Thirty percent of primary school children have tried alcohol, with 10 being the average age at which alcohol is first consumed. More disturbingly, 23% of these children are repeat users, with 12 being the average age of children who habitually drink.
These were some of the findings of a Medical Research Council (MRC) poll conducted in June this year. The findings build on research by other bodies that confirm alcohol is being consumed by youngsters far below the legal age of 18.
A drinking binge at a school last month near Hammanskraal shows the extremes youngsters are willing to go to to get alcohol. Fifteen Grade 10 and Grade 12 learners took methanol acid from their school’s lab, diluted it with soft drinks and drank it. Two of the learners died and the others were treated for alcohol poisoning.
Less dramatic – but more commonplace – are the incidents where learners as young as nine have arrived at school drunk.
Another study that illustrates the extent of the problem was carried out in October 2002 by Bridges, a Cape Town-based drug education programme working in schools, which found that children as young as six were experimenting with alcohol and 78% of kids who have tried alcohol continued drinking.
Other disturbing statistics include:
– Children as young as nine are being treated for substance abuse;
– Two in 10 people seeking treatment are between the ages of 10 and 19;
– Clinics recorded a 30% increase in young people abusing substances.
One of the issues, of course, is that alcohol is more easily available than some of the harder drugs – and it seems that many outlets do not take the laws very seriously. Add to this the fact that alcoholic drinks like ‘coolers” or ‘shooters” (which have an alcohol per volume content of three to six percent) are being marketed to the younger set and it seems inevitable that we are rapidly becoming a society in danger of nurturing young alcoholics.
The older school-goers are certainly indicating their intentions with the bottle. ‘Almost 100% of all Grade 11 pupils use alcohol,” says Bobby Hamman, national director for the Drugwise campaign. ‘Teens seem to regard alcohol as socially more acceptable than drugs.”