- Concerned residents say Bellsmyre children are getting their hands on alcohol thanks to older teens and even their own mums and dads. Some have even been spotted skipping school to drink during the day. Now worried community groups are calling on shopkeepers to ban the booze to crack down on underage drinking and anti-social behaviour.
Bellsmyre Neighbourhood Forum and Dumbarton North Community Council have sent letters to licensed retailers in their area asking them to stop selling alcohol at 7pm in a bid to stop drink getting into the wrong hands. The letter says: "We would view your participation as a gesture of good will to our community, and assist in alleviating the ongoing problem with underage drinking, hopefully curbing other issues that are akin to this." Dumbarton Reporter
- Friday night in Brodick and it is ‘cool to get drunk’ "Starting our foray into the streets of Brodick in the early hours of the evening, it soon became evident that it was indeed the place to be if you are under a certain age and looking for excitement on a Friday night." Reporters from the Arran Banner go out on the streets to find out what's what
- Children as young as 13 are aware of different brands of alcohol, with teenagers choosing certain drinks because they are perceived as "cooler" than others. The findings come from early results of the largest UK study into the effect of advertising on underage drinking and have prompted calls for stricter control of the marketing techniques employed by the alcohol industry. Professor Gerard Hastings, director of the Institute for Social Marketing at Stirling University, where the research is being carried out, argued that drinks manufacturers have had "free rein" for too long, with government only "tinkering at the edges" of the problem.
Hastings, who has just published a new book entitled Social Marketing: Why Should The Devil Have All The Best Tunes?, said that public health bodies should use techniques employed in commercialmarketing-such as connecting with audiences and building brands - to successfully get their message across. But he argued that efforts to curb underage drinking were hampered by the number of alcopop-type drinks on the market that could particularly appeal to "young palates".
"Having public health adverts on the telly saying that young people should watch what they are drinking is just farcically inadequate when you have got all these other messages going on directly, but much more important indirectly just by the very existence of these products," he said. In the UK, around £200 million is spent on alcohol advertising every year, with additional promotion and marketing budgets estimated to be more than three times that figure. Advertising is controlled by a combination of self-regulation and legislation. Sunday Herald
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