Minister Admits Alcohol Plan Has Flopped

Scottish deputy health minister Lewis Macdonald has acknowledged that the drinking problem in Scotland will not vanish overnight. This admission came after a top expert said that the action plan to control alcoholism, which was released by the Scottish Executive in 2002, had failed.

Professor Neil McKeganey, from the Centre for Drugs Misuse Research at Glasgow University, alleged that Scotland had become one of the worst places in Europe based on alcohol-related damages. "On that basis, you have to say the document didn't succeed. It failed," he told BBC Radio Scotland.