Early in this blog, there was reference to an alcohol epidemic.
Now, two news items (here and here) reinforce the message: alcoholic drinks are just too easy for children in Wales to get hold of. Nor are young people as a whole being brought up to respect alcohol.
2 comments:
Yes it is!
Since alcohol is so cheap in our Off - licences, supermarkets, minimarts and corner shops and so expensive in Public Houses (especially in Tied Houses) booze gets drunk in the home as well as the local park, there is a rising tide of domestic violence.
I sense that there is a change in the public mood towards more control on the sale of alcohol. The Evening Post yesterday ("Could 21 be the new 18?") had a feature on the ban on under-21s buying alcohol in Armadale, in the Scottish borders. There is a more local article, suggesting an extension within West Lothian, here.
This does not go as far as the ideal of restricting the sale of alcohol to specialist outlets, but the fact that such a ban appears to have worked, in an area of problem drinking, is suggestive.
(Incidentally, I have been told that at least one province of Canada has such a restriction, but I can't find a Web reference.)
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