Beer’s drug theme angers watchdog

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Title – Beer’s drug theme angers watchdog
Source – www.ft.com
Date – 20th January 2009

I find this story unbelievable considering the current climate, both legislative and economic.

Firstly to name a drink ‘speed-ball’ with its direct link to such a destructive drug habit and the connotation of the highly addictive and destructive nature of this practice (of mixing crack cocaine and heroin), seems to me to be not just irresponsible but also plain stupid.

Secondly to do this not for any misjudged commercial reason, but for the purpose of getting ‘one over’ on the Portman Group and to “…give them something worthwhile complaining about…” seems petulant. Why they felt the need to ‘make their point’ when they had won their recent panel hearing against a previous complaint, is difficult to understand.

It is a pity that what on the surface seems to be a successful start-up in such difficult economic times chooses to market a product named after an addictive drug habit with slogans like ‘ class A ale’ and ‘a vicious cocktail of active ingredients’. I can understand the frustration at the previous complaint made against the company and the time and distraction it must have caused, but this must be considered a grossly miscalculated mistake and bizarre response.

The Portman Group is after all, the industry body which defends the whole Licensed Retail Sector from further legislation through its voluntary codes of practice. At a time when government bodies are pushing for this voluntary code to become legally compulsory, which will lead to additional cost for the entire industry, this type of incident provides a strong hand for those calling for further regulation.

The Licensed Retail Sector is in the grip of a very serious economic downturn, which is recession in all but the details and with nearly 40 pubs going out of business every week, the very people that this company supplies are being squeezed more than ever. The whole sector needs to work together to promote Responsible Alcohol Retailing through effective Training, not to splinter and display petulance that plays straight into the hands of the sectors detractors.

When irresponsible promotion of alcohol can lead to a premises licence review, it is a brave licensee who puts a product on their shelf which clearly promotes any form of drug use or excessive consumption of alcohol.

The defence that only some 1200 bottles have been sold in the UK does not really wash; ask the pub in Newcastle that recently got into trouble with their local licensing authority by selling off 36 bottles of beer cheaply (see ‘Bar’s 10p beers ‘irresponsible’).

At Beyond The Blue we run a number of courses for those working in the licensed retail sector to help them sell alcohol more responsibly. These include; The Award in Responsible Alcohol Retailing (ARAR) designed for front-line staff to help them meet their statutory requirements; The National Certificate for Personal Licence Holders (NCPLH) which qualifies candidates to apply for their personal licence; The National Certificate for Licensees Drug Awareness (NCLDA) and our bespoke Drug Awareness (DA) courses, which examine illegal drugs, their effects and the drug litter synonymous with their use.

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