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Comment by bodyfour | Hacker News Reader

On the other hand, maybe some are moving on to harder stuff? https://www.economist.com/britain/2019/07/18/scotland-overta...

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England and Wales have also seena significant rise in drug related death, without moving to MUP for alcohol.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsde...

Three-quarters of the dead were men and three-quarters were aged over 35.

This problem has been creeping up for a while, many of these people have been abusing themselves for a long time and are now paying the price.

That's a long-standing problem - middle-aged addicts are starting to suffer from a lifetime of drug abuse.

But yeah, maybe if you can't get ultra-cheap cider you pop out for some heroin instead.

That's been the experience among my circle of friends (cash strapped students). Why spend a fortune on beer when you can get a strong pill for a fiver?

Minimum unit pricing doesn't really affect beer - certainly not in a way that makes it cost a "fortune". It makes cans cost a few pence more than ones that you could get on a special offer in England. And people have been taking pills forever - it's not something people have started resorting to now they have to pay fifty pence more to get pissed on lager.

To put some numbers on this, Stella Artois is 4.8%, so a 568 ml can contains 27.264 ml of alcohol, or 2.7264 units. A minimum price of 50p a unit establishes a minimum price of £1.3632 per can, or £5.4528 per four-pack. Tesco currently sells four-packs in England for £5.50:

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/250317180

Nearly all grocers in England (Asda, Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrions) will have a weekly offer on crates, you can nearly always find 20 crates of stella for 20 quid (20x400mlx2). I guess these aren't available in Scotland? You only really pay over a fiver a four pack when you're in a rush at the co-op or tesco express, if you're in the big store you'll change 4 stella to four kroneberg for 3.29 or whatever similar, on mainstream lagers anyway

True. I suppose pound-a-tin Polish beers from the corner shop would go away too.

I thought the minimum pricing was to price out special brew/ strong ciders. If Stella is on the cusp of getting caught in the net, that must surely include most Alcohol.

I wonder if home brew is getting more popular in Scotland?

I've also heard this proposed as a risk of vaping. You get hooked on nicotine, can no longer afford expensive e-juice and switch to cigarettes. I think it's too early to know if this is the case, but the complete opposite of what vaping promoters try to sell

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