ANY hope that Scotland has at last recognised the true scale of its dangerous relationship with alcohol must be dismissed in the wake of separate reports yesterday from the chief medical officer and the co-director of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit (SRVU).
More than three-quarters of the 97 murders committed last year were carried out by people under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Detective Chief Superintendent John Carnochan, co-director of the SVRU, says the connection with alcohol is profound. Thirty-seven years' experience as a police officer have convinced him of the causal relationship between alcohol and homicide. Policy-makers cannot afford to ignore the evidence of the statistics: the number of murders and culpable homicides in Scotland increased by a fifth and the proportion of perpetrators under the influence of alcohol or drugs increased from just under half to just over three-quarters.
Alcohol takes deadly toll on more than one front
ANY hope that Scotland has at last recognised the true scale of its dangerous relationship with alcohol must be dismissed in the wake of separate reports yesterday from the chief medical officer and the co-director of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit (SRVU).
More than three-quarters of the 97 murders committed last year were carried out by people under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Detective Chief Superintendent John Carnochan, co-director of the SVRU, says the connection with alcohol is profound. Thirty-seven years' experience as a police officer have convinced him of the causal relationship between alcohol and homicide. Policy-makers cannot afford to ignore the evidence of the statistics: the number of murders and culpable homicides in Scotland increased by a fifth and the proportion of perpetrators under the influence of alcohol or drugs increased from just under half to just over three-quarters.
Most read Most commented
Don't show me this again.