Alcohol - Minimum unit pricing Wales.

Here is a completely new thread about minimal pricing of alcohol, within Great Britain.

As you’ll all be aware, back in May 2018 Scotland introduced minimum pricing of alcohol. I have pointed out on this site before, how this was (in my opinion) a missed opportunity. Had this extra pricing been introduced as a tax, then the extra revenue raised could have been fed back into the system and used to support those alcohol support groups and detox centres. So, using the principle of cause and effect. The cause was being used to help fund the effect. Sadly, this was a missed opportunity, and became just another price hike, which ended up going back into the pockets of the retailer, and ultimately back into the hands of the alcohol producers.

The Latest figures for Scotland show a marked reduction is the amount to deaths and hospital admissions cause by alcohol since this price increase was imposed. However, it’s too early to speculate if this is a result of the price increase, or because people are seeking alternative ways of getting their highs. Street names like Black mamba (spice) and Monkey dust, etc. Scotland’s drug-related death toll has increased by 27% over the past year to reach a record high of 1,187, putting the country on a par in terms of the fatality rate per capita with the United States, where synthetic opioids such as fentanyl have devastated drug-using populations.

Back November 2018, I wrote to Mr Vaughan Gething AM, Minister for Health and social Services Wales. (I should point out at this stage that the NHS Wales receives the majority of its funding from the Welsh Government). I pointed out Scotland’s missed opportunity, and asked how Wales intended to introduce the minimum unit pricing which was set to be introduced in the Summer of 2019. I received a nice rather brief reply simply saying that nothing had been agreed upon and that time.

As most of people will be aware, Wales doesn’t have a Liver transplant centre. Most transplants are carried out at the QE in Birmingham, with funding being paid for by the Welsh Government, which ultimately comes out of the NHS Wales annual budget.

I had pointed out to Mr Gething, that if the minimum unit pricing was introduced as a tax, then this may well help fund the setting up of a liver transplant centre in Wales. I had also pointed out, that as Wales was one of the first countries to introduce the “Organ Donor – opt out system”. You could have a liver becoming available in Wales, and having to transport the organ to the QE, where a recipient from Wales could receive the transplant. Sadly, this present system can lead to organ degradation and a lot of disappointment all round.

I have therefore been waiting to see the price increase in Wales be introduced this month.

It would appear that this has now been put on hold all because of Brexit.

Portugal has once again objected to this price increase, and I can only guess that Wales are just trying to appease everyone: bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-pol...

I really don’t want to start a debate about Brexit, or of the rights or wrongs of a country being told what it can’t do. This thread is just for information only: bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-489...