General Chat

I am 20 years old and i drink responsibly. i beleive it is the way in which a child is brought up that determines whether a teenager is responsible or irresponsible with alcohol.

I have seen plenty of people over the age of 21 acting ridiculously when under the influence, it is not just those under the age of 21 who dont act sensibly. afterall what difference does a day make. all of a sudden after a person's 21st birthday they can be deemed responsible enough to buy and drink alcohol, but the day before they cannot? why should those teenagers who are responsible enough to drink sensibly be punished for the behaviours of others?

underaged teens will always manage to get their hands on alcohol, i think as someone has already mentioned it is all based on how children are brought up to view alcohol.

Lee.

Stray, I've never been in trouble with the police for drinking either:)

Sorry Darklord but I don't take much notice of newspapers, especially ones that use terms like "booze-fuelled". That snippet doesn't tell us anything about the range or distribution of incidents and I wouldn't imagine the figures are not very shocking broken down - for example, 38 more incidents of arrests of drunken women? That could all have been from one party or it could have been a crackdown - who knows

So yes Claire you are also right

Just a snippet from a newspaper



Drunken misbehaviour in Lincolnshire has surged dramatically in the last year, new figures reveal.
Booze-fuelled incidents in 2008 resulted in a 23 per cent rise in arrests in the county for drunken antics, with 607 people arrested for drunkenness last year.
Arrests of drunken women were up by a startling 69 per cent, from 55 in 2007 to 93 in 2008.
The surge in arrests comes after the police warned that the credit crunch was forcing licensed premises to cut prices to attract more customers, which led to the City of Lincoln Council demanding Government action to ban cheap drinks promotions.
Eighteen and 21-year-olds topped the table for the age groups with the most arrests, while arrests of boozed-up under-20s jumped 56 per cent.
But 56 per cent of those arrested were over 30 – and a third were over 40.

i was 15 when i first started nightclubbing
and have never ever been in trouble with the police drunk or without drink

i think its up tot he parents to educatet he children on what is resonable and what isnt

I disagree that drunken behaviour is anti-social. On the contrary, a lot of it is very sociable. It isn't fair to judge the majority on the minority of those who cause trouble

Fights are indeed not new. However large cities will always have alarge police outlay, due to the volume of people. They would be better off helping the ordinary public rather than breaking drunken anti-social behaviour.

I recall my brother being nicked by the local copper for drinking under age: he was 16 at the time and it was 1957 - he got fined £1.00.

It didnt stop him from drinking again though - he just made sure that the copper was not in the area at the time!

How old were people before they started drinking in pubs and clubs? I was 16.

In my local town if the kicked out the underage drinkers the pubs would shut through lack of businss

I don't recall seeing any police except in Brighton where there are always a lot around the streets by the pier. You see the odd scuffle here and there but these are mostly in the spill out from clubs and are usually controlled by bouncers. And fights aren't new:)

In our town, it is not the under 21's who cause the problems with drinking it's the over 40's

Raised to 21, because in America they maybe start drinking at 18/19 rather than at 12/13/14.

Another thing is adjusting the genral populations attitude to alcohol, as when I have been to America, you order more than a couple of drinks you get looked at like your a serious drunk.

In America they are also very strict on ID, if you get caught passing a drink to someone without ID even if they are over age they will just stop serving the whole group.

I also think they tend to prosecute underage drunks or at least lock them up till the parents come and collect them much more often then in the UK, although that may just be a myth created by the film industry, but whenever a film shows police entering an party were their is alcohol all those who are underage run and those underage run too as its an offence to provide a 'minor' with acohol.

Its a good point, however how much of a police prescence was there?.

Darklord

Programmes like Night Cops don't give a balanced representation. I've been out in Brighton, Birmingham, Reading and London at night on weekends in the last few months and none of them were no go areas.

Hi Ice

indeed so , but we have to be seen to be tackilg this anti-social attitude. At night on the weekends your average town centre is a no go area. That should not be the case

Darklord

I am watching Night Cops at the moment and I would disagree. However you opinion is very welcome

Neither - I think it's all cool how it is

The advertising ban is a very good idea.

What it needs there is the government to stop the supermarkets selling cheap booze.
Until they get a backbone the problem of underage drinking will go on.
Put the prices in line with the pubs and give them a chance to survive

Darklord