Plans to introduce minimum pricing on a unit of alcohol in UK countries could be undermined by public mistrust and misunderstanding of the policy, concludes research announced this week.

A survey funded by the newly created charity Alcohol Research UK found that the British public is highly sceptical of minimum pricing. Many people remain to be convinced that small, population level reductions in alcohol consumption could have any significant benefit to public health and would prefer to see anti-alcohol strategies targeted at heavy drinkers.

The research results come just a week after the Scottish parliament announced that it would introduce a minimum price per unit of alcohol to improve public health (BMJ 2011;343:d5869, doi: …