Increasing alcohol prices may deter alcoholics

Increasing cheap alcohol prices may be key to decreasing alcoholism, scientists say.
Researchers from the University of Southampton in the UK have found that the cheapest alcohol is being purchased by the heaviest drinkers so they can afford to keep up their habit.
"Setting a Minimum Unit Price for alcohol is an almost perfect alcohol policy because it targets cheap booze bought by very heavy drinkers and leaves moderate drinkers completely unaffected," said Nick Sheron, a professor from the University of Southampton.
"Our research shows that an MUP set at 50p per unit would affect the liver patients killing themselves with cheap alcohol 200 times more than low risk drinkers," Sheron said.

If the cheapest bottle of alcohol is all of a sudden a few dollars more expensive, researchers believe it could deter heavy drinkers, alcoholics, and those with alcohol-induced cirrhosis from drinking as much, 'medicaldaily.Com' reported.
The researchers studied the amount and type of alcohol drunk by 404 liver patients, and also asked patients how much they paid for alcohol.

They found that patients with alcohol related cirrhosis were drinking on average the equivalent of four bottles of vodka each week, and were buying the cheapest booze they could find, paying around 33p per unit, irrespective of their income.
In contrast, low risk moderate drinkers were paying on average 1.10 pounds per unit.

Researchers suggest that setting the MUP at 50p wouldn't affect pubs or bars and would have no impact on moderate drinkers; the average cost would be 4 pounds per year and 90 per cent would not be affected at all.
However, the impact on heavy drinking liver patients would be at least 200 times higher.
The study was published in the journal Clinical Medicine.