From years there's a possibility of introducing a minimum price per unit of alcohol in the United Kingdom.
Among the strongest proponents of this measure there are those who, in the minimum price, see a powerful weapon in the fight against alcoholism. To act as a buffer to their voices a new research conducted at the University of Sheffield and published in the British Medical Journal, research that the introduction of a minimum of 45 pence per unit of alcohol would be fifty times more effective in the fight against alcohol abuse, all current policies.
According to this study, 634 lives could be saved in a year and the government spending would benefit from fewer hospital admissions. These statistics were made based on a percentage of excessive drinkers (defined as "harmful drinkers" – harmful consumers) of 5.3% of total consumers of alcohol. A ban on below cost selling, introduced by the British Government in early 2014, has had an influence on the immoderate consumption of alcohol by only 0.08%, reducing alcohol units consumed by only 3 points; in Sheffield's forecast the lowest price would reduce consumption in alcoholic units of 137 points, or immoderate consumption of 3.7%. From the point of view of the cost of the minimum price for alcohol would bump up the sales price of approximately 23% (the ban on sales below cost did instead grow by only 0.7 per cent).
Unlike other claim that the minimum price would have only a minimal effect on the phenomenon, the Wine and Spirit Trade Association also argues that this measure could be deleterious to the market.
(da UIV)
