U.K. Needs Higher Legal Drinking Age, Expert Says
Professor Colin Drummond, a consultant psychiatrist from St George's Medical School, at the University of London, said the country's alcohol problems far exceed those caused by illegal drug abuse, with as many as one third of men and one fifth of women drinking to excess.
"Certainly, in America where this has been done, there has been a significant reduction in, for example, alcohol-related road deaths," Professor Drummond told the British Association science festival, about lowering the drinking age. "Forty percent of those who go to A&E (emergency rooms) on a Saturday, over the 24-hour period, will be an alcohol-related attendance. After 10 p.m. that goes up to 70 percent."
"A third of the people going to their GP (doctors) have an alcohol problem, and very often it is not being diagnosed because no one is asking them about it. This is something we need to address with better training and education," he told the BBC. "In the male 18-25 age group, alcohol misuse has increased 32 percent over the last 12 years. In women, the figure is 70 percent."
"The scale of the alcohol problem in the UK is massive," Professor Drummond said. "I think people are not sufficiently aware of just what the cost is of alcohol misuse in this country. If they were, they would be more concerned to do something about."
More: Teens and Alcohol Don’t Mix | Teen Drinking and Behavior
Comments
Waste of time money and resources, as a teenager i know that this wont solve anything only increase the feeling of over regulated UK which encourages people to rebel, all it will do is increse use of other drugs which are probably alot worse and increse the ammount underage drinkers have to do to get it. newspaper headlines will say “18 year old girls use sex to get booze” there is always a way around drinking laws, changing the law will just postpone the binge drinking for a couple years great all the kids can just somke crack till then yeah? think about it! what about the 18, 19, 20 yo bar staff do they lose there jobs! this is the most ridiculous thing ive seen in politics and i know what im talking about as i have a degree in economics and work for a youth scheme.
I totally agree with James, I think this idea of putting the drinking age up to 21 is ridiculous!
I am 19 and having the drinking age put up to 21 would just be a huge innconvenience for all over 18yr olds that arent 21. I am also a uni student and I cant imagine not being able to go to the SU and not have an alcoholic drink if I wanted one. Also think of all the business bars pubs and clubs would lose, making the already expensive prices in these places rise even more.
If you are considered an adult at 18 and are charged adult prices at that age and can vote, you should have the right and the freedom to choose whether to drink or not. It wont change people being alcoholics because no matter your age, any teenager can get hold of alcohol if they really want it and it will just cause an increase in illegal drinking. This idea is just as bad and ridiculous as the tagging devices they are thinking of introducing in cars!
when i was told that they were going to raise the drinking age to 21 i felt like crying! im counting the seconds til i turn 18 because all of my friends are already there, i cudnt imagine having to do it again for my 21st birthday! it is the most ridiculous idea the government have come up with EVER!
This i a ridiculous idea, i’, 16, nearly 17, i know how easy it is to get my hands on alcohol, i cam easily walk into a pub or a bar and buy a drink without being questioned and if not someone will buy me one. Like laura said people can’t wait to be able to drink legally though because it stops the whole will i get served, won’t i, but 9 times out of 10 teenagers get what they want. i think maybe the best way to tackle the problem would be to abolish the age restriction so it wasn’t forbiden anymore as this is part of the attraction. As the law forces teenagers to do this like pay people tp supply them and camp out and get drunk, i know people as young as 13 do this.
The problem with limitations on drinking-ages is that it makes alcohol seem special, forbidden, more of a novelty. People want it because they can’t have it, also the association is made between drinking alcohol (namely, too much alcohol) and having a good time, when the truth is that the reverse is true in many (but not all) cases. The truth is that people should be exposed to alcohol (to some extent) at younger ages, experience and be educated about the effects of alcohol, and learn how to drink responsibly, not to idealise excess drinking. Some European countries allow their children to drink wine with their meals from early ages, therefore they get used to the idea of alcohol as neither a prized commodity nor a cursed beverage but just another part of life, and therefore they’re less likely to go over the top if they get it. Europe has a lower drinking age on average and a less strict attitude to alcohol than the UK or US, and also have fewer problems related to it.
To quote Ruth Clifford Engs, (1961) in an article in which she discusses why the drinking age should be lowered in America ( “http://www.indiana.edu/~engs/articles/fruit.html” ):
“Groups such as Italians, Greeks, Chinese, and Jews, who have few drinking related problems, tend to share some common characteristics. Alcohol is neither seen as a poison or a magic potent, there is little or no social pressure to drink, irresponsible behavior is never tolerated, young people learn at home from their parents and from other adults how to handle alcohol in a responsible manner, and there is societal consensus on what constitutes responsible drinking.”
The problem with limitations on drinking-ages is that it makes alcohol seem special, forbidden, more of a novelty. People want it because they can’t have it, also the association is made between drinking alcohol (namely, too much alcohol) and having a good time, when the truth is that the reverse is true in many (but not all) cases. The truth is that people should be exposed to alcohol (to some extent) at younger ages, experience and be educated about the effects of alcohol, and learn how to drink responsibly, not to idealise excess drinking. Some European countries allow their children to drink wine with their meals from early ages, therefore they get used to the idea of alcohol as neither a prized commodity nor a cursed beverage but just another part of life, and therefore they’re less likely to go over the top if they get it. Europe has a lower drinking age on average and a less strict attitude to alcohol than the UK or US, and also have fewer problems related to it.
To quote Ruth Clifford Engs, (1961) in an article in which she discusses why the drinking age should be lowered in America (http://www.indiana.edu/~engs/articles/fruit.html):
“Groups such as Italians, Greeks, Chinese, and Jews, who have few drinking related problems, tend to share some common characteristics. Alcohol is neither seen as a poison or a magic potent, there is little or no social pressure to drink, irresponsible behavior is never tolerated, young people learn at home from their parents and from other adults how to handle alcohol in a responsible manner, and there is societal consensus on what constitutes responsible drinking.”
My name is ben i am 19, i run a small independant club in hertfordshire. Most if not all of my customers are between the age of 18 and 23. If this stupid law was to come in with in 3 months my club will be out of busness and i will become unimployed with out a dowt, and many other busnesses. Most bar staff are students so if we are not aloud to drink are we still aloud to work. Many uni students may have to drop out due to not having any work. Also i dont think they have thought, if you turn round to 20 million people and say after waiting 18 years and have been drinking for 1/2/3 years, you can not drink anymore how many riots are there going to be. You will start getting drug dealers also dealing alcohol. After a stressfull week i enjoy having a quiet drink, it helps me relax and calm down. Now times me by 10 million. WHATS GOING TO HAPPEN THEN? (sorry for any spelling mistakes)
i vote for lowering to 16 LIKE EUROPE
This is absolutely disgusting. First with cigarettes now with alcohol. I’m 17, I don’t actually go into bars because I want to wait till I’m 18.
But as i said, the same thing happened with cigarettes, I was allowed to smoke and buy fags legally for a whole year and then it stopped, I feel like a child again asking my friends to go get fags for me, as though i was a 13yr old doing ’something naughty’ if the same happens with alcohol there will be more underage drinking, that won’t work now will it?
i totally agreethe drinking age should b higherd but i also think that the very fact clubs and pubs are allowed to stay open all night also increases the crime rate and alcohol abuse by these youngsters my daughter has just turned 18 and since then has been staying out till early morning on several occasions and this is making her very ill but all i get is im 18 and the law says i can and the clubs dont shut till 4 and at least two i know of stay open all night and serve breakfast how stupid is this if we want to stop these youngsters drinking close these places earlier also stricter checks would help as a lot of her friends are under age and still egt in eiter using no id or fake or borrowed id and half of them dont even look like the people on the id it seems as long as they flash a driving license or photo card they are allowed in if more clubs were prosecuted and tighter checks were made that would go a long way to stop this alcohol abuse that is going on
I know that the people that are drunk need to know how to think because they can cause alot of problems.
For example my daddy is alcoholic but he have and accident few weeks ago. And that may me sick he had 4 surgeries. when the doctor toll me about it I though he was drink but it wasent like that. An old man was drunk and he run over my daddy.that so sad for all my family and the old man when he saw my dady in the flor he past out.
I completely disagree with what sue said and anyone else who thinks the age limit should be increased. Firstly im 19 and i work alot so i dont get the chance to go out much and yes when i do i have a fair bit to drink to make the most of it if i couldnt legally go to a bar anbd drink because the age limit was raised to 21 do you honestly think that would stop me going out and drinking?? course it would not just as i know 16 year olds who go out drinking regularly therefore actually increasing the percentage of illegal drinkers and not decreasing them as many stupid people seem to think. The real problem is in several catagorys..
1) people should always be asked for I.D no I.D no sale(excluding visably older people as the Tesco incident with the old man trying to purchase a bottle of Jack Daniels and getting denyed was ridiculous).
2)bar staff should monitor the ammount their customers have consumed especially if they came in a vechile.
3)ban cheap beer its the root of underage and binge drinking in the UK and im not talking about any beer poured from a tap in a pub im talking about this crap tasting beer you get from the likes of Tescos etc…
4)stricter road laws regarding drink driving drink drivers should be banned for life if 2 units over the limit (id say that would be a sufficent deterant) and a automatic prison sentence if someone was hurt in the incident.. (some may say harsh but the way i see it the person hit by the car probably didnt deserve it lol prison sentence length subject to scale of the incident and severity )
5)underage drinkers who hang around the streets get drunk and generally cause trouble should be given 2 months community service on the spot as getting there parents to pay the fine somehow doesnt seem like much of a deterent to me.
oh yeh on top of everything else what about the pubs and clubs that lose business because stressed out university students have no where to go to wind down gar..
anyhoo ive had a good moan feel free to argue back or agree…
Binge drinking is a problem in this country, but increasing the driking age asspecialy in the countries current state will only make things worse, pubs and clubs going out of business and people more than ever rebelling to the new law. I agree pubs should not be open till early hours in the morning. But what a ridiculous idea to put the driking age up in pups. The age to buy achohol in shops is 21 if i am not mistaken. All I wanna know is what kind of idiot put this idea forward.
ok i couldnt help but comment , i live in the united states where the drinking age is 21 and bars thrive and there are underage drinkers but its not a massive amount, you people sound stupid if your that stressed out go to the gym or go for a walk go and have a cup of coffee you guys act like it will be the end of the world if they higher the drinking age , you will be alot healthier and your country will be a lot safer with a drinking age of 21
HA! No it wouldnt be the end of the world if we couldnt drink until we were 21 but it would be rather boring. Just cause you cant drink till your 21!
If the UK were stricter and didnt make such a big deal about how ‘bad’ drinking is, there wouldnt be many underage drinkers. Alcohol should be a normal thing, children should be aloud to drink with meals so its normal to them and better education should be given at school.
Im 17, i brought a fake ID and my first night out was a buzz i got in every club i tried and was chuffed. I dont care if anyone says that is wrong, who gives a flying ####? If I can get away with it and bouncers are letting me in, there not doing there jobs properly are they? Clubs need to be more stricter on what ID they accept and the amount of times ive got away with my mates ID’s, which looked nothing like me was unreal. If clubs were stricter this would help.
If we can vote, fight for our country at war or whatever they do lol then why shouldnt we be allowed to drink? yes drinking is a problem but only when its harming someone else, i dont see why we should suffer because someone else cant handle there drink! if someones too drunk in a club and cause problems, dont let them back in! simple as!
what makes me laugh the most about this is the goverment are only making things harder for themself. this credit crunch has put thousands out of work, and soon even more people out of work. its mostly young ones out drinking and if they cant get served businesses will loose their clubs/pubs. also under 21s working in pubs and clubs wont be able to serve so theyll loose there jobs. and the off licences and shops that sell alcohol!
ive heard rumours that the law might change to 16, which i do think is wrong. who wants to sit in the pub after a long day at work or uni listening to a bunch of silly school kids? and although there would hardly be any underage drinkers i think 16 is too low and 21 is too high, 18 should stay its the right age, the government just need to not make such a fuss and schools should educate children about it.
anyone who disagrees with me? what a load of bollocks…i bet you were out clubbing at 16..and dont give me that #### that you werent!
I think its a stupid idea to put the age limit up, im 16 and when i turned 16 buying cigarettes went up to 18, now i dont smoke but my friend who was 17 could buy fags for a whole year then had to get people to go in for him, kinda makes u feel dumb when ur 17 and just come home from a hard days work and have to ask people to go in the shop, the same thing will happen with alcohol, raising to 21 wont stop underage drinking it will just piss everyone off, the drinkers and the over 21s cause they will have to be going in shops every 5 mins, iff these politicians could see what the real world is like they would realise that raising this limit would probably make it worse because its part of the fun knowing that u are drinking illegally, and if i turn 18 and can drink legally for say 3 months then have the limit raised and have to wait 3 years… i would be devistated
British culture is very different to America’s. Britains see’s a long hard day or week lets have a few drinks. The age of youths drinking has not changed over many years there still young as they have ever been or will be, these youths drink on the streets and this is the start of the criminal activity, if the age limit was to be increased more youths/adults drinking on the streets in years to come. As now it will be fine for 16-21 year olds to drink in their parents house but in years to come it will become seen as worng as it is illegal and that means older people drinking on the streets which means more serious crimes being commited due to the age of drunks drinking on streets.