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23rd February 2009
Stronger Response Needed On Under Age Drinking
North East MSP Alex Johnstone has condemned
proposals to reduce the penalty for anyone under the age of
eighteen buying alcohol from one thousand pounds to a
maximum of just two hundred pounds.
Mr Johnstone said "The SNP government have
talked tough on Scotland's drinking problems, and rightly
so. However the tough talk appears to be all talk when we
see the penalty for an underage person buying drink is to be
reduced by a staggering eight hundred pounds."
"The vast majority of Licensees rigorously
check the ages of anyone who appears to be underage and with
test purchasing already having taken place in Stonehaven,
local licensees already know that failure to do so can lead
to prosecution and ultimately, the loss of their
livelihood. There is no question that this is an
appropriate sanction, however I think it is deeply unfair
that whilst a bar worker or a shop assistant who may go
through the correct procedure for checking the age of a
customer can end up with a criminal record and potentially
lose their job, a young person who presents fake ID and
purchases alcohol illegally, inevitably gets off with the
offence."
"It speaks volumes that the most recent
statistics show that of the hundred and thirty one recorded
offences of underage persons buying alcohol, only seven had
their cases sent to court. This sends out the wrong
message, especially as we know that any underage
person found guilty of this offence will only be fined a
maximum of two hundred pounds instead of a maximum of one
thousand pounds."
"Given that alcohol misuse cost the NHS in
Scotland £405m in 2006-07, and between 2007-08 there were
almost seventeen and a half thousand alcohol related
offences committed in Scotland, then it is essential that we
do not weaken laws, but rigorously enforce the laws we do
have.
"Underage drinking, and the anti social
behaviour that inevitably follows it, is blighting our
communities and towns and villages in the Mearns are not
immune, yet there appears to be a huge reluctance on the
part of the authorities to punish those young people who
seek to obtain alcohol illegally. If the Justice Secretary
wishes to come down hard on licensees who break the law,
then he should be equally hard on youths who do the same."
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