Scotland’s battle for minimum alcohol pricing continues

A recent study has revealed that adults in Scotland are consuming the equivalent of a staggering 46 bottles of vodka in a year reports BBC News.

The 50.5 million litres of pure alcohol sold in Scotland last year was enough for every drinker over the age of 18 to exceed the weekly consumption guidelines. With figures such as these splashed around the media it is only furthering the Scottish government’s wish to implement minimum alcohol pricing in a bid to stop alcohol abuse from becoming Scotland’s biggest health issue.

The figures are based on sales data which was analysed by NHS Health Scotland and it concluded that people in Scotland drank 25% more alcohol per head of the population than individuals in England and Wales.
This is the first time the figure has risen since back in 2005 and is now the equivalent of 537 pints or 130 bottles of wine per person.

Nicola Sturgeon is Health Secretary for Scotland and she believes it is time for the critics of minimum pricing to open their eyes and see the scale of Scotland’s alcohol problem.

She said: “All the evidence tells us that the big rise in Scottish alcohol consumption in recent decades is closely linked with the 70% drop in alcohol’s relative cost.

“As a consequence, our country now faces an unprecedented burden from alcohol-related health problems, crime and lost economic productivity, which runs into billions and which we are all paying for.

Those who are opposing the rise in alcohol prices reason that it will only mean an increase of profits for supermarket’s and it won’t provide any funding for extra police officers or alcohol treatment.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 18th, 2010 at 3:52 pm and is filed under Abuse, Addictions, Government. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.