What The UK Gets Right

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, known as the UK or simply Britain for short, has really come a long way in the past two decades in terms of reducing teen drinking and smoking.  And most notably, they did it without raising the drinking and smoking ages any higher than 18.

According to a recent report, the UK has seen some of the most progress in terms of reducing teen drinking from 2002 to 2014.  They saw their rate of weekly teen drinking among boys decline from 50.3% to 10% by 2014, a relative drop of over 80% and one of the largest declines of any nation.  And British teen girls also saw a drop almost as large as well.  As for tobacco use, teen smoking has also plummeted to a record low, and there really doesn't seem to be a vaping epidemic over there either.

Of course, plenty of other countries (even down under!) have also seen such dramatic declines in teen drinking as well, but the UK seems to be leading the way, which is remarkable since they have historically been one of the very worst binge drinking cultures for all ages, including young people.  Their drinking age of 18 (albeit with some exceptions to this day) was historically very poorly enforced, but from 2004 onward has been much more vigorously enforced against vendors who sell to people under 18.  Unlike in the USA, vendors are the primary target as opposed to the young drinkers themselves. And while it is generally illegal for people under 18 to drink in public (though not in private) and one can technically be fined or even arrested for it, the alcohol is typically just confiscated and a warning given for a first offense.  Additionally, the taxes on alcoholic beverages have been hiked significantly as well, and that is true for tobacco as well, so those had to have been part of such positive trends as well.

Whatever they are doing, it seems to be working despite their legendary "drink to get drunk" culture.  It would be best if they would cut back a bit on those ghastly Challenge 25 signs in supermarkets, which, as author Wayland Ellis notes, if anything, are more likely to create forbidden fruit by drawing undue attention to alcohol.  But otherwise things seem to be much better than the USA in terms of liberty at least.  That is a clear success story.

One caveat, at least with alcohol, is that enforcement targeting vendors needs to be uniform.  At first in 2004 they focused mainly on pubs and bars rather than supermarkets or other "off-licences" as they are called over there, which merely shifted teen drinking into less-controlled and more hazardous venues (sound familiar, Yanks?).  But starting around 2005 the authorities seemed to have gotten wise to that and gradually adjusted their strategy accordingly, enforcing it vigorously across the board now.

As for other substances, while those had been declining among youth for a while, they seem to have jumped again from 2014 to 2016 for whatever reason.  It is very telling that the UK has made the greatest progress in reducing alcohol and tobacco compared with other substances, and thus it would make sense if they applied the same policies to cannabis as well if and when they finally legalize it.  (At least the moral panic around cannabis from a decade ago seems to have worn off for the most part in recent years there.)

We can certainly learn a lot from our mother country across the proverbial pond.

UPDATE:  Please note that the above was written long before the UK went into perpetual lockdown to one degree or another.  Twenty-One Debunked does NOT approve of lockdowns of any shape or form.