Carolina Gomez Mena
La Jornada Newspaper
Saturday, November 15, 2025, p. 11
The idea that excessive alcohol consumption generates violence is a “simplification” of the problem, this “is not a side effect,” because not all people become aggressive when they are drunk, but because the substance disinhibits it, it can exacerbate pre-existing behaviors, said Metzeri Martínez Núñez, director of Strengthening Models of Comprehensive Care for Violence of the Women’s Secretariat in relation to gender aggression and uncontrolled substance intake.
In a meeting organized by the National Commission on Mental Health and Addictions on the occasion of the National Day against the Harmful Use of Alcoholic Beverages (November 15), he indicated that because “alcohol weakens the functioning of the prefrontal cortex, responsible for self-control of impulses, moral reasoning and social decision-making,” in some people it generates aggressive behavior.
After insisting that gender violence should not be justified due to being drunk, and that therefore this situation does not exempt from responsibility, she explained that the figures indicate that it is women who experience greater violence while under the effects of the substance.
More sexual assaults
He said that data from the Mexican Observatory of Mental Health and Addictions indicate that almost 93 percent of women experienced sexual violence while under the influence of alcohol, while only 7.1 percent of them experienced this type of aggression. Also in psychological abuse the difference is notable: 93.6 versus 6.4 percent and in the case of physical violence, men reported 78.3 percent and women 21.6 percent.
He regretted that both alcohol consumption and violence are very normalized behaviors in society, and explained that with respect to age, figures from the Observatory indicate that women between 18 and 39 years old register the highest percentages of sexual, physical and psychological violence.
Luis Alonso Robledo, spokesperson for the Alcohol Action Network (RASA), explained that “Mexico faces a regulatory lag in the face of a preventable crisis: 115 daily deaths associated with alcohol consumption, and almost a decade without reforms.”
He called for aligning taxes and regulation to save thousands of lives, since updating tax measures would annually reduce 39.2 percent of deaths from cirrhosis and two percent of injuries from family violence.
One year after RASA and the Interinstitutional Technical Committee on Alcohol presented the Manifesto for a national policy for alcohol controla document that demanded that the Executive and Legislative powers establish a comprehensive national and fiscal policy to control the consumption of alcoholic beverages, both bodies agreed that “progress has been insufficient and that greater political will is lacking to promote the necessary reforms.”
