Cutting alcohol consumption in Scotland

A new Health Scotland report, Monitoring and Evaluating Scotland’s Alcohol Strategy: Monitoring Report 2017, shows that in 2016, 10.5 litres of pure alcohol were sold per adult in Scotland, equivalent to 20.2 units per adult per week.  This means that enough alcohol was sold last year in Scotland for every adult to exceed the weekly guideline limit (of 14 units per week on a regular basis) every week.  “Alcohol has become more affordable in recent years as disposable income has increased,” said Lucy Giles, the report’s lead author. BMA Scotland council chair Peter Bennie said wide-ranging action was needed. ‘In particular, minimum-unit pricing – a policy that big alcohol producers have spent the last five years delaying, and trying to prevent – would have a significant impact on reducing alcohol harms and must be implemented as swiftly as possible.