Videos About Alcoholism

Last week, Scotland became one of the first countries in the world to take on cheap booze by introducing a “minimum unit pricing” on alcohol. And although the goal of the new law is to use economic pressure to get people to stop drinking, skeptics believe it disproportionately affects the poor.

Under the new pricing regulation some of Scotland’s cheapest, highest alcohol drinks, popular in deprived areas will more than double in price. The law operates under the theory that those drinks are what fuels alcoholism in struggling communities.

“They’re suggesting that some of them will significantly cut down their rate of consumption and I think that’s just a basic simplistic fallacy,” Institute of Economic Affairs’s Christopher Snowden told VICE News.

The policy is a response to the prevalence of alcohol abuse in Scotland, where last year the country saw over 1,200 drinking-related deaths, as well as costing the country $4.8 billon annually.

VICE News spends a Friday night with paramedics in Glasgow, Scotland’s biggest city, and speaks to those who believe the policy will help Scotland’s issue with alcohol and those who aren’t so sure.

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