A Scottish center where alcoholics go to dry out says its patient list has almost forty kids under sixteen. The youngest boozers are nine years old.

Nine? Nein way! Does the fact that I have Amy Winehouse in my head at this moment in time mean that I’m not treating this story with proper reverance?

Let me start over.

The center in Aberdeen has told the Scottish Sun that this year alone there have been six kids under ten admitted to help them fight their alcoholic tendencies – and they think the drinking epidemic among the youth is only going to get worse.

Bear in mind this is in Europe, where they are decidedly less stodgy about alcohol than we are in the states, and children are traditionally raised with alcohol – even given drinks by their parents. The legal drinking age in Scotland is actually 18 – at least for people to buy their own drinks – but it’s a number that officials have been trying to hike in recent years.

But I’d have to wager there’s a rather large difference between the relative laxness toward alcohol in Europe and a community that is turning out inebriated elementary schoolers.

How, exactly does one end up an alcoholic at age nine? The folks at Alcohol Support, the center that’s treating all these kids, are blaming the parents. But not for the obvious: providing the kids with the booze or even for not keeping a close eye on them. Oh ho, the problem, the say, is parents are staying home to drink instead of getting snockered in the pub.

Andrew Hall, the chief exec. at the center, told the Sun “when children see drunkenness, the whole attitude of that child changes dramatically.”

So, a child sees a drunk and she’s going to start drinking? To the point where she’s washed up at age nine? NINE?

There were no qualifications put on Hall’s statements – no distinction between a child seeing one person drunk one time and watching a parent get pickled every night of the week. The latter would surely create a problem – not least because a parent who is drunk on a daily basis does not have the wherewithal to ensure their child is out of harm’s way and out of the liquor cabinet.

But I’m having a hard time seeing how simply drinking at home, regular, one glass of wine with dinner or a few beers in front of the game on Friday night, is creating a new generation of drunk children . . . especially if it’s being compared to parents going out, getting drunk and then coming home. Is it really better to drink away from home and your children to see you crawl into the house?

Does this whole story sound like they’re missing a key part of the equation to you?

Image: Jackie Boy Brewing

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