Call for anti-drink drive in schools

Press, 27 September 1978, Page 14

Call for anti-drink drive in schools

A pressure group of experts on alcoholism needed to band together to get programems on alcoholism introduced into schools from a. primary level, a Canterbury Progress League meeting on “Youth and Alcohol” was told.

The meeting attended by about 150 people and held in the Museum, was marked by the absence of parents, “the ones who should be the most concerned,” said Captain G. Brinsden, of the Salvation Army Bridge programme. He was the first speaker of a panel of 10 who spoke on alcoholism and youth. Captain Brinsden said a Wellington survey of secondary schools showed that 70 per cent of all school children between the ages of 13 and 18 drank alcohol. Forty per cent drank most week-ends, and nearly 3 per cent drank every day. The survey showed that in the home 27 per cent of the children drank before they were aged 10. Mr A. W. Gilchrist, who is on the education committee of the Liquor Advisory Conn, cil, said that young people could procure alcohol far too

easily, and many parents ignored or condoned the problem.

“As long as our kids aren’t on drugs,” was a comment that Murray Lane, from the Ray Comfort Drug Rehabilitation Centre, said was too often heard. He told the meeting that at 18 he was an alcoholic because he wanted a purpose for living, a way of his own. Ms Lindsay Image, a psychologist who is at present setting up the Addiction Assessment Centre for the North Canterbury Hospital Board, said that the youth of today should not be used as a scapegoat; it was adults they imitated. “Drinking generally starts at home, and of the 78 per cent of those children who drink, surveys show that only 11. per cent drink without parental consent.” she said. Dr Morgan Fahey said that he had talked to boys at a secondary school.

“They said, ‘Don’t tell us we can’t drink, tell us how we can drink — and drink and drive sensibly’,” he said. “Fifty out of 200 boys will be admitted to hospital from alcohol-related accidents be-

fore they are 25, and four of those will be dead by that age,” said Dr Fahey. Solutions offered by both the panel and the audience included more research and understanding of the subject, i alternatives to drink for | youths. These included better j teaching by parents to their i children on ways of occupying leisure time, more communication between children and their parents, harsher penalties for publicans serving under-age drinkers, and the raising of the drivinglicence age to 18 years. Other panel speakers were Mr N. L. Bradford, S.M.; Mr F. J. Aitken (past-president of the Riccarton Working Men’s Club); Sergeant A. Waugh; Mr R. W. R. Broom (from the liquor trade); and Mrs Lyn Cassidy (director of the Christchurch branch of the Society of Alcoholism and Drug Dependance). The panel was chaired by the Mavor (Mr H. G. Hav).' Mrs M. E. Murray (vicepresident of the League) organised the panel. The audienc'e ranged from teachers and schoolchildren to members of Alcoholics Anonymous.