Underage drinking - Laws must be policed

LAST night’s Primetime report on the sale of alcohol to teenagers who order booze online is further evidence of how difficult it is to resolve this country’s crisis of underage drinking.

A survey showed that when teenagers sought deliveries of booze little if any attempt was made to establish their age. It seemed not to matter whether they were underage or adults.

This proves that some form of regulation is essential to guard against this practice. The feasibility of stamping beer cans and bottles to help pin-point the shops in question should be considered.

Nobody is in favour of the ‘nanny state’ approach, but it is clear that when rules are put in place they must be policed. Otherwise, all the educational policies in the world are not worth the paper they are written on.

Abuse of alcohol by young people will cause major health problems in later life.

Owners of off-licences who recklessly sell alcohol to underage drinkers should be heavily fined and persistent offenders shut down.