Alcohol ‘a problem among teens’

A GOVERNMENT SENATOR has raised a red flag over the high incidence of alcohol consumption by teenagers in Barbados.

Dr Esther Byer told the Upper Chamber yesterday that pictures on social media of 15- and 16-year-olds posing with fancy alcoholic drinks suggested to youth that drinking alcohol was “the cool thing to do”. But she warned if the practice continued, Barbados would be looking at a “dire situation” down the road.

“There is no caution that alcohol can be dangerous to your health, no graphic ads to show the effect of alcohol on the liver and we need to up the game on the use of the substance,” Byer said, as the Senate debated an amendment to the Health Services Act.

Please read the full story in today’s Daily Nation, or in the eNATION edition.