I NOTE with interest your report on the latest research into the links between alcohol availability and health statistics ("Drink deaths twice as high in areas with most off-licences", The Herald, October 7).
I do not doubt that the new research on this is accurate and correct, but having worked in the addictions field for decades, I cannot accept that spending too much time and energy on closing some of the offending off-licences will have any effect. People will just find the next nearest place to buy their booze. The big worry is under-aged drinkers, who are the new generation to continue our notorious reputation for being in love with alcohol. Alcohol is by far the most serious drug problem in Scotland, and is getting worse as drink becomes cheaper. The Scottish Government's effort to introduce minimum pricing has been stuck in the court because the drinks industry is protecting its profits yet again.
As a youth worker who has worked on this problem for decades, my view is that we need solutions that reduce massively the access that under-18s have to alcohol. It is a very simple change in the law which would make it illegal to purchase or consume alcohol before a certain age, 16 or 18 would do. With that legal change, any anyone over 16 or 18 found to be supplying, or allowing youngsters to consume, alcohol, would be held culpable in law. This at a stroke would reduce enormously the opportunity for youngsters to access or consume alcohol.
The Scottish nation is trapped in a drinking culture that we have come to believe we have no control of. But we could control it if there was a will to do so. If this law change was accepted, then very soon after, even sensible mature, adults would start to be charged with supplying alcohol to minors. Adults would then start to see that their irresponsible behaviour is no different from the illicit drug dealer or cigarettes distributors found in any pub or market. We could easily change all of this tomorrow.
Max Cruickshank,
13 Iona Ridge, Hamilton.
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