Facing up to Scotland’s problems

Discussing somebody’s troubling relationship with alcohol is never an easy thing, but how much harder do things become when it is a nation rather than an individual that has a problem with dangerous drinking? In fairness it has long been the case that Scotland’s relationship with alcohol has been widely recognised as damaging and spoken about in those terms, however it seems reasoned discussion is still far from easy when it comes to trying to find a solution.

The societal and economic cost of alcohol to Scotland is staggering. Alcohol misuse annually costs the Scottish economy in the region of £3.56 billion, an eye-watering sum in these difficult financial times which works out as the equivalent of £900 for every adult in Scotland. The human cost, however, is simply incalculable.

One in twenty deaths in Scotland are attributable to alcohol, the devastating consequence of Scots having the eighth highest alcohol consumption rate in the world. In our prisons, half of all offenders were drunk at the time of their arrest. We need radical action if we are to address this problem, which is why the Scottish Government has brought forward a bold range of measures aimed at improving the situation.

The Alcohol Bill, which recently passed its first parliamentary hurdle, contains a variety of elements that will provide new tools to fix the damage caused by damaging levels of drinking. It will introduce restrictions on discounting and drinks promotions which will bring the off-licence trade into line with licensed premises and make it harder for alcohol to be sold as a loss leader to attract people into shops to purchase other items. It will introduce a Social Responsibility Levy which will help raise money for local authorities to deal with the costs of alcohol misuse while rewarding good practice amongst retailers.

The most talked about measure, however, is the plan to introduce a minimum price per unit for alcohol sales. As alcohol prices have dropped over the years, consumption levels of alcohol in Scotland have risen along with the associated health and justice problems. The best academic information available shows that minimum pricing would reduce alcohol consumption rates, which is at the absolute heart of tackling the problem which sees enough alcohol sold in Scotland to allow every adult to exceed their weekly recommended limit every single week of the year.

Studies show that harmful drinkers spend far less per unit then moderate drinkers do, so a minimum price would have its greatest effect on those it is intended to reach. A moderate drinker would expect to see an increase of around £10 per year as opposed to £126 for a harmful drinker, while the anticipated reduction in hospital admissions would be most marked amongst harmful drinkers too.

Minimum pricing is of course not a silver bullet for all of Scotland’s problems with alcohol, but it is an important tool that should be utilised. This is why health professionals, chief police officers, the licensed trade, the Church of Scotland and even Tennents and Tesco have all made their support for the proposals clear. It is a radical measure for a serious problem, but what is disappointing is the refusal to engage in serious discussion by other parties. With no credible alternatives to offer, flatly opposing the measure seems at best like a failure to take Scotland’s alcohol problems seriously and at worst like partisan game playing with the health of the nation. It is unacceptable and Scotland needs better if we are to make a dent in our alcohol epidemic.