Mindestpreis für Alkohol in Schottland steigt um 30 %

If they announce similar in England I’m going to be pissed (well less often now, you know angry).

This doesn’t stop alcoholism. It’s been a failure so far, with Scotland’s alcohol related deaths only rising since the original price per unit increase. It will just increase the rate of shoplifting and push alcoholics to take more measures to obtain it, like theft. It could also increase the amount of people drinking alcohol not meant for consumption, like paint thinner.

It’s just an excuse to further tax plebs like you and I, with only the cheapest alcohol really being affected.

If you want to actually address alcoholism, maybe work on the things in society that drive people to it. Like mental health issues, child services, wage stagnation, attainable housing, education, homelessness, youth projects… But that would be a lot of work I guess. Much easier to charge £20 for a bottle of vodka then say you’ve tried your best.

Sorry plebs, we’re going to make it harder for you to enjoy some of the few pleasures that you have.

Whether it works or not it’s a depressing thing to hear on a wet Monday morning in (almost) October.

In line with inflation after a freeze – aye, right, whatever.

But still won’t tackle the issue in any effective manner. It’s already been proven that problem drinkers can’t be priced out of their habit. They just spend money that would be otherwise used for food/essentials/bills/childcare on alcohol. Alcohol abuse is a sociocultural issue, and soft prohibition doesn’t tackle that.

It also unfairly punishes non-problem drinkers. I haven’t bought beers from the supermarket or offies for a long time. I order them all online direct from the breweries in England.

I think it should be such that drinking in a pub is a cheaper option than supermarket booze. Not several times more in cost.

It doesn’t have any effect, just a way to tax the casual drinker more. 

Also off topic but did you know you can get alcoholic Honey Bees? They pretend to leave the hive to gather nectar each morning but they instead the find the nearest orchard and drink rotting fermented fruit instead. 

I don’t drink or smoke but I feel making both these things so highly priced that they’re unobtainable is not the way to go

If people make a choice to stop then that’s massively stronger than the nanny state forcing you to stop. Being forced causes discontent and unnecessary non-compliance whether that’s stealing, black market, crossing the border etc

As a Scot, this is a policy I take huge issue with. Not because of the why but the what, none of the increased revenue is taken into a public pot to help fund prevention projects. It’s just a license for retailers to charge more and therefore increase their profit margin on alcohol sales.

It’s an open goal to do something good and the SNP have fumbled it big style.

I honestly don’t think minimum unit pricing has worked. Antisocial drinking and alcohol related health problems and deaths in scotland are still high.

 There’s been a bit if a drop with young people which we’ve seen in other parts of the UK without minimum pricing.

Anecdotally, getting rid of “buy one get on free” type offers had a bigger effect.

To make a person who’s hellbent on getting pissed think twice you’d have to charge far, far more than 65p per unit…..by which time you would have upset the vast majority of adults who drink responsibly and created a perfect environment for a black-market to thrive.

It was always a silly policy. 

Will be cheaper and easier for younger get ones to get drugs than alcohol.

Look out Northern England the Scots sill be back by the vanload!

Worst part of minimum pricing is that it’s not tax, it’s just artificially inflating the price and putting more money into there pockets of the people who produce alcohol