Britain's alcohol problem.

[Knipples]

As some of you know, my Dad is an alcoholic, a functioning one though because he has a job and gets on with life, just he spends his evenings getting out of his tree. Some evenings he drinks more than others, but I can't remember a single evening in the last 10 years where he hasn't been drunk or on his way to getting drunk.

Anyway, the point I wanted to make is that the price of alcohol wouldn't affect him in the least, because he would buy it anyway due to his dependency on it. He doesn't tend to go out drinking (maybe about a third of the time) he stays home and drinks wine/spirits/beer.

I wish he would accept he has a problem, because he is no longer the Dad he was when I was younger, but I stopped trying to make him see that a long time ago.

[Treefrog]

I find it hard to accept that a minimum price could ever be an effective solution to binge drinking.
And if a minimum price were to be set, where would the revenue go? Retailer, manufacturer, government? And (like Stan) I'd hate to see a bottle of Bells selling for a similar price to Laphroaig Quarter Cask
After all, it's not the chemical called alcohol that's at fault, it's the consumer and the way they (mis)use it. Target the actual problem, don't just hammer every consumer with the same charge regardless.
If such a thoughtless charge were imposed I imagine that the amount of free hedgerow fruits available for home brewing will decrease dramatically.

[iCraig]

Upping the price has nothing to do with targetting alcholism, it's about taxation.

Any half baked socialist will realise that if an alcholic wants a drink, he'll have one, if prices go up, he'll spend more and he'll neglect other things to direct more money for the drink. The government don't want to stamp out a major source of revenue, it's like they're attempts to stamp out smokers by upping tobacco tax. They know smokers are addicted and will just pay the increase to continue smoking. It's also unfair to punish light and moderate drinkers.

The true solution to any social dysfunction is to tackle it at source. We need a better education on drinking, and better culture that isn't surrounded by needing to get smashed to have fun or be sociable. It needs a root reform of how we market, sell and percieve alcohol, it won't happen overnight, it's generations of small changes. No government will back it as they'll be effectively pissing more money down the drain than a nation of drinkers ever has.

[Kitten]

^^ absolutely. Put the price of alcohol up and the children of alcoholics will suffer, condemning a whole generation of kids to a dreadful childhood, and quite possibly ruining their adult lives and prospects at the same time.

[Joe 90]

Aye, making booze more expensive won't change anything, it'll just lead to tramps finding it harder to get drunk.

My 'alcohol problem' is caused by Belgium. They produce beer that is too good to resist!