Since getting money for drugs causes most youth crime and drink is involved in most violent crime, the predicament is clear. The abuse of these substances is directly linked to what most citizens regard as the prevailing urban evil, petty crime and antisocial behaviour. Drunkenness may have been worse in the 18th century, when one in three West-End premises were gin shops. But we expect better today. We also expect a more intelligent response.
Blame goes first to the parents, and then leaps to government.
This is ludicrous. Parenting is now portrayed in the media as scarcely more responsible than child molesting or drug trafficking, but these are not the parents of my acquaintance. Faced with an ever earlier age of puberty and the uselessness of the drink and drugs laws, they struggle against the odds. Usually in their forties and with emotional troubles of their own, few parents have the authority or the skill to handle awkward children properly. For untrained grown-ups to talk to their children about drink and drugs is as difficult as talking to them about sex.