IT'S Friday night, school's out and so there's every reason to shrug off the constraints of the week by meeting with friends and letting go of some of that pent-up energy.
Sadly for the teens of the moment, that doesn't simply mean gathering somew
here to swap gossip or horse around. That would be far too lame – and sober.
Indeed, it seems that no weekend evening is now complete unless it is shrouded in a haze of alcohol – and why not, especially when that's the leisure activity of choice for many adults too.
On some of our streets, it is now all too common to see children stumbling about, curled up unconscious or losing the toxic contents of their stomach.
And it's no wonder. Not only are sticky-sweet alcopops well within the pocket money range of most teeny-tipplers, the youth of today has ready access to drink whenever they want it. Cheap ciders and wine cost less than some bottled mineral waters.
The fact is that when in the past curious youngsters might have been lucky to sneak a taste of some nasty sherry lurking at the back of the Christmas drinks cupboard, now they can quench their thirst by simply going out and buying it.
With shop owners rarely punished – there were just 12 prosecutions in Lothian and Borders in 2005/06 – there has been little incentive to turn such young customers away. Compare this to the fact there were more than 200 young people cautioned for drinking alcohol in public in the same year – almost 17 times the number of shop owners prosecuted – and you see there has been no real deterrent for off-licences to refuse their business.
And with those of legal age willing to buy alcohol and then pass it on to under-agers, convictions are hard to come by.
An increasing popular school of thought believes harsher punishments need to be imposed before the anti-social behaviour caused by drunken teens will stop. For instance, businesses are less likely to risk a sneaky sale if they face the real possibility of losing their licence.
Chief Inspector Jim Baird of Lothian and Borders Police has been in charge of a test purchasing scheme in West Lothian which was launched in December and involves 16-year-olds going into shops to see if they can buy alcohol.
It is about to be rolled out across the Lothian and Borders area and it is Jim's belief that this will soon lead to greater numbers of prosecutions.
If, as a result, alcohol licences are suspended as punishment – this has already happened twice since the scheme launched – he believes this is a real step in terms of making it harder for children to buy alcohol.
"There has been a tightening up of the law with the introduction of test purchasing," he adds. "What is also positive is that the Lord Advocate has provided consistent guidance to all the procurator fiscals across Scotland."
Tom Wood is the chairman of the Action on Alcohol and Drugs Edinburgh team and also believes that the winds of change are blowing. The Scottish Government, he says, appears to have made tackling Scotland's alcohol problem a priority.
But he argues that test purchasing will only be effective if police, prosecutors and licensing boards work together. "I think that's the sting in the tail really," he says. "It will be useless if the courts, the fiscal or the licensing board take it lightly and ignore it.
"If you go to the continent or the United States, they have a rigorous proof of age scheme operating there.
"Over the last 25 years, we've let that slip. We've got some ground to regain and so I think that under-agers buying drink or having drink supplied or bought for them have to be vigorously enforced. And to be honest, all you would need to do is make an example of a handful of people and the message would be received."
The message that being drunk and disorderly is far from acceptable also, of course, needs to be made very clear to the youngsters who are risking their health.
In West Lothian, where one town recently banned the sale of alcohol to under 21s, any child found to be in an inebriated state is taken to a police station for tests. Later, as they are nursing a hangover, they are given a stern talking to by a senior officer.
If necessary, social and education services are also called and Chief Inspector Baird is confident this strategy is working, as he has never seen the same child on the street twice.
"Alcohol is a problem 20 times the size of that of drugs, but we're so familiar with it and so used to it that we don't see it all the time and we've become too tolerant of drunken behaviour to the extent that we almost celebrate it as a national characteristic," adds Tom.
"That's disgraceful because it's taking a toll on us, taking a toll on our health, it's taking a toll of our young people and it's badly affecting our future as a nation."
It is undoubtedly positive that steps are finally being taken to curb the drink culture. But there needs to be real deterrents in place to turn children too young to really understand the dangers they are putting themselves in away from drink.
The full article contains 942 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
