New crackdown on teen drinking
Monday 12th January 2009, 3:00PM GMT.
CHILDREN could be arrested for drinking alcohol in public under possible new powers to crack down on booze-fuelled violence.
Speaking just weeks after being elected as Jersey’s new Home Affairs Minister, Senator Ian Le Marquand said that a raft of new measures could be introduced to tackle the escalating problem of binge-drinking among youngsters.
The possible new measures include:
• Making it a criminal offence for children under 17 to drink alcohol in public without being accompanied by a parent or guardian.
• Reversing the burden of proof in court so that licensees have to prove that they took all reasonable steps to ensure that the drunk person was not on their premises.
• Extending the ‘drinking-up’ time in pubs by up to an hour.
But Senator Le Marquand said that such measures were only ‘possibilities’. They would only be introduced if other measures to enforce current licensing laws more strongly were not effective. He said: ‘There is a long-term issue in relation to the binge-drinking culture in this Island. This is a very big issue for me and one which needs to be addressed.
• Picture: A haul of bottles and cans confiscated from youths at Winston Churchill Park, St Brelade, during one Saturday night patrol.
Read the full story in the Jersey Evening Post. Click here for subscription details. Individual editions are also available online.
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Heard it all before. Nothing will get done. Why don’t the States ask why it’s happening and tackle it that way? Banning drinking in public will not stop teenagers drinking – and that’s the issue that needs to be resolved; how can we stop them?
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I was under the impression,that the age for drinking alcohol, was 17years old,not if an adult was present in public, or has it been changed.
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The age of consent for drinking should be increased to 18 years. The majority of children are not mature enough to act responsibility at 16 years of age and indeed many of the parents/guardians are very immature too.
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years ago we had seaton youth club, the hermitage at st helier boys, the revolution youth club in vauxhall street.
and many more that are now houses or blocks of flats, none of these have been replaced.
survey the youth of today and ask what they would like to do.
there are good people within the youth service who talk to young people on a regular basis, so iwould say that they know what is lacking,
let’s hear from young people themselves on here
as to what’s lacking.
untill we find out the failings and invest in tommorows people nothing will change
but with the price tag of half a million on a home for life
is it any wonder a tin of beer is purchased.
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What about a proper id system also as i have seen my girlfriends daughter drinking in a certain hotel in town.She was 15 her friend 14 but both are tall and older looking.I was not allowed in as i had trainers on.She told me they all use fake id cards which doormen accept.
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We need to look after young people, by taking them in to prison is not the answer ,we need to find out , our young needs give them a voice please
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What a pity this article was not back to back with Saturday’s article regarding the reduction in crime in St Brelades due to good people giving their time to youngsters organising football tournaments to give the kids something constructive to do. children learn from adults and maybe adult drinking behaviour should again be subject to some kind of overview. After all it is not the cheapness of alcohol in Jersey that can be the excuse any more as it is on a par with the UK. No……many people use the pub as a bolt-hole from bad accomodation and to socialise. Kids do it because they reckon there is not much more out there. Perhaps, as above, they should be shown that there is.
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When I was young I probably got up to as much mischief as most. The only difference was that at the end of the day I still had respect for others and the community.
I must say I was really p*ssed off last year when completing the ITEX walk to see about 100 teens drinking and fighting along St Aubins bay. The police were there, but couldn’t control the drinking or fighting. I can’t believe Jersey tolerates this behaviour and these people. It really makes the island what it shouldn’t be…
What needs to happen??? Any child drinking in public should be against the law and the parents need to be held responsible. Seriously, fine the parents and bring the responsibility back to them for their minors! Get the child doing community service as punishment to them.. Until the child is an adult it is a parent’s responsibility to teach the child respect and handout out the discipline…
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Give Senator Le Marquand a chance. He accomplished much in his time as magistrate.
This is a real problem; teenagers are inquisitive and will seek to test both themselves and their limits. Dinking is just one line of exploration. Sanctions will deter, however as other bloggers have pointed out, alternative distractions are required. Unfortunately, in our risk averse culture, some of these ‘alternative distractions’ are also regarded as dangerous.
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I’m 19.
I started drinking when I was 17, we would have house parties and some older person would get the alcohol. We were experimenting and it was out of the way. I wouldn’t drink on the streets.
I didn’t go clubbing until I was 18 really, but I do know people that had fake ID’s (incl. passports – looked VERY real) & used other peoples ID’s easily.
As other people have said, there’s not much fun here. What do young people have to look forward to??
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More services for the young needed in Jersey..When I was younger I played in the fields and the beaches..Also went to youth club, but as always negative, negative, negative, no wonder why I left..Best move ever.
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Make the parents responsible for once, please. Society should not have to put up with their young just because they clearly want them out from under their own feet.
They chose to bring these kids into the world, They should be held responsible.
If you don’t know where your child is of an evening, the folks on here could probably tell you, and you might get a shock at what your little ‘angel’ is actually up to!
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We all at sometime done something in our teens like drink or smoke.
The issue here is education.
If you tell a teenager to stop they do the reverse.
Education is the key to learn the teens what effect smoking and drinking does to people.
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Its not just Education which is the key to controlling underage drinking but also the lack of respect from the young ones.
Of course we’ve all been a bit naughty now & then but in my day if you were caught saying or doing anything out of order you got a clip round the ear by the local Bobby and then a further clip when you got home from your parents. Didnt do the majority of us any harm.
Kids now have no respect for their teachers or any elders hence many of the social problems.
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