Alcohol, rather than drugs, is recognised as the biggest social evil in Scotland, although many Scots remain ignorant of the officially recommended safe drinking limits, research revealed yesterday. A Scottish social attitudes survey released yesterday reflected public awareness of the country’s “booze culture”, though fewer than half the respondents could identify the recommended maximum daily intake for men and women, despite a string of high-profile antialcohol campaigns.

The Scots’ troubled and often contradictory relationship with alcohol was also evident in the fact that almost half (48 per cent) believed the country’s record of heavy drinking was a source of shame and a similar number of people (47 per cent) think those with serious drink problems “have only themselves to blame”.

Nevertheless, 67 per cent also said drinking was “a major part of the Scottish way of life”.

Four in ten thought it was “easier to enjoy a social event if you’ve had a drink”. This view is more common among men than women. Moreover, concerns about the social acceptability of avoiding alcohol were apparent in the finding that 31 per cent of drinkers agreed they would be thought odd if they did not drink at all.

Other findings from the independent survey of more than 1,000 people by the Scottish Centre for Social Research included the fact that 51 per cent thought alcohol was the drug which causes most problems, against 22 per cent who said heroin and 9 per cent who said tobacco.

There was also evidence of sexism in attitudes to excess alcohol. One third said a female binge drinker had a “very serious” problem, against only a quarter who said the same of a male binge drinker.

The findings illustrate the challenges facing the SNP administration as it prioritises ways to tackle the alcohol culture. Heavy drinking allegedly costs the country £2.25 billion a year and 70 per cent of assaults are alcohol-related, according to Ministers.

Separate figures, revealed yesterday, show that more than ten people a day are admitted to Scottish hospitals suffering from alcohol poisoning. The figure for these kind of admissions have risen to almost 4,000 last year from under 900 in the 1980s, a fourfold increase in 25 years.

Jackson Carlaw, the West of Scotland Conservative MSP, whose parliamentary question unveiled the statistics, said it was right to focus attention on alcohol but that existing legislation was not being enforced properly.

Respondents expressed different attitudes about different types of alcohol misuse. For example, while 94 per cent believed that a chronic drinker is very likely to damage their health if their behaviour continues long-term, this falls to 47 per cent with respect to a binge drinker and just 35 per cent for a “hazardous” drinker, that is, some one who drinks above recommended weekly limits.

A third of people correctly identified that men are advised to drink no more than three to four units a day. Four in ten knew the recommended daily limit for women was two to three units.

Many were ignorant of how much alcohol their drinks contained. About half knew the number of units in a pint of beer or a single measure of spirits, but only one in seven knew there were eight to 10 units in a bottle of wine.

The public health Minister, Shona Robison, warned: “The survey results appear to show that many people still don’t know how many units of alcohol their pint of beer or glass of wine contains, meaning they could well be drinking above recommended limits.”

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