| A price war has seen the cost of lager drop to a 20-year low, and health experts believe revellers are loading up on cheap booze before going out.
With cans of lager selling for less than bottled water in supermarkets, Gillian Ferguson, a co-ordinator at Tayside Council on Alcohol, said some of the cheap alcohol exceeds the recommended daily benchmarks for safer drinking in one can.
Ms Ferguson said, “The availability of very strong lagers and ciders sold at a ridiculously low price in relation to the alcohol content needs to be scrutinised in the same way as attention has been put on the pub/club trade promotions and irresponsible sales.”
SNP shadow health minister and Dundee East MSP Shona Robison said, “I certainly think price has to be part of the debate. Easy availability of cheap booze has to be a contributory factor to our binge drinking culture.
“The Executive can’t ignore price and should be talking to supermarkets about a more responsible approach rather than price wars.”
The Licensing (Scotland) Bill was passed by MSPs on November 11. It aims to tackle binge drinking by banning pub happy hours and promotions that encourage fast drinking.
A spokesman for Alcohol Concern said supermarkets should also be encouraged to stop selling cheap drink.
Daniel Davies, of the Confederation of Professional Licensees, said supermarkets and off-licences selling lager cheaply are a large part of the reason why people are getting drunker quicker.
He said, “They are preloading with alcohol before they go out.
“You can buy a bottle of strong lager from a supermarket for 40p —in a pub it costs £2.50.”
But the British Retail Consortium, which represents Tesco, Sainsbury, Morrisons, Asda and several off-sales chains, denied they were acting irresponsibly.
“People who buy alcohol in supermarkets tend to consume it over a long period of time. Discount pricing is a perfectly legitimate.
“It is only a small minority who are abusing alcohol. It is only fair the sensible majority should be entitled to these price benefits.”
Figures released by the Information Statistics Division of NHS Scotland showed alcohol-related conditions accounted for more than 2000 hospital discharges in Tayside in 2004/05.
The statistics do account for cases in which a person appears with a drink-related condition and is allowed away after treatment.
It also does not take into account psychiatric patients and those who receive specialist care at the alcohol treatment centre at Sunnyside. |
