one-liner, preferably involving sex, drugs or alcohol. Take, for example,...

If you want to grab attention in the media these days you need a catchy one-liner, preferably involving sex, drugs or alcohol.

Take, for example, last week's humdinger from Professor Nutt.

"Alcohol is more harmful than crack" screamed the tabloids after Nutt released a report on the subject.

As ever, the headline is probably as far as most of the UK public got in terms of evaluating the validity of the Professor's conclusions. In the back of their mind the subliminal anti-alcohol seed was already putting down roots, and the response from the wider health lobby to this gift of a headline was to encourage this seed to grow by underlining the "evils" caused by alcohol.

Never ones to let the truth get in the way of a good story, the Daily Mails of the world lapped it up - only disappointed they hadn't managed to tag in some sex and a celebrity to really make the story fly.

In truth, Nutt's findings don't match up to the headline itself. Comparing the impact on society of a legal substance like alcohol, with an illegal one like crack, is like comparing chalk with cheese. One is something quite regularly used completely safely in social situations by a vast majority of the UK's adult population. The other is an illegal drug sold on the black market to a tiny minority of drug users.

The harm done by each in volume terms is proportionate to the usage level so of course alcohol causes more harm when you look at it like that. Of course the issue the headlines totally side-stepped is the damage done to the average drinker of alcohol - none, addiction to alcohol is rare given the number of drinkers - compared to the damage done to the average crack user - significant, with a high chance of addiction and even death.

The tabloid coverage is misleading at best, damaging at worst and, as ever, doesn't tell the whole story.

But the worry here is what will now become of the report's "findings". Headlines like this are usually adopted by the anti-alcohol lobby as hard fact and used to push ministers into more restrictive policies on alcohol sales. The headline is all the ministers will remember - they don't have time to read every single report thrown at them - and they will act on that, instead of the hard facts.

Sadly the truth doesn't make a good headline. You don't walk past the newsagents and see "Most people drink responsibly" on the front pages of the tabloids. It just wouldn't sell papers.

Sensationalist headlines are regularly and seriously damaging our industry and my challenge to all of you out there running excellent pubs and playing host to hundreds of sensible social drinkers each week is to fight back with the truth. Tell whoever will listen that the headlines are wrong. There are 55,000 of you out there and if you repeat that message often enough and your customers pass it on maybe eventually the truth will out. Here's hoping anyway.

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