Tackling young people's drinking pt97: Daventry tests strips; Chorley fingerprints; IoM website; flip flops

Police in the Daventry area have a new piece of equipment to help identify if young people are drinking alcohol. Officers have been given alcohol test strips which can be dipped into drinks and will change colour if they contain alcohol. Daventry Express

A high-tech fingerprint scanner is proving a huge hit in tackling underage drinking in Chorley. Staff at Bargain Booze in Pall Mall, Chorley, use biometric fingerprint scanners to avoid youngsters buying booze and so far around 400 customers have signed up to an electronic database since it was introduced in August. Owner Chris Bury has also had the scanners installed at his off-licence on Chorley Road, Adlington, saying it's dramatically reduced abuse and violence against employees. Chorley Guardian, see also previous post

Isle of Man: A new alcohol awareness website has been launched to encourage people to drink more responsibly. The interactive site is the latest initiative to be developed under the umbrella of the Chief Minister's Drug and Alcohol Strategy. It targets one of the core objectives of promoting greater community responsibility towards alcohol use, particularly among young people. The website features sections on safer drinking, risky drinking and young drinkers and includes interactive tests aimed at dispelling some common myths about alcohol. iomtoday

Some CDRPs decided to use Home Office funding to tackle alcohol misuse on party packs designed to help people get home safely from a night out.  The media picked up on this and were particularly unimpressed by the inclusion of flip flops in the packs: Torbay; Bognor; Rugby.  The Telegraph did a round up here.