Minimum alcohol pricing has saved lives in Scotland, evaluation concludes

The final verdict on Scotland’s five year experiment in introducing a minimum unit price (MUP) for alcohol has concluded that the initiative is cutting overall consumption and helping to save lives.Public Health Scotland (PHS) has analysed the results of 12 studies it commissioned, together with 40 research papers, and says that the policy has reduced deaths directly caused by alcohol by 13.4% and related hospital admissions by 4.1%.1 Retail sales show that 3% less alcohol is being bought in Scotland but that the benefits are not universal. The report found only “limited evidence” that people with alcohol dependence were drinking less.The price of some cheap alcoholic drinks such as 3 L bottles of cider rose sharply from £3.50 to £11.00 when Scotland introduced a minimum price of 50p a unit in 2018.2 The report found that sales of drinks with the biggest price increases suffered the most under MUP. The…
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