alcohol age consent

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English Coursework

Write a debate speech, proposing/opposing the motion,

“This house believes that alcohol should not have an age of consent.”

Mr. Chairman, members of the proposition, members of the audience, this house disagrees with this motion. However, this house also believes that the current law is flawed and needs adjusting, possibly to something similar to several of our fellow European nations. I think that if the government gradually lowered the age of consent, our drink culture could be altered.

Despite wanting to change the law, completely removing the age of consent law immediately is simply dim-witted. Just think, members of the audience, what on earth would happen if there was no law? One of the immense consequences is that drink would be available to young teenagers, no questions asked. This is an obvious flaw because it will cause an immediate shoot up in young teenagers getting drunk. More drunk teenagers would then result in hospitals being filled with people on a Friday night; being rushed in to get there stomachs pumped and wasting doctors and nurses valuable time. Try to imagine how you would like it if you or a friend/relative was unable to be treated at hospital because a fourteen year old had over indulged on, the now freely available, alcohol. This is already a problem that has been pointed out by the Daily Mail, when last year they reported that last year alone “8,245 under-18s were admitted to hospital via accident and emergency for alcohol misuse”. It is also important to understand that the vast majority of these teenagers are drinking to get drunk, therefore if there was no age of consent, these teenagers would be able to get drunk as regularly as they wish. Completely getting rid of the age of consent law would inevitably result in an increase in the already unacceptable alcohol-related crime rates.

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        A further alternative would be to implement stricter policing. At the moment, police themselves are asking for stricter powers to fight under-age drinking. In an article in the Irish News earlier this year, the PSNI Superintendent was in the view that “officers need powers similar to the Violent Crime Reduction Act in England and Wales”. This would be an ideal substitute as it would give them the authority to issue fixed-penalty notices. This would be a far better solution to the current law were police officers can only “seize and dispose of alcohol taken from minors or from someone over ...

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