Alcohol addiction is spreading at an amazing rate, not only in adults, but in children as well. Dr Howard Parker from the Community Alcohol Action Network says there’s only one category for underage drinkers, “illegal leisure.” Australia’s alcohol consumption has declined over the past twenty years, but more young people are drinking and adopting drinking behaviours (bad temper, depression, etc.).

Underage drinkers don’t only harm themselves, but they also harm the people around them. Around two children die every week (according to the CAAN calculator) because of alcohol. With that, for every ONE underage drinker it harms at an average of SEVEN other pedestrians (from the Sunday Age 23rd September).

Who is Involved?

The main people/parties that are involved would be the people who are affected by the behavior of underage drinkers. The children themselves should be involved because they are a major part of the issue. And the last party would have to be the Federal Government. They have to try to make big decisions to put everything in to place.

How Will This Change Affect Society?

Some Underage drinkers affect the society by performing outrageous behavior. For example they harm people when they have been intoxicated, damage property and cause people to be afraid of leaving their houses at certain hours. I think this affects societies where underage drinkers live.

If the Government decides to put new laws in place, to try to decrease the amount of underage drinkers around, it could change the society quite dramatically. For example, if a law was made that children weren’t permitted in rooms where parents are consuming alcohol this could cause major problems in parties and get-togethers.

Public Opinion

The public has had many protests and concerns about underage drinking in Victoria. The main reason underage drinking is increasing, is the Government hasn’t done enough! Adds about alcohol is still on many channels, and they are on times that children watch TV. The public said “the amount of children dieing every week is outrageous, drastic measures has to be taken this instant,” (from the CAAN’s opinions page). The general public thinks that harsh punishments must be put in place, before more lives are lost. The current punishment is only a $3000 to $6000 fine. Another group thinks we should just leave them alone and let them see what can happen to them if they don’t die.

Government’s Opinion

The Government has taken a lot of time to decrease underage drinking in Victoria. They have increased the penalty for supplying alcohol to people under the age of 18 from $2000 to $6000. Also falsely applying for a proof of age card will be a $2000 fine. For serving alcohol with no license used to be a $10,000 to $50,000 fine, but now it can get up to a $150,000 fine.

The Government quoted “We understand the harm underage drinking can cause and we are working with health and enforcement bodies to address the issues.” A few weeks after the government banned all alcohol vending machines outside of licensed premises. The Government has made it more secure and harder to forge proof of age.

Is this an Issue in Other Parts of the World?

Underage drinking is a worldwide problem. In the Houston Chronicle (an American weekly paper) a 14 year old boy was caught drinking in his father’s car. From the article it said “his own father gave him the alcohol from the bachelor party he was attending”. There are many articles for underage drinking all around the world.

In Indonesia alcohol is even more dangerous, tourists, local people and children are dieing from a deadly chemical in alcohol. Black marketers put a chemical deadly to us humans called methanol. This is just a recent problem introduced to the Indonesian community.