Off-licence sales: Age limit could be raised to 21
Wednesday 10th September 2008, 2:59PM BST.
THE age limit for buying alcohol in off-licences may be raised to 21 to tackle the problems of antisocial drinking.
Home Affairs Minister Wendy Kinnard has outlined a range of measures from a forthcoming green paper. They include ensuring that those serving alcohol are not under age, and a review of the penalties for both under-age drinkers and people purchasing alcohol for youngsters. The paper will also suggest increasing the age limit for alcohol purchases in shops from 18 to 21.
The Senator made her comments in the States in reaction to a question from Deputy Kevin Lewis, who wanted to know what action was being taken to increase penalties for people supplying alcohol and cigarettes to youngsters. He said that even though both vices were prohibited to under-18s, there were still problems in St Helier.
‘Children appear to have free access to alcohol and cigarettes,’ he said. ‘A walk around town on a Friday or Saturday evening proves this.’ Deputy Lewis also warned that children were sourcing alcohol through ‘older siblings’ by asking them to buy it for them.
• Picture: Alcohol confiscated by the police from under-age drinkers Picture by David Ferguson (00295158)
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Good idea!
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great idea but won,t work!!look at all the alcoholics stagering over town who are over 21! all the time when i,m in a supermaket or spar or similar everyone is buying booze, booze and more booze.adults are no worse than someone who is 18
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What a load of garbage!!! kids can vote at 16, have sexual relationships at 16,
drive a car at 17, yet cannot buy fags or booze, do all our politicians have their heads where the sun doesn’t shine!
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I once received a caution from the Police for taking beer from a misbehaving kid, who I knew to be only 14, and pouring it down the drain at Snowhill on a Friday evening. What’s the score here eh ?
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On the face of it not a bad idea, but once again Kinnard has no real grasp of the situation, the parents of these ‘kids’ buy the alcohol for them.Change the whole social structure of the island , so there is for responsibility for the family unit then things can change not these quick fix solutions.
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well actually there is a large body of evidence that shows raising the legal age to buy bev results in a large drop in motor traffic acidents and evening violent crime. and yes it is important to tackle the social issue, and thats what raising the age limit will do – by doing this it gives the impression that it is socially unacceptable to drink or be under the influence in public if you are under the age of 21!
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Great Idea! Quicker its done the better.
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It’s a good idea, but will have little effect. I’m afraid Jersey’s problems are far more deep rooted.
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Errr… it’s socially unacceptable to be drunk in public regardless of your age. Adults are no better than kids in this respect.
And it seems like a good idea but given that you could be 16, legally married, working shifts with a baby it seems a little silly that you would have to wait almost 5 years to be allowed to buy alcohol from an off-licence.
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Unsurprisingly on smaller islands that only have one pub the publicans are generally far more responsible. Someone will be refused from ordering if they are clearly already too drunk or if they start becoming a nuisance. Unfortunately greed would presumably prevent most publicans from being this responsible.
Make parents take responsibility for their kids, make publicans take some responsibility for their customers and ban drinking outside totally (except within clearly defined pub boundaries) because it’s a public nuisance and would mean the Police didn’t have to check someone’s age before removing the alcohol from them.
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Under this ‘brilliant’ proposal an 18 – 21 year old will be able to buy a drink in a pub but will not be able to buy a drink to consume with their evening meal or sitting in front of the television!
Another fine example of not thinking at all from the States!
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Interesting. Last year the States decided that children of 16 are mature enough to vote. A few years before that they decided that they were adult enough to have gay sex. But, apparently, you’re not grown up enough to buy a drink till you’re 21. The States don’t know whether they’re coming or going!
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I once had to call the police as underage kids were drinking in the garden area where we live. When the Police Officer came, he told me it was the PARENTS who usually buy the kids the alcohol and then tell them to go elsewhere and drink it!!
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Kate,
I’m not at all surprised. Parents nowadays raise such brats that they then don’t want them around THEIR house and under THEIR feet so they foist them on the rest of us. Well we didn’t choose to have these brats so we shouldn’t have to deal with their appalling behaviour.
Parents must finally be made to take responsibility for their kids (at least up to 18 years of age). A curfew seems the best way to do this. If parents had their kids (and friends) in the house of an evening we would see a drastic improvement in teenage behaviour.
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Do the French have a problem? It’s not about the age – it’s about the way children are brought up to think about alcohol!
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Deputy Kevin Lewis wanted to know what action was being taken to increase penalties for people supplying alcohol and cigarettes to youngsters. Raising the legal age limit will not stop this. An older sibling or adult can still furnish youngsters with alcohol/cigarettes. If the children are causing trouble should the parents not know where they are and stop them from going out? Perhaps the youngsters should take a trip to the hospital and see the victims that are at the tail end of their actions!! This MAY make them think twice about what they are doing.
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I agree in part Ben, but I think the biggest part of the problem is bad (or in some cases a complete lack of )parenting. If kids were at home at night I bet they would no longer be allowed to get drunk because the parents would be the ones that had to deal with the vomit and atrocious behaviour (rather than you and me).
If I’d been allowed to hang about streets all night, every night, getting drunk, I’d have been questioning whether my parents actually loved me! These parents clearly don’t give a hoot about their kids, and that is a real shame for the kids as they are being failed by the very people that brought them into the world.
For future potential parents can I ask that you don’t have a baby unless you are actually willing to have them around your house and let their friends visit until they are at least 18. Yes it’s great having a baby but you can’t just abandon your responsibilities and foist your child on the rest of society as soon as the child is old enough to talk back!
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I’m 18 and like to have the odd drink or two never get in to trouble I don’t see why you would want to up the age as i know for a fact that underage drinkers usually get their parents to buy drink for them it wont change anything putting the age limit up I just feel every single shop should make it compulsory to show I.D when buying alcohol or cigs this will stop the minority of people getting served.
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