SHAAP and Alcohol Focus Scotland have written to Scottish health secretary Neil Gray demanding urgent action to tackle the country’s alcohol harms.
The Scottish Government declared alcohol harms a ‘public health emergency’ four years ago, and although there has been ‘some action’ since then – such as increasing the rate of MUP to 65p – there ‘has not been the ambition nor urgency required’ to address the scale of the problem, the letter states.
Last year Audit Scotland published a report stating that the Scottish Government had been slow to progress key national strategies such as alcohol marketing reform or the workforce plan for the treatment sector, despite the country recording its highest number of alcohol-related deaths since 2008. ‘The workforce is under immense strain,’ Audit Scotland said. ‘And the increased focus on drug harm is shifting attention from tackling alcohol issues.’ The report wanted to see the Scottish Government working with key stakeholders to identify and agree actions to address alcohol harm by the middle of this year.
‘Scotland continues to face an unacceptable level of alcohol related harm, with 1,277 people losing their lives to alcohol in 2023,’ said SHAAP chair Dr Alastair MacGilchrist. ‘This requires an emergency response but so far we haven’t seen one from the Scottish Government. For too long the drugs deaths crisis has overshadowed alcohol. The dual problems of alcohol and drugs harms are equally important, but they need to be tackled differently. Treatment for alcohol problems often differs from treatment for drug problems so relying on National Mission on Drugs Deaths money to improve services for alcohol problems is not going to work. We need a dedicated alcohol strategy which sets out a package of measures designed to tackle the price, marketing and availability of alcohol. This should be matched by increased investment in treatment services and recovery organisations.’
Letter available here