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Global Alcohol Issue
Underage Binge Drinking & Surrounding Issues
As I hope to be involved in the sale of liquor myself quite soon, I feel that it is somewhat partially my responsibility to look at ways I can have a positive influence surrounding liquor and alcoholism. Once such issue is that of underage binge drinking.
I strongly believe that there are certain points that need to be addressed before we as adults controlling the sale and consumption of liquor can have a positive impact on reducing such related problems associated with teenagers binge drinking.
These particular points of which I firmly feel need to be addressed first and foremost are?
- What type of liquor are teenagers drinking and why?? i.e. What is it about the particular type of liquor
that teenagers drink that appeals most to them??
- Were and How are teenagers acquiring the liquor they are binging on??
I believe that by addressing the above questions along with education or possibly re-education, i.e. looking at the devices and ways used to currently educate teenagers on the negative effects both short and long term on not only their physical health but their mental health also will have a significant positive impact on reducing the problematic issues surrounding teenagers binge drinking.
One idea I would wish for the liquor industry to consider on a global scale, if not already enforced in other countries other than Australia, is that of the minimum age required to enable people to sell liquor to the general
public, regarding that of bar and liquor attendants, would be a suggestion of an age being a minimum of 23yrs old or even the possibility of 25yrs old as a minimum age to allow the actual retail sale of liquor.
There has also been of recent in the news that of parents allowing liquor to be consumed at home by teenagers, hoping that this will inevitably solve such issues of binge drinking later on in life. I do believe this idea has merit
however it still must be highly controlled, for instance I don?t believe every party a household has warrants the automatic allowance of a ?small? amount of liquor to be consumed by any of the attending underage teenagers in the presence of the attending adults. As adults we should understand what the majority of us were like as teenagers along with what teenagers of today are like, hence the old saying??Give them an inch and they?ll take a mile?.
I can not say that this will outright solve the issue of underage teenage binge drinking but I strongly feel that the consideration of the questions I have put forward above would have a significant positive impact on reducing the problem for both teenagers later in life along with an immediate result in their current life and quite obviously this would flow through into reducing the costs of health issues within society?Making for a better world??
?Liquor is not the bad guy, just sometimes the way it is portrayed and consumed is bad???
Troy K. Egan
08/01/2007
Och här är mitt svar på det hela:
A very interesting question indeed. As I do 'work' in the business, and have children of my own (aged 10 and 15), it is of course a thing I think about a lot.
And living in a kingdom with alcohol-monopoly and quite strict alcohol laws, I must say that I can't see a difference in the way young people binge-drink here compared to our neighbouring country Denmark, where alcohol policies are quite the opposit.
In Sweden you have to be 20 to purchase alcoholic beverages in the only government-owned chain that supplies these products. They are very strict about checking the age of the customers, so it's quite impossible to get the liqour that way for youngsters.
That doesn't stop them from binge-drinking though. There is a huge amount of 'moonshine', smuggled drinks and idiots that buy alcohol for the young ones...
The government isn't helping either, and one example of this is the fact that commersials about alcoholic beverages below 15% (beer, alco-pops and wine) are allowed, but not ads about the ones over 15% (whisky, vodka and so on). And what do the youngsters drink??? The most logical should be the other way around, or am I out in the forrest here?
Solution to the problem? Well, this is what I think about alot. I do try to educate my children in the positive ways of enjoying alcoholic beverages, such as highend spirits, exclusive beers and so on. I think the responsibility of the parents in todays society - or the lack of - is a big part of the problem. I don't know how to solve this, but I think information, talking to the youths, promoting highend spirits instead of cheap 'shit' is a part of it. Prohibition is not the way though, IMHO, since it just makes it more interesting.
Well, just some wee thoughts about it, stuck in the massive snowstorm in Sweden...
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Slainthe Mhath
Mattias Nordkvist
