Alcohol-related deaths and harms are rising, yet schools and organisations associated with them still promote drinking. Education should help break the cycle, not reinforce it.

The misuse of alcohol in Australia takes an enormous toll on individuals, families and the wider community.

While deaths from smoking cigarettes, for example, are decreasing, reliable statistics indicate that the damage and harms caused by alcohol are increasing substantially.

In 2025, it is estimated that there were 1,765 annual deaths directly caused by alcohol (such as acute alcohol poisoning and liver cirrhosis). This is the highest rate recorded in a decade. But where alcohol was a major contributing cause of death (including alcohol-induced cancers, road accidents and stroke), alcohol claimed approximately 6,000 Australian lives last year. The majority of these deaths were men.

Fatalities are only the tip of the iceberg. The harms caused by misuse are enormous.

If the current wave of alcohol-fuelled physical and sexual violence (mainly directed at women) is to be stopped, alcohol must cease being an intrinsic part of our way of life. And this can only happen through education, and especially education of the young.

It is well known that excessive drinking (of alcohol) can make people dangerous to be around.

Our language reflects that alcohol is so integral to our society that “to drink” means to drink alcohol.

Something must be done to stop the cycle of excessive drinking before it starts. At a minimum, there should be a ban on advertising alcohol before eight o’clock at night and, very importantly, we should break the nexus between alcohol and sport, in exactly the same way we did with cigarettes.

In particular, from an early age our children should be supplied with extensive empirical education about the dangers of alcohol misuse.

Promotion of alcohol in schools, and in organisations associated with schools, should certainly not occur.

As it happens, former director of the Alcohol and Drug Service at St Vincent’s Hospital, Dr Alex Wodak, and I both attended Melbourne High School and remain grateful for the excellent start we received.

To our dismay, last week we both received an email from the Melbourne High School Old Boys Association promoting whisky.

Because we have both been involved for decades in the field of alcohol education and in minimising harm caused by its misuse, this provoked considerable anguish in us both.

One of us (me) became a professor of history and politics and authored numerous books and articles (including three books about alcoholism and addiction). I suffered for some years from the ravages of alcohol dependence but have overcome it for well over 50 years.

The other (Alex) became a doctor and spent many decades trying to prevent alcohol- and drug-related problems and help people struggling with alcohol and drug problems.

It is generally accepted these days that prohibiting alcohol is not a realistic response to the huge problems alcohol causes in our community.

We accept that many Australians want to consume alcohol. But inevitably that means a significant number of people will consume alcohol in ways that will cause them and/or others great harm.

We both feel very strongly that neither schools nor organisations associated with schools have any business promoting alcohol.

We therefore ask Melbourne High old boys to discontinue any involvement in the promotion of alcohol.

And we urge that all schools and all organisations associated with schools play an integral role in educating young Australians about the possible dangers of consuming alcohol.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.