Nineteen bar owners have been marched to court for serving alcohol to minors this year, highlighting the need for law enforcement, according to the draft National Children’s Policy launched for consultation.

Use of drugs among students increased drastically

According to the law, minors under 17 are not permitted to drink alcohol and should not be served alcoholic beverages.

However, it is an open secret that minors out for a good time still manage to get hold of alcohol.

The draft policy recommends that more effort is made to educate children about the repercussions of substance abuse including alcohol.

It also suggests reaching out to children whose families have a history of alcohol abuse and that young people should be involved in the drafting of the National Alcohol Policy.

The draft policy quotes research showing that the use of drugs among students, aged 15 and 16, increased drastically from 2.4 per cent in 1995 to 15.1 per cent in 2007.

But the use of alcohol remained consistently high with 91.9 per cent of students saying they had drunk some form of alcoholic beverage compared with 92 per cent in 2007.

The issue of underage drinking hit the headlines last April when, in an unprecedented swoop, police decided to stop alcohol sales during a concert. The police interpreted a 1995 legal notice banning the sale of alcohol where minors are present as also applying to a concert venue.

A few weeks later a legal notice was issued stating that in venues where people under 17 years old are admitted, outlets selling alcoholic beverages have to be physically separate and access to them restricted to people aged over 17.