> > in the open to be seen by children who could be scarred for life if > > they see an open can of beer sitting on the ground. > > Here, it's the adults who are scarred from seeing teens (and > younger) drunk enough to pass out, run in front of vehicles > or commit various crimes. Police have the authority to > confiscate alcohol for immediate destruction (usually poured > down the nearest drain) from anyone found to be in posession > when underage. Unfortunately cheap alcohol is so cheap here > that it is not really a deterrent.
There needs to be a bit more tolerance of under-age drinking - I think the extreme intolerance we seem to have developed in recent years is at least partly to blame for binge drinking. I first got drunk when I was about 13 or 14 and bought a litre and a half of cheap cider which I drank in the park on a Saturday afternoon, to see what it was like. It's a rite of passage. >From the age of 14 my school friends and I were drinking on Friday nights in pubs in the market town where we lived. In one of the other rooms of the pub some of the teachers also drank, knowing perfectly well that we were also in there. In fact, my history teacher once bought us all a round. It had been going on for generations and was well controlled. We couldn't afford more than a couple of pints each so we couldn't really get drunk, but we didn't feel any need to buy the cheapest, strongest booze we could just to go out and get hammered. Introducing young people to adulthood is a gradual process. If you deliberately exclude them then you're bound to get problems. Bob -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
