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Police comment on 'epidemic' of teenage binge drinking
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7242802.stm
Alcohol service need more funding - they throw money at drug treatment programmes but alcohol still comes up short shrift in terms of comparative harm.
[EDIT: oh bugger this was meant for the drugs forum, any mods able to assist?]
Alcohol service need more funding - they throw money at drug treatment programmes but alcohol still comes up short shrift in terms of comparative harm.
[EDIT: oh bugger this was meant for the drugs forum, any mods able to assist?]
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All we can do is take the beer off them when we get chance and pick up the pieces afterwards.
Something needs to be done to slow it down.
I'm still at a loss as to how exactly refusing nightclub/pub/bar entry to 18 - 20 year olds who previously haven't been causing problems is going to stop 13 - 15 year olds drinking. The logic of the people in charge is bordering on terrifying.
The easiest solution, from a police enforcement view is to designate the entire country as a "designated are", making it illegal to consume alcohol in the street after being asked to stop by a PC or PCSO. That way the troublemakers are dealt with whilst the group who have decided to have an impromptu BBQ with some beer on a field are left alone.
I know the (flawed) logic behind it, but it's still not going to work. Maybe the above is the case in your area, but certainly not here. The people that bought us booze while in school were usually between the ages of 30 - 50... we rarely saw 18 - 20 year olds go into the shop, as they were usually in the city center at pubs/bars at that time on a Friday and Saturday. Occasionally some of the groups' brothers or sisters used to pick it up for us (who were usually over 21) in their car. Any 18 - 20 year olds we did see were too afraid of getting caught so soon after actually being able to legally buy booze in the first place; and that didn't even take into account the several shops around our area who got to know which people could be trusted, and used to serve us from ages 14 - 18 anyway.
Basically if you want to drink, you're going to drink. You'll get it from somewhere no matter what laws are in place because the laws aren't the root of the problem. It's no use punishing the majority of 18 - 20 year olds who don't abuse the current system in a vain attempt to put a dent in an unrelated problem.
EDIT: I know I can sound completely condescending half the time but I really don't mean this to be; is the most likely to proxy-purchase age an official statistic or is it the trend you've found while working?
It's a trend, and if i'm being honest quite possibly a local one, seeing as most of the 18-20 year olds in this particular town are utter c**ts as well. The 18-20 year olds proxy-purchasing was the main reason we brought in the no-alcohol zone which seems to have done quite a bit to stop it.
You're right, it's no good tarring all 18-20 year olds with the same brush, the vast majority are decent. The only other option is make it an offence to drink alcohol in public and not just in a few small areas.
Yeah, it should be the other way around - the few small areas should be where it's OK to drink. There's a park in Glasgow where all the uni students hang out in summer (pretty much from ages 18 - 30), setting up those portable BBQ's (pretty much as you said), playing football/frisbe/whatever and having a quiet few beers in the sun. There's never any trouble besides when neds decide to come along trying to cause it, but it's usually dealt with pretty quickly by the 100 or so people there out to have a relaxing day. Last year however, 2 - 4 police constantly showed up on bikes and literally just sat there for hours watching everyone despite there being no trouble all day (or any of the previous days), only moving to cycle up to people with open alcohol to warn them or to pour it out if they kept drinking after the initial warning.
Pretty annoying.
As for changing the age limit - it doesnt in any way help in the US, so I doubt it would here.
We need to look at the reasons why both adults and teenagers are wanting to get blindingly drunk. But thats a far harder issue so those in political power dont want to touch it with a barge pole.
I agree with you on the first part. This however is how police shouldn't act, where I work we've got better things to do than hassle people who aren't actually causing a problem.
We've got no problem with people having a drink and a BBQ on a park, it's a social activity, as long as they clean their mess up we leave them to it.
Mmm. I can understand two police cycling by every few hours to check up, but having four guys sit there for hours at a time? Waste of police resources, imo.
That's the thing. A whole load of different "cliques" (for want of a better word) go to this park to socialise with each other, alot of the time for a few consecutive days a week during the holidays. It's in our own best interest to clean up the mess so we don't have to sit on it the next day, so 99% of us do just that.
one of my step sisters refused to go to school for 4 weeks, guess what neither I her mum or even the school or anybody managed to get out of her the reason why she would not go (and apparently there was one) what sort of society is this becoming is the goverment aware that these kids tomorow will run their lives as pensioners ?
Budda just mentioned his youthful drunkeness and he doesn't strike me as being from a family of bad parenting.
parents school society as a whole why is it this was never a problem what changed why don't people have other interests ? all the interest in life young people seem to have today is go out and inevitably drink.
Having a bit more for younger people to do would be great. There really isnt much around here, a cinema which is massively over priced. A "family" entertainment center that is full of chavvy wankers that will mug you if they see you. Thats about it really to be honest. We need a SAFE environment for young people to hang out.
That's not really gonna change anything. If people want to drink, they'll drink. They're not gonna go "Oh shit guys, now there's harsher penalties if we're caught! Better start staying in and the weekends and play Warcraft instead." Sure, there might be a slight decrease in the casual youngster who goes out for a drink with his friends, but the problem ones who put on their best white tracky, get fucked up on cheap cider and run about fighting until they sober up are still going to be at it.
Besides, alcohol is an incredibly unpredictable drug. You can drink X amount one week and be only mildly tipsy wishing you had more, and the next week you can drink the same amount (or less), ending up blind drunk and waking up with very little memory of the night before.
I wonder if that's the problem. I wonder if the people who are proposing such changes are only basing it on what they've observed firsthand in their local area, assuming it;s like that nationwide.
The government keep cutting the funding for youth clubs and the sorts of things which would give teenagers something else to do.
You dont need to beat a kid senseless to get them to do what you want. Respect needs to be earnt, fear is not respect.
But yes there is little for young people to do, just even hanging about in public places does carry some risk as young people are often targetted by people looking to intimodate/rob. Which is also why kids often hang about in large groups, safety in numbers.
I don't think i'd feel comfortable arresting people just because they were drinking underage. I don't mind taking all their beer off them, normally it's enough to prevent them getting into trouble later on but arresting them is a bit extreme.
Anyway, who's the judge on if you're binge drinking or not? Too many factors affect how drunk someone gets to set a universal standard on what is and what isn't binge drinking. Hell, the already existing governmental standard for 'responsibile' drinking consists of around 2 - 3 bottles of beer a day. Even otherwise 'responsible' adults don't adhere to that.
People can already be arrested for that.
Drunk and disorderly, drunk in the highway, drunk and incapable, section 5 public order.
No punishment will stop people from going out and getting rotto.
We need to change the countries attitude to drinking in general and raising drink prices isn't going to stop people either, it didn't work with tobacco, did it?
In part it did, but what was far more effective was the general change in social attitudes. We could try another form of the drink driving ads which were effective - but I doubt they would have a big impact.
It literally stuns me that they were. I can't believe people who previously would drink drive were put off by an advert.
They are certainly said to be effective, but I think it was also a change in attitudes. Middle age middle class people now are very unlikely to drink and drive, however they used to all the time - I think the big change was in their actions.
Same here,still known a few eijets who drink and drive, drug drive as well.
Most of the people we stop are middle-aged driving Volvos, Audis and BMWs. We stop very few "youngsters".
Sorry
Topic closed.
When i was 13/14/15, we all got drunk. We got anyone we could to buy it, we stole it from our folks, we got it any which way we could - the simple fact was we wanted to drink.
This isnt an issue of control and rules, this is an issue of attitude. There needs to be some big changes in peoples minds before an issue like this changes and i dont think any amount of fines/arrests will do that.