Distinguished voices are lining up behind England’s chief medical officer Liam Donaldson in support of a minimum price for alcohol The BMA and the Royal College of Physicians have made a good case and this week they are joined by the combined weight of the Faculty of Public Health and the Royal Society for Public Health. These two bodies list a minimum price for alcohol among 12 policy changes that will save many lives and relieve pressure on the NHS. As the faculty’s president Alan Maryon-Davies says, in lean times such action is all the more essential.
The BMJ supports calls for a minimum price on alcohol, as well as for a ban on alcohol advertising and sponsorship. In her editorial, deputy editor Trish Groves highlights evidence on the damage caused by the fall in price and increase in availability of alcohol over the past 20 years . She concludes that the serious health and societal costs of alcohol misuse are best prevented through legislation on pricing and marketing. . . . .
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