I’ve been reading a lot of articles lately about underage drinking. I found it quite ridiculous when I read that if students are going to spend their stipend on alcohol then maybe they shouldn’t receive it anymore!

Students in sixth form have no time to go out and work after all the lessons and assignments they’re given each day and not all families are financially comfortable enough to give their children enough pocket money to do all the things teenagers do, so I think it’s really no one’s business what someone chooses to spend their stipend on.

If parents want to stop their kids drinking in Paceville, they should stop letting them go there. It is totally pointless allowing your child to go to such a place and expect them not to enter bars or touch alcohol because what else is there to do in Paceville? The problem with teenagers in Malta is not that there are bars offering cheap alcohol and not checking for ID but the fact we need to go and drink in Paceville because we are so bored!

I am 19 years old and I must say that, even with a car, I cannot think of anything fun to do in Malta. So I sympathise with 16-year-olds who want to have a drink and can’t because the only reason that most Maltese teenagers drink is so that at least everything’s a little more entertaining!

Maybe instead of debating whether or not the legal age for drinking should be raised, we should be trying to invest in some more public sports grounds, some cool cafés or maybe some game arcades.