Holloway Katy, Buhociu Marian, Murray Shannon, Livingston Wulf, Perkins Andy
Centre for Criminology, University of South Wales, Pontypridd, UK.
School of Social and Life Sciences, Wrexham Glyndwr University, Wrexham, UK.
Nordisk Alkohol Nark. 2024 Feb;41(1):57-74. doi: 10.1177/14550725231202066. Epub 2023 Oct 3.
The Welsh Government has commissioned a number of projects to consider the influence their implementation of Minimum Pricing for Alcohol (MPA) legislation in March 2020 had on the alcohol consumption and related behaviours of drinkers. Given the MPA's overlap with the COVID-19 pandemic and its related lockdown measures and restrictions, this rapidly became a story about the early impact of COVID-19 as it did MPA. This paper captures the core thematic messages from this specific strand of work, and in doing so reflects on (1) how early experiences of COVID-19 and the first lockdown influenced consumption and purchasing of alcohol behaviours and, in turn, (2) how relevant the introduction of MPA was for any of these. Semi-structured interviews were conducted by telephone with 32 drinkers 9 months after the implementation of the legislation in March 2020. The sample was recruited from three sources: the National Survey for Wales; a third sector organisation offering housing support to the homeless; and through an online survey on MPA. COVID-19 had more relevance than MPA to drinkers. Furthermore, when MPA did have an influence on their behaviour, it was felt most keenly by the harmful drinkers in the study. These drinkers described spending more on alcohol, switching to other potentially more harmful substances, such as crack cocaine and synthetic cannabinoids, and more involvement in acquisitive crime and begging after the price increase. While our results might be an early indication of the influence of MPA on harmful drinkers, the small sample of this group in our study limits the generalisability of the findings. To date, the implementation of MPA has had little influence on the drinking patterns or lives of the drinkers in our sample. It is important that future research examines the longer-term influences of MPA before any conclusions on its effectiveness can be drawn.
威尔士政府委托开展了多个项目，以研究其于2020年3月实施的酒精最低定价（MPA）立法对饮酒者的酒精消费及相关行为产生了何种影响。鉴于MPA与新冠疫情及其相关封锁措施和限制存在重叠，这很快就变成了一个关于新冠疫情早期影响的故事，就像它对MPA的影响一样。本文总结了这一特定工作领域的核心主题信息，并在此过程中思考：（1）新冠疫情的早期经历和首次封锁如何影响了酒精消费及购买行为，以及（2）MPA的出台对其中任何一项的相关性如何。2020年3月该立法实施9个月后，通过电话对32名饮酒者进行了半结构化访谈。样本来自三个来源：威尔士全国调查；一个为无家可归者提供住房支持的第三部门组织；以及一项关于MPA的在线调查。对饮酒者来说，新冠疫情比MPA更具相关性。此外，当MPA确实对他们的行为产生影响时，研究中的有害饮酒者感受最为强烈。这些饮酒者表示，价格上涨后，他们在酒精上的花费更多，转而使用其他可能更有害的物质，如快克可卡因和合成大麻素，并且更多地参与盗窃犯罪和乞讨活动。虽然我们的结果可能是MPA对有害饮酒者影响的早期迹象，但我们研究中该群体的样本较小，限制了研究结果的普遍性。迄今为止，MPA的实施对我们样本中饮酒者的饮酒模式或生活几乎没有影响。在得出关于其有效性的任何结论之前，未来的研究考察MPA的长期影响非常重要。
