Increase the price of alcohol to protect children and youth, a new report recommends.
The results of the latest annual secondary schools survey indicate the extent of substance use among Barbadian students. The report also issues policy recommendations to protect children and youth in Barbados from the harms related to substance use:
- Increase the price of alcohol.
- Establish a minimum legal age for the purchase and consumption of alcohol.
Both recommendations, directed at Government decision-makers, are aimed at restricting the affordability and the availability of alcohol and thus making it difficult for youth to get hold of alcoholic beverages.
The 2013 Barbados Secondary School Survey had found that alcohol is the main substance consumed by children of school age.
The findings of the survey were released this week by the Research Department of the National Council on Substance Abuse (NCSA). The survey was a collaborative effort that also involved the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD).
The report, based on the survey’s findings, also recommended interventions that focus on the social environment in which adolescents live, specifically “interventions that focus on parental modeling to prevent adolescents’ drug use and the promotion of positive student-teacher relationships.”
