RCP Welcomes The Chief Medical Officer's Stance On A Minimum Unit Price For Alcohol
Main Category: Alcohol / Addiction / Illegal DrugsArticle Date: 17 Mar 2009 - 0:00 PDT
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Sir Liam Donaldson's call for the Government to tackle deep discounting through a minimum unit price policy was greeted warmly by Prof Ian Gilmore, President of the Royal College of Physicians, who said:
"Over the past twenty years, as alcohol has grown progressively more affordable, the rates of chronic illness and acute injuries stemming from its misuse have soared. A minimum unit price would mean the end of deep discounting that young people and heavy drinkers rely upon to source large quantities of alcohol. It also should have little impact on those who drink in moderation, as in most cases the alcohol they buy now will already be sold above any minimum price per unit. We welcome the CMO intervening in this debate in such a public way, and hope it encourages the Government to be bolder than they have been so far".
Notes
In 2005/6 there were more than 187,000 NHS hospital admissions related to alcohol. This is more than double from 89,280 in 1995/6.
Recent national surveys by the ONS reveal that a third of all adult men, and a fifth of adult women drink regularly above the recommended limit.
The recent pricing review carried out by Sheffield University at the behest of the Department of Health makes it clear that tackling the low price at which alcohol is sold would bring substantial benefits in terms of lives saved and illness averted.
Source
Royal College of Physicians
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Horse And Cart.
posted by Peter O'Loughlin on 18 Mar 2009 at 12:10 pmWhilst increasing the price of alcohol could have some impact on alcohol consumption initially, old habits tend to die hard and there is the distinct possibility that after a period, regular or habitual drinkers, could repeat the pattern of smokers who immediately following a price rise vow to give up, or cut down only for their old pattern to gradually reinstate itself.
An unintended consequence of price increases might be that those heavy/binge drinkers who, the increased costs are intended to influence and, who find themselves unable to fund their habit, might be tempted to obtain their defict by turning to criminal activity as is the case with those who fund their drug habit.
It is regrettable that neither Sir Liam Donaldson, or the researchers appear be aware of the extensive research from Sweden and Finland which established that the vast majority of those presenting to hospital emergency wards were not in fact the seasoned or habitual binge drinker, but moderate drinkers who occasionally drank too much, the proposed price increase would not have any influence on that section of the population.
In view of the foregoing a more radical solution might be to curtail the availability of alcohol. When the current government passed legislation to extend opening hours, 'research' posited the hypothesis that many of the problems caused by alcohol were due to the rapidity at which alcohol was consumed during the 'restricted' hours of opening and that with extended hours people would spread their drinking over longer periods, thus obviating the brawls etc which occurred at 'chucking out' time; it is self evident that theory has not worked.
Restricting opening hours and declining licenses to outlets which sell alcohol to would have the effect of restricting the time in which alcohol could be consumed, and whilst there will always be drinkers who will shovel as much booze down their throats as possible, even the most dedicated drinker can manage so much in constrained time periods.
Refusing to license any corner shop, and indeed other larger outllets, would put in place an obstacle to under age drinkers. With restricted availability, there would be reduced competition for trade, which in turn would impact on the the cut price wars which currently exist. In addition, I would suggest that registered off licences would be restricted to opening to the same hours as pubs.
Whilst such a drastic solution is unlikely to see the light of day, an immediate measure that could be implemented is to actually enforce existing laws relating to street drinking and rowdy behaviour, whilst tackling the anti social behaviour of those, who with the coming of summer, make the idea of families visiting restaurants or cinemas on a weekend evening unsafe and frequently hazardous, if not dangerous.
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