Spain moves on youth binge drinking

The Spanish government intends to prevent the drinking of alcohol in the street and ban the sale of alcoholic drinks to the under 18s. Over recent years a fashion, known in Spanish as el bottelón, has developed among teenagers which consists of spending Friday and Saturday nights drinking in the streets and plazas. The government's hope is to reduce alcohol misuse among Spanish young people and to stamp out el botellón..

Government minister Mariano Rajoy recently announced the package of measures at the opening of a three day congress on young people, night, and alcohol, held in Madrid and sponsored by the National Plan on Drugs. Senor Rajoy said that the new law was intended to tackle el botellón because the phenomenon had led to a huge increase in the number of complaints from residents' associations about the consequent noise and disorder.

To enjoy el botellón all one needs is a bottle of rum, gin, or whisky, a litre or litre and a half bottle of a soft drink such as Coca Cola, ice cubes, and glasses. The overall price of one botellón, therefore, is about nine euros (£5.50 or $7.90) – considerably lower than the total of the equivalent number of individual drinks at bars, pubs, or discos.

Alcoholic drinks in Spain are cheaper than in many other European Union countries and the climate allows people to enjoy the open air for a large part of the year. Both these factors have encouraged the popularity of street drinking among the young.

Senor Rajoy pointed out that "the chief cause of mortality among Spanish young people is road traffic accidents related to alcohol consumption," and went on to say that, in addition to making it illegal to consume alcohol in the street, his proposed law would prevent its being sold to anyone under the age of eighteen.

A further impetus towards legislation was the worrying data provided by the of survey 14-18 year old school students carried out in 2000 by the National Plan on Drugs. The survey showed that 58 per cent of these young people regularly consumed alcohol (43 per cent at weekends and 15 per cent on a daily basis).

The survey indicated that mean age at onset of consumption was 13.6 years, and that midnight represented the "turning point" at which there was a sharp increase in alcohol consumption and drunkenness among teenagers.

The general director of public health at the health ministry, Dolores Flores, said that the number of young people drinking "compulsively" until the stage of intoxication was increasing.

The survey further showed that young people did not appear to recognise alcohol consumption as dangerous. Whilst 70 per cent understood the risk from using heroin, cocaine, and cannabis, only 42 per cent thought that alcohol might lead to serious problems.

Senor Rajoy said that the government wanted to re-educate, as opposed to punish, those young people who congregated in el botellón. The intention was to take such young people to visit centres housing people suffering from paraplegia or tetraplegia as a result of alcohol misuse. The government also wants to show them the work of non-governmental organisations for the rehabilitation of alcoholics, and to impose a form of community service to repair some of the damage created in the streets of Spanish towns by the weekend binge drinking.

Gonzalo Robles, head of the National Plan on Drugs, said, at the close of the congress, that the government also intended to introduce compulsory health education about alcohol into secondary education for 12-16 year olds. He also said that money seized from drug trafficking would be used to pay for education programmes against alcohol and drug consumption, including the intended changes in the school curriculum.

Images of El Botellón from a Spanish website