Essay term paper on Prevention of binge drinking through raising alcohol price

In such a situation, the problem of the adequate prevention and decrease of binge drinking arises. The negative impact of binge drinking on the public and individual health, economy and social stability force the government to introduce changes and new policies that limit binge drinking and alcohol consumption. However, at the moment, measures undertaken by the British government are not enough to stimulate the steep decline of binge drinking.

At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that one of the major directions in the struggle of the British government against binge drinking is economy. This means that the government attempts to introduce economic measures to discourage consumers from binge drinking and consumption of a large amount of alcohol as well as the government attempts to discourage manufacturers to reduce the production of alcohol and its sales. In this regard, setting minimal unit price can raise the price of alcohol and discourage the population to consume alcohol (David Cameron Vows to Tackle Binge Drinking ”˜Scandal’, 6). However, this is just one of the measures undertaken by the British government.

Furthermore, specialists recommend government would have to increase spending on alcohol services from £100m to £300m (Binge Drinking Costing Billions, 22). In fact, the rise of the government spending on alcohol services can help many individuals, who have problems with alcohol consumption, including the problem of binge drinking, to cope with their problems. However, this measure is effective only on the condition that this measure is backed up by other economic measures that lead to the decrease of binge drinking, alcohol consumption and alcohol production and sales. Otherwise, the government’s increase of funding of alcohol services will have little, if any, positive effects. What is meant here is the fact that, if the government fails to discourage the high alcohol consumption and binge drinking as well as the growth of alcohol production and sales, then the government will just invest in alcohol services, while the number of individuals suffering from alcoholism and binge drinking will keep growing. This means that later the government will have to increase funding of alcohol services over and over again respectively to the growth of the number of individuals with alcoholism and binge drinking.

Another measure that can help to prevent or decrease binge drinking is the regulation of alcohol sales. In this regard, the limitation of the time of serving alcohol in pubs and sale of alcohol at large is one of possible measures to prevent binge drinking. In fact, today, alcohol is available to consumers, while pub works up to 11.00 pm. Naturally, alcohol is easily available to consumers that naturally stimulates the consumption of alcohol in large amount. Instead, the limitation of the time when the alcohol may be sold can help to decrease the consumption of alcohol because individuals will be just unable to buy alcohol, late in the night, for instance, or early in the morning. The similar effect will have the limitation of places where alcohol can be sold. If alcohol is available only in specific places, consumers will have difficulties with purchasing alcohol anywhere and anytime.



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