Changing the culture towards alcohol will take a generation of small changes and making it unacceptable. This is about how it took to make drink driving become unacceptable. Setting a minimum price for alcohol won't solve the problem, but it is one very small step in solving the problem. Given that cheap booze is a loss leader for the supermarkets I can't see them complaining much either.
Changing the price of alcohol is part of changing the culture around alcohol. Note how Stella were able to elevate their bog standard lager to a luxury product before their marketing went wrong. Price can be a very effective mechanism for changing attitudes and patterns of consumption.
Not a magic bullet but, I think, a useful tool for reducing unhealthy consumption among the most vulnerable. It's supported by the science and resisted only by those with a political or economic interest. Worth a go I think.
Vote for petrieboy and I'll introduce the drinking licence. It will work thus.
At 18 you will apply for a provisional drinkers licence which will allow you to drink shandy under direct supervision of a qualified drinker.
Once you've learnt how to drink and not become a bawbag you are ready for your test
The test will involve having a proper skinfull and demonstrating you can refuse that last drink which would tip you over the edge. If you can manage that without vomiting outside a kebab shop or starting a fight you get your full licence.
Cause annoyance in a pub = 1 point
Urinating in the street = 3 points
Punch a policeman = 9 points
12 points = loose licence - you can't be trusted!
Get caught selling to or purchasing for an unlicensed person = immediate ban
Perfect solution? I should coco!
Vote petrieboy!
I quit smoking and drinking to excess last year as a direct result of becoming a father..
Maybe mandatory parenthood after the age of say.. 14.. would solve Scotlands alcohol related social problems..?
I know I drink too much, but I tend to drink red wine & not cheap stuff either so minimum price won't make much difference.
The thing that is making me cut back is I know it isn't doing me any good so perhaps education is the key??
Though this always makes me laugh [url=
cant be arsed reading all the rehashed arguments but I will post this rehash of a graph i did when this all came around the first time and 50p/unit was mooted.
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i just think that pushing folk out of their houses, street corners, kiddys playgrounds...... and back into local pubs is in general a good thing.
I'm not so sure. That's where half the problems come from in our town, people w*nkered walking home from the pub, trashing things in the street. The more they keep it at home the better.
nobody has a better idea.
I do.
Address the social degeneration in British society that causes such horrendous behaviour.
Stop this pish that an alcoholic automatically gets incapacity benefit, It's like throwing petrol on the fire.
Stop saying that alcoholism is an illness, it isn't.
Go back to shutting pubs in the afternoon, for a couple of hours.
Well seeing as how you have all the ideas can you explain a couple of things
Address the social degeneration in British society that causes such horrendous behaviour.
What do you mean my "social degeneration" and what you would do to address it in such a way that would prevent "such horrendous behaviour"
Stop this pish that an alcoholic automatically gets incapacity benefit, It's like throwing petrol on the fire.
How exactly would stopping incapacity benefit stop alcoholism and by implication addiction in general. Do other addicts get this benefit and if not why would this work for alcohol addicts if it doesn't work for other forms of addiction. Additionally what about the harm done to society from those who are not addicted and do not therefore "automatically" get incapacity benefit.
Stop saying that alcoholism is an illness, it isn't.
Are you in any qualified to determine what is and is not an illness? Assuming that you are what benefit is there in treating such an addition as "not a benefit"?
Go back to shutting pubs in the afternoon, for a couple of hours.
How will this prevent an alcoholic from getting drunk? Will they not simply by off sales prior to the pubs closing?
The most important question of is, just how much is your Daily Mail subscription?
Like all addictions, price is not a factor.
This is complete fanny. There is price elasticity of demand in every drug (legal or not). Think of it the other way around: if beer were 10p a pint and heroin were 2 quid a gram, would there be more pissheads and junkies or just the same number?
Stop saying that alcoholism is an illness, it isn't.
Do you actually know what alcoholism is? Are you a medical professional?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholism
Binge drinking is hardly a new thing, it's always been there the media loves a good old story about now and then when there's no killer virus to talk about. Raising cost of drink will make no odds, they'll drink the same it'll just cost them more. Closing pubs in the afternoon won't make the slightest difference either.
This is complete fanny.
I'd like to apologise for this. No need for me to start being uppity like that when I could have just said "I disgree". Sorry.
And the news this am.
Alcohol sales continue to fall.
Raising cost of drink will make no odds, they'll drink the same it'll just cost them more.
Why do people keep saying this. It's obviously bollocks. Loads of people have done research into this and it is wrong. Alcohol prices go up, amount people drink goes down. It is just a fact.
It may be 'common sense' that people wouldn't drink less, but it is still wrong. If you think about it for a minute, it is pretty obvious - if you had two pubs, one with a £1 a pint night, and one that is a fancy mock belgian pub where beers are £3.50 for a half, would you seriously expect both to be full of seriously wasted people on a saturday night, or would you perhaps expect one of these to have a few more people vomiting in the toilets than the other?
Joe
Alcohol prices go up, booze cruises become viable again. It is just a fact.
Fixed it for you.
It may be 'common sense' that people wouldn't drink less, but it is still wrong. If you think about it for a minute, it is pretty obvious - if you had two pubs, one with a £1 a pint night, and one that is a fancy mock belgian pub where beers are £3.50 for a half, would you seriously expect both to be full of seriously wasted people on a saturday night, or would you perhaps expect one of these to have a few more people vomiting in the toilets than the other?Joe
But that's the option between two pricing levels, not an overall pricing level. Raising the price doesn't affect drinking until that price becomes extremely high. Increasing it by 50p or a £1 a pint across the board would have very little effect as people would just accept that it was now more expensive to go for a drink. I think you'd have to see 6 or 7 quid pints before people would seriously consider something else (probably other drugs at that point) and then that becomes wholely unfair on those who enjoy a nice quiet drink in a pub without causing endless problems.
Beer in London is a lot more expensive than a pint in Liverpool, yet both have drinking to excess.
