Alcohol minimum price 'will save lives'

Ms Sturgeon said that changing the law so alcohol could not be sold cheaper than 45p a unit would mean 50 fewer deaths from alcohol in the first year alone, rising to 225 fewer deaths per year after a decade.

It would also save Scotland £700 million in 10 years, she insisted.

Speaking as the proposed minimum price was announced, the minister said: "This policy will very quickly make big inroads into the big problem of alcohol misuse we have in Scotland."

Plans to bring in a minimum price per unit for alcohol form a key part of the SNP administration's bid to tackle Scotland's drink problem, which is estimated to cost the country £3.56 billion a year.

While the policy has won support from the medical profession and others, the main opposition parties in Scotland - Labour, the Tories and the Liberal Democrats - are all against the measure and have vowed to vote it down.

Scottish Labour health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie hit out: "The SNP have got this one badly wrong."

She warned setting a minimum price of 45p would "punish pensioners and people on low incomes" and added it would create more than £140m of additional revenue for drinks retailers.

Ms Baillie said: "Minimum unit pricing is effectively a tax on the poor paid directly to the shareholders of the big supermarkets."