Alcohol 'more harmful' than drugs in young
More young people binge drinking than ever before
Also In The News
|
V2 Records, out September 18th. |  |
Thursday, 14, Sep 2006 08:19
More must be done to tackle the growing number of binge drinking young adults, a government advisory panel has warned.
Research conducted by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) found that alcohol causes more problems in young people than all other drugs and has shown the most recent growth in use.
The rise in the number of young women drinking frequently and to excess was said to be particularly worrying, as in the past decade the proportion of women drinking more than twice the recommended weekly limit has doubled.
Of the 6.8 million people aged between 16 and 24 in the UK, nearly a third are daily smokers, almost 30 per cent drink more than twice the recommended daily alcohol limit at least once a week and one million of this group have used an illegal drug in the past month.
These statistics have led to the UK having one of the highest rates of drug use in Europe.
Experts have warned that although drugs education is part of the curriculum in most schools, research indicates that it has little impact on future drug use.
As such the advisory panel has urged the government to increase its efforts to educate young people about the harm drugs can cause using a variety of routes including the media, the school system and higher education.
It also believes that the age people can buy tobacco at should be raised from 16 to 18 and that the government should consider progressively raising the excise duty on alcohol to reduce the overall consumption of alcohol.
Alcohol advertising and sponsorship of events should also face stricter guidelines and parents should play a greater role in raising awareness of the problems of drugs abuse.
As young people have higher accident rates, the ACMD believes this could be tackled by reducing the maximum legal blood alcohol level for drivers under the age of 25 from present 80mg per ml to 50mg per ml.
However transport minister Stephen Ladyman has said that although he would study the ACMD report "very carefully", he is not convinced that changing the drink/drive limit would make a difference.
"My view is, and has consistently been, that actually what we need is robust enforcement at the present level of 80mg before we start thinking of reducing the level of alcohol in the blood down for anybody," he told the Today programme.
"There are many other countries around Europe that have adopted the 50mg level, but they just don't enforce it. So my view is let's enforce firmly and robustly at the present level, and then maybe one day we'll think about going lower than that."