Which is more dangerous: the new drugs on the block or the oldest drug on the market? The British Crime Survey shows a mere 16% of violent acts by strangers are prompted by drugs; but 53% by alcohol. Similarly with domestic violence: 12% are drug-related, alcohol 44%.
Last night police were out in force in most urban areas trying to reduce the harm that Friday night binge-drinking generates. This is no longer confined to young men. There has been a large increase in excess drinking by women too. The damage which this causes to personal health is daunting. Alcohol is now second only to tobacco as a cause of premature death. Then there are the links between excess drinking and road accidents, child abuse and accidents at work.
A new report from the Academy of Medical Sciences this week quotes from a European survey, which found that even among states well known for consuming alcohol, Britain had the highest levels of social alcohol-related harm. The other five states were: Sweden, Finland, Germany, France and Italy. This is depressing. When are we going to grow up? The medics believe there will be no improvement until the cost of alcohol returns to the relative prices of the 1970s. This would require tax increases that would double the price of a £4 bottle of wine, push beer up to £5 a pint, and set you back £20 for a bottle of whisky.
The chancellor might enjoy the fruits of such tax increases, but not their electoral consequences. A government which promised a Whitehall-wide alcohol strategy in 1998, and only now is promising to unveil one, will not accept the academy's radical plan.
But it might be ready to take more seriously proposals from Alcohol Concern, which some years ago suggested high targeted tax increases on alcopops to take them out of reach of children and teenagers; a 1% levy on the industry's £200m advertising budget to finance sensible drinking campaigns; and an independent body to monitor alcohol consumption. Compared to alcohol's costs - £7.3bn crime and disorder, £6.4bn workplace, £1.7bn health - this is the least that must be done.
