Bätzing wants undercover teens to bust alcohol violators
DPA/The Local - [email protected]
Published: 23 Sep, 2008 CET.
Updated: Tue 23 Sep 2008 11:32 CET
German Drug Commissioner Sabine Bätzing wants to use underage undercover shoppers to expose stores that are selling alcohol to minors, daily Stuttgarter Zeitung reported on Tuesday.
“In my opinion this would be an appropriate instrument to find out which stores are following the law,” she told the paper, adding that other European countries like Switzerland and Sweden have had positive results from similar programmes. The test shoppers would try their luck at gas station, kiosks and supermarkets.
“We have no shortage of laws,” she said, “just a shortage of enforcement of the law,” she said.
Last year Family Minister Ursula von der Leyen had to back down from a similar plan to employ teens starting at age 14 for a similar alcohol law enforcement program. But Bätzing's program would use 16 to 17-year-old students accompanied by adults who stayed in the background, she said.
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“In my opinion this would be an appropriate instrument to find out which stores are following the law,” she told the paper, adding that other European countries like Switzerland and Sweden have had positive results from similar programmes. The test shoppers would try their luck at gas station, kiosks and supermarkets.
“We have no shortage of laws,” she said, “just a shortage of enforcement of the law,” she said.
Last year Family Minister Ursula von der Leyen had to back down from a similar plan to employ teens starting at age 14 for a similar alcohol law enforcement program. But Bätzing's program would use 16 to 17-year-old students accompanied by adults who stayed in the background, she said.
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