Professional Documents
Culture Documents
P4 M3 D2
Ben Roberts
P4 M3 D2
Ben Roberts
P4 M3 D2
help to reinforce the health angle but evidence shows that most HK
parents do little until there is a major problem caused by underage
drinking.
The Government does not keep statistics on the number of cases
where underage drinking caused illegal or dangerous acts. However,
the 2005 Child Health Survey commissioned by the Department of
Health found that 5% of children aged 11 to 14 had used alcohol
and 0.3% of them were current binge drinkers and a third of them
were under 11. One survey found 65% of secondary school students
admitted to trying alcohol and 25% had drunk recently. But they
didnt have any figures linking underage drinking to crime. This
shows that the government is very unlikely to take action on this.
The Action Plan also said other relevant promotional and community
activities might also help reduce sale of alcoholic beverages to
minors.
Perhaps the most shocking fact is that Hong Kong currently has no
restriction on the sale of alcohol by retail shops to people aged
under 18 but some organisations have adopted a voluntary code of
conduct to restrict the sale of alcohol to young people and members
of the Hong Kong Retail Management Association have agreed to
not sell alcohol to minors. Again the government seems to be scared
of hurting the business community taking away good profits from
small businesses. The seven eleven chain is seen as one of the
worst offenders for selling alcohol to underage drinkers. You could
argue that the police dont really clamp down on underage drinking
because the government are soft on it and the fact that shops like
seven eleven sell alcohol to minors makes policing underage
drinking virtually impossible. The Secretary for Food & Health stated
in 2013 that the government was not planning to change this at the
moment in a written answer to a question in LEGCO about the
problems of underage drinking. This lack of government action
would seem to suggest that the problem of underage drinking and
its knock on effects are unlikely to change in the near future as no
changes to the current laws are likely. It seems amazing that the
government is so strict on tobacco but not on alcohol when both are
bad for peoples health.
Resources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_in_Hong_Kong
https://www.tco.gov.hk/english/legislation/legislation_so.htm
l
http://hub.hku.hk/bitstream/10722/184392/1/FullText.pdf?accept=1
http://tobacco.cleartheair.org.hk/?p=2131
http://www.theshafin.com/ten-laws-that-are-broken-in-hong-kongevery-day
Ben Roberts
P4 M3 D2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uucgep3fJ50
http://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201311/20/P201311200384.htm
https://kwiksure.com/news/hong-kongs-underage-drinkers/