NICE has again supported the call for a minimum price per unit of alcohol in its new guide Alcohol use disorders: preventing the development of hazardous and harmful drinking.

Alcohol needs to be less affordable and harder to buy in order to avoid young people developing regular exposure and dependency. NICE also supports a ban on alcohol advertising, to protect high risk groups. The call comes at a time supermarkets are TV advertising below cost alcohol in bulk cases as promotional items. The large supermarket groups and the alcohol industry are unlikely to support the move without government legislation.

NICE guidance is available to download from [1] www.nice.org.uk

[2] Alcohol testing strip tests for alcohol detection