That's been the experience among my circle of friends (cash strapped students). Why spend a fortune on beer when you can get a strong pill for a fiver?
Minimum unit pricing doesn't really affect beer - certainly not in a way that makes it cost a "fortune". It makes cans cost a few pence more than ones that you could get on a special offer in England. And people have been taking pills forever - it's not something people have started resorting to now they have to pay fifty pence more to get pissed on lager.
To put some numbers on this, Stella Artois is 4.8%, so a 568 ml can contains 27.264 ml of alcohol, or 2.7264 units. A minimum price of 50p a unit establishes a minimum price of £1.3632 per can, or £5.4528 per four-pack. Tesco currently sells four-packs in England for £5.50:
Nearly all grocers in England (Asda, Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrions) will have a weekly offer on crates, you can nearly always find 20 crates of stella for 20 quid (20x400mlx2). I guess these aren't available in Scotland? You only really pay over a fiver a four pack when you're in a rush at the co-op or tesco express, if you're in the big store you'll change 4 stella to four kroneberg for 3.29 or whatever similar, on mainstream lagers anyway
I thought the minimum pricing was to price out special brew/ strong ciders. If Stella is on the cusp of getting caught in the net, that must surely include most Alcohol.
I wonder if home brew is getting more popular in Scotland?
I've also heard this proposed as a risk of vaping. You get hooked on nicotine, can no longer afford expensive e-juice and switch to cigarettes. I think it's too early to know if this is the case, but the complete opposite of what vaping promoters try to sell
