Minimum price for alcohol 'would prevent 50 deaths'

Ms Sturgeon said that changing the Scottish law so alcohol could not be sold too cheaply would mean 50 fewer deaths from alcohol in the first year alone.

Speaking as the proposed minimum price was announced, she said: “This policy will very quickly make big inroads into the big problem of alcohol misuse we have in Scotland.”

Plans to bring in a minimum price per unit for alcohol form a key part of the SNP administration’s bid to tackle Scotland’s drink problem – which is estimated to cost the country 3.56bn a year.

While the policy has won support from the medical profession and others, the main opposition parties in Scotland – Labour, the Tories and the Liberal Democrats – are all against the measure and have vowed to vote it down.

However, Ms Sturgeon said yesterday: “We have, I think, a golden opportunity to be bold and to face up to a big problem that is costing all of us dear in Scotland. We’ve done it before – we did it on the smoking ban.”

If a minimum price of 45p was introduced, it would mean a two-litre bottle of supermarket-brand cider would treble in price from about 1.32 at the moment to almost 3.80, while supermarket-brand vodka would go up from about 8 currently to about 11.80.

But there would be no change for Bell’s, Whyte & Mackay or Johnnie Walker, which all currently retail above 14.

Scottish Labour health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said setting a minimum price would “punish pensioners and people on low incomes” and added it would create more than 140m of additional revenue for drinks retailers.