Highlands and Islands MSP Dave Thompson has welcomed further evidence that support is growing among the medical community for the Scottish Government's favoured policy of combating the impact of excessive drinking through the imposition of a minimum price for alcohol.
As opposition parties continued to confound expert advice and state their objection to the life-saving policy, the popularity of the proposed minimum pricing law for alcohol was further demonstrated in a letter from the Scottish Secretary of the British Medical Association and a group of doctors from Fort William.
Martin Woodrow, of the BMA, wrote to all MSPs to state the organisation's welcome for the policy in the Alcohol (Scotland) Bill, adding that in 2003 one in 20 deaths in Scotland were estimated to have been attributable to alcohol and that this country has one of the highest cirrhosis mortality rates in Western Europe.
The letter arrived on the same day that another from the five partners of the Tweedale Medical Practice in Fort William was delivered. This shared the experiences of this experienced team of medics who look after the health of many in that part of Lochaber.
Dr James Douglas, Dr Alan Massie, Dr Jane Munro, Dr Craig McArthur and Dr Neil Arnott stated that they see the proposed minimum pricing measure as potentially being as revolutionary as the smoking ban introduced by the previous Scottish Executive and urged MSPs to vote in favour of the measure.
They also gave anecdotal evidence that medical problems caused by alcohol are now being seen in a younger age group and in greater numbers than in the past.
Mr Thompson said he was pleased to see the proposed price floor had won the support of those whose responsibility it is to deal with the effects of the country's over-reliance on alcohol.
"Opposition MSPs say that setting a minimum price for alcohol will not work and that only a change of the culture around alcohol will have any effect," he said.
"But there are three things that need to be changed first to encourage the culture to change and those are availability, marketing and price.
"We have never claimed that a price change alone will solve the problem but it is one of the three pillars that have to be moved to end the country's addiction to problem drinking. Availability can be addressed through a tightening of licencing laws, while marketing can be influenced through controls on advertising promotion."
He added: "It is becoming clearer each day that those opposition MSPs who have ruled out supporting this measure before any evidence has been presented have acted too quickly and the suspicion remains that their objections are based purely on party political bias.
"As more support comes forward from those who have to deal with the effects of over indulgence in alcohol, it becomes harder and harder for opponents of this measure to maintain their objections."
Notes:
Yesterday Mr Thompson spoke out in defence of NHS Highland chief Garry Coutts after he was attacked and asked to apologise by Tory Health spokeswoman Mary Scanlon for making the same point in a letter to Highland politicians.
LETTER TO MSPs FROM BMA:
27 November 2009
Dear MSP
Alcohol (Scotland) Bill
The British Medical Association (Scotland) welcomes the introduction of the Alcohol (Scotland) Bill. This is an important piece of legislation which could have a profound and positive effect on the health of our nation. This is why the BMA believes that politicians should put party politics aside and give this piece of legislation a fair and thorough examination based on the evidence which underpins it.
In 2003, one in 20 deaths in Scotland was estimated to be attributable to alcohol. In 2007/08 there were 42,430 alcohol related discharges from general hospitals. Over the last 30 years, UK liver cirrhosis mortality has risen over 450% across the population, with a 52% increase in alcoholic liver disease between 1998 and 2002. Scotland now has one of the highest cirrhosis mortality rates in Western Europe.
At the heart of this Bill are measures to stop the irresponsible pricing of alcohol, driven by some of the supermarket chains who sell some of the strongest alcohol products at ridiculously cheap prices, often as a loss leader to attract customers.
As a public health measure, minimum pricing can have a significant and positive impact on health. Research estimates a 40p minimum price, for example, can reduce alcohol-related deaths by 365 in the first decade and alcohol related hospital admissions by more than 6,000.
Opponents to this legislation are concerned about a perceived impact of legislation on their business profits, yet they have failed to come up with any evidence that trade will be affected significantly. Doctors have no such agenda. We witness the harmful effects of alcohol misuse on our patients and their families every day and we believe that the measures outlined in this Bill offer a way out of this unhealthy relationship with alcohol.
By supporting all the measures in this Bill, Scotland can once again take its place as an international leader in public health policy.
Yours sincerely
Martin Woodrow
Scottish Secretary
14 Queen Street,
Edinburgh,
EH2 1LL
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