Scotland has always been a nation known for its fondness of drinking, but this relationship has turned sour. The civilised drinking enjoyed by many of our European counterparts is shunned by increasing numbers of Scots in favour of getting drunk quickly and cheaply.

The result is chaos on the streets and in accident and emergency units. As a nation we are good at documenting this decline reports detailing the grim toll that this habit is taking - from deaths caused by liver disease to the huge costs to the NHS and economy. Their collective conclusion is clear: we have to call time on our destructive consumption of alcohol.

Yet our efforts to tackle this growing scourge are lightweight and confused. The "units" system of measuring alcohol is counter-intuitive. A glass of wine may have one, two or even three units depending on glass size and wine. A beer anything between one and three.

Coupled with no uniform labelling policy, it is hardly surprising there is widespread confusion over the "units" system.

The situation has been further confused by the revelation that safe alcohol limits are no more than an "intelligent guess". This admission, by a member of the working party that drew up the guidance 20 years ago, highlights another key problem: many people don't believe what they are told about the dangers of exceeding the recommended daily limit. Many others don't care.

Our approach to tackling the hypnotic hold of alcohol is to hope people calculate the units and curb consumption. This is woefully inadequate and naive.

There is no simple solution, but there is a precedent with the approach used to curb smoking: combining clear-cut health education with legislation to tackle price, advertising, availability and packaging. Crucially - as with smoking - there must by the political strength to press ahead with such unpopular action.

Additionally, new initiatives could be developed to sow the seeds of change, such as encouraging the development of lower-alcohol versions of popular drinks and promoting their adoption with a tax system that makes them cheaper.

Such efforts will not thwart those who seek solace from despair, hopelessness or nihilism in drunkeness. But they may start the slow process of challenging the place alcohol occupies in our culture.