"Passive Drinking"

On the 16th March 2009, the UK Government's Chief Medical Officer - Sir Liam Donaldson released the Annual Report on the State of Public Health (2008). Of the 5 topics he chose to cover, only one really made any impact in terms of news worthiness - Passive Drinking (apparently he came up with the term himself). And that I'm afraid is indicative of the level of thought that went into the conclusions Sir Donaldson came up with as a means of combating the rise in 'collateral damage from alchohol'.
I know we're all trying to go 'green' but his recycling of the 'price and access' ideology used so effectively against passive smoking is in my opinion ill conceived.
Basically his bright idea is that if you raise the price of alcohol high enough, it will deter people from getting drunk and thus stop these people from committing crimes and having accidents. Honestly, I kid you not. This incredibly naive display of reasoning would be laughable except for the fact that some of our politicians; who also lack the power of logical reasoning, are actually giving credence to Sir Donaldson's ill thought out solutions to our very real social problems.
No right minded person would deny that some people who are drunk will commit crimes or be involved in accidents (both of which use up vital emergency services resources). However, increasing the minimum price of alcohol is not the solution. Once again, the so called 'authorities' would rather take away my freedom of choice than make the individual responsible for their actions.
In a free market economy, I should have the right to buy alcohol as cheaply as possible, but if I chose to abuse that right by my subsequent actions, then the authorities should also have the right to make me pay as dearly as possible for my criminal/anti-social behaviour (whether that be by increased prison sentences or by having to pay for medical treatment of alcohol related injuries).

Sir Donaldson quotes figures that claim it would take 10 years to see the full effects of his policies, which could also create a total saving of £1 billion a year. I believe that if a zero tolerance approach to drunken behaviour was enforced, along with a policy of the NHS not covering self-inflicted alcohol related injuries (i.e if your drunken fall results in a broken leg you pay the medical bills - not the sober tax payer!) then I bet the fiscal savings and the effect on the community would be a lot greater and a lot more immediate than those envisaged over 10 years.

Well, I think I've written enough about this now. If anybody ever reads this and wishes to challenge any of the points I've made, then I'd be happy to go into further details.

References:
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/AnnualReports/DH_096206