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thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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 Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 3:55 am Post subject: Call to raise drinking age to 21 in the UK |
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Call to raise drinking age to 21
By the age of 12, drinkers start to outnumber non-drinkers
Britain should consider making the legal drinking age 21 as it has "lost the plot" when it comes to regulating alcohol, policy pundits claim.
The UK has one of the worst problems in Europe with a fifth of children aged 11 to 15 drinking at least once a week.
Public Policy Research (PPR), the journal of the IPPR think-tank, says it is time to practice "tough love", such as reviewing the minimum drinking age.
The government said there were already tough measures in place.
Binge culture
But columnist Jasper Gerard argues in PPR: "When it comes to booze, society seems to have lost its senses."
He says current regulations are failing to tackle the growing trend of underage and binge drinking.
By raising the age threshold, he claims: "It is at least possible that those in their early and mid teens will not see drink as something they will soon be allowed to do so therefore they might as well start doing it surreptitiously now."
Alternatively, he proposes getting 18-year-olds to carry smart cards which record how much they have drunk each night and making it an offence to serve more alcohol to anyone under-21 who had already consumed more than three units.
He conceded that no measure would stamp out youthful drinking entirely, but said it was time for a crackdown.
Alcohol Concern agreed that further action was needed, but did not think raising the legal drinking age would help, pointing out that other countries which have already done this, including the US, still have a problem with youth drinking. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6551887.stm
As a question about this, it is often commented that France has much less public drunkenness than the UK. Why the difference between the two states?
I do not think that raising the drinking age to 21 will do any good. Just more drunken house parties like in the USA..
(btw this is the 5000th topic for the CE forum....) |
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Neil
Joined: 02 Jan 2004
Location: Tokyo
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| Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 4:09 am Post subject: |
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As a question about this, it is often commented that France has much less public drunkenness than the UK. Why the difference between the two states?
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Yeah, I've been thinking about this recently. We come from a culture that is alcohol fixated in terms of how we seemingly have the notion of getting drunk attached to almost every major and minor event in our lives. Even when we die, its the expected norm for those mourning us to get drunk at some stage and whilst I have been one of the worst culprits for this sort of attitude I have woken up to the fact that the booze takes far more from me than it ever gives.
Its a cultural problem, if you come from a white working class background then the local pub plays a major part in not only how you relax but in how you conduct business and make contacts. Its how things have been for centuries but everything has moved on and when you see young girls drinking themselves senseless every weekend you need to start thinking about the whole thing again. |
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