Campaigners said more than a million Scots drank too much

Researchers based their calculation on a drinking habits survey and warned the true number could be even higher.

The study suggested that many people consumed more alcohol than was recommended by government guidelines.

Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (Shaap) said that banning promotions in supermarkets could cut alcohol related illness.

Official figures have previously suggested that people questioned in surveys report drinking less than half of the alcohol actually sold in the UK.

Shaap, which established by medical royal colleges in Scotland, said official policy should be directed at lowering alcohol consumption in the population as a whole.

Alcohol policy offers another opportunity for the Scottish Government to show leadership once again Dr Bruce Ritson Shaap

Chairman Dr Bruce Ritson said: "Alcohol policy has tended to focus on the minority of the drinking population who are the heaviest drinkers.

"However, there is a much bigger number of hazardous and harmful drinkers who account for most of the alcohol-related problems simply because they are a much larger group - over a million people in Scotland.

"What that means is that it's not enough to target only the heaviest drinkers.

"If we are serious about preventing harm, we need to have policies that impact on the whole population as well as the heaviest drinkers."

Drinking day

He said recent measures to ban cut-price alcohol promotions signalled that the government was serious about reducing alcohol-related harm.

He added: "Alcohol policy offers another opportunity for the Scottish Government to show leadership once again and we believe the Scottish people will fully support the government in their efforts."

Shaap based its calculations on a survey which was carried out in 2003.

The study found that 63% of male drinkers said they had consumed more than four units on their heaviest drinking day of the previous week.

Some 57% of women drank more than three units on their heaviest drinking day of the previous week.