![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Lets talk about booze pricing
Jan. 27th, 2010 11:25 pmIn the news and in debate at the moment, is the notion of a minimum price on alcohol.
In case you've missed it, the argument goes something like this:
Alcohol should have a (regulatory) minimum price per unit, and supermarkets etc. are not allowed to sell it for less than that.
The reason being that we still have 'binge drinking' and the major demographic where this is a problem is lower income areas. Thus by increasing the base price, it becomes more expensive to binge, and thus less people do it.
What do you think of the idea?
Personally, I'd have to say I'm against it - it won't stop people drinking to excess, even if you set the price really quite high - it might just mean they do it a bit less frequently, but probably not.
Thing is, generally speaking, I'm ... actually quite keen on the notion that educating and liberating is the way to go - if someone really wants to 'get wasted' then they will - it might not be alcohol if you make that expensive though.
But that should come as no surprise - I'm keen on the notion of being able to choose - there's no real reason why one substance is any better or worse than another, and recreational substances (ab)use ... well, we've been doing it since the first fermented fruit.
I don't see a problem if people want to mess themselves up by substance use, just as long as they're aware of what they're doing and why, and what the consequences might be. In some ways, it's a self fixing problem.
In case you've missed it, the argument goes something like this:
Alcohol should have a (regulatory) minimum price per unit, and supermarkets etc. are not allowed to sell it for less than that.
The reason being that we still have 'binge drinking' and the major demographic where this is a problem is lower income areas. Thus by increasing the base price, it becomes more expensive to binge, and thus less people do it.
What do you think of the idea?
Personally, I'd have to say I'm against it - it won't stop people drinking to excess, even if you set the price really quite high - it might just mean they do it a bit less frequently, but probably not.
Thing is, generally speaking, I'm ... actually quite keen on the notion that educating and liberating is the way to go - if someone really wants to 'get wasted' then they will - it might not be alcohol if you make that expensive though.
But that should come as no surprise - I'm keen on the notion of being able to choose - there's no real reason why one substance is any better or worse than another, and recreational substances (ab)use ... well, we've been doing it since the first fermented fruit.
I don't see a problem if people want to mess themselves up by substance use, just as long as they're aware of what they're doing and why, and what the consequences might be. In some ways, it's a self fixing problem.
