Boozing teenagers are an escalating problem
Sir, – As the owner of a holiday home at Burghead Caravan Park, I witness teenagers walking through the park to the woods and the beach carrying boxes of beer, which must have been bought for them, as they are obviously not old enough to have purchased them themselves. They can be consuming alcohol from around 1pm, and can be heard coming back through the park between 3 and 4am.
In the summer months there are frequent beach parties, and teenagers often arrive in taxis or are dropped off by cars, all with carry-outs of beer and spirits. These parties usually result in vandalism, as the teenagers rampage through the park on their way home, and there are disturbances as they are picked up to go home to neighbouring towns and villages.
The Fire Brigade is frequently called to fires started in the forest. If left, they would quickly burn out of control, with devastating consequences. There is also a high incidence of male teenagers urinating in public, which is totally unacceptable.
The people of Moray are worried about the RAF bases closing. There is another – and greater – worry that there is a generation coming up who are addicted to alcohol at a very young age.
Alcohol abuse by teenagers is not only a problem in Moray. I have read of children being treated after becoming sick through alcohol abuse, with one person reported as saying: "What is our society coming to? Are we really a nation of drunken hooligans fit only to raise the next generation of alcoholics and drunks?"
The picture being painted is a grim one indeed, and one that we should all be worried about. We as a society need to start a proper, clear, national debate on our love-hate relationship with alcohol.
We need to realise that it isn’t big and it isn’t clever; it is damaging to all of us as individuals, and to our nation as a whole. – Yours etc,
Name and address supplied
