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POLICE SEIZE 20,000 LITRES OF TEEN ALCOHOL

Up to 20,000 litres of alcohol were confiscated in one week

Thursday April 10,2008

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MORE than 5,000 youngsters have been forced to hand over their stashes of beer, cider, wine and spirits in a police crackdown.

More than 20,000 litres of alcohol had been confiscated in just one week following tip-offs to police, the Home Office said.

Around a quarter were under the age of 15.

The half-term crackdown was aimed at reducing “the damage and disruption that underage drinking causes to youngsters, their families and the communities they live in”, Home Office minister Vernon Coaker said.

The police found that 15 per cent of the alcohol was bought from shops, while 30 per cent refused to say where they obtained it.

Last night, the campaign was welcomed by the drinks industry.

Jeremy Beadles, chief executive of the Wine and Spirit Trade Association, said: “The level of alcohol seized suggests this should not just be a one-off confiscation exercise.”

Meanwhile, it emerged that a binge drinking computer game is about to be rolled out to schools across the country. The game, called ThinknDrinkn, allows school children to take on the role of teenagers in a rough housing estate.

Pupils have to find and revive a drunk friend and take them to casualty before they vomit and pass out. All this has to be done without getting beaten up by local ‘chavs’.

Although the game is aimed at educating children about the perils of alcohol, education campaigners were yesterday up in arms.

Nick Seaton, of the Campaign for Real Education, blasted the game saying its scenarios are inappropriate for pupils just out of primary school.

He said: “It is utterly irresponsible to confront children of just 11 or 12 with the idea of a friend lapsing into unconsciousness because they have had so much to drink.”

POLICE SEIZE 20,000 LITRES OF TEEN ALCOHOL

11.04.08, 11:46am

Let's turn this on it's head.

Shops and off licenses sell alcohol at cheaper prices than pubs that are going out of business. In a pub there is, or should be, a measure of control.

So - 1. Tax alcopops out of existence, and

2. Increase duty on alcohol sold in shops and off licenses so that it becomes cheaper to drink in a controlled environment.

This will do something to save the traditional pub, necessary for social reasons, and will do something to reduce underage drinking by making it too expensive and having someone there to ask "are you old enough?" Those who want "alcopops" can always ask for a cocktail to be mixed for them.

• Posted by: JohnnyB • Report Comment

AS FOR THE

10.04.08, 7:01pm

underage drinkers who would not say where they got the alcohol from; they should be arrested and their parents called to the station to collect them. And whilst there parents are there, the parents can be fined for their siblings wasting police time and taxpayers money.

Unless there is a deterrent nothing will ever be resolved.

• Posted by: easymonies • Report Comment