A Single Legal Drinking Age For Europe

A Single Legal Drinking Age For Europe

EU member states would achieve significant reductions in adolescent and adult morbidity, mortality and alcohol use disorders by establishing a single legal drinking age of at least 18yrs.

This is one of the conclusions of a report for the European Parliament Working Group on the Quality of Childhood entitled Preventing Alcohol Use Disorders Among Children and Adolescents in the EU, published today Tuesday 7 May 2013. ‘The effects of alcohol on the brains, bodies and genes of young people in Iceland are the same as they are on young people in Italy. Yet, alcohol policies vary widely between countries, often based on inappropriate outdated criteria: the history, culture, social conditions, economic interests and taxation policies of each country, leaving EU policy increasingly at odds with a new generation of biomedical research whereby no EU country is a unique or special case’, concludes the author of the report Dr Aric Sigman.

European children conform to the same basic alcohol risk factors:

Age of Initiation to Alcohol + Dose + Frequency

Alcohol Misuse (abuse/dependence)

‘The age at which teenagers can be given alcohol at home, or to buy, or drink, or be served alcohol outside the home should become a decision based on medical grounds and the well-being of young people, and not on the basis of tradition or political and economic considerations.’ 

‘Throughout Europe, child alcohol consumption in the home is almost entirely unregulated. Britain’s minimum legal age for drinking alcohol at home is 5yrs and appears to be the only EU country with minimum legal age for home drinking. Legal ages for being served alcohol in public within the EU range from 16 – 20 yrs but many countries have no legal age for public or private alcohol consumption whatsoever, only for the sale of alcohol. The many significant inconsistencies and disparities found now require a harmonisation of child alcohol policies across Europe.’ 

‘In trying to prevent alcohol problems in young people, the biomedical effects of the substance, the vulnerability of the developing neurocircuitry and epigenetic mechanisms involved in addiction along with the role of genes predisposing the child to alcohol misuse remain under-recognised. Instead, the emphasis has been on social learning, with the role of adults ‘teaching’ and children ‘learning’ how to drink alcohol ‘sensibly’.’ 

‘European parents, children and adolescents should be informed clearly and consistently about the basic principle of neural cell and tissue vulnerability and genetic predisposition to alcohol use disorders in children, adolescents and young adults.’

Islamic Point of Comparison

The report found that ‘social values should not be undervalued as an effective long-term method of reducing alcohol harm. There is evidence that societal disapproval and intolerance of underage drinking is associated with significantly less drinking, heavy drinking and drunkenness in teenagers. Findings on alcohol in Islamic countries are illuminating. Turkey, a secular EU candidate state with an Islamic culture, was found to have incomparably lower levels of drinking, heavy drinking and drunkenness in teenagers than all other European countries. Alcohol consumption in general in Turkey has traditionally been significantly lower than in the rest of Europe: the average EU citizen (age 15+) drinks 8.5 times more alcohol per year than the average person in Turkey. Although the EU is politically secular with only 3.2 per cent of the population being Muslim, the findings on alcohol use in Islamic countries are informative. It would appear that culture and law can influence alcohol consumption and misuse.’
 
Information Hygiene

One of the greatest obstacles to establishing informed EU policy making has been poor ‘information hygiene’. In future discussions about policies on alcohol and young people, EU member states should, to the best of their ability, excise the influence of the alcohol industry. When considering any evidence on alcohol presented to them, policy makers should be highly vigilant in ensuring a high degree of ‘information hygiene’ and establish whether the alcohol industry has played any part in such research. 

The report also identifies: 

·      Prominent research scientists are starting to complain about the increasing involvement of the alcoholic beverage industry in scientific research. 
·      Politicians being under the influence of the alcohol industry is an international problem. 
·      Parents, schools, children’s hospitals and doctors’ offices make available ‘information’ leaflets and websites about alcohol and adolescents produced by organisations funded by the alcohol industry. 

In England, the number of young people being admitted to hospital with liver problems as a result of alcohol consumption is rising dramatically. ‘The European Union is the region with the highest alcohol consumption in the world, more than double the world average, accompanied by high levels of alcohol use disorders among adolescents and adults and resultant high levels of alcohol-related morbidity and mortality.’ 

‘If Europe shows political, parental and legal resolve to present a unified position on young people and alcohol based upon a new generation of evidence and the priority of child well-being, there is scope for significant improvement’ said Dr Sigman.

ENDS

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