No ID, no problem for most 18-year-olds buying liquor

By REBECCA WALSH

An increasing number of liquor outlets in Auckland are selling alcohol to young people without asking for identification, a Massey University study has found.

The "pseudo-patron" project found about one in two 18-year-olds were not asked for ID when they bought alcohol, and in some parts of the region the figure was as high as two in three.

Overall, the number of sales without ID rose from 46 per cent last year to 56 per cent this year.

The results have prompted calls by Alcohol Healthwatch and Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton for compulsory ID checks when buying alcohol and a return to a minimum drinking age of 20.

The project, conducted by the Centre for Social and Health Outcomes Research and Evaluation (Shore) at Massey University for the third year, saw 18-year-olds going into about 250 bottlestores, supermarkets and grocery stores in the Auckland region to buy alcohol.

In supermarkets 21 per cent of sales were made without ID, compared with 71 per cent of grocery outlets and 61 per cent of bottlestores.

Auckland City and Rodney District had the highest number of sales without ID at 65 per cent and 69 per cent, respectively.

Alcohol Healthwatch director Rebecca Williams said the results indicated young people were not protected by the present law and "the obvious and urgent" solution would be to return the purchase age to 20. A more immediate strategy would be to make checking ID a legal requirement, she said.

Mr Anderton, who supported mandatory ID checks and a private member's bill put forward for ballot by MP Matt Robson to return the drinking age to 20, said there had been promises when the drinking age was lowered to 18 in 1999 that ID would be monitored and the law rigorously enforced.

"All those assurances were not valid."

Auckland police Inspector Brent Holmes acknowledged the figures indicated "we have a bit of a problem". He attributed Auckland's high figure to the dense concentration of licensed premises in the city.

Mr Holmes said an appointment was being made at senior sergeant level to manage liquor licensing and "increased activity" targeting liquor outlets could be expected.

Rodney District Council licensing inspector Shona Markovina said some licensees were more interested in making the sale than asking for ID.

Booze run

Success rate of 18-year-olds buying alcohol without ID in 2004.

By store type: supermarkets 21 per cent, bottlestores 61 per cent, grocery outlets 71 per cent.

By city or district: Auckland 65 per cent, Manukau 54 per cent, North Shore 37 per cent, Waitakere 39 per cent, Rodney 69 per cent, Franklin 48 per cent, Papakura 44 per cent.