Cheap booze to be outlawed: Cameron signals new crackdown in battle against binge drinking

 

David Cameron will declare war on the scourge of cheap alcohol today. As part of a series of measures to stamp out what he condemns as the ‘scandal’ of binge drinking, the Prime Minister will make clear the Government wants to introduce a minimum price for alcohol and put higher taxes on strong lagers. He will throw his weight behind plans to emulate Scotland where supermarkets and pubs are forced to charge a minimum of 45p per unit of alcohol to prevent the cut-price selling blamed for fuelling the orgy of public drunkenness. His wide-ranging crackdown will also include plans for: ‘Drunk tank’ cells where those deemed incapable of walking home would be sent by police to sleep it off; Use of ‘booze buses’ which pick up revellers and take them to the cells; Police deployed in accident and emergency wards to prevent drunken violence; Paramedics to be sent into nightclubs to treat drunken patients on the spot to ease the burden on the NHS. On a trip to a hospital in the North East, Mr Cameron will announce that treating patients with alcohol problems and victims of drunken attacks costs the NHS £2.7billion a year, or £90 for every taxpayer in Britain.