Rapid alcohol delivery services should be restricted in Canberra, advocates say, with new research finding the services are associated with higher odds of harmful drinking.
The ACT government is undertaking a review to explore whether tighter regulation is needed, considering how laws deal with same-day delivery services.
The research, published in the Drug and Alcohol Review today, has found one in five people have used an alcohol delivery service when they had run out of alcohol during a home drinking session.
It found that one-third of these people would have stopped drinking if the service was not available.
The research also found that using a rapid alcohol delivery service in this way was associated with six times higher odds of drinking at hazardous or harmful levels.
This has prompted the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education to renew calls for governments to curb the sales of alcohol delivery services.
The foundation's chief executive Caterina Giorgi has called for a two-hour delay to be implemented from when someone orders a drink to when it is delivered.
She said current legislation was primarily based on the sale of alcohol in restaurants and other licensed venues despite the fact 80 per cent of alcohol was takeaway.
"The way alcohol has been sold has changed rapidly," Ms Giorgi said.
"With this particular environment we need to make sure this regulation is keeping pace with change."
The territory government is considering whether changes are needed. The government released a drug action strategy last year and a review of legislation around online alcohol sales was included as part of that.
"Review relevant legislation to ensure current arrangements are contributing to minimising harm from online liquor sales and delivery and explore options for further regulation," the strategy said.
The research was led by University of NSW School of Population Health PhD researcher Stephanie Colbert.
Ms Colbert, who is conducting a body of research around the sale of online alcohol, she wasn't particularly surprised at the results of the study, however she was a little shocked to see the higher odds of hazardous drinking.
Ms Colbert said the findings suggested the availability of services had contributed to some people drinking more than they would have.
"Around one-third said that they would have stopped drinking if the services weren't available, which suggests the availability of these services on some occasions could be increasing the amount of alcohol that's consumed," she said.
There were 1158 people surveyed as part of the study, who were recruited through social media, which took place from September to November 2021 when parts of Australia were in lockdown.
The study found that more than a quarter of the participants had never bought alcohol online before March 2020.
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