Birmingham - ban of super-strength alcohol?

Following on from the campaign launched by Partners in Suffolk to stop the sale of super-strength alcohol from off-licences in Ipswich in September 2012 (at which time off-licence owners were asked to remove those products from their stores), Birmingham’s Director of Public Health has urged the city to adopt the ‘Reducing the Strength’ campaign pioneered in Ipswich.

Dr Adrian Phillips said it was “ridiculous” that strong cider is “sold cheaper than water”. In his report to the Birmingham Health and Wellbeing Board it stated more than 25% of hospital emergency admissions are linked to alcohol.  A copy of the report can be found clicking here.

‘Super-strength’ alcohol includes lager, beer and cider with an alcohol volume of 6.5% or over that is sold very cheaply. 

 The Reducing the Strength campaign in Ipswich signed-up two thirds of shops to the project and it was subsequently been reported that the number of identified street drinkers had dropped from 78 to 38 in its first year and further statistics for the first six months of the scheme revealed the number of anti-social "incidents of concern" dropped from 191 to 94 compared to the same period the previous year.