I do think that too much has been made by politicians and the media in
Britain of the connection between alcopops and underage drinking.  
 
Certainly, lots of children do drink alcopops, but would they really not be
consuming alcoholic drinks if alcopops had not been invented?
 
A survey of 15- to 17-year-old drinkers in Scotland, carried out last year
by the Scottish Council on Alcohol, a charity concerned with alcohol
problems, found that, although most of them had tried alcopops, these were
not their favourite drinks. They preferred spirits (because these were
strongest), followed by cider (the best value for money) and lager (which 
they regarded as "adult"). As the researchers in this survey pointed out, 
it was hardly possible to explain £250 million (about $400 million) worth
of sales of alcopops per year by their popularity among teenagers, as this
would have meant that they were receiving an enormous amount of pocket
money from their parents. This survey was ignored by the British media,
because, according to Douglas Allsopp, the director of the Council, "they 
just didn't want the facts to get in the way of a good story."
 
The original alcopop, Two Dogs, was invented in 1993 by the owner of a
brewpub in Australia because he lived next door to a farmer who had a
surfeit of lemons. He fermented the lemons to produce an "alcoholic
lemonade", which he put on sale in his pub. Sales took off from there. The
British brewery Bass, seeing the success of Two Dogs, made an ersatz
version from a fermented sugar base and lemon juice, which it called
Hooper's Hooch. This sold fantastically well in Britain in the hot summer 
of 1995, as an essential ingredient for parties, barbecues, etc.
 
Thus, alcopops were never in the beginning intended to appeal to children.
But children latched on to them, because they were so sweet and fruity and
easy to drink. And there have undoubtedly been some in the drinks industry
who have seen an opportunity in the children's market.  
 
Taxes on alcopops were raised last autumn, in an effort to price them
beyond the means of children. Beyond this, it is hard to see what could be
done. It seems unreasonable to prevent adults, who constitute the majority
of drinkers of alcopops, from buying them. And, if children cannot get hold
of alcopops, they will just as likely drink something else.  
 
In France, where sales of alcopops are insignificant, they have a
controversy involving what they call "les premix" - mostly mixtures of
whiskey and cola, which are supposed to attract underage drinkers in much 
the same way as alcopops in Britain.
 
What bothers me about the whole alcopops issue - and makes it relevant in a
wider context - is that it seems to serve as a typical example of an
unconsidered, knee-jerk reaction to alcohol problems, focussing on a
symptom of the problems and taking it to be their cause. Ban alcopops,
people say, as though that would banish in a stroke all the problems
associated with underage drinking. I think we have been here before ....  
 
Andrew Barr
 
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