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Government 'must get tough' on school-age drinkers
03 July 2009
Approximately one quarter of pupils aged 14 to 17 are drinking excessive amounts of alcohol, a new study as found.
A Trading Standards Institute poll of 13,000 school-age young people found that while the overall number of underage drinkers had decreased, among those who were drinking more than ever were consuming dangerous levels of alcohol.
Delyth Evans, spokesperson drug and alcohol addiction charity Addaction, commented: 'The overall fall in teen drinking suggests that campaigns about the harmful effects of alcohol can work and need to be kept up and increased.
'[However] one in four teenagers drinking dangerously is very serious and needs a much harder response led by government, to hammer home the message of the dangers of alcohol.'
She added that the charity also supports increased taxes and price hikes on alcohol to make it less affordable to schoolchildren.
The Trading Standards survey found that the number of teenagers drinking alcohol at least once a week in the north-west of England, where the survey was carried out, has fallen to 38 per cent, compared to 50 per cent in 2005.