Individualized Control of Drinkers: Back to the Future?

Abstract

In recent years, Anglophone countries are increasingly resorting to individualized control of drinkers. Thus, the Australian Northern Territory government has implemented legislation for electronically verifiable identification that must be checked against a list of adults prohibited from purchasing alcohol. For another example, alcohol-purchase banning orders were instituted in England and Wales by the Blair government. This article considers the earlier history of such individualized drinking controls, particularly in the alcohol-control regimes of the 1920s-1960s, which succeeded prohibition regimes, or were set up in response to prohibition movements. Questions addressed include: what were the rationales of such individualized controls, how were they enforced, why were they largely abandoned, and what evidence is available on their effects? The present-day resurgence of individualized controls is interpreted as the path of least resistance for politicians who need to be seen to do something about alcohol problems without substantially impinging upon the alcohol market.