Efterskolerne urges 18-year alcohol sales limit

The Efterskolerne association has urged Health Minister Ida Auken to raise Denmark’s legal age for buying alcohol to 18, DR reports. The proposal has not won strong support among pupils.

People aged 16 and over can currently buy drinks containing up to six per cent alcohol in supermarkets. Efterskolerne wants the age limit for buying all alcoholic drinks raised to 18.

Jacob Kramer, headmaster of Vejstrup Efterskole in southern Funen, supports the proposal.

“When the Danish Health Authority has recommendations that are quite precise, I think it is good to have a law that supports them,” he said. “I think that would make it easier to be young, easier to be a parent and easier to be a school.”

In its open letter, Efterskolerne says society is sending young people conflicting messages by advising them not to drink alcohol before they turn 18 while allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to legally buy certain alcoholic products.

Gap between recommendations and law

The Danish Health Authority recommends that children and young people under 18 do not drink alcohol.

However, almost seven in 10 pupils in ninth grade had drunk alcohol within the previous month, according to the European Substance Use Survey published last year. The result put Denmark at the top of the European list.

Venstre health spokesperson Christoffer Aagaard does not support raising the age limit.

“There are many things the Danish Health Authority recommends that we do not ban, because there may be other disadvantages to a ban,” he said.

Aagaard pointed out that the alcohol-content limit for drinks that people aged between 15 and 18 can buy had recently been reduced to six per cent.

“If changes are made too quickly, there is a risk that the party will move to places where it cannot be controlled, or that young people will buy something else instead, with a higher alcohol content,” he said.

Torben Vind Rasmussen, chair of Efterskolerne and the sender of the open letter, said there was a mismatch between the health authority’s recommendations and the law.

“At the schools, we meet young people who say they follow the law and not the recommendations,” he said.

When pupils are at the schools, they are not allowed to drink alcohol. At home during weekends, however, those aged over 16 can legally buy drinks containing less than six per cent alcohol.

It was not possible to obtain a comment from Health Minister Ida Auken.