The BMA's call to ban alcohol advertising because of its damaging effects on young people is "a logical recommendation to attempt to reverse the all embracing pro-alcohol culture that has grown up in a period of deregulation and liberalisation over the last quarter of a century," according to Ian Gilmore, President of the Royal College of Physicians and Chairman of the Alcohol Health Alliance.
In an editorial published on bmj.com, he suggests that a bigger more public conversation is needed about our attitudes to alcohol as a society.
"The problem is not just about drunk, misbehaving adolescents. We can no longer ignore the many millions of people in the UK who are quietly over-consuming cheap, readily available, and heavily promoted alcohol, storing up major problems for the future," he concludes.