Letter: Opening hours

GOVERNMENTS have been wrestling for years with Scotland's drink and drugs problems. One fashionable approach is to limit the times for the sale of alcohol in supermarkets and to increase the price.

The real problem is caused by the decision made years ago to allow licensed premises to open for longer, the idea being that this would end our habit of binge-drinking before closing time.

The policy has obviously not worked. Unlike the French, Spanish and Italians, too many Scots do not drink moderately and sociably. They drink to get drunk and the longer hours have made us more likely to drink to excess, and have exposed more young people to the temptations of drugs.

We should return to the old restrictions on opening hours and to encouraging clubs to provide entertainment, especially for teenagers and young adults, without access to alcohol, just as I experienced when I was growing up in Dundee in the 1940s and Fifties.

GEORGE K McMILLAN

Mount Tabor Avenue

Perth