{UAH} Tanzania: Grappling With Effects of Alcohol At Night Clubs

Tanzania: Grappling With Effects of Alcohol At Night Clubs

By Nelly Mtema

Violent behaviour in and around pubs, night clubs and Bars in Dar es Salaam presents a significant public health, criminal justice and urban management problem and in many of these incidents, alcohol has been consumed, according to a survey.

Tanzania Media Women Association (TAMWA) conducted a survey on violence in the night clubs and its relation to alcohol use, which shows that violence in the night-time typically involves young males and females who do not know each other well and in most cases under the influence of alcohol.

Most incidents involve drinking by the offender, victim or both and alcohol contributes to violence in many direct and indirect ways whereas factors associated with violence in high-risk pubs and clubs include inconvenient access routes, poor ventilation, overcrowding and permissive social environments, communicated through pub/club policies and staff behaviour. Alcohol is often associated with violence in the night-time economy.

It has been established that most offenders were under the influence of alcohol. Any behaviour committed in the context of alcohol consumption, violent or otherwise, results from interaction between factors relating to the individual, to the immediate environment and to the alcohol consumed.

Head of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Unit at the Ministry of Health, Dr Norman Sabuni said alcohol has both physiological and learned effects.

"As a person becomes more intoxicated, alcohol's physiological effects result in a decreased ability to process information and make judgment, impaired motor control, slurred speech, deterioration of reaction time, and ultimately loss of consciousness" he said He said harmful use of alcohol is a growing problem in Tanzania and one that requires quick attention.

The 2014 Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health by World Health Organization (WHO) indicates that about 34 per cent of Tanzanians who drink indulge in binge drinking.

The WHO report says 40.6 per cent of Tanzanian men aged 15 above engage in heavy episodic drinking among those who consumed at least 60 grams or more of pure alcohol on at least on one occasion in 30 days.

The prevalence of heavy episodic drinking among women aged 15 years plus is also at staggering 23.3 per cent, while the younger generation is also influenced into harmful use of alcohol.

A survey in most night clubs in Dar es Salaam has it that of 18- to- 24-year-olds, found 17 per cent of those reporting feeling very drunk at least once a month ('binge drinkers') had committed violent criminal acts, compared with only four per cent of those who drank frequently but rarely felt very drunk ( ' regular drinkers').

Binge drinkers were also five times more likely than regular drinkers to have been involved in a group fight in public.

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