At this week's Otago and Southland district health boards community and public health advisory committee meeting, chairman Errol Millar said members needed to be aware the Law Commission was producing a discussion paper on the Sale of Liquor Act.
This could give the boards opportunity to take part in the debate about alcohol issues.
If the committee wanted to have input, time would need to be allowed for public health staff to provide advice, and then for the boards to deliberate on that.
At last month's committee meeting, several members raised concerns about alcohol abuse in the community and the difficulties health workers had in dealing with the intoxicated.
Regional community services clinical adviser Dr Roy Morris also asked if it was time the committee entered the debate on alcohol.
The Law Commission is to publish its discussion paper in July.
In a recent speech, commission president Sir Geoffrey Palmer referred to the strain on hospital staff from intoxicated patients and the "significant burden" alcohol placed on government health expenditure across a range of services and specialties.
The cost to the ACC of alcohol-related injuries had been estimated at $275 million, plus potentially another $2.6 million for outpatient services, medicines and laboratory services, and the estimated cost to the health sector of $343 million a year was clearly an underestimate, he said.
Reducing alcohol-related harm could reduce the pressure on ACC premiums, and free resources to improve health services for all New Zealanders, he said.
The commission has also recently tabled a report in Parliament suggesting the historic practice of dealing with alcohol Bills through the conscience vote should be reconsidered.
It argues alcohol has gone beyond being a moral issue and is a matter of law and order, health and social wellbeing.
