Homeless 'need treatment for addiction not cheap lager'

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by Change | 12 Jan 2009

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Retailers are exacerbating alcohol addiction problems by lowering the prices on strong lagers, a charity claims.

Shopkeepers are selling strong alcohol at low prices in an effort to sell to those least able to afford it, an expert asserts.

Peter Mansfield-Clark, the director of Crawley Open House, a charity supporting the destitute, claims retailers are targeting the homeless and furthering a culture of alcohol addiction.

He states: "People come to us with very serious drug and alcohol problems and they are quite literally in the gutter by the time they get to us and can't get any lower."

Those problems which can only be overcome through rehab treatment are leading people to beg to raise enough to afford these extremely strong lagers, he says.

Mr Mansfield-Clark says the Pubwatch scheme is one method of responding to the problem, adding it would be easy for shops to alert each other when a customer in the area is in a bad way.

He adds: "We see a lot of people who were on very, very low income anyway … starting to turn to alcohol as a way of blotting it out."

Recent research by the National Institute on drug abuse claims those with alcohol addiction problems could also be suffering from other mental illnesses.

The report suggests studies must be conducted into whether rehab clinics should treat these conditions simultaneously.

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