New way to call time on high strength, cheap alcohol

In this article I wrote that "the harmful consumption of cheap alcohol had played a part in the deaths of 12 members of Ipswich’s street drinking community, four of whom had been murdered".

I have since heard from PC Simon Alcock, Street Drinking Liaison Officer for Suffolk Police, with details of the other eight deaths. PC Alcock writes:

"I can confirm that the individuals were all identified as members of the street drinking community and that their deaths were premature and caused as a direct result of their lifestyle. The causes of death that were recorded by the coroner at the time were various, as follows:

Respiratory depression;
Heart failure/fatty liver (x2);
Cancer;
Morphine toxicity exacerbated by ethanol;
Alcohol and methadone toxicity;
Overdose (x2)."

PC Alcock adds: "This of course also illustrates the fact that many of the street drinkers are poly users and this in turn raises their risk of premature death, as do other factors such as higher risk of accident or assault. It is also worth noting that when we surveyed the street drinkers a couple of years ago and asked them to discuss their substance misuse issues, over 90% identified super strength alcohol as being their greatest concern re their health and the one substance they were most keen to be clean from."