Off Their Faces: Underage drinking

58% of school students between the ages of 14 and 18 regularly consume alcohol. The average age of the onset of alcohol consumption is 13.6 years. The Spanish government intends to re-educate in order to stop alcohol misuse.

You might have read recent reports regarding the drinking of alcohol by Spanish youth. So you don't need me to remind you of the figures. Perhaps not, but the above comes not from the recent survey of youth drinking, but from one conducted in 2000 and written up in 2002, one that was compiled in the context of growing concern as to the more widespread phenomenon of the botellón and of so-called binge drinking among Spanish youth. Just for the record, the new survey has found that habitual alcohol consumption between the ages of 12 and 18 is practised by 61% of the sample.

Allowing for a difference in the age ranges of the 2000 and latest surveys, the inference is that alcohol use among Spanish youth hasn't risen significantly over the decade. Nevertheless, the latest survey has stirred up alarm, not least because it has found that it is so easy for under-18s to buy alcohol without showing any ID.

Incredible. Where have they been? Want to know how easy it is to be an underage drinker in Spain? Take a look at a few internet forums from the UK and you'll find out. As one commentator put it, unless you're in a pram, sucking on a dummy you won't have any problem getting served in a bar or liquor store in Spain. In Valencia, just as an example, one survey discovered that there was virtually no request for ID for those of 15 or older.

Ah yes, you say, but this business of the average age of the onset of consumption, that's the age at which children start drinking the odd glass of wine as part of the "responsible" attitude to alcohol in Spain. Sorry, but it isn't. This is the age that youth start getting steamed up under their own steam as well as being "guided" by their parents. It is an unsettling fact for those who have the wholly misguided impression of alcohol and youth in a country which, because it isn't the UK, is held up as some kind of panacea of responsibility. It is an unsettling fact, given that the Fundación Alcohol y Sociedad, which conducted the latest survey, has highlighted the "structural problem" of society as a consequence of alcohol as well as the levels of violence associated with drinking.

The UK alcohol charity Drinkaware revealed last year that the average age at which young people take their first alcoholic drink was ... 13.4 years of age. Virtually no difference. It also discovered that 71% of 16 and 17 year olds drink more than once a week. Again allowing for a difference in age range and a not unreasonable assumption that older teenagers will be more inclined to drink regularly, then the Spanish and UK figures are similar.

If all that the Spanish surveys did was to point to the responsible odd glass of wine, then it might be legitimate to distinguish between a responsible drinking culture (Spain's) and an irresponsible one (the UK's). But they don't do this. Both surveys point to the influence of the botellón street drinking party, while the latest highlights the almost complete failure of drinking-age law.

The survey of 2000 shows that the problem of youth drinking is not something of recent origin. And nor is the botellón, despite press treatment which might suggest otherwise. Back in 2002 the government was planning to prevent the drinking of alcohol in the streets and to ban the sale of alcohol to under-18s. Who was saying this then? Mariano Rajoy, now the national leader of the Partido Popular. His ominous-sounding, Khmer Rouge-style re-education programme, assuming it was ever launched, has been another failure alongside those to do with the sale of alcohol and street drinking.

The botellón phenomenon gathered strength in the 1990s. Yet it has been taken, without the slightest shred of evidence, as having been inspired by the drinking cultures of north European youth, especially the British. The conclusion that some would draw is that poor Spanish youth, previously all but teetotal, have been corrupted by an exported binge-drinking mentality. This is utter nonsense. One might add that British binge-drinking is, as far as the media is concerned, a more recent phenomenon than the botellón. Maybe, but it all depends on your definition.

The point is that youth culture is youth culture, of which drink is a part. It might once not have been so in Spain, but it now is, and the influences are the same - the lack of alternative forms of "entertainment", peer pressure, drink is "cool" and so is getting off your face.

In the summer, in the light of excessive drinking, fears were being expressed as to the future of fiestas (in Mallorca) as they were being treated as excuses for the young to get drunk. These were fears being expressed in different towns and also by a local expert in popular culture Felip Munar. What was once a traditional alcohol responsibility has been eroded to the point of threatening traditions, but the threat stems from a societal shift. And it is one that negates the wrongheaded, rosy perception of attitudes to drink among Spanish youth.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.