METHS LOSES ITS STIGMA AS RETAIL BARRIER COMES DOWN

After 61 years, Government allows the spirit to go back on unrestricted
sale Colin Urquhart

Methylated spirits, once the favoured tipple of down-and-outs and
alcoholics, will go on unrestricted sale for the first time since 1937, the
Scottish Office announced yesterday.

Experts believe that the abuse of the alcohol is now sorare in Scotland
that it is safe for chemists and hardware shops to sell it freely for
cleaning and as lamp fuel, without the fear that it will be drunk by those
desperate for a cheap and powerful drink.

From the end of July, retailers will be able to sell meths without
restriction or the need to keep detailed records. It will still not be
available to under-14s.

Methylated spirit is alcohol that has been rendered undrinkable - and thus
tax-exempt - by adding methanol. Manufacturers also add a violet dye to
make it even less attractive and so that it cannot be drunk by mistake.

Until the Second World War, methylated spirit was a popular but dangerous
drink. But there still remains a hard core of drug and drink addicts who
will try any stimulant to get a new sensation.

Beauchamp Colclough, 50, a drugs and drink counsellor with a client list
that includes the singer Elton John and the model Paula Hamilton, drank
meths along with an array of other substances before his reform.

Dr Bruce Ritson, director of the alcohol problems clinic at the Royal
Edinburgh Hospital, said that he had seen few cases of meths abuse.

He said: "The effects of meths are very damaging. It is damaging to the
liver, nervous system, sight and it can be fatal. It was principally drunk
by street drinkers but I have not come across anyone drinking it for a very
long time, probably because it has been carefully controlled."

The Scottish Office consulted police, health authorities, social work
bodies and similar groups before deciding to end the restrictions.

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Office said: "The 1937 act regulating the
sale of meths was introduced to address a specific social problem of the
time in Scotland.

"In the 1930s, the drinking of crude spirits, and methylated spirits in
particular, was seen as a cheap alternative to more expensive forms of
alcohol. Information from the police confirms that this form of alcohol
abuse is no longer a problem in Scotland."

Meths was originally made from wood - the word methyl, which gives the name
methanol, derives from the Greek for the wine from wood. It has been used
in bootleg spirits because it is cheap and the producers do not care about
quality.

One batch uncovered in 1996 was found to contain 2 per cent methylated
spirits which was enough to cause harm. However, it is now more likely to
be used to remove ticks or to ward of midges in the Highlands, than as a
drink of last resort.

In some parts of Scotland, the spirit was known as "feek", a corruption of
fake. Its drinkers were known as feekers and they included middle-class
alcoholics as well as the poor. Alcoholics appreciated the extra "buzz"
from meths.

Poverty in the 1930s forced some people to go to great lengths to dull
their senses. Another common way of getting a hit was to inhale coal gas
bubbled through milk.

But in 1937, the high number of deaths, illnesses and cases of blindness
from meths abuse forced the government to take action to restrict the sales
of methylated spirits.

Sellers were forced to register with local councils and record every sale.
Buyers had to justify their purpose.

The sale of meths was also subject to trade restrictions associated with
alcohol even though it was not sold in pubs and off licences. Until 1994,
meths could not be sold on a Sunday.

It was not only in Britain that harmful alcohols were popular. Absinthe, a
French forerunner of 'pastis', was banned in 1915 because it was
responsible for causing hallucinations, mental deterioration and sterility.