Ending cheap alcohol gets promising results

The evidence from real world implementation is compelling

There is no shortage of evidence‐based recommendations regarding measures for reducing the considerable health and social harms associated with alcohol misuse in Australia and elsewhere1 — nor of opposition from the powerful alcohol industry and its allies to anything that might be effective. Their counter‐arguments, here as elsewhere, are all too familiar: voluntary approaches are best; anything that might reduce alcohol harms is draconian, penalises ordinary consumers, and interferes with individual liberties; no one measure will solve the problem overnight; more research is needed — and above all, as in other areas, nothing should ever be done for the first time.2