Yet More tax on Booze......

[Loosehead]

http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?th readID=4521&&&edition=1&ttl=20061027104306

In reality this will affect sensible drinkers too so why should we have to pay for the brats who can't handle it? Anyone suggest another way to stop them binge drinking?

[Kathyan]

Do it like they do in Canada, only sell booze in liquor stores where you have to prove your age before you are let in and ban people from drinking in the streets. Booze is available in too many places.

[admarlow]

In sweden alcohol is heavily taxed and only sold via state shops, all that happens is that older kids buy the alcohol for younger people, they have a big problem also with alcohol smuggling and people making their own. I think if there was a zero tolerance on drinking on the street this would have a big effect, as this is the only place they can drink.

[jake-the-peg]

I think the target is young drinkers getting hammered in pubs and clubs on Friday and Saturday nights not just underage ones.

How about L plates for the under 21s :c)

[Supernick]

At the risk of sounding pessimistic, this just isn't going to work, and there is no easy solution. Even if you doubled the price of alcopops, they're just going to start buying something else. At the end of the day, kids have more than enough pocket money to buy these things, and a bottle of vodka costs the same as a cinema ticket. Upping the price isn't going to effect them when they know they can get hammered for less than a fiver.
The problem is that kids are feeling like they're grown up at an increasingly young age, and want to do things that they consider to be grown up. Now this doesn't mean pipe and slippers, it means behaving like they think 18 yr olds do, so drink, drugs and sex.
All we can do is clamp down on pubs and off licenses selling alcohol to minors, as well as people supllying drink to minors. Of course this risks making it even more taboo, so parents need to educate their children responsibly as well. Drink doesn't need to be demonised.

[dyli795]

Well it's just stupid in't it. "Put a load of tax on it, that'll fix it. There now , that was easy. NEXT !" Just how stupid does this goverment get? As if that's going to make any differance to anything other than the price of alcohol. Gits!

[Pajama Girl]

When a government taxes a "sin item" (like alcohol, tobacco) to the extreme, doesn't an Underground Black Market spring up? Then the elected government has created a Shadow government. And if you have ever lived around lawless gangs and toughs and hoodies with lots of money, you will recognize the threat.

I think Supernick has the point. Applying ever more tax isn't going to work, <and> there is no easy solution. But clamping down on pubs that sell alcohol to minors is a start.

But really smacking down these off license "establishments" and individuals supplying drink to minors is where I would place my attention.

But the real solution is persuading people against binge drinking, over-drinking, alcoholism. For that, we none of us have a solution. When one lives in a culture where drinking is almost central to community life, what do you say?

[NJOK]

I remember Martin Samuel in the Times making a good suggestion.

Ban mixers and alcopops for anyone under 21. So you can order a vodka by all means but you can only have it neat. That would instantly cut the amount consumed by younger drinkers.

And yes, people would move onto something else. But it's undeniable that those drinks that are specifically designed to mask the taste of alcohol contribute to dangerous binge drinking, particularly among young women.

Tax isn't the answer.

[ummmm]

The government just thought that if they put extra tax on alcopops the youngsters will still find a way of buying it so they can disguise extra tax as concern and rake in more cash.

[dyli795]

Nice little win/win situation there.