Responding to the Scottish government retrospectively altering a press release to remove claims that minimum alcohol pricing has directly saved lives, Christopher Snowdon, Head of Lifestyle Economics at the free market think tank, the Institute of Economic Affairs, said:
“The official evaluation of minimum pricing consists of 40 studies. Only one of them suggested that the policy has reduced alcohol-related deaths. The other 39 studies indicate that the policy has either achieved nothing or has been counterproductive. The Scottish government cherry-picked the one study that supported their policy and sent out a press release insisting that minimum pricing had worked.
“The Scottish government has now rewritten that press release to remove its most misleading claims. This is a welcome development but it is shutting the stable for after the horse has bolted. The public has been given the false impression that minimum pricing has been a success. With alcohol-related deaths at a 14 year high in Scotland, that is contestable, to say the least.”
