Alcohol Concern’s new report Cheep at Half the Price about the affordability of alcohol for young people receives quite a lot of press attention.
Children as young as 12 can buy up to 17 units of alcohol – four times the daily limit for adult men – with their weekly pocket money, a conference will hear today.
Delegates at the Alcohol Concern conference, Cheap at Twice the Price, will hear how teenagers can binge-drink with their average weekly pocket money of £9.53.
A report for the group found that at a Co-Op supermarket £10 would buy three large bottles of Budweiser, and two big bottles of WKD Vodka Blue coming to a total of 17 units of alcohol. It also said that Sainsbury’s sells 10 207ml bottles of Budweiser for £6.59, the equivalent of 10.35 units.
Supermarket alcohol is now so cheap that teenagers can buy enough to binge drink using just their pocket money.
For £7.29, it is possible to buy more than three times the recommended daily alcohol intake for men or four times that of women, according to an investigation by Alcohol Concern.
That sum compares with the £9.53 average weekly pocket money for 12 to 16-year-olds.
Low prices coupled with high pocket money mean “there has never been a better time” for teenagers to buy lots of cheap drink, a charity has warned.
Alcohol Concern said the price of alcohol had barely risen in 10 years but children’s weekly allowances had increased 600% since 1987.
It called for increased taxes on alcohol to deter young drinkers.
But drinks industry body the Portman Group said education was a better way to prevent under-18s abusing alcohol.
I can’t help but notice that Alcohol Concern seem to not have gone for the drinks that many of the young people I’ve talked to about alcohol say they and their friends are drinking – white cider, Lambrini and vodka.
Had they done so they might have had even higher number of units per pound spent. We worked out that they could get 50 units for £5.
What struck me about the young people we spoke to was that they were very aware of price and alcohol content, but hadn’t translated alcohol content into units.
Filed under: alcohol , Alcohol Concern, Cheep at Half The Price
