Alcohol is always in the news. Hit and run killer drivers "under the influence of alcohol", murders outside pubs and on public transport late at night, famous people slowly killing themselves, the list is endless. Of course alongside these latest news stories, the usual destruction that alcohol brings, the abject day-to-day misery of the individual, the family and society, is mostly ignored.

Consider how alcohol is marketed. The introduction of spirit and mixer in the one pocket money-priced bottle was bad enough, but the advertisers make childish television and billboard adverts to make their product further appeal to the immature mind. Some advertisement campaigns go further still by giving the impression that alcohol is as hip as illicit drugs.

If the destruction caused by alcohol were committed under the influence of any other substance, it would be banned immediately, yet this substance can be promoted with awesome strength and complete lack of responsibly. Sporting tournaments can be transformed into mega-adverts for the drinking culture. The vast sums generated in tax, plus the power of the corporate alcohol peddlers, mean that an advertising ban is unlikely without immense pressure. To think that advertising spirits was only permitted on television again just a few years ago. I wonder what cowardly self-servers were responsible for this piece of crass stupidity.

Because of the attitude of alcohol companies to endeavour to sell as much as they possibly can without caring very much about the consequences of their dangerous drug, and because the sports clubs and tournament organisers are all too eager to take the booze buck when they know full well that sport and alcohol do not mix, especially in Scotland, the glamorous image will remain. It sickens me to wonder how many young Old Firm fans (sporting a lager brand on their chests, yet many years too young to legally buy alcohol) get abused by family members who become drunk on the stuff. The only options are to ban irresponsible advertising, and for us to go the same way as in France, and ban alcohol's sponsorship of sport.

Either we live in a society that appreciates sobriety and peace, or we live in one where alcohol sales must be kept unhealthily high for business-sake, and accept the resulting death, disease and lawlessness. Because of the nature of alcohol, we cannot have it both ways.