The Sense Group (July 16) seems to deem it fit to respond to Sedqa Agency every time it comments on alcohol use/abuse in our country.

This time Sina Bugeja, as is her duty, commented on the recent European School Project on Alcohol and Drugs (Espad) report that, once again, puts our young persons high on the list of alcohol users/abusers/ bingers.

Just as Caritas made Malta aware of the oncoming drug problem, so it was Sedqa Agency that brought the plague of alcoholism in Malta out in the open and eradicated the stigma attached to it. Before Sedqa, families used to be ashamed of alcoholics among their loved ones; they would close the windows and secure the shutters to make sure the neighbours heard very little and, on many occasions, would call an ambulance and take the sufferer to Mount Carmel Hospital in the still of the night.

It was Sedqa – with the cooperation of self-help programmes such as Alcoholics Anonymous – that made us aware that alcoholism is a disease and that the alcoholic is not a bad person but a sick person.

When Sedqa says that our youth are in grave danger because of their binge drinking, they know what they are talking about.

When Mgr Victor Grech mentions that our youth are resorting to binge drinking and shedding their values he knows what he is talking about. These people are touching the problem.

No amount of statistics, percentages, averages etc coughed up by the Sense Group or any other related organisation is going to contradict the fact that our youth is drinking heavily. A visit to the entertainment areas on a Friday or Saturday night is ample proof that Sedqa is right in bringing this fact to the attention of those who want to listen. Young men and women (some of them virtually still children) sprawled on the ground in the muck and the filth.

Why is this happening?

Who is at fault?

The answers are various and have been bandied around for many years.

The fact remains that this phenomenon is happening and that Sedqa has a right, no, a duty to speak about it.

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