STUDENT CULTURE IS SOBERING

I’ve noticed that for many of today’s students, the drinking culture has become almost an every night of the week thing, and certainly every weekend. When I was that age I hardly drank at all – I was always busy playing one sport or another – but I would never have had the money to do so regularly even if I’d wanted to. Now you have so many Happy Hours, special deals and alcopops that drinking seems to be both easy and affordable and has become a hobby in itself. So it was encouraging to read that a World Health Organisation study has found Scottish teenagers are actually drinking far less alcohol than before. Between 2002 and 2014 weekly drinking among 15-year-olds in Scotland declined from 41% to 11% in girls, and from 41% to 14% among boys. I know there’s a school of thought among some parents that it’s a good idea to give kids alcohol so they can drink under supervision. In fact, a UK study showed one in six parents do just that by the time their children are 14. But I don’t think parents should be encouraging their kids to drink at home. It’s up to parents to set a good example and make kids aware of the potential dangers. If there’s a celebration and you have champagne, I wouldn’t say no to giving them the tiniest little bit so they can join in – but I’m actually in favour of what they do in America where you can’t drink until you’re 21. So many road accidents involve young drivers, and alcohol makes young people much more likely to injure themselves or get into trouble, so I think we should be looking at increasing the legal age. Thankfully, I didn’t have any issues of that kind when my boys were young because they were so involved in sport. Their social lives revolved around football, golf and tennis. Perhaps one of the keys to eliminating under-age drinking is providing accessible and affordable places where young people can take part in a variety of activities. So, while I’m happy that the number of young drinkers in Scotland is coming down – and I realise those figures were from a period which ended four years ago – the stats are still sobering. A third of Scottish girls and boys have been drunk twice or more in their lifetime – placing Scotland in the top 10 of Europe. More than a quarter of girls and almost a third of boys started drinking alcohol at age 13 or even younger. It troubles me that our 15-year-olds are drinking enough to require a survey in the first place, and I look forward to the day when alcohol is no longer an issue for them, and we don’t even have to ask.