The Alcohol Bill does nothing to help addicts

I am a social worker for a local authority, and have direct experience of working with people who are alcohol-dependent. In Scotland, alcohol is considered to be an important factor in criminal offences - and the Alcohol Bill has been passed with a view to trying to tackle this, as well as the wider social problems caused by excessive drinking. However, with supermarkets still able to sell alcohol at exactly the same price (and advertise that they are doing so), and non-Scotland-based retailers completely unaffected by the legislation, what does the government feel they have really achieved?

Now that the Bill has passed, it is widely anticipated that the issue of minimum pricing will be back on the table. The SNP have long campaigned in favour of imposing a minimum price per unit of alcohol, as part of their pledge to tackle Scotland’s ongoing alcohol problems - and they now hold the majority needed to pass legislation.

I do not feel that the SNP’s current proposals will in any way prevent people from buying alcohol, or drinking excessively. In 2010, the minimum price of a unit of alcohol was proposed to be 45p, making a bottle of wine approximately £4.05, a 70cl bottle of vodka £4.50 and a can of standard lager £1.13. Even to those of my clients who are often strapped for cash, these prices would make little difference.

I am not convinced that there is much merit to the idea of minimum pricing - raising the prices of substances which people abuse, rarely prevents them from abusing them - a good example being cigarettes. Raising the prices of a packet has only meant that people choose to sacrifice other things in their lives to afford the £7 per packet, rather than give up on their addiction.

To an addict, the substance they crave takes precedence over all else. People who once took pride in their appearance will let this slip, the children who need to be fed might go without breakfast or tea, routines are broken, jobs are lost, lives are destroyed. Many of the people I work with have hit rock bottom; they can go no lower. We work to address this substance use and to re-introduce some stability and security in these lives whilst helping them realise the massive impact their addictions have had not just on themselves, but also the people around them.

This legislation not only does nothing to tackle the issues it is designed to, it also punishes responsible drinkers who for the most part are people able to control it, who drink in a social setting, and do it to let their hair down after a long day.