Binge culture blamed for Shropshire's under-18 boozers

That's the warning from community chiefs today after the Shropshire Star reveals that six children a week, some as young as 11, are being admitted to Shropshire's two hospitals for alcohol and drug abuse.

Zack Dad, who runs Reloaded events for under-18s at Shrewsbury's Buttermarket, today said young people often turned up under the influence of alcohol.

He said: "We do get people who turn up drunk but they can't come in and we call their parents straight away.

"I think there is a culture of drinking and drug taking and these children see television programmes like Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents and think if older people are doing it then it is okay to drink underage.

"We work with the police to make sure that no one in the town is drinking and we also put medics on site at all our events if anything happens."

Figures show that 329 people under the age of 18 were treated at Telford's Princess Royal and Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in just 12 months in drug or alcohol-related incidents.

And 85 of these youngsters were kept in hospital for more than 24 hours.

The figures relate to the time period between April 1 last year and March 31 this year.

Mr Dad, 20, added: "These figures are really high and I am quite shocked by them. The thing is more needs to be done but it is difficult to say how exactly it can be done in today's culture. We will continue to work hard with the police to tackle this."

Parents have previously been warned by the Government that they were partly responsible for the underage drinking epidemic. A Home Office survey revealed that half of all under-18 drinkers were given the alcohol by their mother or father.

Parents could even be putting their sons and daughters on the path to crime or drug-taking. According to the study, frequency of children's drinking is "strongly associated" with breaking the law.

And that's not to mention the health risks – underage drinking and drug taking can cause alcohol poisoning and affect growth and brain development.

Gill Stewart, director of Healthwatch Telford and Wrekin, said funding cuts had impacted services for this in the county. She added: "We are keen to hear from young people and their parents/carers to find out what their experience of services locally is."

Russell Griffin, spokesman for Telford & Wrekin Council, spoke of the measures in place to tackle the issue.

He said: "This year we ran a Year Six partnership event over 13 days called Crucial Crew which was attended by 2016 young people with the emphasis on keeping safe. It included an alcohol awareness session facilitated by the council's Public Protection team.

"We also have project called Star, which stands for Stop Think Act Reflect.

"This advises how to resist peer pressure, empowers young people to say no and also to ask for help if they are in danger. It includes sessions on drugs and alcohol.

"It is organised by West Mercia Police's Youth Engagement Team and Crucial Crew is organised by Telford & Wrekin Council's Cohesion and Public Protection teams."

He added: "We also run a roadshow for Year Nine pupils called Look Out Life. This focuses on risk-taking behaviours and includes a drugs awareness session and also a focus on legal highs in partnership with the Telford Aftercare Team and Charlotte Delo, the sister of Jamie Penn who died after taking a £2 legal high.

"The next academic year will see an alcohol awareness course rolled out to Year Eight pupils thanks to funding from public health."

The warning comes after a survey found teenagers in Britain were more likely to have taken illegal drugs than youngsters anywhere else in Europe. Nearly 40 per cent of teenagers in the UK said they had tried substances including cannabis and ecstasy, according to the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs.