Teen-age Drunkenness Worries Swedes

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31081, 9 June 1966, Page 6

Teen-age Drunkenness Worries Swedes

(N.I P A.-Keuttr) STOCKHOLM Teen-age drunkenness is increasing so rapidly in Sweden that the authorities are becoming alarmed about it.

Especially concerned are the education authorities. who are receiving more and more reports of school dances being cancelled because of the mis-use of alcohol.

“The children do not merely get merry they drink themselves into a state of unconsciousness,” a spokesman for the School Board said. He added that school visits abroad have also become a serious problem, as the children often bring disgrace on the school.

The authorities investigating the problem have discovered one disturbing factor: introduction to alcohol now takes place at a much earlier age than previously: From 1937 to 1939, for example. some 14 per cent of 17-year-old boys had tasted spirits. Fifteen years later the figure was 43 per cent. The figures for girls of the same age during the same period, jumped from six per cent to 30 per cent. A recent investigation at Kalmar, south Sweden, showed that 50 per cent of 13-year-olds, nearly 70 per cent of 15-year-olds and 90 per cent of 19-year-olds, both boys and girls, had drunk spirits more than once. Legislation Flouted

Although legislation for, bids restaurants to serve liquor to persons under 18 years of age, the investiga-

tion disclosed that 40 per cent of the pupils under the age at one school had in fact been served with spirits at restaurants. One measurement although incomplete, of the problem is that the 15-17-year age group is responsible for the largest percentage increase in crimes committed in connexion with drunkenness. The increase, covering all ages between 15 and 20 years was 110 per cent between 1954 and 1964. The medical authorities, too, are concerned about this rise in teen-age drunkenness. “Alcohol consumed before the age of 20 has a serious effect on a nerve system which is still not fully developed,” says Dr. Gunnar Lundquist, of the Caroline Institute’s Alcohol Clinic in Stockholm.

Extremely Dangerous “Any form of regular drinking among teenagers is extremely dangerous. The tragedy is that the teenager does not realise this—and as often as not, neither do his parents.” The police, long aware of the connexion between drink and crime, say that about 80 per cent of all violent offences are committed by drunks. One police investigation showed that at least half of all teen-agers in youth prisons have previous convictions for drunkenness. Drunkenness is also increasing among women. In

1945, there was only one alcoholic woman to every 50 men. Today, there is one for every ten men.