The affordability and availability of super strength drinks causes devastation among marginalised and homeless people
Thames Reach is lobbying government for tax changes as part of a campaign to reduce the availability of damaging ‘super strength’ lagers and ciders.
The campaign highlights the serious damage to health, premature deaths and social devastation caused by super strength drinks among marginalised and homeless people.
A safe limit
One 500ml can of 9% lager contains a massive four and a half units of alcohol. It only takes one can to exceed the Government's daily recommended safe alcohol limit of three to four units for men and two to three units for women.
An easy addiction
Thames Reach supports 800 people for whom super strength lager is the main cause of their alcohol-related health problems.
£150 million worth of super strength lager is sold in the UK each year. Known as “tramp juice”, lagers such as Tennents Super and Carlsberg Special Brew are commonly associated with street drinking.
There is a general consensus among off-licences and small retailers that because of the affordability of super strength drinks, their main consumers are those with alcohol problems. A 500ml can of the 7.5% cider White Ace, for example, costs a mere 59p.
The campaign
Jeremy Swain, Thames Reach Chief Executive, said: “Our campaign is not a moralistic one. Our intention is simply to highlight the impact of the super strength lager phenomenon that has developed over the past twenty years across the UK and the entirely unacceptable cull of people whose deaths are hastened through consuming these products.
“We need support and help from the breweries and government to end the easy availability of 9% lagers and to accept that the cost of cheap, super strength lager is, in human terms, simply too high.”
As part of the campaign, Thames Reach has:
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lobbied government to increase the tax on super strength drinks in order to price them out of the market, as in Australia and Ireland
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made a formal complaint to the Portman Group, which represents brewers, stating that the excessive alcoholic content of these products breaches its code of conduct
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called for a 6% ceiling on alcohol levels for super strength lagers and ciders, and the introduction of hard-hitting health warnings, similar to those on cigarette packets, to indicate the risk these drinks pose to the consumer’s health
Read the full campaign briefing paper.
