Now they have introduced an ASBO for binge drinkers and are threatening to stop supermarket drink promotions.
I was always under the impression that being drunk and disorderly was an offence anyway and carried with it a punishment.
I believe the following should happen instead.
1. Raise the drinking age to 21.
2. If you are over sixteen and either caught drinking or being drunk and disorderly you should appear in court and have a hefty fine, which if not paid is followed by community service. The same would apply to over 21s except instead of community service they would receive a gaol sentence,
3. Any one providing underage drinkers should be treated in the same way as drug pushers, except if provided by parents for supervised consumption at home.
4 Any retail outlet caught providing underage drinkers should be heavily fined with two strikes and you lose your drink licence for a period of six months.
5. Any person under the age of 16, their parents will be held responsible, they would have to attend court and they would be fined.
The courts maybe overloaded to start with but once people realise that the punishments are harsh then the number of convictions will decrease.
6 Stop the all round the clock drinking hours. It just does not work in this country.
Apart from the fact that I am fed up with drunken teenagers lording it all over the place, I fail to see why I should have to suffer if the supermarkets are made to put their prices up. I rarely go to pubs now because, as a pensioner I cannot afford it, but I do like to drink, and buy my drink from the local markets.
What does everyone else think?

Well Al, I stopped drinking 25 years ago now, due to not getting anything from it.

I do feel there is already legislation in place to handle binge drinking and drunkeness on the street and these measures should be used.

Not knowing much about the drinking laws in the UK, I did a little research, and found this BBC article. I was dismayed to see that "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." :/

One writer states

Quote:

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"By raising the age threshold: "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.

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That, to me, sounds more viable and more effective than raising the age from 18 to 21.

Big-al, I'm not sure I can agree with your point number three, of treating suppliers to underage kids as drug pushers. There is a world of difference between beer or alcohol and crack or heroin. I do agree with your point number six of stopping round the clock drinking hours, if by that you mean you can buy and drink alcohol at any time at all? Perhaps a noon till 1am time limit, or some such would be better?

Perhaps it's time to bring in an extensive education program, it sounds like there's a problem with (some of) the youth and irresponsible drinking. I'm not sure that harsh fines and/or jail sentences are the way to go. Studies have shown that fines and punishment are not much of a deterrent to youth, nor are health scare tactics.

Perhaps some of our members in other parts of the world may have some input. What are the laws in your country? What are the realities of drinking in your culture?

I think that even more education regarding alcohol and its abuse wouldn't be much help. It is so heavily included in the Personal and Social Education syllabus as well as the Biology syllabus that any extra would be overkill and start to detriment what effect it is having now.

Jonno, you live in the UK, do you see underage drinking as a big problem there? Is it true you can buy and drink booze at any hour of the day or night?

My friends in the UK should ask the Japanese how they deal with the issue of underage drinking in their society, for they seem to have a handle on it. In Japan, there are vending machines on just about every street corner selling beer, ale, wine, and even spirits. The odd thing is that you never EVER see anybody obviously underage purchasing alcoholic beverages from those machines. I know I didn't when I lived there.

Now don't get me wrong; there is an alcoholism and binge drinking problem in Japan. Drunken salarymen are a scourge on the late-night trains and many a life has been ruined by overimbibing. But for some reason, their children and very young adults don't seem to even be tempted to buy alcohol in spite of it being available on literally every street corner. Perhaps its just a cultural thing; who knows?

Hi, Madmags, You are right about the suppliers of alcohol, it was a bit over the top.

The main problem is with the parents. Kids as young as ten are allowed out till the small hours of the morning and the parents don't seem to mind.
Around the corner from us a couple of years ago, a 13 year old was drunk as a skunk on vodka and at 3 in the morning she was arrested after assaulting a policeman. Her parents were actually frightened to do anything about it.
As an aside she is now 15 and a mother.

Which brings me onto education. As Jonnowales stated education is not the problem. We have extensive sex education now and we have the worst rate of teen age mothers in Europe,

I still think the only way is too hit them where it hurts, the pocket. And if they are of the age as to be under the parents responsibility then do the same with them, hit them financially, followed up with harsher penalties if they do not pay up.
One real worrying factor is the number of girls that now binge drink and cause problems.

Something has to be done but drinking ASBOs (Anti Social Behaviour Orders) are not the answer. Apart from anything else the Magistrates Association state that they will be impossible to re-inforce.
Regards Al