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Alcohol tax urged to fund abstinence-based rehab | |
(about 1 hour later) | |
Drink and drug addicts should be treated in abstinence-based treatment centres paid for with a new tax on alcohol, a think tank has urged. | |
The Centre for Social Justice said that by 2024, a ring-fenced "treatment tax" would put up the cost of alcohol bought in shops by 2p per unit. | |
It is among a number of measures recommended to tackle addiction. | |
The Department of Health said councils' £5.4bn public health budgets would help them address alcohol harm. | |
The CSJ, which seeks to tackle poverty and its causes, wants the government to fund treatment centres for 58,000 addicts per year by 2024. | |
Its report says 300,000 people in England are addicted to opiates and/or crack, 1.6 million are dependent on alcohol and one in seven children under the age of one lives with a substance-abusing parent. | Its report says 300,000 people in England are addicted to opiates and/or crack, 1.6 million are dependent on alcohol and one in seven children under the age of one lives with a substance-abusing parent. |
The measures set out in its Ambitious for Recovery report include: | |
Little choice | |
The treatment tax proposal would see a levy of 1p per unit of alcohol added on drinks purchased outside pubs by the end of the next Parliament, rising to 2p by 2024, the CSJ said. | |
This could mean about 18p added to the price of a bottle of wine after 2024. | |
The think tank estimated it would raise £155m a year from 2015, rising to about £520m a year from 2024. | |
The CSJ's director, Christian Guy, told BBC Breakfast: "At the moment we do very little for alcoholics, and for drug addicts we just dump them on methadone. | The CSJ's director, Christian Guy, told BBC Breakfast: "At the moment we do very little for alcoholics, and for drug addicts we just dump them on methadone. |
"The chance to get clean in this country is the preserve of the wealthy. For the poor, for the people relying on a public system, there's very little choice to get clean." | "The chance to get clean in this country is the preserve of the wealthy. For the poor, for the people relying on a public system, there's very little choice to get clean." |
A Department of Health spokesman said: "We are not considering a tax on particular drinks. | A Department of Health spokesman said: "We are not considering a tax on particular drinks. |
"Instead, we are reducing alcohol harm by giving local authorities a £5.4bn budget to help them manage public health issues including alcohol and drug services. | |
"We have also banned sales of the cheapest cut-price alcohol." | |
Local authorities had the best understanding of local needs to be able to assess, plan and deliver alcohol and drug services and treatment in their areas, he added. | Local authorities had the best understanding of local needs to be able to assess, plan and deliver alcohol and drug services and treatment in their areas, he added. |
Duty to help | Duty to help |
Sally Marlow, an alcohol addiction specialist, said there were "problems with the proposal". | Sally Marlow, an alcohol addiction specialist, said there were "problems with the proposal". |
But she added: "If we're going to sell it, if we're going to legitimise it and say we sanction alcohol then we have a duty also to say to the people who get into trouble with it, 'we'll help you with it - we'll help you get out of the trouble that you're in'." | But she added: "If we're going to sell it, if we're going to legitimise it and say we sanction alcohol then we have a duty also to say to the people who get into trouble with it, 'we'll help you with it - we'll help you get out of the trouble that you're in'." |
The CSJ made a similar proposal in 2007 when the current Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith was in charge of the think tank. | The CSJ made a similar proposal in 2007 when the current Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith was in charge of the think tank. |
The BBC understands Mr Duncan Smith continues to support the idea. | The BBC understands Mr Duncan Smith continues to support the idea. |