3.8 million Britons ‘addicted to alcohol’
New research has found that three times as many deaths a year are directly caused by alcohol misuse compared to drug misuse in England and Wales.
A study by the charity Turning Point found that 13 people a day die as a direct result of alcohol misuse and a total of 3.8 million people are thought to be dependent on alcohol. This means six times as many people are dependent on drink than Class A drugs.
Revealing the results, Turning Point has called on the Government to give alcohol services a higher priority.
Currently drug services receive six times more funding than alcohol services who get only £95 million annually compared to £573 million.
The charity is arguing that increased investment would reduce the cost of alcoholism to both the criminal justice and NHS. It is estimated that alcohol use costs the latter £3 billion a year.
The results of the survey have been published at the same time as a national Alcohol Concern conference has been told that although 44% of domestic violence victims in 2000 said their attacker was under the influence of alcohol, this figure probably underestimates the full problem.
Alcohol Concern has also called for more funding to help them investigate the extent of the links between alcohol and domestic violence.
