PARENTS 'SEE DRINK AS BETTER THAN DRUGS'

A POLICE chief has attacked parents for encouraging their children to
abuse alcohol because they view it as less dangerous than drugs.
Northern Constabulary has become the first in Scotland to trial a
scheme where off-licences use ultraviolet pens to mark bottles and
cans with a code so police can track down where alcohol has been
illegally bought by under-18s.

Police hope finding the source will allow them to snare off-licence
owners who are breaking the law, or lead them to arrest older
teenagers who often buy alcohol for those who are under-age.

Chief Inspector Paul Eddington, the operational commander for Ross,
Cromarty and Skye, who is behind the scheme, is frustrated that some
parents view their children drinking as less dangerous than smoking
cannabis.

He said: "We've lost the thread somewhere when parents come up to our
front counter demanding the bottle of wine we've confiscated from
their youngster, as has happened to us. It's very frustrating when
this minority are rather upset we've taken alcohol off their
14-year-old bundle of joy. Parents need to know what their children
are up to and speak to them about their responsibilities.

"The parents have as much, if not more, responsibility than police
officers, who are not here to babysit youngsters on Friday and
Saturday nights when they are let loose in towns. A lot of the time
they don't have a clue where their children are or what they are up
to.

"We are increasingly finding some parents are saying, well at least
they are not taking drugs'. To be perfectly honest, to a 14-year-old a
half-bottle of vodka is probably more lethal than a puff of cannabis.
They can't seem to see that."

His comments echoed those of Helen Newlove, who spoke out last week
after the drunken teenagers who kicked her husband to death in
Warrington, Cheshire, were convicted. Newlove called for parents to be
jailed if they can't stop their children getting high on drink and
drugs like those who killed her husband.

Eddington said that people needed to be taught that alcohol can be as
destructive as drugs after his division's latest figures showed the
problem is as bad in rural communities as urban areas. His officers
confiscated alcohol, including a high level of spirits which appeared
to have been taken from family drinks supplies, from 490 youths last
year and in another 50 cases after groups had been dispersed. The
figures are exceptional because only about 50,000 people live in the
mainly rural communities.

Eddington said that the age of the children being arrested was coming
down. "We're getting children as young as 11 or 12, and regularly
14-year-olds, under the influence of drink," he said.

"We kickstarted the bottle-marking scheme after convincing licensees
it was in their interests. The ultraviolet pen is visible under a
special light and enables our officers to know which off-licence could
have sold, say, 10 bottles of beer. It gives us a start if we can
identify the source, but hopefully it will also make alcohol more
difficult for youngsters to get hold of."

Wanda Mackay, a youth development worker at the Princes Trust-backed
Cromarty Youth Cafe on the Black Isle, said that, in some cases, young
people and their parents were reluctant for them to take part in
education projects.She said: "They think older people are making
judgements about them,
and think people are picking on them. They have seen the older people
drinking and think they should be able to do it too."

Mackay, whose group has received UKP20,000 from Highland Council and
Lloyds TSB's charitable fund to provide other activities for
youngsters, advocates harm reduction to avoid placing young people -
who she said would always find ways of experimenting with alcohol - in
unnecessary danger.

She added: "Not all young people who are drinking are causing
problems, but it's not good for them to be drinking in a cold or
wooded area alone. We had a girl left by her fellow drinkers when she
was drunk. She'd have been found dead if she hadn't been found in the
dark."