Thursday, March 13, 2008

Underage Drinking

Underage Drinking

Reported by Adil and Kat

An increasing problem in the UK is under age drinking. Teenagers have grown increasingly addicted to the ‘drug’ and some say this has led to an increase in crime. Boys as young as eleven have been dragged into an increasingly popular but harmful habit. The average alcohol intake for eleven to thirteen year olds has risen from 3.6 units to 8.6 units. This is a shocking 5.1 units above the daily limit for a grown man.

So, how much damage has this problem inflicted? Drinking in huge amounts can cause many health problems. However, young teenagers still continue drinking.

A major issue is the source of the alcohol. Why is it becoming such a problem? We interviewed a shopkeeper called Jamie who has informed us, of around ten teenagers a week, lying about their age to gain access to alcohol. Shopkeepers have signs displaying that ID will be asked for and there are tight restrictions on acceptable forms of ID. However, this also presents problems for ordinary shopkeepers. Jamie told us that when asked underage teenagers can get “very abusive and swear when we refuse to sell them alcohol.”

For the local community this is also a problem. Sergeant Slee from Thames Valley Police is concerned about the issue but thinks it is manageable at the moment in Chalfont.

To stop this the government has increased the price of alcohol. This has been introduced in Alistair Darling’s first Budget. There has also been a new measure introduced which is the two strike law, where off licences get two strikes if they are caught selling alcohol to teenagers under the legal age, they will have their licenses confiscated.

There is help for these types of problems like young teenagers can talk to Frank by phone at 08000 77 66 00.

3 comments:

Jackie said...

I think that this is a really good article. It contains a lot of information about the subject. Having a contact number where people can get help is a really good idea. Well done!

Russell said...

Firstly as a former CCC student now living in the USA congratulations to you all for taking part today. I think this is a very serious issue that needs a much higher profile. Well done for raising this and I hope it helps the government see that it must do more to prevent under age drinking

Interested said...

Article was quite informational and provided local insight. I was waiting for the authors to weave their opinion into the article.

I will wait for a future article and the authors'opinions