Daily Express launches 'protect our children' campaign to halt alcopop production

Smash the alcopops says the Express Campaign in order to protect our children. Alcopops salesmen admit teen targeting says The Sunday Times. Feelings are certainly running high as awareness of the abuses surrounding alcopops become daily chatter in all walks of life. Police officers are shocked at the extent of the problem of underage drinking. At weekends, some children are getting so drunk that they have to be literally picked up off the streets and rushed to hospital. A 14 year old girl who had collapsed was found urinating in the street when police arrived.

The BMA warns...

Children as young as 11 years old who are so drunk that they have to be kept in hospital overnight are now a common sight on paediatric wards.

Delegates to the British Medical Association annual meeting condemned alcopops and demanded that it be made illegal to market alcopops at children. They also called for the alcohol content to be reduced.

Dr Robin Davies, a paediatrician in Gwyneth, said that the "average"general hospital at which he worked now saw "one or two children a week absolutely comatose", to the point where they needed to be put on a drip overnight to rehydrate them. "This is only the tip of the iceberg. This is a very, very widespread problem in every paediatric unit in the country," he said. "In a 30-bed unit you will get a child in every weekend who is absolutely blotto."

"When you get the blood alcohol level results back it's enough to make your hair stand on end," Dr Davies told the meeting in Edinburgh. "What I am objecting to is the deliberate targeting of children by the drinks companies. There is no doubt that they are trying to target children".

"Alcopops are sweet; they are flavoured with lemonade, cherry and milk, all childish tastes. No one would seriously target adults with tastes like these," he said. He added that doctors were worried about the long-term effects of alcohol on children and about how alcoholic binges affected young bodies, because there had been little research.

There were also concerns that children apparently did not suffer hangovers. Hangovers, Dr Davies said, were a very effective way of deterring adults from drinking too much too often.

Dr Tim Webb, a GP from Clwyd, attacked the cynical attitude of the drinks industry. "The tobacco and alcohol barons have worked out that if you get them young and get them addicted you've got them for years to come."

Dr Sandy Macara, chairman of the BMA, told the meeting that the association was involved with the government investigation of alcopops and the way they were sold. "The breathtaking hypocrisy of the industry in pretending that they are not targeting our young people is absolutely incredible."

Alcohol Alert is grateful to the Daily Express and Channel Four Television for the use of the pictures illustrating the alcopop problem.