Underage drinking

[anotheoldgit]

Regarding the ever increasing problem of youths drinking and hanging around the streets.

The goverment seem to be doing nothing, the police seem powerless, the parents don't seem to care, so what can be done. The "Do-Gooders" bleat on that the poor little mites are bored and have nothing better to do.

Stop the supermarkets selling cheap booze has been suggested, will this stop them? I don't think so.

Well time for unique measures, me thinks. We have got rid of the smokers out of the pub, they now have to smoke outside. Well why not make it also illegal to drink outside, and let these youngsters drink in the Pub?

This way they will be off the streets, they won't drink too much, if they have to pay pub prices. They will have plenty to do, slot machines, pool, darts, cards etc. And there would be plenty of adults around to keep them in check.

Oh well just another pipe dream, but think about it, is it all that ridiculous?

[Gromit]

It is already there AOG. It either doesn't work or is not being enforced.

"Sections 12-16 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act, 2001, provide local authorities with adoptive powers to restrict anti-social drinking and give the police the power to enforce this restriction.

Police can confiscate open containers of alcohol within the zone and, where there is non compliance, prosecutions can lead to maximum fines of �500.

Let the youngsters drink in the pub????

Are you mad, it is bad enough as it is the legal ones with their rap music and mobile phones and sickly drinks.

Maybe if the PCSOs (and the police if their are still any outdoor varieties left) actually did their job, then the underage drinkers might keep out of sight and trouble..

[ghetto poet]

Gromits right its already illegal to drink on the streets. I started drinking on the streets at the age of 13. A couple of times the pigs poured away my beer but then I just went and brought some more. What else is a teenager supposed to do with there time?

[sp1214]

A BBC reporter was asking a juvenile the way to decrease under age yobs drunk on the streets and he said they should be allowed to drink inside the pub. So its not such a dotty idea.

[aims1202]

I dont understand why everyone thinks its a new thing. Its exactly what we did from the age of 13/14. Along with a lot of others. ( I'm now 29) There was even a church group out on the streets giving us 'drunken yobs' tea and biscuits and being really nice to us!
We never caused anyone any harm or did any damage to anything, we were just having fun. I know there are those that do, they are a minority and its not the same. But teenagers hanging around the streets getting drunk , harming nobody and just having a laugh isnt really a problem in my eyes. It would be good for them to have other things to do as well though, better if we asked them what they'd like maybe.

[Ice.Maiden]

Ban it altogether, like they're trying to with cigarettes.

[evedawn]

At the risk of sounding like an old hasbeen...:-)

they should ban drinking except in pubs, restuarants or...(of course) on private property, (what would a bbq be without some beers eh)

So in otherwords - no drinking on public property - for anyone of any age, that includes public transport and pavements....

[Gromit]

I'm a bit surprised AOG that you are advocating mass breaking of the law. My view is that you cannot stop youths drinking before 18 (what society deems an acceptable age) but we should make it more difficult for them to do so, not make it easier as you suggest.

[jake-the-peg]

There's no real answer to this one.

The Today program couldn't get a government or a shadow minister to talk about raising prices.

It's a real poison chalice.

If you raise the prices the response will be mass smuggling, as gromit and ghetto poet point out there are already laws in place prohibiting it.

There has been a culture of binge drinking in this country shince before Shakespeare's time. Lloyd Geoge tried to tackle it with draconian laws -not just pub opening times, it was illegal to buy someone else a drink ( called "treating" ).

You simply aren't going to change hundreds of years of culture in a few years.

Unless we introduce an Islamic state that is

[Kromovaracun]

The only real way you can change it - like most things - is through education. Teaching people from an early age the facts about alcohol consumption etc.

And I don't mean 'scaring them into it' - because that doesn't really work - but demonstrating rational reasons not to binge drink and things. The current education (as I've experienced it) is actually fine but it does come in a bit too late to be effective on this sort of thing.

Although I'm not sure I agree with it entirely, one argument I've heard put forward is to raise the drinking age to 21, as it's harder to pass oneself off as that age rather than 18 (plus there'll be more older people around than under-18-year-olds).

My problem with that is while it may well work in some areas, I can see people in stronger/ more cohesive communities just ignoring it (for instance in more suburban/rural areas)

[anotheoldgit]

The only thing raising the legal drinking age to 21 would produce and that is even more underaged drinkers ie the 18 to 21 group.

To enlarge on the idea of letting the kids into the pubs and then enforcing zero tolerance regarding drinking on the streets.

The back street boozers are closing down at an alarming rate. So why not buy some of these up, complete with fittings and try and attract the kids into these?

I am sure that they would rather go to these ex-pubs in a nice warm, light atmosphere than hang around cold wet streets, even though they only sold soft drinks and coffee.

The coffee bars of the 50s seemed to work.

[Kromovaracun]

I think the argument was that it would reduce the 16 (or thereabouts) population drinking and that they're the 'unresponsible' element, while having more 21-year-olds (and over) around would keep the younger elements in check.

The guy was saying that after the drinking age was lowered, it brought younger people into pubs which then reduced interest in older people etc. etc.

Like I say, I don't agree with it.

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The problem with your proposal is that drinking is seen among several (though not all by any means, I wish to make clear) young people as an end-in-itself: I know plenty of people for instance who often go out purely for the purpose of getting drunk, and I'm just recently 18. It's almost seen as an 'adult' thing to do by some people.

So while you'd certainly get plenty of people in your converted bar, the people who are causing problems will pursue alcohol regardless.

Thus, the way you change behaviour is by changing the way people see alcohol/drinking so we're back to - ta da! - education.