To think you should be able to buy alcohol at any time in Scotland?

[beenthiswaysince18]

Childfree tonight and was contemplating having some wine. Looked at the time and thought I have an hour to decide whether to bother or not (don't think I will). Anyways it got me thinking, I really don't know the thinking behind alcohol only being sold in shops between 10 am and 10 pm in Scotland.

Surely people just stock up so they don't run out, meaning they have more alcohol in the house that they are more likely to drink. Or it could cause an increase in people drink driving if they've ran out of alcohol, rushing to the shop to make it before 10 pm.

I've never really thought about it until tonight but it is just frustrating that I must make a decision before 10 pm. What if it gets to 10.10 pm and I fancy some wine? I think it's a pointless rule and drinking is not more prevalent in England where this rule doesn't exist.

AIBU?

@phoenixrosehere ahh but considering my daughter is back tomorrow, I don't drink with her in the house. Also the notion only comes over me every few months so tomorrow would have been no use. I felt like I was rushed into a decision to go out and get it even if I don't plan to actually drink it incase it hit 10 pm and I still fancied it and couldn't have any.

@ParkheadParadise no I think if you had a drink problem there would be no alcohol left in your house 😂

Did your daughter just leave the house unexpectedly at ten past 9?

You have very strange ideas about alcoholics OP.

No she didn't, but the thought never occurred till about 9 pm. I was sitting watching a film and though, hmm I could really go some wine

[quote beenthiswaysince18]@thedevilinablackdress everything you've mentioned is to protect others...the alcohol ban does not do that [/quote]
Drunk people cause accidents, get into fights, can be intimidating. It could be argued that reducing access to alcohol does protect others.

@YouBoughtMeAWall I was an alcoholic in your previous post 😂 you're funny.

It’s totally stupid.

Because people in Asda didn’t want people rolling out of the clubs at 3am into Asda to buy more alcohol when already very drunk and giving the staff abuse?

From my experience in England a lot of people are out and about until midnight, when they get paid and go to all night shops. There used to be a queue of students outside the all night off licenses. I do think it's worse when it's 24/7 and I do think we should do this in England too

[quote beenthiswaysince18]@YouBoughtMeAWall I was an alcoholic in your previous post 😂 you're funny. [/quote]
You still are, you just don’t know it because you haven’t drunk the mouth wash yet

@YouBoughtMeAWall hahah! Good one 😂

No. The restriction of alcohol through measures like this and minimum pricing were* having a positive impact on Scotland's consumption rate. You are just being mildly inconvenienced. Post COVID we should also keep the alcohol ban on trains.

*before COVID

It's like everything else that you might want - just plan in advance and get it when the shops are open 🤷‍♀️
I always have extra supplies of anything I'd hate to run out of - including wine!

In uk past 11.00 you need a liscence don,t you? I remember goint to supermarket past 11.00 and told they couldn,t sell alcohol. (this was london.)

Drunk people cause accidents, get into fights, can be intimidating. It could be argued that reducing access to alcohol does protect others.

And it reduces pressure on health services, both a&e any l Ng term addiction services if alcoholism can be tackled. Alcoholism Also indirect harm e.g. to the family members of alcoholics.

I'm not saying reducing the good during which someone can buy alcohol fuses all this, but it's part of a wider strategy.

Apologies for the terrible typos, too early in the am for me.

Nah, I'm in to it at night. It means that drunk arseholes can't carry on getting drunker and causing more problems in to the night. I do think that not being able to buy it in the morning is unnecessary though, it's overly inconvenient for people doing shopping early in the morning.

But hey, I'd rather live with this than live with shops being closed on a Sunday like in England! Now that is inconvenient.

Drinking is a much bigger problem in Scotland than England (and it's bad enough there too) so it's understandable that the rule is in place. Remember Scotland has had to bring in other restrictions too, like minimum pricing, to try to limit the carnage caused.

I don't think I've ever been in a public toilet in Scotland that didn't have dozens or hundreds of discarded bottles and cans - nowhere else in the world have I seen this. (Take a peek in the toilets near the Ullapool ferry!)

Plus Scotland has Sturgeon's SNP personality cult in charge, and Sturgeon knows what's best for everyone.

It is a bit crazy, believe it not we actually have supermarket announcements usually about 9.45 saying alcohol sales finish at 10 and to make your way to the checkout to buy it basically! 😆

I think I'm just used to it. I only really felt inconvenienced by it during lockdown. I would often head to Aldi early in the day to shop when it was quiet. If we fancied any alcohol I had to shop after 10 when it was busier. So for me personally it was only a pain first thing rather than late on.

Scotland does have a huge problem with alcohol and I'm surprised you weren't aware of that. Drug addiction is much higher too than in the rest of the UK.

I don't see the point in comparing Scotland with Bavaria. They are very different in this respect.

I think it's a pointless rule and drinking is not more prevalent in England where this rule doesn't exist.

Scotland has historically had a much worse drinking problem than England, that’s why you now have a lower drink-drive limit, minimum pricing, and restricted hours.

To be honest though, even though the English don’t have the problem that the Scottish do, I think they are very sensible laws and I wish they’d bring them in for England too. I’d love to see a (nearly) zero-limit for drink-driving.

For someone who wanted to buy alcohol at 3am with their shopping, but couldn’t, would just accept they need to come back again the next day. It’s not a problem. If it is a problem, then you have a problem

It's a problem in that it's an inconvenience to many to protect a tiny proportion of society. Like a PP, I often shop at 7 am or 11 pm, so would resent not being able to get everything on my list due to the restrictions. But I'd just stock up so I didn't run out. It can be months between buying something and actually drinking it, because I just buy when I see a good offer and the rate I buy has little resemblence to the rate I drink it at. I've just bought about a dozen bottles of gin because an online supplier had a really good offer on, but it will probably take most of the year to drink it.

I was surprised how late the pubs are open in Scotland though one time I was there. I think it might have been around 1 am and there didn't seem to be any sign of it closing.

This thread is exactly why I'm glad Joe Public is not personally in charge of public health polices or strategies. There's wilful blindness towards illnesses like addiction. I'm alright Jack indeed.

It's the families needing as much harm reduction as possible that I feel for, not the types who lament being unable to have a glass of wine after only 'getting a notion' at 9:45pm.