News
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- Reducing alcohol consumption can address health inequalities
- Alcohol-specific deaths remain at very high levels
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- Global first alcohol policy set to save hundreds of Scots' lives
- AFS welcomes minimum unit pricing for alcohol
- Walker's crisp ad exposes children to alcohol marketing
- Truer picture of alcohol harm revealed
- Focus on link between alcohol and obesity
- Alcohol causes 3,700 deaths in Scotland every year
- Last Christmas for heavily discounted alcohol
- Scotland's licensing system needs clearer direction
- Minimum pricing blog
- Minimum pricing gets green light
- Reflections on GAPC 2017
- Alcohol brands and young people
- Time for honest conversations about alcohol
- Q&A on alcohol marketing
- UK children anxious about parents' drinking
- Quarter of Scots drink above guidelines
- Alcohol producers failing to inform public
- Concern over alcohol-related deaths
- We need to make it easier for people to drink less
- Worrying rise in alcohol-related deaths
- Minimum pricing will save lives
- Pocket money prices for alcohol continue
- Scotland's alcohol problem laid bare
- Cheap alcohol is costing Scotland dear
- One drink a day can increase breast cancer risk
- Poverty linked to increased harm from alcohol
- What next for reducing alcohol harm in Scotland?
- Scotland must do more to turn tide of alcohol harm
- Concern as funding for alcohol services cut
- Budget: No change in alcohol duty
- Scottish Government urged to curb alcohol marketing
- Consumers have the right to know health risks
- Chancellor urged to tackle cheap, strong cider in Budget
- Online help for families affected by alcohol
- Alcohol-free childhood is healthiest option
- SWA granted leave to appeal minimum pricing
- Drink drive warning
- Scottish Greens call for action on alcohol marketing
- Scottish Government receives European alcohol award
- SWA will appeal to UK Supreme Court
- Half of alcohol being sold under 50p per unit
- SWA urged to respect minimum pricing decision
- Alcohol and mental health are closely linked
- Minimum pricing can be implemented in Scotland
- Alcohol sold at pocket money prices
- Scotland has so much to gain from reducing how much we drink
- AFS welcomes revised alcohol consumption guidelines
- Emergency services face shocking levels of alcohol abuse
- Every child has the right to grow up safe from alcohol harm
- Public health must prevail over big business
- New toolkit to help children affected by family alcohol problems
- Price check reveals cheap cost of strong alcohol
- Sales increase underlines need for minimum pricing
- Time to kick alcohol out of sport
- Alcohol linked with stomach cancer
- AFS calls for compulsory health warnings on alcoholic drinks
- Are supermarkets 'responsible retailers' when it comes to alcohol?
- Scottish health charities call for excise duty rise to tackle cheap alcohol
- Alcohol campaigners unite to call for stronger protection from alcohol advertising to children
- New resource for people concerned about alcohol in their community
- Minimum pricing decision delayed until summer
- No completely 'safe' level of drinking
- New alcohol guidelines published
- Minimum pricing - European court ruling
- Alcohol fuels ambulance assaults
- 82% of Scots agree drink driving is unacceptable
- Scotland's alcohol strategy - what next?
- Scotland leads way in evidence-based alcohol policy
- New report reveals impact of alcohol on emergency services
- Alcohol: a global concern
Public health must prevail over big business
As the alcohol minimum pricing court case continues this week, public health and charity leaders have come together to reaffirm their support for the life-saving measure.
In an open letter (pdf) they outline the devastating effects of cheap, strong alcohol: people’s health irreparably damaged; unhappy childhoods and families torn apart; drunkenness and disorder on the streets and in homes; young men with life-changing injuries from drunken assaults; all of this creating a huge, avoidable burden on our GPs, hospitals and emergency services.
This harm is fuelled by strong white ciders and spirits sold for as little as 18p per unit in supermarkets and corner shops. Minimum pricing will raise the price of these very cheap drinks which are favoured by young, vulnerable and harmful drinkers. It won’t affect the price of a pint in the pub or a glass of wine with a restaurant meal as these already cost much more than 50p per unit.
At least 4,500 Scots have died of alcohol-related diseases in the four years since the Scottish Parliament voted overwhelmingly to pass minimum pricing. But the policy has been delayed by the legal challenge led by the Scotch Whisky Association.
Alison Douglas, Chief Executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland said:
“The Scotch Whisky Association - whose members produce some of the biggest global brands - have echoed the tactics of the tobacco industry in delaying life-saving legislation. They have dismissed the scientific evidence and disregarded the democratic process to protect their members’ substantial profits.
“Minimum pricing will bring Scotland many benefits – it will help to reduce health inequalities, it will cut alcohol-related hospital admissions and crime and it will save hundreds of lives. We hope that this week the health of the people of Scotland will come before the profits of big business.”