Lockdown alcohol bans led to South Africans drinking more, not less

A recent study sponsored by the South African Medical Research Council has found, government’s decision to ban and/ restrict alcohol sales in four different periods during the Covid-19 lockdowns actually exacerbated South Africa’s alcohol consumption among the heavy episodic drinkers (HED) while it made less or no difference among moderate drinkers.

The research published in the MDPI Journal was conducted online on nearly 800 participants classified as HED with more than 60% of males and 43% of females falling in the category.

The South African government classified alcohol as a non essential item and banned the sale and transport of alcohol for a total of 161 days during four different periods from 27 March 2020.

According to the government this was done to increase hospital bed availability, but the study has found “illegal alcohol sales suddenly increased to supplement the population’s demand for alcohol,” and alcohol consumption got worse.

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“Reasons given for consuming more alcohol as the restrictions increased and decreased that were significantly more frequent for the HED group than for the moderate drinking group were, in descending order, feeling stressed, helping them to relax, feeling bored, having more time to consume alcohol with their household, and not needing to wake up for work/study,” reads part of the study.

It said that people who were moderate drinkers consumed less or the same amount of alcohol

“Reasons given for consuming less alcohol as restrictions increased and decreased that were significantly more frequent for the moderate drinking group… were that ‘it was more difficult to get alcohol while restrictions were placed on going out and while the shops were closed’ and that they had ‘not been able to socialise or go out or visit a pub’. Feeling that the restriction period was a good time to reduce how much they drank was found to have a significantly higher frequency as the restrictions increased for moderate drinkers only.”

Alcohol restrictions and bans found to be less effective

While the study has found that Alcohol restrictions and bans was less effective or not at all, but worsened, the National liquor Traders Association (NLTA) which has been vocal from onset against the restrictions and bans has described the move as nothing less than a “blunt” object whose aim was to accelerate poverty.

“We have always held that banning or restricting the sale of alcohol is nothing but a blunt object whose success is only going to result in acceleration of poverty amongst liquor traders who have been excluded from participating in the economy through these unjustified bans,” said NTLA convenor Lucky Ntimane.

“Ultimately the achievement of the sales restrictions and bans is that it made people to look for alcohol elsewhere and when they find it resort to stock piling it and this gave rise to a much higher consumption pattern leading to a rise in alcohol abuse.

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“Over and above the unintended consequence of the ban giving rise to a much higher consumption pattern, an alternative market albeit illicit market has now grown to be a R20 billion per annum industry as per the Euromonitor Report,” explained Ntimane.

This research concluded that people who are classified as heavy episodic drinkers react differently to the effects of emergency situations and concomitant policies that induce anxiety and stress.

“Policies intended to increase the pricing of alcohol, such as the WHO strategy of increasing excise taxes and minimum unit pricing, may have the potential to reduce alcohol intake in a time of crisis,” it concluded.