(almost) Top Of The Alco-pops

[Wake Up Call]

It is a fact that pub life and boozing forms a great part of social life over here. Generally, we are all better off than folk in the other countries in the survey and we have a bit more spare cash around.

 

Add to that; crap weather and a lack of facilities, these figures are hardly surprising.

 

I just hope that these statistics haven't been 'massaged' in any way to suit any agency's needs or future requirements.

 

Gotta go, the co-ee is just about to shut and you can't miss that offer on the 2005 Australian Shiraz.

[manxy]

As another poster has already said, the 'brag' factor totally distorts the reality of the situation.

There are a number of teenagers whose idea of 'grown-up enjoyment' is to get absolutely hammered at every opportunity but, from what I've seen, it is a relatively small number and to suggest that a large number of 15-16 year-olds do so is almost as ridiculous as the claim that cannabis use has fallen (it seems to be more freely available than ever before) and that smoking in general has declined among this age group.

In simple terms, the statistics reek of utter bullshit.

 

Politicians constantly use statistics for their own advantage and therefore it wouldn't surprise me that this exposure is to justify the additional expense of alcoholic drinks to gain some much needed tax revenue by highlighting some scary high statistics,

Personally, it wouldn't surprise me that next year, after the rise in alcohol prices, that drinking has been reduced and therefore the rise was well worth it? (Does anyone else see this?)

 

I have to say it's a pretty sad state of affairs when an Island like this comes out second top in these sort of statistics.

 

I would like to see the figure on teenage pregnancies in the last 20 years, I expect the Island comes high in this as well which probably tells us why we are 2nd in a list of 30 countries with this kind of drinking culture.

 

As well as parents, the Government must look at how the kids are getting drink, clamping down on shops that sell alcohol to under age people. I certainly think some kind of investigation needs to be started on how this is happening and to at least try to rectify it.

 

Looking at some of the comments above it seems it's a bit of a joke though. Hopefully the government dosent see it that way. Because at the end of the day even if you think it is a joke, Alcohol leads to broken homes, health issues, social disorder and in the end general unhappyness. Yes I realise most kids will grow out of it but for some they wont and it's them I feel sorry for.

The Government will now have to put their thinking caps on and it might be an idea to start looking at hot spot topics on these type of forums. Yes the MHK's are an easy target as they do not write back and looking at some comments, I can understand why they don't and why they get slated. Nevertheless, I've seen many topics covering our youngsters regards the boredom, drinking, amenities etc on this site (check out the search feature) and there's many people who've made some valid points, but nothing really appears to be done apart from ministers attending meetings where minutes are taken and hours are lost.

Anyway, I might be continually optimistic in hoping something is done soon, but at least thats positive and for those people who buy alcohol for kids, then IMO, this is foolhardy and dangerous.