- Friday 3 September 2010
- Subscriptions
- Photo Sales
Students press for alcohol rule changes
Picture: Joel Ford: Mount Intermediate students (from left) Zoe Windner, Sarah Taylor, Nina Lopes and Miles Farrell are among those who have made submissions on liquor sales.
Too young to drink but old enough to have their say.
Students at Mount Maunganui Intermediate might be several years off having their lips touch liquor, but when they do, they'll have the knowledge on how to monitor their drinking safely.
Students from the Year 7 and 8 Gifted and Talented Education classes have thrown their weight behind calls for a crackdown on the rules surrounding alcohol.
The children have submitted individual submissions to the Law Commission's review of the rules surrounding the supply and sale of liquor. The project was one they undertook while studying their parliament unit at school, and they recently visited Wellington's Beehive.
Over Labour Weekend, the Year 7 students, counted how many times they were exposed to alcohol through advertising, and the 32 children in the class came up with a combined total of 200.
This shocked the children, who said before the survey didn't realise how they were taking in so many messages about alcohol subconsciously.
They made their submissions after researching the current alcohol laws, and having a visit from Mount Maunganui GP, and head of the Tauranga branch of the Alcohol Action group, Dr Tony Farrell.
His son who is in the class, 12-year-old Miles Farrell, said it wasn't right the alcohol industry was associated with rugby.
Zoe Windner, 11, said before Mr Farrell's visit she and a few of her classmates were aware of the damage alcohol can do to the body.
"No one in our class, including our teacher, knew that alcohol in high amounts could cause cancer ... to raise awareness we could have advertisements about its risks, or make it compulsory for alcohol companies to list risks somewhere on each bottle, like cigarettes," she said.
Another of her ideas included raising the purchase age back to 20.
Sarah Taylor, 11, said even though there was some sensible 18-year-olds, others in this age group are put at risk, so it would be safer if the age was raised.
Nina Lopes, 11, said it should be an offence for anyone other than a guardian or parent to supply alcohol to someone under the purchase age.
"I believe the parent has a say in the child's life until he or she is 18. The parents probably have a reason for not letting their child drink alcohol," she said.
