we found kids as young as 14 who were knocking back adult-sized quantities of booze - and boasting of doing it every week

08:59 nation's underage drinkers 0 Comments

Are our youngsters really spending their pocket money on super-strength cider and hard spirits? The government certainly thinks so.Home Secretary Jacqui Smith plans to crack down on the nation's underage drinkers. Police will get the power to seize alcohol from under-18s, and Smith is also considering bringing in fines and parental contracts.But is this an over-reaction? Are things really that bad? To find out, Mirror investigators talked to youngsters in nine typical towns across the UK at 9pm on Friday night.We met them on the streets, in parks, playgrounds and even outside an under-18s alcohol-free disco - and quizzed them about their drinking habits.Horrified, we found kids as young as 14 who were knocking back adult-sized quantities of booze - and boasting of doing it every week.Many admitted to us that they'd ended up brawling and having under-age sex after getting tanked up on cheap supermarket booze.Frank Soodeen of the charity Alcohol Concern says: "Your investigation shows that more children than ever are getting access to alcohol and many of them are turning into hardened drinkers at a very young age."There's a clear link between early alcohol use and hard drug use, crime, poor performance in school and unwanted teen pregnancies... It's a bit much for adults to say how terrible underage drinking is when we haven't