Having had a chance to digest the Scottish Government's "Changing Scotland’s Relationship with Alcohol: A Framework for Action" White Paper, here are my two bob. The statistics are frightening: Scottish alcohol-related deaths per capita are double that of England and Wales; this rate has doubled in fifteen years, so it's a recent phenomenon, not the traditional merry Scottish drunk image; around half of men and a third of women are drinking too much; and levels of liver cirrhosis have grown so rapidly that the Scottish Chief Medical Officer has added to the group of major killers, alongside heart disease, stroke and cancer.

It seems plain that things are worse in Scotland. The beauty of having devolution is that the Scottish government can take action on specifically Scottish problems - imagine the outcry if a UK Tory government developed this legislation! So what actions are proposed?

The jargon is claims to develop a framework: in other words it's taking action on several fronts. Proposals such as outlawing loss-leading promotions (which price alcohol at less than cost price to encourage shoppers to enter shops) are sensible. Such promotions treat alcohol as any other commodity when it is a drug, albeit one with a highly-developed social norms and traditions. They also put give supermarkets an unfair advantage over cornershops, which are already struggling to keep up now that Tesco and co have entered the convenience store market. The main change in alcohol consumption recently is that more people are drinking at home before going out, if they go out at all.

Having an age of 21 for off-license purchases is trickier - it would not be needed if the 18 limit was strictly enforced. However, as anyone who's seen a group of drunken young teens drinking in a citycentre will know, it's not. Children - yes, children - of thirteen and fourteen are able to access alcohol in a dangerous way. It's not the fact of them consuming alcohol that's the problem, it's that they are doing so unsupervised and at an age when they simply don't know how much (or often, how to) consume safely. So I would reluctantly agree that it should be done in areas with high youth crime or disorder. I would also introduce much more stringent punishments for those who purchase for sell to anyone under sixteen. It really has come to this.

As for the idea of having a minimum price-per-unit, I don't think this is necessarily a good idea. A cheap 2-litre bottle of cider would go from around 3 pounds to 7.50. While many of these are cosumed by alcoholics - I once lived in a block of flats above a 24-hour shop, and often saw beggars counting out change to buy a bottle of White Lightning or similar - most are consumed fairly responsibly, by students for example. And I would fear that the alcoholics would in desperation go for drinks which are even cheaper and even more damaging: meths, for example.

There's no easy answers here. A change in culture is what's needed, but government can never legislate for that; it's up to everyone in Scotland. Charging eye-watering prices for a drink, as in Scandinavia, might ultimately be healthier but it would destroy much of the social fabric in Scotland. We need to be able to have a few drinks and then go home, not drink to the state of falling-down, pissing-down-your-leg drunk. Socialising young people to drink sensibly is the first step. Parents, this is your task. Don't turn a blind eye. Kids see adults drinking and will naturally want to do the same: it's your responsibility to ensure they can do so safely and responsibly.