In 2020, 1,190 people died from alcohol in Scotland, an increase of 17% compared to the previous year, according to information from

The Independent

, relayed by

Slate

.

It had been since 2008 that this death toll had not been so high.

According to the Scottish Minister of Public Health, Maree Todd, this increase is linked to the various lockdowns caused by the Covid-19.

“Although alcohol consumption in Scotland fell in 2020, the results of several surveys show that those who drank heavily before the pandemic were more likely to increase their consumption during lockdown,” she said.

An observation shared by Sir Ian Gilmore, president of the Alcohol Health Alliance UK, who considers that there is an "urgent need to act on this other health crisis".

BREAKING: The number of alcohol-specific deaths in Scotland has increased by 17% to 1,190 in 2020, up from 1,020 in 2019, according to statistics on deaths by various causes published today by National Records of Scotland.


Read our response: https: //t.co/lQA7xmYzKq

- Alcohol Health Alliance UK (@UK_AHA) August 17, 2021

A figure "four times higher in the most disadvantaged areas"

In May 2018, Scotland was the first country in the world to introduce a minimum unit price on alcohol.

Measures which must be accompanied, according to Sir Ian Gilmore, by "taxes on alcoholic beverages", "regulation of advertising" and a guarantee of "access to treatment for those who need it".

For her part, Labor Party leader Jackie Baillie noted that death rates were "four times higher in the most disadvantaged areas".

She thus invited the public authorities to "tackle the underlying causes" of the problem.

Annie Wells, spokesperson for the Scottish Conservative Party, for her part relativized the impact of confinement on these figures, considering that the treatment of addictions had only "worsened since the independence party has been in power".

Miscellaneous

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Miscellaneous

Béziers: Two pedestrians killed by an alcoholic driver

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