Booze Price Hikes? No bad thing.

For those you haven't picked up on this story, the Government are toying with the idea of setting a minimum retail price per unit of alcohol in a bid to reduce irresponsible drinking habits. For a long time now, supermarkets have been selling booze at a loss to get people through the door and the fact remains, that if you want to get absolutely hammered, you can easily do so for less than a fiver.

The obvious outcry from responsible drinkers, is why should they have to pay an increased price for their tipple because others can't behave. Now I'm sure my position on this is going to surprise a few people, but let me try and explain.

Firstly, we need to consider than alcohol is a drug. It may be a legal drug, but legality is largely irrelevant (Let's face it, would alcohol be legal if it was discovered today?). Is it not logical to link the price of an alcoholic beverage to the quantity of the active drug contained within it? If we could suddenly buy super strength cocaine for less money than a standard gram of cocaine, would we not expect this to create greater problems within society? The fact is, illicit drug use is to some extent controlled by it's cost and I don't see why this shouldn't be the case for alcohol.

Secondly, most of us who drink responsibly, don't choose our poison of choice based on the alcohol content. I happen to prefer 'premium' strength (not super strength) lager, but that's because it tastes better. When I buy a bottle of wine, I generally don't even look at the alcohol content. I know the grapes and regions I prefer. Again, it's a taste issue. Nobody in their right mind buys super strength lager at 59p a can, or the cheapest, strongest plonk on the shelf for any other reason, than they want to get as drunk as possible, as quickly as possible and as cheaply as possible.

For most of us, this legislation will have a little or no effect on our pockets whatsoever. Whether or not it goes anywhere towards fulfilling its objectives, is an entirely different question altogether.