Evelyn Gillan: No good reason to delay setting minimum price on alcohol

January is traditionally the time when we count the cost of the excesses of the festive season. For many, the cost will not just be financial.

A check on the retail prices of alcohol over the festive season shows exactly why we need minimum unit pricing.

The big four supermarkets all offered major discounts on branded beer, wines and spirits. One litre bottles of spirits were on sale for £14, or 35p a unit. The cheapest product was a cider from Lidl for just 18p a unit. This means that a man can drink the low-risk daily limit for alcohol consumption for as little as 72p and a woman for as little as 54p in Scotland today. Compare this with the 1940s, when the tax alone on a bottle of spirits was equivalent to around a quarter of a manual worker’s average weekly wage and we can see just how affordable alcohol has become relative to income.

Anyone wishing to avoid the lure of cheap alcohol will have a very hard time. Modern techniques of mass production, distribution and marketing mean that alcohol has rarely been cheaper, so accessible or as heavily promoted as an essential part of everyday life. This creates enormous difficulties for people trying to reduce their drinking or recovering from alcohol dependency. Should they wish to buy an alcohol-free lager or wine, they would find it very difficult to locate these products among the rows of alcoholic drinks.

Minimum pricing will target high-strength drinks sold at the lowest prices and will have the biggest effect on the heaviest drinkers.

By seeking to delay this vital health measure through legal challenge, the Scotch Whisky Association and its European counterparts are following their colleagues in the tobacco industry in putting profit before the public interest and showing a blatant disregard for the democratic process and those who deal with the devastating consequences of alcohol harm on a daily basis. These delaying tactics will cost lives in Scotland.

Minimum unit pricing will not bring an end to all alcohol addiction and dependence but it will mean fewer lives being damaged. For some people, it could mean the difference between life and death.

• Dr Evelyn Gillan is chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland.