Alcohol counsellor Alan Walker claims higher prices won’t stop the boozers

Jan 14 2010 By Emma Davison

A BID to change the Government’s drinking policy will do nothing to curb alcohol misuse, a Huddersfield expert has claimed.

A new report by MPs suggests that binge drinking can be tackled through the introduction of minimum pricing, mandatory health warnings on labels and a tax rise in spirits.

The House of Commons Health Committee blasted the Government for failure over its alcohol policy and said these initiatives were needed to stem the UK’s ‘shocking’ rise in alcohol misuse.

But Moldgreen-based alcohol counsellor Alan Walker said the suggested policies will have absolutely no effect on reducing the annual toll of 40,000 drink-related deaths.

He said: "Everything the Government is trying to do is a waste of time.

"It is stupid to suggest that just raising prices a bit will make any difference as if people want a drink they will have one regardless of the cost.

"What we need is needed is tougher punishments and better education about drinking."

The report says that a rise in the price of drinks through minimum pricing of 50p per unit of alcohol would be the most effective way of bringing down consumption and could save an estimated 3,000 lives a year.

It said that minimum pricing would encourage drinkers to switch to weaker beers, wines and ciders and have the greatest impact on cheap high-strength lagers and ‘industrial white cider’ favoured by young binge drinkers and heavy drinkers.

Alan, who runs one-man service Alcohol Support Kirklees from his own home, believes introducing a minimum price will not ease the country’s boozing problem.

He said: "Putting the prices of alcohol up won’t make a difference, they’ve already tried schemes like this in other European countries like Finland and it hasn’t worked.

"You can keep pushing up the price, but if people want a drink they will still be prepared to pay for it no matter what the cost. Young people have always had access to money and would just get more and adjust their spending elsewhere.

"I also don’t believe that bars trying to make a living should be told they can no longer promote their products."

National consumption has now soared from three and a half litres of pure alcohol per head in 1947 to nine and a half today.

The cost to society of alcohol misuse, including violence, ill-health and death, is an estimated £55bn a year.

While he fears health warnings on drinks would have no impact on individuals, Alan agrees that better education about the dangers associated with alcohol is needed, with the introduction of schemes like incorporating drinking awareness into the driving test.

He said: "What we need to is encourage people to be responsible for their own actions and you don’t do this by putting drinks prices higher, you do this by handing out more severe punishments.

"The laws should be applied to the problem, people found causing a nuisance because of drink should be put in a cell for a few hours. In the USA they have a ‘drink tank’, a big holding cell for people who are later shamed in their local newspaper.

"At the moment what the Government is doing doesn’t have sufficient consequences to make people stop drinking.

"It is only when the consequences become greater than the benefits that people will make changes to their behaviour."