OFF-LICENCES have been asked by the Scottish justice minister to consider not selling Buckfast tonic wine.
Cathy Jamieson believes the product, a favourite among under-age drinkers, particularly in the west of Scotland, is a major source of anti-social behaviour.
The minister and MSP for Carrick, Cumnock, and Doon Valley, expressed her concerns to local stores, and one shop has now agreed to restrict sales of Buckfast.
David Bryson, manager of a Co-op store in Auchinleck, said he would sell Buckfast only to customers he knows by name and will be restricting sales to two bottles per customer.
The minister said other stores should either restrict sales or clear Buckfast from their shelves altogether.
"I welcome the Co-op's recognition that there has been a problem in the area and their decision to restrict the sale of Buckfast, and I would call upon other off-licences to act as responsibly and impose similar controls, or to ban sales of Buckfast completely, " she said.
Ms Jamieson said this might be a model for others to follow but that such decisions would have to be taken at a local level, based on local circumstances.
The minister's comments came after people in her Ayrshire constituency complained about drunken youths fighting and being involved in acts of vandalism.
She is the first high-profile politician to call for an outright ban on Buckfast since Helen Liddell, the former Scottish Secretary and Labour MP for Airdrie and Shotts, tried to ban the drink in 1995. That resulted in a massive surge in sales.
Kenny MacAskill, the SNP's justice spokesman, said he had some sympathy with Ms Jamieson and, although Buckfast was not the only alcoholic drink being consumed by teenagers, it was associated with antisocial behaviour. "I think she is right to raise the issue, " he added.
However, her comments provoked a furious response yesterday from the makers of Buckfast, a Catholic community of Benedictine monks in Devon, who said it was a disgrace that a senior politician should blame one product for Scotland's social problems.
They pointed out the drink made up less than 0.5-per cent of Scottish alcohol sales.
Jim Wilson, a spokesman for Buckfast, said Ms Jamieson's comments were a "cheap shot".
He said: "We are the scapegoat as per usual. Scotland exports pounds-400m of whisky to countries around the world.
What would Ms Jamieson be saying if Scotland was blamed for the social ills of hundreds of other nations? It is a disgrace."
The Confederation of British Industry also criticised Ms Jamieson and said that, while no-one should underplay the problems of teenage drinking, it was not the role of the executive to dictate which brand of alcohol should be sold.
Buckfast, which retails at around pounds-5, is 15-per cent alcohol by volume.
This week, Jack McConnell, the first minister, was heavily criticised after telling schoolchildren it was acceptable to get drunk "once in a while".
Ms Jamieson's remarks came as a new study said that alcohol was as destructive to health worldwide as smoking and high blood pressure.
Three international experts, writing in the Lancet medical journal, said alcohol consumption was causally related to more than 60 different medical conditions, including breast cancer and heart disease.
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