Pubs bid to stamp out underage drinking

PUBLICANS and the gardaí have teamed up in the south-east in a bid to stamp out under-age drinking as well as drug misuse across Tipperary.

The Health Service Executive Substance Misuse Service, Garda Síochána and the Mid-Tipperary Drugs Initiative (MTDI) hope it will catch on nationwide.

Under the initiative, publicans promoting the initiative have received training on drug misuse and dealing with drug-related incidents.

Those taking part are placing stickers on their windows indicating that no illegal activity will be tolerated on their premises.

The Tipperary Town Publicans Policy on Substance Misuse was developed following a training programme run by the MTDI, the HSE and the gardaí to interested publicans in the Tipperary area.

HSE drug education officer Sinead O’Mahony Carey said it should be a great success. “Publicans are businesspeople in the community who are working at the coalface of the alcohol trade and are a key target group who need to be involved in the promotion of responsible attitudes to alcohol consumption and the demotion of any illicit drug use.

“We hope that this partnership approach with the publicans, gardaí and MTDI will enable publicans and their staff to feel confident in relation to any misuse of drugs issues that may arise in their work environment.”

Publicans taking part were also given information on drugs and the law.

The policy includes four main areas: dealing with underage drinkers, managing a drug-related incident; education and training and review and evaluation.

The document also includes full appendices on a local directory of services, drugs fact file, do’s and don’ts of sensible drinking, drugs and the law and emergency procedures.

Mayor of Tipperary and publican Denis Leahy said the policy was developed for Tipperary publicans.

“The policy is not a compulsory policy but is at the discretion of each individual publican to put in place. We worked in partnership to design a policy to aid and protect publicans and their staff in an ever-growing society of substance misuse and abuse.

“A sticker will be provided to all publicans and licensed members in the Tipperary area. If they decide to sign up to the policy, then they display the sticker on the front of their premises. I hope that all of our publicans will support this excellent initiative,” he said.

The policy is supported by the local Garda Síochána and the HSE’s Substance Misuse Service.

The Mid-Tipperary Drugs Initiative will continue to support Tipperary publicans and will help pull together all interested parties in its review and evaluation and staff training early next year.