In Germany, alcohol such as beer, wine and sparkling wine can be sold to young people aged 16 and over. However, they are allowed to drink earlier – provided their legal guardians supervise them. This so-called “accompanied drinking” has long been criticized. Bavaria’s Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) wants to put an end to this. He told Bayrischer Rundfunk (BR): “The accompanying drinking is superfluous and we have to abolish it.” Holetschek emphasized the great damage alcohol can do, especially to young people.
The Bavarian Minister of Health has already agreed with the federal government’s drug commissioner, Burkhard Blienert. He was of the same opinion, Holetschek continued. He announced that he wanted to introduce a change in the law: “We will push it if the federal government doesn’t say of its own accord that we’ll take the initiative.”
With Blienert, Holetschek probably has an ally in the federal government for his project. Blienert already criticized the “accompanied drinking” in an interview with the stern sharp last year: “For me, the ‘accompanied drinking’ is not a preventive measure and does not help to get into a reasonable conversation with children and young people about alcohol.”
The federal government’s drug commissioner even went a step further and spoke out in favor of no longer selling alcohol to minors: “For medical reasons, it makes sense to also talk about age limits,” says Blienert.
Opposition to a stricter law comes from the gastro scene. So far, one has not even seen a problem, explained Thomas Geppert from the Bavarian Hotel and Restaurant Association (DEHOGA Bayern) to the BR. He even sees “accompanied drinking” as an opportunity for parents to teach their children how to use alcohol responsibly. “I always think it’s better when a 15-year-old drinks a beer in a tavern than uncontrolled high-proof in some cellar.”
According to current figures from the Federal Center for Health Education from 2021, 88 percent of 16 and 17-year-olds have already tried alcohol, according to Holetschek’s statement. Almost a fifth of 16 and 17-year-olds consume alcohol regularly – i.e. weekly. Almost a quarter of adolescents in this age group had practiced binge drinking within the past 30 days.
For Blienert, these figures can also be explained with the low-threshold offers for alcohol – it is available practically day and night and everywhere at low prices: “We need restrictions because we currently have such a wide range of alcohol offers, so low-threshold that it catapults us into the top group in Europe when it comes to alcohol consumption. That’s something where we have to say, we need a different approach.”
Source: Bayrischer Rundfunk, with material from DPA
