(no subject)

[naath]

In the news recently: minimum pricing for alcohol. I find I don't have a useful opinion, anyone want to help me form one.

Comments

[siliconshaman]

Price per unit = buy the cheap, nasty & strong stuff.
Increased prices = sucks to be poor, and you can't even afford to get drunk to forget now.
Increased price of booze = heroin is now cheaper.

Basically, good intentions but unintended consequences.

[rmc28]

I worry that it is a bad idea, because it will basically just mean drinking is more expensive for poor people and the most addicted will just deprive their families of (more) money to continue supporting their habit. That said, some Scottish people I know and generally think are sensible support it.

I do think we should wait to collect evidence from the Scottish parliament's experiment on this before doing it in the rest of the UK.

[liv]

All my liberal instincts reject it, it seems like it's punishing the poor for being poor, and I don't like the state manipulating prices anyway. But FWIW one of the consultants who teaches our students is a really strong advocate for minimum pricing; he argues, with stats, that alcohol in England and Wales is cheap to a point that it's anomalous among economically comparable countries, and compared to any other point in history.

[reddragdiva]

arkady and I are discovering just how bloody cheap homebrewing drinkable mead actually is. Amazing what you can get for a bit of labour and patience (which is why homebrewers are rare and therefore tolerated).