Citation

Callinan S, MacLean S, Dietze PM. Drug Alcohol Rev. 2023; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/dar.13679

PMID

37159415

Abstract

Despite being the place where the majority of alcohol in many countries is consumed (e.g., [1]), drinking in the home does not receive as much public and research attention as drinking in public settings. As we have argued previously [2, 3], attention given to home drinking by researchers and policymakers should be proportionate to its substantial contribution to alcohol's harms. The recent rise in availability and popularity of alcohol home delivery services means that access to alcohol in domestic settings has become easier [4]. This shift is occurring while there is still a dearth of research on home drinking--we know little about the practices inherent to consumption in the home, types of home drinking that are linked with harmful consumption, and policy options and interventions that are best placed to reduce harmful consumption in the home. This special section goes some way to reducing these gaps in the research literature.

Colbert et al. [5] demonstrate that rapid alcohol home delivery services were popular during the COVID-19 pandemic and that the use of these services was significantly and positively linked with drinking at hazardous or harmful levels. Notably, participants aged 25 or younger were less likely to report having their ID verified with home delivery of alcohol than when they went to buy it themselves. They use availability theory (that alcohol consumption is greater when it is more readily available) to understand the effects of home delivery of alcohol and suggest that home delivery could be used to fill some of the current gaps in availability of alcohol when people are at home.

In a similar frame, Pettigrew et al. [6] highlight the potential increases in ready availability of alcohol afforded by home delivery of alcohol by autonomous delivery mechanisms such as drones. They conducted interviews with stakeholders, asking them to consider what the development of autonomous delivery could mean for alcohol availability. Interestingly, they noted relatively little concern about consumption in the home among these stakeholders. However, they found that even stakeholders who promoted minimal government intervention were very clear that measures should be implemented to ensure that this delivery method would not result in increased underage purchasing and consumption of alcohol...

Language: en