Scotland has a long and problematic relationship with alcohol, but the most worrying aspect at present is the increasingly heavy drinking by young people. Teenage binge drinkers harm themselves, both by ending up as an emergency case as a result of an accident or getting into a fight, and in long-term damage to their health and their life chances. The weekend blight of drunken youths in towns and cities has prompted calls to raise the minimum age for buying alcohol from 18 to 21. It is a tempting solution to a difficult problem and the fact that raising the age is being considered by Shona Robison, the Minister for Public Health, indicates the depth of concern at Holyrood over underage drinking and alcohol abuse by young people legally entitled to drink. Eighteen has been the minimum age for so long that changing it would be a radical step. The immediate concern would be how to enforce it, since the number of under-18s drinking alcohol means the law is continually flouted.

Scotland has a long and problematic relationship with alcohol, but the most worrying aspect at present is the increasingly heavy drinking by young people. Teenage binge drinkers harm themselves, both by ending up as an emergency case as a result of an accident or getting into a fight, and in long-term damage to their health and their life chances. The weekend blight of drunken youths in towns and cities has prompted calls to raise the minimum age for buying alcohol from 18 to 21. It is a tempting solution to a difficult problem and the fact that raising the age is being considered by Shona Robison, the Minister for Public Health, indicates the depth of concern at Holyrood over underage drinking and alcohol abuse by young people legally entitled to drink. Eighteen has been the minimum age for so long that changing it would be a radical step. The immediate concern would be how to enforce it, since the number of under-18s drinking alcohol means the law is continually flouted.

The figures for young people being admitted to hospitals in Scotland for treatment for alcohol-related conditions are so shocking (1648 youths aged from 15 to 19 and more than 400 children under the age of 15 last year) that action is urgently required. Responsible shops ask youngsters for proof of age, and that should become the norm. Laws are worthless unless enforced and more prosecution of traders selling alcohol to teenagers below the legal age must be the first step. Although there is an argument for raising the age, going to 21 is likely to drive 18 and 19-year-olds to drink at parties or in secret instead of in sociable groups in pubs and clubs.

Raising the age will now become part of the discussion and possibly part of the SNP government's strategy document to be published this summer. That is welcome, as is the £25m for health boards announced yesterday for treatment and support of patients with alcohol problems. Proactively identifying them and referring them to specialists, particularly if it is done at an early stage (such as youngsters who turn up more than once at A&E) should help to change their behaviour. The strategy must include measures to encourage a more responsible attitude to alcohol. It is well established that the price of alcohol is related to how much people drink. The Chancellor's recent increase in the duty on alcohol will have little impact if the loss-leader promotions that make lager cheaper than bottled water are allowed to continue. Serious consideration should be given (at UK level) to setting a minimum price.

Prevention is always better than cure, and changing the prevalent culture among young people, in which drunkeness is seen as acceptable - and even desirable - is the only way to prevent alcohol-related illness and problem behaviour escalating disastrously.