A LEADING health professional has called for sheriffs to join police patrols to witness the effects of binge-drinking.
Dr Evelyn Gillan, chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, said sheriffs were failing to appreciate the damage inflicted by cheap alcohol and suggested they join officers on weekend patrols of cities, including Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
Dr Gillan, who advises the Scottish Government on alcohol-related harm, said: "Sheriffs would benefit from training to ensure they better understand the change in drinking patterns and the effect this is having on the nation's health and well-being.
"Spending an evening with the police to see how much of their time is taken up dealing with the fallout from the easy availability of cheap supermarket alcohol may be time well spent for them."
She recommended they also visit hospitals.
Dr Gillan, who recently gave evidence to the Scottish Parliament's health committee on Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) (Scotland) Bill, said the availability of cheap alcohol had fuelled a dangerous shift in Scotland's drinking habits.
"Problems are not confined to public drunkenness and antisocial behaviour in the streets, but extend much wider and have a detrimental effect on family and community life", she added.
Her views are echoed by senior police officers, who say more binge-drinking is taking place in the home and increasingly ends in violence.
Last month, a sheriff in Edinburgh overturned a 48-hour alcohol ban imposed on Tesco by Midlothian licensing board after the store sold alcohol to someone who was underage.
The Judicial Office for Scotland declined to comment.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article