Parliament sets minimum alcohol consumption age at 16

Parliament yesterday started debating a Bill to clamp down on the sale and supply of alcohol to children.

The Bill, being piloted by Social Solidarity Minister Dolores Cristina, provides that it shall be unlawful for any person to "sell alcohol to, or purchase alcohol on behalf of a minor or serve or in any manner supply alcohol to a minor in any shop, street or public place".

It shall also be unlawful for a minor to drink alcohol in any shop, street or public place, or try to buy alcohol or knowingly possess alcohol.

A minor is defined as being a child aged under 16.

It would also be a violation of the law for a child to falsely represent his age in order to buy, receive or drink alcohol.

The term alcohol includes all wines, beers, cider or spirituous liquor and any compound containing 0.5 per cent or more of alcohol by volume.

People convicted of selling or supplying alcohol to children will be liable to a fine on first conviction of between Lm100 and Lm500. On a second or subsequent conviction the fine will rise to between Lm500 and Lm1,000.

Any child who breaks the law may be ordered to participate in uncompensated community service which may be combined with counselling. This penalty may not clash with the child's schooling.

Mrs Cristina said at the opening of the debate yesterday that this was the first time that a minimum age for alcohol consumption was being established. To date legislation had only regulated the sale of alcohol. Now even those who bought alcohol for children or served alcohol to such children would be breaking the law. It was also being made unlawful for children to buy, possess or drink alcohol in public places.

"This is a law which has to be backed by enforcement, education and the collective commitment of the nation for it to be effective," the minister said, adding that an educational campaign would precede the coming into force of the legislation. This collective commitment, she said, had to include the authorities, parents, children, shop owners, members of the leisure industry, the media and teachers.

Parliament did not want to spoil anybody's party, but one did not need to consume alcohol to have fun, Mrs Cristina insisted.

Indeed, she felt that this law was late and Malta was one of only a few countries which did not have a minimum drinking age. And some countries, such as Italy, had actually raised the minimum age for the sale and consumption of alcohol to 18. The threshold was 21 years in the US, 20 in Japan and 19 in Australia.

Mrs Cristina said this subject had been discussed by an ad hoc parliamentary committee which had served to launch the work on this Bill and included other forms of action, such as the production of stickers which prohibited the sale of alcohol to children.

The need for this Bill was underlined by the concern which parents repeatedly showed about excessive drinking by young people in places of entertainment. Indeed, binge drinking, which had never been part of the entertainment culture of young people, had also made an appearance. Unfortunately many felt that drinking showed them to be grown up and sophisticated. However there was no denying that many people were used to drinking alcohol at home on a daily basis. And no one could replace parents as the first educators of their offspring.

"Parents cannot abdicate their role, and discipline is a must. It surely is the duty of parents to ensure that children do not endanger themselves by drinking. It should be unacceptable for children to come home drunk. The law and the authorities can do their bit, but they cannot replace the parents," Mrs Cristina said.

This law, she added, applied to all public places, including wedding halls. People who gave alcohol to minors at weddings would be breaking the law, even if the children's parents were present.

It was shameful and unacceptable that children freely drank alcohol during festa marches. But those who criticised the police for not doing anything should know that to date the law did not empower the police to stop children drinking alcohol. They could only stop the sale of alcohol to children in bars, but even here, there had been nothing to stop an adult from buying alcohol for children.

It was also just as shameful how a survey had shown that 32 per cent of young people said they drank alcohol in discos, when they should not even have been admitted to such establishments because they were too young. The owners of such establishments had no excuses because they could easily demand to see ID cards.

Mrs Cristina said she was concerned how the latest international ESPAD survey on consumption of alcohol and drugs placed Maltese children aged 13-15 on the highest rung regarding the consumption of wine and alcohol, with 25 per cent of Maltese respondents admitting to binge drinking.

This had a significant impact on these children. Three per cent had sex after drinking and later regretted it - some of the girls got pregnant. A further five per cent got into fights. These were children who in many cases were in the final years of secondary school. Many of them also continued to drink into adulthood.

Society needed to tell these children that drinking was wrong, and it was prohibited. And they were now being held responsible for their actions and would be punished by society in terms of this law.

"This is not a witch-hunt, we are not the child catchers of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, but we want to teach them a lesson so that they will not drink," Mrs Cristina said.

It was for this reason that an extensive educational campaign targeted at everyone was being prepared - it would even include parents and the way the police handled children, because the purpose was to teach the children, not scare them.

Advertising too was an area which was already being successfully tackled.

Mrs Cristina thanked the government agencies, NGOs, parents' groupings and the leisure industry for their backing of this Bill.