An editor has urged readers to rethink their relationship with alcohol after an investigation by her newspaper.

Catherine Salmond has made the call after Scotland on Sunday examined an increase in alcohol-related deaths across the country during 2020 and 2021.

In an exclusive for the Edinburgh-based paper, Dani Garavellie revealed an increasing “polarisation” of Scots’ drinking habits during the pandemic, whcih saw light to moderate drinkers drink the same or less, while heavy drinkers drank more.

The revelation prompted Catherine to run an editorial accompanying the splash, pictured below.

Catherine wrote: “It is certainly true that getting drunk in Scotland is, in the main, socially acceptable and encouraged by many. We all know that.

“As editor of a Sunday newspaper, my Friday and Saturday nights are sober affairs on account of early starts and late finishes. I cannot cope with hangovers and have no interest in operating in first gear.

“Some of my friends still struggle with the idea that I cannot – or choose not to – overindulge at the weekends and are often encouraging me to head out to do exactly that with them on a rare weekend off.

“It is lovely to be wanted on a drunken night out, but this Scottish way of ‘encouraging’ people to drink makes it difficult for those who really need to stop.

“There is a very important discussion needed in Scotland about our relationship with drink. The statistics are concerning and experts are calling for change.

“They need to be listened to if we are ever going to break the cycle of what – of course – can be harmless for many people but deadly for countless others.”