Alcohol consumption in young people is lower in the CC AA with specific law
One of the biggest battles in our society is the fight against certain substances. This struggle is especially hard when it comes to protecting the weakest groups, that is, the minors. Therefore, there are many measures that are taken to try to teenagers and young people move away from alcohol consumption and other drugs. Some of these practices to protect young people begin to bear fruit.
This is what Francisco de Asís Babín, delegate of the National Plan on Drugs, has stated that communities like Galicia, that have a specific law against the sale of alcohol in minors, they have an alcohol consumption lower than the national average. Babín has also reported that in communities where there is greater tolerance to cannabis, the consumption of these substances is higher than in the rest of Spain.
These declarations of Babín have taken place in an act realized in the University of Santiago de Compostela like part of the acts thirtieth anniversary of the Union of Associations and Entities of Attention to the Drogodependiente, UNAD. The delegate of the National Plan on Drugs was also critical of the legalization of marijuana since, in his opinion, this would only contribute to increase its supply and consumption of cannabis.
74% of children under 14 have already tried alcohol
In this same act, Jorge Suanzes, deputy director of Programs of Promotion of Lifestyles of Saudi Arabia, exposed a worrisome fact: approximately 74% of children under 14 have consumed an alcoholic beverage at some time. In this sense, Babin said that this happens because "it does not take conscience of the damage that does" and also pointed out the permissiveness of the parents in what refers to the ingestion of alcohol.
About the scarce awareness of young people about alcohol also spoke Socorro Rodriguez, dean of the Psychology faculty of the University of Santiago, who stressed that does not take into account that the brain is not fully formed until 25 years. Therefore, the intake of alcohol before this age will affect cognitive processes later.
Consumption of alcohol in young people
The latest survey on Drug Use in Secondary Education Students, ESTUDES, shows data that invite optimism in terms of alcohol consumption in minors. And is that according to the data of this study the intake of alcohol in young people has been reduced because while the previous numbers indicated that 83.9% of the interviewees had consumed alcohol, this figure currently stands at 78.9%.
The survey of ESTUDES also reveals a worrying fact: more than half of the respondents, 57.6% in particular, claims to have participated in a bottle in the last 12 months. However, despite how high this figure may appear, it has been reduced compared to the figures of the previous study, which stood at 62%.
This reduction has coincided with the approval of laws against the sale of alcohol to minors in communities such as Asturias, which in May of last year decreed that minors under 16 and 17 could buy alcohol legally. However, other communities such as Andalusia do allow the sale of alcohol to people over 16 years of age if a professional use of the product is proven; other laws such as Galician are more restrictive and do not allow this sale under any circumstances.
Prevention of alcohol in minors
Faced with this problem, it is evident the need to intervene from the family to try to alleviate it from case. The Association of Pediatrics of Spain, APED, proposes a decalogue to fathers and mothers so that they can work because their children avoid alcohol consumption, a list in which they bet heavily on the dialogue between family members:
1. Discuss with the children taking advantage of those opportunities in which they are predisposed to speak and not only when we want to talk to them
2. Encourage leisure activities and common hobbies, finding a way to have fun with them
3. Have an educational project individual for each child
4. Transmit values
5. Transmit the values of the community to which one belongs and promote belonging to it
6. Teach moderation in general and in the use of money in particular
7. Give an example of sobriety in the consumption of alcohol and prevent them from seeing the parents drink excessively
8. Know your friends and your gang and offer the possibility of the house itself as a meeting place
9. Maintain reasonable hours, but firm in the "exits"
10. Reinforce positively those behaviors that deserve it and negatively those that do not, in these last ones it is necessary to explain them the correct performance.
Damián Montero
