SHAAP's 20th anniversary: lessons from two decades of alcohol policy reform

This year marks 20 years since the founding of Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP), and we sat down with chair Dr Alastair MacGilchrist and founding member Dr Lesley Graham to trace its history – from spotting Scotland’s alcohol death rate spiralling in the early 2000s, to becoming a driving clinical voice behind the world’s first minimum unit pricing law.

We hear how SHAAP built the evidence base for MUP, why it took six gruelling years of industry legal challenges before the policy finally came into force, and how that fight – reputationally damaging for the drinks industry – ended up strengthening the case for other countries to follow Scotland’s lead. Along the way: why medical credibility cuts through where campaigning alone doesn’t, and what SHAAP has learned about outlasting a well-resourced opponent.

As Dr MacGilchrist puts it:

“Everything’s difficult, everything takes a long time, don’t lose heart.”