Let’s face it, we need to introduce minimum pricing on alcohol — and legalise other drugs

In the last few years alcohol has become the leading cause of death in men under 50 years of age, and it will soon achieve a similar deadly status in women. Alcohol-induced liver deaths have quadrupled in the past 40 years whereas deaths from heart and lung disease have halved.

The reasons for this are well established – alcohol is cheaper and more easily available than it has been since the gin-epidemic of the 1700s and half of all 15-16 year olds are becoming dangerously intoxicated at least once a month. A 21 year woman was recently given a liver transplant for cirrhosis induced by her having essentially an alcohol-only diet since aged ten.

Alcohol misuse costs the UK about £30 billion per year of which about £3.5 billion is in health care costs with over 1 million hospital admissions for alcohol-related disorders at the last count. Policing public disorder and alcohol road accidents cost the taxpayer over £6 billion a year.