Smiling grandfathers are known to have picked up their crying grandchildren onto their lap, dipped a dummy into a glass of wine and put it into the infant’s mouth. “It helps them to calm down,” they would say.
Fathers are also known to invite their seven- or eight-year-old children to take a sip of wine or try beer. “There’s my man,” they would proudly say.
Later on, when the kids grow to become teenagers, few parents bat an eyelid when, during Christmas lunch or at a family party, the 13-year-old picks up the bottle of wine, pours the liquid into a glass, and gulps it down with the turkey.
Many children are introduced to alcohol in this way and, sadly, they never turn back.
Doctors say that alcohol in moderation helps adults to remain healthy, and there is no dispute about that. But, on the other hand, drinking excessive amounts of alcohol, on a regular basis, will create health problems to the individual in the long term and, if followed by driving, could lead to serious traffic accidents.
What is worrying is that recent statistics published by the Health Promotion Department put Malta in the upper rungs as to the amount of alcohol consumed by the early teenagers. A top place in such a category does not and should not make us proud.
According to the preliminary results of a survey carried out earlier this year, the percentage of 15-year-old boys who regularly consume wine has doubled to 79.3, while the corresponding statistic for 15-year-old girls is nearly 66 per cent.
Some 67 per cent of 13-year-old boys while 57.3 per cent of 13-year-old girls said they consumed wine.
The survey also revealed that beer is still a popular drink with young teenagers – with at least 74 per cent of 15-year-old boys and 47.6 per cent of 15-year-old girls claiming to regularly consume beer.
Almost 45 per cent of 13-year-old girls and 64.5 per cent of 13-year-old boys also claim to be beer drinkers. In fact, the most marked increase of alcohol consumption was registered precisely in the 13-year-old group, having almost doubled since the 2002 survey.
These are worrying figures that should make us all think. It is evidently clear that the existing laws where it comes to under-age people buying or consuming alcohol are not strict enough or are not being enforced enough.
A new law on under-age drinking has been promised but has as yet not materialised, and the authorities are urged to pull their socks up on this matter. Once in place, the law should be enforced with strictness – and not only in the first weeks or months, as has happened in other circumstances.
This might also help to stop – or at least curb – instances of binge drinking, which seem to have become a common trend among Maltese young people. Binge drinking is popularly defined as drinking with the specific intention of getting drunk.
Naturally, education plays an important part in all this. Because it would not be enough to enact laws and enforce them if young people are not educated on the harms drinking alcohol excessively can lead to.
Many schools are known to be holding special lectures on alcohol abuse (and other social aspects) and this in itself is a good thing. But, even here, this is not enough if the children find a different environment when they go home.
Parents must be the first to teach their children on this subject, first of all by giving them the best example by not drinking excessively, and then by explaining that they are too young to be consuming alcohol.
In the past, that grandfather who dipped that dummy into wine and gave it to his grandchild to suck might have thought that he was doing the right thing. Today, we know otherwise.