THE age limit for buying alcohol from off-sales and supermarkets in Scotland is to be raised to 21.
The three-year increase is part of plans to stamp out teenage binge drinking, alcohol-related violence and health risks.
Other proposals to be unveiled by Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill on Tuesday include minimum prices and outlawing cheap deals But Fiona Moriarty, of the Scottish Retail Consortium, said: "We should be encouraging young people to have a responsible attitude to drink and this move would only do cultural damage by demonising and mystifying alcohol."
Ken Barrie, of the Centre for Alcohol and Drug Studies at the University of Paisley, believes Scotland's drink problem will not be solved by hiking up the age limit.
He added: "What will make the most difference is the price of alcohol."
Il get really annoyed if this comes into practise before i turn 21, i dont see the point, they have a strict id policy now in many shops, and you cant get served without having id, rasing the age isnt going to do much except annoy many people.
anyway discuss.
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its like what they did ith fags, it hasn't stopped young people smoking and upping the age to buy drink is not going to stop them.
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I think it'll make things worse... the more forbidden, the more people want it.
They should make teens try alcochol much younger in a normal place (like at home with parents) so that they get raised with a sense of knowing what it is ...
Ok I can't really put into words what I mean :) but here the drinking age is 16 . But it's not hard to get an alcocholic drink at a younger age. We get raised with it. At home we got to try it at parties with parents (I can't even remember the first time I had a sip of alcochol, I was young anyway...). I'm not saying young people don't go out and get wasted here... but not so much as in some places... It's really more of social thing than "hey, let's drink until we fall down"...
As far as I am aware the age limit for buying cigarettes has been raised across the board. This case is different in that you can still legally buy alcohol at 18, just not in supermarkets or off-licences. Personally, I think this smacks of age discrimination.
It also will not help in the slightest since government policy concerning alcohol is so disjointed, incoherent and downright contradictory. One minute they are saying we should be more like on the continent with 24-hour drinking and having a sensible attitude to alcohol, but the next they are taking alcohol advertising off of childrens' sports shirts (how does that help? The adults' still have the sponsorship!), raising age limits, raising prices.
If they were to completely raise the age to 21 then it is just moving the problem of people going out and getting smashed on their birthdays on a few years.
Doesnt bother me.. i personally think it is a good thing.If i am going to the pub i will drink beofre going out and often just buy one drink as it is so expensive.i see it up here when i am working in a bar that people are coming in pissed out of their mind on cheap offlicense ciders.
also i live in england most of the year and live in a pub when i am at home so dont buy booze (y)
Doesnt bother me.. i personally think it is a good thing.If i am going to the pub i will drink beofre going out and often just buy one drink as it is so expensive.i see it up here when i am working in a bar that people are coming in pissed out of their mind on cheap offlicense ciders.
also i live in england most of the year and live in a pub when i am at home so dont buy booze (y)
I'm confused. You drink before going out, so presumably you are buying alcohol from somewhere other than a pub? Somewhere like a supermarket? Yet you don't have a problem with the age being raised so that people of legal age to drink are not allowed to buy cheaper alcohol?
I don't see why those who are of legal age to buy alcohol should not be allowed to buy it if they want to. Why should they be forced to effectively pay more for their alcohol as they are having to buy it from a pub or club. No one would say that an Asian shouldn't be allowed to buy as much alcohol as a white person because they are known to be less tolerant of it.
because i live in england mpost of the year and dont go out when i am living in scotland as i live in a pub.the age raising is only in scotland at the moment which you would have noticed at the end of my reply that i live in england most of the year so it wont effect me.
in my experience it is the younger people that drink before going out where i live and... yeah.. pointless reply
people are not going to be discouraged from underage drinking just because the age limit has been risen.
If some 14 year old was going to down some vodka when the AL was 18 their not going to suddenly think twice and say "I'd better not, I'm not supposed to drink until I'm 21."
That kind of stupidity is right up there with raising the age limit of ciggerettes and changing the cassification of drugs. you're not going to think "Wait a miniute this cannabis is a class A, I'd better not take it."
No matter what restrictions you put on, people are going to do it anyway. the only thing you can do is stop looking like your trying to do something and actually do something. like better education; more campaigns on the dangers of drink. and better facilities for people who want to quit. that's the only true way forward.
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Just because it won't affect you you can still have an opinion on it.
Of course it's the younger people who drink before going out, mainly because they can't afford to drink a lot whilst out, especially if they are not going to a student place. Those who are 21 and over tend to have full time jobs and can afford much more than your average student. The social underclass of neds will be drinking on the streets for years before they reach 18 anyway. And no doubt they will still be able to get people to go and buy the alcohol for them.
Which raises a question: if someone over 21 buys alcohol for someone who is over 18 but under 21, will it be illegal? It shouldn't be, since the person over 18 can still legally drink, but you never know.
If i am going to the pub i will drink beofre going out and often just buy one drink as it is so expensive.
See thats what i do, because going out is so expensive we would rather sit in our flat, drink, and talk before going out.
The rule changing, is making many people here anrgy, because while you may not be able to buy it from these places, you can still go into a pub/club and buy it.
And even the student unions arnt cheep at times, and clubs are not cheep at all, i mean you could buy a 750ml bottle of alcohpops for £1.50, and you pay the double in there for a 250ml bottle.
At the same time i am not a binge drinker and neither are my friends, so why does the snp see it so wrong for us to have the odd drink.
Just because some people are underage and binge drink the rest of us have to suffer, i hope to god they dont pass this law.
"Its not how long a star shines, what is remembered is the brightness of the light"
i think its daft. it wont solve anything and i agree it reeks of age discrimination. they have tight id policies in most places now, a lot of the supermarkets i go actually id you if you look under 25 in an attempt to tackle underage drinking. it wont stop people drinking, it will just irritate people in the age bracket of 18-20 as though they are legal to drink, they dont have access to cheaper alcohol like other adults. that just isnt right.
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I found it funny when this ban came out.
Why?
Just..because it is?
I was out drinking at the age of 16, in pubs. I was drinking responsibly. I wasn't hanging around in some back alley or park with a bottle of cider. I had a small income, which went on a friday night out with friends.
My mother knew - and let me go. She knew i was a responsible young adult (i'd say somewhat "mature" for my age). I got a taxi home at the end of the night, and, probably the best years of my life were when i was 16/17.
I was served for cigarettes from the age of 14. Mainly because i looked older.
Age restrictions are there for a reason, because the "law" says so. Most shops i've worked in have been strict when it comes to serving people under the age of 21. I was a bit of an ass when it came to serving youngsters - really strict on I.D., but i know when i was that age i would have got it anyway.
And that's exactly it. If someone is going to drink or smoke, they will do so regardless of any age restrictions. Most parents i know will gladly let there 16/17 year old have a drink with friends - so long as they're careful about it.
I think this is mainly for the very young children/adults (11/12/13/14), because more and more stories are surfacing about these young children/adults becoming alcoholics. But then..surely the parents would notice? No?
It's down to parental responsibility. If your kid comes home trashed every evening, it's time to do something about it.
Do i agree in underage drinking? Depends. My mind doesn't specifically go towards the "Chavs with attitudes", mine goes towards the 16/17 year olds who i used to know down the local having a drink with friends. It's possibly because i come from an area where binge drinking in young teens isn't common.
Like i said - they'll get ahold of it anyway regardless..depending on how "strict" the workers are in the places you get alcohol from. Although i do know they send out people to get young teens to see if they can get served - if they do, well, lets just say the majority that i have known of get sacked. That's probably why i've been quite strict. No I.D., no booze or cigarettes.
This will do nothing. If anything it will make binge drinking worse because you'll have 18 year olds in their houses getting wasted, like they did at 15, lol.
Education and probabaly raising the price of alcohol in supermarkets and such will do much more, I think.
yeah i am in the states and its 21 which sucks. i think it makes ppl underage drink more. because they are defying the law.
so it would not be the smartst thing to make it higher.
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At the moment from what i understand it's only proposals! Proposals that would need a majority vote in the Scottish Parliament to become Law!
The Legislation if passed would only apply as has been said to supermarkets and offlicenses! It would not apply to clubs and bars! Therefor i would have to agree that its pointless and unnecessary, if anything the problem is caused by alcohol abuse on our streets, primarily from drunks coming out of pubs and nightclubs looking for trouble! So if any area has to be looked at then I would suggest that that would be a more appropriate area to start! Because a lot of folks buy from supermarkets and off licenses to enjoy in the house and to avoid the sometimes intense atmosphere of going out and on these grounds i would suggest that any such moves to artificially increase the price of alcohol from these premises would do more harm than good, would be a breach of civil liberties and human rights and could increase yet further the violence on our streets at closing time!
I think my biggest objection to this is that those between 18-20 are still legal to drink and buy alcohol, just not from certain places. If it was overall raised to 21 then there'd be less of an issue, apart from the stupidity of it all.
What about lowering the age to drink in pubs to 16? That way it gets 16 and 17 year olds off the streets and into pubs where they are being watched more carefully. It has its downfalls, for example it is still going to be cheaper to buy from a supermarket and drink in the street; what about those younger than 16 who are arguably causing most trouble.
I think raising prices might be a more sensible thing to do, but not to hike the prices so much that responsible people can no longer buy it. Also a danger of teenagers moving off of alcohol onto drugs if they are going to be cheaper than alcohol.
Raising the age limit isnt going to do anything!!
The Uk has such a high binge drinking problem because were forbidden from it until were 18
Children in France & Italy have much lower because alcohol is such a casual thing and hasnt been put up to a pedastal, so when they do turn "legal" drinking age, they already know the taste and are allowed it already!!
Whereas in the UK, were fully banned and get in trouble if caught with alchohol (Like the age limit stops anyone anyway, I personally started drinking properly at 13) So when we do hit 18, we go crazy!! So if the law goes up to 21 :
a) Its not going to stop anyone actually getting hold of alcohol, I've never had a problem getting it and am only 16.
b) When people can legally buy drinks in pubs & clubs at 21 their going to go overboard, just like they did at 18....
Nobody will look at the higher age limit and go "Oh, its higher now, we better listen to them"
They'll laugh and continue drinking
Sorry for the rant but this is a subject that bugs me insanely!!
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