People in Wales need to be made more aware of the harms associated with drinking too much alcohol, a National Assembly for Wales committee has heard.
The Assembly's Health and Social Care Committee, which looked specifically at the effects of alcohol and substance misuse on people in Wales and how well these issues are being tackled, also heard that there has been a rise in the prevalence of alcohol-related conditions.
Building on its work earlier this year in relation to new psychoactive substances (substances that can mimic the effects of illegal drugs), the Committee looked at the issues of alcohol and substance misuse and set up two reference groups, made up of service users and providers, for the inquiry.
David Rees AM, Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, said:
"Alcohol and substance misuse can have devastating effects on individuals, their families and their communities.
"This report represents a clear opportunity to influence the Welsh Government's next Substance Misuse Delivery Plan for 2016-2018 and our 21 recommendations seek to do so.
"Our recommendations include calling for more leadership from the Welsh Government at a strategic level to help raise awareness of the harms associated with alcohol and substance misuse and for the needs of particular groups, including older people, homeless people and people on release from prison, to be specifically addressed in the next Delivery Plan.
"We are also recommending that action is taken to improve training for GPs in order to remove some of the barriers to accessing services that we heard about during the inquiry.
"Looking ahead to the forthcoming Wales Bill, we are calling for assurances that the Bill will provide the Assembly with an appropriate set of powers to enable the Welsh Government to tackle the problem of alcohol and substance misuse in a more effective and holistic way."
The Committee published its report on alcohol and substance misuse (PDF, 1.32MB)