Published: Wednesday, 30th January, 2008 04:00
Ban Buckfast call
By Caitlin Smith
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A LOCAL drink and drug counsellor has called for Borders’ shops to stop selling Buckfast.
Michelle Ballantyne, head of The Reiver Project, believes the tonic wine is “dangerous”.
Speaking to the Border Telegraph, she said it should be outlawed because the only purpose it serves is to get teenagers drunk.
“Monks are brewing this stuff, but we speak to a lot of people in their early teens about their drinking habits and they are primarily the ones who use it.
“The alcohol content is incredibly high, so kids get a big drunk hit quickly and cheaply.
“That’s seems to be its sole purpose because it certainly doesn’t taste very nice,” she added.
Ms Ballantyne called on retailers across the Borders to act responsibly and ban Buckfast from their shelves.
Zahid Aziz owns two convenience stores in Selkirk and decided to stop stocking the drink around three years ago.
He said: “An old woman came into my shop and told me that she had been having problems with people who lived above her who were always drinking Buckfast they had bought from one of my stores. They would drink two bottles of the stuff and get really aggressive and fight all night.
“It was then that I decided to stop selling it. But since then, I’ve had lots of requests for it, always from young people.
Mr Aziz added: “I like to think I’m part of the community and I want to do my bit to stop anti-social behaviour. There are only four shops in Selkirk that sell alcohol, so I think this town would make a brilliant project area for banning Buckfast because we could all join together.”
While a large number of outlets across the region do sell it, spokespeople for both ASDA and Tesco in Galashiels said they had chosen not to stock it.
Buckfast has a 15 per cent volume and is red-wine based with a high caffeine and sugar content content.
Commonly known as Buckfast, Buckie or Bucky, it is produced by the Benedictine monks at Buckfast Abbey in Devon and sells at just under £6 a bottle. The monks and their distribution partners, J.Chandler & Co., strenuously deny that their product is particularly harmful.
They maintain it is responsibly and legally enjoyed by the great majority of purchasers.
Former Procurator Fiscal for the Borders, Graham Fraser, told the Border Telegraph that action needed to be taken to reduce the number of children who drank to excess.
“I am scared by the number of young people - increasingly young women - who are destroying their health by drinking enormous amounts of cheap unpleasant liquor,” he said.
This Reiver Project confirmed they have experienced a 60 per cent increase in referrals over six years.
Superintendent David Gardner of the Borders police said: “The number of young persons drinking alcohol is a recognised problem.
“In this arena though these agencies cannot solve the problem in isolation and require the assistance of parents and the retail section to limit access to alcohol by this vulnerable group.”
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