The young man slumped on the street corner did not look as if he was asleep. He looked dead. People skirted him anxiously, then someone crouched down, and turned him over. There was a belch, the reek of alcohol, and he was comprehensively sick on the pavement. “He’s OK,” shrugged the passer-by. “Just drunk.”

Another day, another drunk. Another week, and another 21 deaths. That is the estimated and averaged-out number of those who die each week in Scotland from the effects of alcohol. Men are almost twice as likely to die of drink here as in England; women are more at risk than elsewhere in the UK; of the 8,416 deaths related to alcohol recorded across the UK, 1,100 were in Scotland; alcohol consumption