Seminar focuses on the drink problem

The parliamentary secretary in the Social Policy Ministry, Dolores Cristina, intends to discuss the new laws, amendments and licences related to the sale and consumption of alcohol and incorporate them in the national policy on alcohol to be presented to the social affairs parliamentary committee.

Ms Cristina highlighted the "confusion" and inconsistency in the "bits and pieces" of various related laws, stressing the need to remove any loopholes.

She said few bar owners were taken to court for selling alcohol to those below the minimum drinking age and that penalties should serve as a deterrent. Enforcement was also lacking, Ms Cristina said.

The parliamentary secretary was speaking at a seminar by the Ghaqda Genituri (Parents' Association) at St James Cavalier, on Drinking among children. Why is it done and what should we do?

The issue of alcohol and its purchase and consumption by under-age youths enjoys national consensus and Ms Cristina was backed by the opposition spokesman for social policy, Marie Louise Coleiro, who held a joint presentation with her counterpart at the seminar.

Ms Cristina has had meetings with the Home Affairs Minister and the Police Commissioner, among other interested parties, on the subject and stressed the importance of the role of parents in the alcohol issue.

A bye-law forbidding alcohol from being sold in bottles in Paceville would soon be coming into force and would serve as a deterrent, she said, encouraging coordination and a joining of forces.

Ms Coleiro said the idea would be to create a forum of stakeholders, including the Church, the entertainment and alcohol industry, NGOs and government departments.

She said a deadline should be set to have the national policy on alcohol in place and she proposed studying the Cyprus experience which had changed its drinking trends and reduced under-age drinking over the years.

Shane Butler, from Trinity College, Dublin, gave an Irish perspective on under-age drinking, which is "the norm" in his country, as is binge drinking.

Dr Butler questioned why Malta, in the heart of the Mediterranean, did not have Mediterranean drinking habits, but more of a pub culture. "The Maltese have to learn to drink more like Mediterraneans," he said.

Dr Butler said there was no evidence that school-based alcohol education had achieved anything. Legal provisions in Ireland have also failed to stop the trends and enforcement was lacking. But what Ireland has done, at least, is to challenge the sense of fatalism and the idea that nothing can be done, he said.

Under-age drinking has been worrying Sedqa, the national agency against drug and alcohol abuse, since it was set up in 1994, its CEO Sina Bugeja said.

Quoting the 2002 European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (ESPAD), she said 94 per cent of Maltese students, aged between 15 and 16, had reported drinking alcohol on more than one occasion.

The study showed that the home was the most popular drinking venue (21 per cent), followed by discos and bars (18 per cent and 15 per cent respectively). Only 7.5 per cent said they never drank alcohol.

By the age of 11, 42 per cent had reported drinking wine, and 3.6 per cent claimed they had already been drunk, Ms Bugeja said.

Malta still ranked among the top four, with Denmark, the UK and Ireland.

Sedqa recommended increasing the minimum drinking age to 18 and prohibiting advertising and sponsorship by alcohol companies for youth activities and sports as was currently the case, as well as other practices, such as "happy hours", that encouraged excessive drinking.

Godfrey Leone Ganado, president of the Ghaqda Genituri, which is also pushing to increase the minimum drinking age to 18, said fines were low and the police were not encouraged to take action. He appealed to them to enforce the law and be more present and more consistent in their approach to the issue.