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Campaigners take minimum booze price call to Brussels

HEALTH professionals and the licensed trade association in Scotland are taking their campaign for minimum alcohol pricing to Brussels this week.

Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP) yesterday hit out at opposition to the implementation of Scotland’s alcohol minimum unit pricing policy.

Dr Peter Rice the chairman of SHAAP said: “This vitally important health policy will save Scottish lives and it needs to be implemented as a matter of urgency.”

Legislation to introduce a minimum unit price of 50p was passed by the Scottish Parliament in 2012.

But the measure has not yet come into force because a group led by whisky bosses, the Scotch Whisky Association, are arguing that the Scottish government’s plans breach European law.

Their legal bid was rejected by judge Lord Doherty at the Court of Session in Edinburgh last year, but after appeal the case was referred to the European Court of Justice.

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