MP fears penalties are not a strong enough deterrent

Labour MP Evarist Bartolo said yesterday he feared that the penalties laid down in a new law against underage drinking were not a strong enough deterrent for those who sold alcohol to minors and he felt repeat offenders should be liable to lose their licence.

Mr Bartolo was speaking during the debate on a Bill which will set the minimum alcohol drinking age at 16. The penalties laid down in the Bill are a fine of between Lm100 and Lm500 for a first conviction and a fine of between Lm500 and Lm1,000 for subsequent convictions.

Nationalist MP Joe Cassar, who spoke earlier, said families had an important role in ensuring that young people did not drink alcohol. But the world was changing and it was important to understand what young people were going through before pointing fingers. Young people all over the world were living a culture where the 'now' was essential and instant gratification was important. It was in this culture that substances such as alcohol, ecstasy, cocaine and heroin were introduced.

Parents should not be blamed more than they ought to for what their young did. Parents could tell their children about the alternatives to instant gratification but they could not, when their children were at school, stop them from going to a bar.

Besides instant gratification, alcohol also caused serious problems. Suicide, violence and sexual abuse increased with alcohol.

There were those who argued that legislation would cause drinkers to go underground - they would start drinking in private houses instead of outside. But that argument did not hold water. By the same yardstick, one would not have legislated on smoking. Yet the smoking regulations had made a positive difference and he augured the same would result from this new law.

The Bill should also help the authorities provide young people with alternatives and it would be used as a tool against those who remain defiant. It was positive that offenders could be ordered to do community service because it was society which lost when one lost one's inhibitions. Adults, should police other adults who encouraged young people to do what they were not supposed to do.

Evarist Bartolo (MLP) said it should not be taken as inevitable that young people will drink, and they will drink excessively for instant gratification. It was not true that there was a global trend for young people to drink more. One could see how in Malta alone, the drink problem had deteriorated sharply. This problem was not shared by Malta's neighbours and the situation here was more akin to the Nordic countries. Most other countries had employed national strategies including the education, medical and social sectors as well as policing, to stop the problem from developing. Malta only had piecemeal initiatives which lacked coordination, hence the deteriorating situation.

Surveys in Malta showed that three times as many young people had admitted to drinking excessively compared to four years ago. No one was against this new law, but the need for a coordinated strategic plan to tackle this emergency remained. Politicians, parents, the Church and other protagonists had collectively failed in not acting before. And they would be wrong to think that this legislation alone would solve anything. It should not even ease the conscience of the politicians.

What was happening in Malta was not only a result of the lack of a coordinated plan, but also because young people had not been given alternatives. The social, cultural and moral formation of the young had gone backwards - the education system only focused on academic results. Far too few young people took part in cultural, sports or other activities other than work or school.

Mr Bartolo said he feared that the penalties contemplated for those who sold alcohol to minors were not enough to serve as a deterrent. An establishment could lose its licence for playing loud music well into the night. Why not extend that for repeat offenders convicted of selling alcohol to children?

There was need for a political commitment to mobilise the whole country in a strategy to counter under-age drinking and to help the young say no to alcohol, Mr Bartolo concluded.

EU takes aim at alcohol abuse

The European Commission yesterday launched a strategy to tackle alcohol abuse.

The EU executive's document highlighted five areas that it said member states and industry should address:

¤ protect young people, children and the unborn child

¤ reduce injuries and death from alcohol-related road accidents

¤ prevent alcohol-related harm among adults and reduce the negative impact on the workplace

¤ raise awareness on the impact of harmful and hazardous alcohol consumption

¤ develop a common EU database of evidence.