We must curb Scot’s drink problem, says BMA boss

Melanie Reid - Timesonline

Alcohol now pervades everyday life and has become the hidden problem of middle-class, leafy suburbs, according to the new leader of Scotland’s doctors.

Brian Keighley, the new chairman of the British Medical Association in Scotland, said yesterday that issues with alcohol affected hard-working, respectable citizens who were drinking at home just as much as it did those receiving ASBOs on Friday night.

In the wake of a controversial report from the BMA supporting alcohol restrictions, Dr Keighley made clear how compelling the argument had become. He said: “If you look at what’s happening in terms of per capita consumption, it’s clear that we have a growing problem, and that’s not just about the people you want to serve ASBOs on a Friday night.

“This is about the fact that alcohol is now next to the butter and the vegetables. The stigma about buying alcohol has gone, it’s now a normal part of everyday life."

 “We know that people who are ostensibly good citizens — hard working, all the rest of it — are drinking more and more at home and we know that consequently the amount of cirrhotic liver disease is going up year on year. There were figures last week to say that in one in 15 surgical deaths alcohol was significantly involved.”

Dr Keighley, 61, who has been in general practice for 37 years in Stirlingshire and was also a police surgeon, spoke of the irony of being warned by the BMA, 30 years ago, not to prescribe barbiturates: “Now the most prevailing drug in Scottish society is that of alcohol and it’s more hidden in the sense that it’s everywhere, in the urban centres and the leafy suburbs like Bearsden. It’s all over Scotland.”

The BMA’s research, by the University of Stirling, called for a ban on alcohol advertising and sponsorship of sport and music events — such as T in the Park — in order to address the soaring cost of alcohol-related harm. It calculated that the drinks industry spent £800 million a year promoting alcohol in the UK. Dr Keighley said other measures to restrict alcohol consumption, such as warning labels on the bottles, did not work.

Irresponsible marketing and pricing were the issue. “We are finding that people are front-loading before they go out — front-loading on alcohol bought from supermarkets that is actually cheaper than a bottle of water. That can’t be right. “

The BMA are not killjoys. We are not against alcohol. I don’t know many teetotal doctors. But it’s not up to us. We have a duty to lay in front of the general public the facts, and now, whilst we can say what we think should happen, it’s up to the public.

“There has also been criticism of our stance on advertising at social, cultural and sporting events. Well, society will have to decide. It just may not the most sensible thing to associate sport with things that actually militate against the ability to carry out those sports. It’s like putting the fox in charge of the chickens.”

Dr Keighley said a change in culture towards alcohol was essential. “Things have changed about the acceptability of drinking, about drinking in public and drinking to excess. We know people think we are conniving with the nanny state, but the people who criticise us are not the people doing what I’ve done which is to go to fatal road accidents or see the drunks in the police station or work in casualty.

“To be honest I would like to see more restrictions and more and more government interference. I would like to see a change of culture, but also by a realignment of the attitude of the public towards alcohol through education and through fiscal means.”