Minimum Unit Pricing

[Devils advocate]

Minimum pricing probably would not affect me as i drink malt whisky, around 28 units per bottle. the prices i pay range from £35 to £60. so well above minimum unit price.

My problem with minimum pricing is that people will just go to illegal sellers and how many reports have we had in the past that the vodka etc these people sell isn't actually vodka but contains things like chloroform or industrial alcohol, which is extremely dangerous.

now some might say, it is their own fault if they buy and drink counterfeit vodka. but what about people who may not know, say they attend a house party and are offered some drinks and this turns out to be counterfeit and causes them serious illness.

People could buy homebrew kits, a quick search on google comes up with "Hammer of Thor Special Gravity Lager - Bulldog Beer Kit" according to the website this kit costs £24.98 and makes 40 pints of 6% strength lager, this is just over 0.62p per pint and a pint of 6% lager contains around 3.4 units, so that works out at 0.18p per unit. People will always find cheaper ways and means to get drunk.

In my 46 years on this planet i have drank to excess, had hangovers, been sick etc, but i have never had to call on the NHS for drink related problems.

[mk1]

In my 46 years on this planet i have drank to excess, had hangovers, been sick etc, but i have never had to call on the NHS for drink related problems.

I suggest you contact the Guinness Book Of Records. You must be the only person on the planet that has suffered none of the well documented and irrefutable  debilitating  effect of alcohol!

[Devils advocate]

I didn't say i hadn't suffered through the effects of alcohol,

i said  "i have never had to call on the NHS for drink related problems."

[for fawkes sake]

I didn't say i hadn't suffered through the effects of alcohol,
i said  "i have never had to call on the NHS for drink related problems."

Not yet and I sincerely hope your luck (and liver) holds out long enough for it to stay that way. That said, no one can deny that alcohol related illnesses and avoidable 'incidents' represent a significant cost to the NHS.

[mickys19]

Bit of a double edged sword, as introducing a min rate would not stop people from buying it but would mean less money would be spend elsewhere.

Also no government in power would want to be labelled with increasing the price of alcohol.

Annoys me that Pubs blame supermarkets for putting them out of business but some places charge near £4 a pint, maybe its the breweries but it takes no rocket scientist to work out whats wrong there.

Me and the wife visited a pub in town last Saturday, 4 drinks each and i was nearly £30 lighter, there just isn't the incentive to go out anymore when money is tight.

[steveL]

http://www.hartlepoolpost.co.uk/minimum%20unit%20pricing.htm

Worth a read. I'm not sure if binge drinking is just one symptom of the aimless and shallow lives some people seem to lead these days. Simon Cowell, Big Brother and reality TV, 'I wanna be famous' programs etc..... when I was a kid we were told that we lived in The Age of Aquarius......today, we live in the Age of Insignificance when getting pis*ed every weekend and an annual fortnight in Ibiza is the most some people aspire to.

Some of the figures in this report are truly frightening and make you wonder if we are on the edge of some sort of precipice but I don't know if minimum pricing is the answer - I suspect that it's much deeper than that.

[for fawkes sake]

Certainly gives grounds for thought as it paints a worrying picture. I think we can take it as read from this article that Brash was never a member of The Cirrhosis Club , a Labour sub-group well known for their 'stoppy-backs' at the Jacksons.