26: Alcohol Focus Scotland with Mark Buchanan | Changing Scotland's Drinking Culture

Yes, good stuff.

Is there sort of an overall image or is there any targets? I don't know, Dave, I'm going off on a wrong tangent here, but are there any sort of targets that you guys have to sort of, any barometers, any sort of measurements as to how you measure your own success as you go forward?

Well, we kind of go off, I don't know if you're familiar with the World Health Organization.

So they have three best buys that they suggest that should be focused upon in order to reduce harm when it comes to alcohol so you have things like focusing on the marketing of alcoholic products so you know where you can advertise how it's advertised who's able to see some of the advertisements so things around like sports sponsorship retail so that's one of the areas is alcohol marketing you've then got things like affordability so that comes under like the price of alcohol yeah so how cheaply you can buy alcohol things like that and then the last one is availability so like where you can buy alcohol so that's like just how many premises in the local area sell alcohol what times they're open to how easy it is to get like a a license to sell alcohol.

So they're the three main areas that we work across that inform our work.

And in terms of measuring that, it's quite a difficult one to measure.

Obviously, we've had big successes in the past.

So things like, you know, minimum unit price been introduced in Scotland and Alcohol Focus Scotland were one of the key organisations, I would say, in bringing that to pass.

So things like that are kind of how we measure our success and how we're able to influence policy, really, is how we measure what we're doing, I suppose.

Yeah, brilliant.

You talked there about the first one of the three you talked about there was marketing, and it's kind of a bit of a bugbear of mine, if you know what I mean, personally, that sort of the marketing of alcohol is a sort of Not as a substance, because that's too harsh a word, isn't it? But alcohol is seen as this elixir, if you know what I mean, this sort of liquid that is sort of like life changing in the positive sort of thing.

And I mean, do you have any sort of views or do you have any sort of examples of how you've been able to sort of get into the ribs of that, if you know what I mean?

Yeah, so we have done a lot of what has probably been the biggest area I've worked on since I came into this role a few years ago.

But we have done a load of work around alcohol marketing and the impact it has not only on people in recovery, but also younger people and how it influences their behaviour.

So a big part of my role has been speaking to people with lived experience.

and getting their views on how alcohol marketing has impacted their recovery journey so i'll give you an example one of the big things we hear from the people we speak to is how quite often in the early days of their recovery you know we're talking the first few weeks months and They are, particularly in the retail sector, they constantly feel as if alcohol is in their face.

They constantly feel as if they can't go about their day-to-day routine, whether it's buying a loaf of bread or whether it's buying butter or anything like that, without having to see some level of alcohol marketing.

So we've actually had people in early days of recovery speak about how they literally had to have their neighbour go and do the weekly shop for them because they were that And though that worried that, you know, all you need is something to move in a store.

And before you know the route, you know, you perhaps planned a route so you can avoid alcohol.

And all you need is something to move that a promotion to have occurred.

And before you know it, you know, you're bombarded by alcohol and all the bright colours and packaging that comes with it.

So these people literally had to have, you know, neighbours doing their shop for them.

And we think that that's just a real basic thing.

human right that people should be able to go out and do their shop without being bombarded by alcohol marketing so I've heard some really really heartbreaking stories of people who have even you know just literally went in to to buy their shopping and before you know it You know, it could be that I tell, you know, they always ended up really, really long with you before, you know, bombarded by, you know, vodka on one side and beer on the other.

And it's just, you know, which for someone perhaps not in recovery might not be an issue as such.

Yes, good stuff.

Is there sort of an overall image or is there any targets? I don't know, Dave, I'm going off on a wrong tangent here, but are there any sort of targets that you guys have to sort of, any barometers, any sort of measurements as to how you measure your own success as you go forward?

Well, we kind of go off, I don't know if you're familiar with the World Health Organization.

So they have three best buys that they suggest that should be focused upon in order to reduce harm when it comes to alcohol so you have things like focusing on the marketing of alcoholic products so you know where you can advertise how it's advertised who's able to see some of the advertisements so things around like sports sponsorship retail so that's one of the areas is alcohol marketing you've then got things like affordability so that comes under like the price of alcohol yeah so how cheaply you can buy alcohol things like that and then the last one is availability so like where you can buy alcohol so that's like just how many premises in the local area sell alcohol what times they're open to how easy it is to get like a a license to sell alcohol.

So they're the three main areas that we work across that inform our work.

And in terms of measuring that, it's quite a difficult one to measure.

Obviously, we've had big successes in the past.

So things like, you know, minimum unit price been introduced in Scotland and Alcohol Focus Scotland were one of the key organisations, I would say, in bringing that to pass.

So things like that are kind of how we measure our success and how we're able to influence policy, really, is how we measure what we're doing, I suppose.

Yeah, brilliant.

You talked there about the first one of the three you talked about there was marketing, and it's kind of a bit of a bugbear of mine, if you know what I mean, personally, that sort of the marketing of alcohol is a sort of Not as a substance, because that's too harsh a word, isn't it? But alcohol is seen as this elixir, if you know what I mean, this sort of liquid that is sort of like life changing in the positive sort of thing.

And I mean, do you have any sort of views or do you have any sort of examples of how you've been able to sort of get into the ribs of that, if you know what I mean?

Yeah, so we have done a lot of what has probably been the biggest area I've worked on since I came into this role a few years ago.

But we have done a load of work around alcohol marketing and the impact it has not only on people in recovery, but also younger people and how it influences their behaviour.

So a big part of my role has been speaking to people with lived experience.

and getting their views on how alcohol marketing has impacted their recovery journey so i'll give you an example one of the big things we hear from the people we speak to is how quite often in the early days of their recovery you know we're talking the first few weeks months and They are, particularly in the retail sector, they constantly feel as if alcohol is in their face.

They constantly feel as if they can't go about their day-to-day routine, whether it's buying a loaf of bread or whether it's buying butter or anything like that, without having to see some level of alcohol marketing.

So we've actually had people in early days of recovery speak about how they literally had to have their neighbour go and do the weekly shop for them because they were that And though that worried that, you know, all you need is something to move in a store.

And before you know the route, you know, you perhaps planned a route so you can avoid alcohol.

And all you need is something to move that a promotion to have occurred.

And before you know it, you know, you're bombarded by alcohol and all the bright colours and packaging that comes with it.

So these people literally had to have, you know, neighbours doing their shop for them.

And we think that that's just a real basic thing.

human right that people should be able to go out and do their shop without being bombarded by alcohol marketing so I've heard some really really heartbreaking stories of people who have even you know just literally went in to to buy their shopping and before you know it You know, it could be that I tell, you know, they always ended up really, really long with you before, you know, bombarded by, you know, vodka on one side and beer on the other.

And it's just, you know, which for someone perhaps not in recovery might not be an issue as such.