Booze culture

Binge drinking is becoming a threat to future generations. Our country is heading, like other European countries, towards an appalling booze culture. Malta's underage drinking blight is among the worst in Europe. Figures compiled by the World Health Organisation (WHO) reveal just how far our country has raced up the teenage drinking league. In fact, our kids head the list.

In other countries, such as Scotland, they are trying new methods to prevent this. In West Dunbartonshire, for example, a pilot project is underway where they are taking the fight into the area's primary schools. They are tackling the problem at this level by educating children as young as six and seven about alcohol. The scheme will shy away from the traditional "just say no" approach. Instead it will aim to teach children aged nine to 11 how to drink sensibly.

The education packs at the heart of the approach use an animated DVD featuring five-minute clips of young people, police, ambulance crews and nurses speaking about their experiences of underage drinking. Teachers are given a booklet to help them answer questions from the children, and trained counsellors will visit the schools to offer specialist advice and help.

The experts behind the scheme are braced for the moral outrage they know will follow, but are convinced the methods will make a difference. This method may sound controversial and some may even say it is harmful. Experts say that by the time the pupils reach first year at secondary school they would have already started experimenting with alcohol. By going into primary schools it is possible to give them the information they need before they first encounter alcohol. It means they can make a responsible and informed choice in a similar way to sex and drug education.

In our country, children aged between 11 and 13 are already experimenting with alcohol as is commonly seen during the village festa. Parents may fear that exposing children to alcohol so early might encourage them to drink at a younger age. This is not so according to health experts and some of our kids are already doing it without our knowledge.

The best way to tackle a problem is by confronting it, not by pretending it does not exist or shunning away from it. Neil McKeganey, a Glasgow University expert on alcohol misuse by young people, believes schools should recruit alcoholics to give children a real-life account of living with an alcohol problem. We have seen this in practice recently when an ex-alcoholic spoke publicly on Xarabank and he really talked sense about his own experience. He was convincing and all present listened attentively to what he had to say.

According to experts, children are drinking not as a social activity but for the express desire to experience being drunk. They only see the fun and exciting side of alcohol. I believe it is important that young children hear vivid portrayals from people with alcohol problems who can go to schools and tell them about the potential risks of their behaviour from their own experiences, as that gentleman did on Xarabank.

On the other hand, Prof. McKeganey believes many youngsters are simply copying the binge drinking behaviour of adults. This is why educating young people before they encounter alcohol themselves is so important. Thus they can see the way adults are behaving is wrong.

Of course, this is a very sensitive subject and there are going to be critics, parents may be concerned and educators may not agree.

Merely pushing up the legal drinking age will not solve the problem. Other measures such as an educational and informative campaign at primary school level are vital. When the children are in secondary schools it is already late. I think Sedqa should follow this pilot scheme and then make its proposals to the education division. Caution with the scheme, of course, must be taken but it is essential that children are taught about lifestyle issues at a younger age. It is also important that parents are involved in this process. We should find ways how to stop today's army of underage drinkers turning into tomorrow's alcoholics.

The author is a medical doctor.