Tackling Scotland’s drink culture
A number of people have approached me to say they are unhappy that the behaviour of an irresponsible minority who abuse alcohol is being used by Nicola Sturgeon to justify a minimum pricing policy which in principle could affect everyone, including occasional or moderate drinkers. Their argument is that those responsible for the overwhelming majority of the violence and anti-social behaviour linked to alcohol should be the government’s target, people whose actions are in many cases fuelled by drinking the likes of Buckfast and cheap cider and end up with themselves or others having to be taken to casualty units. The measures the government should be prioritising are those tackling the behaviour of hazardous drinkers rather than someone wanting to buy a reasonably priced bottle of wine to enjoy with their dinner.
I believe Scotland’s problems with alcohol are such that we cannot focus solely on hazardous drinkers. We need an education programme so people are more aware of safe limits and the health consequences of excessive consumption, we need to put a stop to irresponsible drinks promotions both by pubs and in supermarkets and to considera range of other measures, including further increases in the duty paid on alcohol. But the flaw in the government’s approach is that by concentrating so heavily on minimum pricing they could create a backlash, reducing public support for addressing head-on the problems associated with excessive consumption of alcohol.
Unless the government is more stringent in enforcing existing legislation which gives enforcement powers against licensees who sell to underage young people, and people who buy booze on behalf of those they know are not yet 18, they will lose credibility. The laws are already in place but are not being enforced properly. We need targeted action, using existing laws, coupled with a more broad based set of measures aimed at tackling Scotland’s drink culture.
There is abundant evidence that increased consumption of alcohol is having adverse health consequences for all age groups and this is a problem we urgently need to tackle. Better information about how much it is safe to drink and earlier identification of symptoms linked to over-consumption is needed. But minimum pricing will have little effect if it is set at 40p pence a unit, and a disproportionate effect on those on modest incomes who enjoy an occasional drink if it is set at the British Medical Association’s preferred level of 60 pence per unit on the other.
Labour has set up a commission under Professor Sally Brown to look into all the options for reducing problems associated with drinking, including excessive consumption. Amongst the measures I would like to see are a ban on price based alcohol advertising, which supermarkets use to increase footfall. Before Christmas there were whole pages of newspapers given over to adverts for cheap vodka and other spirits, beers and alcopops. We should just ban this and look at other measures which hold out the prospect of being effective in either discouraging excessive consumption or taking procedings against those who sell alcohol to those who are legally prevented from purchasing it. Let’s see what comes out of that Commision and choose the right measures to deal with what is a very serious problem.
