{"id":4564,"date":"2024-12-05T00:01:20","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T00:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gaudie.co.uk\/press\/?p=4564"},"modified":"2024-12-04T22:39:28","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T22:39:28","slug":"minimum-unit-pricing-changed-after-six-years-a-financial-burden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/opine\/2024\/12\/05\/minimum-unit-pricing-changed-after-six-years-a-financial-burden\/","title":{"rendered":"Minimum unit pricing changed after six years: a financial burden"},"content":{"rendered":"

As of Monday 7<\/span>th<\/span> October 2024, the minimum price per unit of alcohol (MUP) has increased from 50p to 65p per unit, much to the dismay of students. This article seeks to explore the duality between the opinion of students and the integrity of the new policy.<\/span><\/p>\n

For context, in 2018 Scotland was the first country ever to ban retailers from selling alcoholic beverages from under 50p per unit. Whilst drinking taxes have been previously placed in many countries, at significantly higher pricings, for example Bahrain, the UK differs from this because the government only collects a set percentage of the tax. The idea behind this is that alcohol is more expensive to improve addiction rates rather than to fill parliament’s pockets.<\/span><\/p>\n

Firstly, it is important to critically evaluate the previous MUP and whether it has seen any benefits, specifically in Scotland. Studies show that overall Scotland\u2019s health has improved in relation to alcohol consumption, the World Health Organisation acknowledges Scotland\u2019s efforts to reduce alcohol consumption and praises its moderate success with 3% decrease in alcohol consumption, attributed to the MUP.<\/span><\/p>\n

The same article also acknowledges that the policy intentionally targets low-income areas because they are<\/span> 5 times more likely to die from alcohol consumption than those living in wealthier areas.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is a valid critique to be made that the infamous social lubricant being disproportionality unavailable to lower income areas takes away a large part of British culture from these individuals. However, I don\u2019t believe this should be our main point of contention.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alcohol related deaths in Scotland are at a 15 year high according to sky news. As of 2023 (post MUP) Scotland has seen the most alcohol related deaths since 2008 (pre MUP). While the MUP may have had mild benefits, that should not be where the efforts of the Scottish government lie.<\/span><\/p>\n

The original MUP of 50p was UP to expire in 2024 after a 6-year trial period so while MUP would have to be renewed it didn\u2019t necessarily need to be taken to parliament. However, deciding to make amendments to the bill, has meant the amendment has been moved up to discuss at the House of Lords.<\/span><\/p>\n

This means that rather than focusing their efforts on rehabilitation for those affected, the government would rather spend their efforts promoting a lackluster response to one of the worst problems the population is currently undergoing.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have conducted a few interviews around campus to gather student\u2019s responses to the situation. One student commented that \u201c<\/span>I think that Scotland should work on tackling more hard drugs. The more devastating drugs that I think cause more problems than Alcohol.<\/span> \u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I then asked when dealing with those issues, would you rather they focus on the importation of drugs or rehabilitation? \u201c<\/span>Rehabilitation. I think Scotland really needs to help get its mental health system and its rehabilitation system to people who are already struggling with things like drug and alcohol addiction, a raise in price is not going to matter, it may prevent future addictions, but the current addiction we have is not going to stop.<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Many students from disadvantaged backgrounds corroborated the message as addiction seemed to trump food when it came to alcoholism in many households, most children affected by the MUP in Scotland seemed to agree that the MUP did not do an effective job in making alcohol less accessible or discouraging its consumption.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the point of preventing future addiction, according to a study conducted by rehab-spot teenagers are 4 times more likely to develop alcoholism than adults. So, is the MUP effectively preventing addiction in students who may fall into this category? I conducted a few interviews on campus to get a general sense of how students felt having the MUP being raised would affect them. One student answered, <\/span>\u201cI\u2019m not affected by it cause I\u2019m not really much into the consumption side anyways\u201d<\/span> adding that <\/span>\u201cSingapore\u2019s probably done the same like 20 different times at this point and the rationale is understandable\u201d<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another student from the USA states that \u201cI <\/span>don\u2019t have experience purchasing alcohol in the United States but with inflation in the United States I would venture that alcohol there is probably more expensive anyways.\u201d<\/span> Which is interesting, especially when we contrast this with the statements from Scottish students. One student stated \u201dI feel like it would impact me because, say I was going out one night, I think that I would go for pres then go home.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I then prompted \u201cDo you think you would drink less?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if I\u2019d drink out as much, I\u2019d probably buy something and make something at home\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n

This was echoed by another Scottish student saying, <\/span>\u201cEven when I go out drinking it\u2019s so expensive\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scottish students seemed to believe that MUP would encourage them to drink less, however international students felt the impact of this policy significantly less than Scottish students did. This shows The MUP may be preventing addiction in the young Scottish students because it just isn\u2019t worth it to go out every week to most students. This raises an interesting question as to how students will socialise without pub culture, presumably societies will be the next go-to social event when on a budget, but unfortunately there is nothing as of now to corroborate my speculation.<\/span><\/p>\n

In conclusion the government may be trying to find a \u2018sweet spot\u2019 to prevent alcohol related injuries and casualties while still maintaining a moderate version of UK drinking culture. However, doing this amidst a cost-of-living crisis alongside the worst rates of alcohol addiction we have had for the past 15 years seems frankly, like an immature move. Spending the parliament’s time on something that has only seen moderate success seems like Starmer trying to promote himself in a positive light while ultimately not making any impactful changes in parliament. Despite this, there is still hope for this to change as his term has just started, but fundamentally raising the MUP is a controversial decision for a large part of his target demographic, and a risky move for Starmer.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As of Monday 7th October 2024, the minimum price per unit of alcohol (MUP) has increased from 50p to 65p per unit, much to the dismay of students. This article seeks to explore the duality between the opinion of students and the integrity of the new policy. For context, in 2018 Scotland was the first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":4566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","iawp_total_views":8,"footnotes":""},"categories":[84],"tags":[481,482,520,483,485,480,478,479,486,381,484],"wf_post_folders":[337],"class_list":{"0":"post-4564","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-opine","8":"tag-alcohol","9":"tag-alcoholism","10":"tag-cole-michelon","11":"tag-cost-of-living","12":"tag-drinking","13":"tag-keir-starmer","14":"tag-minimum-unit-pricing","15":"tag-mup","16":"tag-pub-culture","17":"tag-scotland","18":"tag-student-life"},"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Cole Michelon","author_link":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/author\/cole-michelon\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/sergio-alves-santos-OxKFC5u0980-unsplash-200x300.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Opine<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Opine<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["alcohol<\/a>","alcoholism<\/a>","Cole Michelon<\/a>","cost of living<\/a>","drinking<\/a>","Keir Starmer<\/a>","minimum unit pricing<\/a>","MUP<\/a>","pub culture<\/a>","Scotland<\/a>","student life<\/a>"],"unlinked":["alcohol<\/span>","alcoholism<\/span>","Cole Michelon<\/span>","cost of living<\/span>","drinking<\/span>","Keir Starmer<\/span>","minimum unit pricing<\/span>","MUP<\/span>","pub culture<\/span>","Scotland<\/span>","student life<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 2 years ago","modified":"Updated 2 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on 5 December 2024","modified":"Updated on 4 December 2024"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on 5 December 2024 00:01","modified":"Updated on 4 December 2024 22:39"},"featured_img_caption":"Photograph by Sergio Alves Santos via unsplash","series_order":"","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4564"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4570,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4564\/revisions\/4570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4564"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=4564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}