FEAD – Film Exchange on Alcohol & Drugs

In his introduction to the 2012 Government Alcohol Strategy, the Prime Minister wrote that he would introduce minimum unit pricing to ‘tackle the scourge of violence caused by binge drinking’. Three years earlier, he had rejected the same policy on the grounds that it would punish moderate drinkers for the excesses of an irresponsible minority. Now it appears
minimum pricing may be dropped following a Cabinet revolt and a campaign by prominent trade associations. James discusses the paper which explores how policy dilemmas such as this reflect fundamental difficulties in defining alcohol as a political ‘problem’ – particularly, in recent years, between framing alcohol as an issue of health harms and / or antisocial behaviour.