reohn2 wrote:Which begs the question,if alcohol prices are increased significantly will it lead to an increase in people brewing their own beer and wine and distilling their own moonshine?
I would doubt that, but there is already a burgeoning market for illicitly produced alcohol in this country, with quite a few illicit distilleries blowing themselves to kingdom come in various places in the UK, notably Lincolnshire. There is also a very high import level of undutied beer which HMRC cannot be bothered with because it takes up too much space. At least with illicit spirits the death and blindness rate is such that if it really takes off the government will find it difficult to ignore, unlike illicit tobacco that will for sure kill off not only it's users in 20 years time, but also the NHS, which will be bankrupted trying to treat all the cancers, heart diseases, and lung diseases that the illicit tobacco sales are causing.
Still, looking on the bright side it will at least kill off all those people who are stupid enough to put chemicals from an unknown source into their bodies on a regular basis, be it tobacco that has far more carcinogens than encountered in branded goods, to spirits made from wood alcohol, or ecstasy tablets from the bloke outside the club. I'm not saying that stupid people deserve to die, just that we could remove the warning labels and let the problem sort itself out.
