Alcohol kills 20 a week in Scotland

Alcohol causes the equivalent of 20 deaths a week in Scotland, according to a new report by Britain’s National Health Service (NHS).

According to the organization’s third annual report on Scotland’s alcohol strategy, more than 1,000 people died from alcohol-related causes in 2012 with the equivalent of 20 people dying every week as a direct result of alcohol.

The NHS Health Scotland added that nearly 26,000 people were hospitalized at least once due to use of alcohol in the 12 months to end of March 2012.

“It is also worrying that the rates of hospitalization for women aged 25-44 years have been increasing recently,” said Clare Beeston, principal public health adviser at NHS Health Scotland.

The study, however, indicated a drop in overall alcohol-related deaths, especially in areas of deprivation.

Neil Craig, public health adviser at NHS Health Scotland and one of the report’s authors, said the study finds “more evidence of the well-known link between the affordability of alcohol and harmful drinking”.

An earlier study by NHS health Scotland revealed that sales of alcohol per person were 13 percent higher in Scotland than in north-east England. It also found that deaths were 67 percent higher in the region compared with England and Wales.

The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) said in a report in September that the UK has the greatest number of addicts to opiates, such as heroin, and the highest lifetime-use of amphetamines, cocaine and ecstasy.

The report labeled Britain as the “addiction capital of Europe” for having one of the highest rates of dependence on heroin and alcohol.