Alcohol in Jersey is 'too cheap'

Alcohol in Jersey is too cheap and too easy to get hold of, according to the island's head of health improvement.
Andrew Heaven said there were twice as many pubs, clubs and off-licences per head of the population in Jersey compared with the UK.
He wants tighter controls over the number of places that people can get drink from in the island.
He also said a minimum price of alcohol should be introduced to stop it being sold at "pocket money prices".

We need to be doing all we can to put preventative measures in place Andrew Heaven

There are about 42 premature deaths in Jersey each year that are directly attributed to alcohol.
Over the past decade people in Jersey have consistently drunk more alcohol per capita than in countries such as the UK, France and Germany.
Mr Heaven told BBC Jersey: "We know that our A and E department and our ambulance services will be very busy at certain times of the week directly because of alcohol.
"As a health service we're constantly up against financial pressures and we need to be doing all we can to put preventative measures that work in place." (from BBC)

Sorry the UK and European prices are far cheaper than the Channel Islands...