Laissez-Faire France Really Easy On Selling Booze To Minors – It’s On Tap

Alcohol sales to French minors flow liberally. About 86% of supermarkets and 97% of bars, cafes and fast food restaurants in France are snubbing the laws and selling booze to youth. Is this laissez-faire France at its worst? A hangover from the give-the-kids-a-drink days in the 1950s. Or sheer laziness and lack of enforcement on ID checks.

Alcohol sales to French minors come on tap! It’s with some astonishment I learn this today … Most French bars, cafes, restaurants and supermarkets flout the laws on selling alcohol to minors. Particularly, having reported last month my shock at not being able to buy alcohol in my local supermarket on a Sunday afternoon. The reason being that supermarkets like Monoprix don’t always have the check-out staff to control sales of alcohol to minors. So instead, they wall up the cellar section on a Sunday afternoon, depriving not just youth but legal adults of booze! It appears they are part of a moral, law-abiding minority.

Alcohol Sales To French Minors Widespread

Alcohol sales to French youth are “almost universal”, according to the association Addictions France. Most cafés, bars, fast food outlets and supermarkets are culprits. Nine out of ten are breaking the law on sales of alcohol to kids under 18, it says in the report “Free Access to Alcohol for Teens”. The findings follow test purchases conducted in the northwestern cities of Nantes, Angers and Rennes.

The association is pressuring the government to introduce “truly dissuasive sanctions” and tougher controls. Only 70 violations are registered each year, despite maximum penalties of €7,500. As Franck Lecas, the public policy chief at Addictions France, admits, “It’s a very poor deterrent.”

Even more so, given that none of those cases have been brought to justice.

No Checks, Enforcement or Penalties

But it’s much like so many laws in France that go unenforced … From dog shit fines to rules for pedestrian crossings and noisy neighbours. And they are the things that irk me.

Now, it’s well known – and admired by some – that France is seen to promote a healthy relationship with alcohol and youth. How? By allowing children to take the occasional sip of wine from a young age. Two, perhaps not, though it can’t be ruled out. Like its Mediterranean counterparts, particularly Spain and Italy, the French take a typically laissez-faire attitude to children enjoying the country’s top wine.

A Tipple At School Never Harmed Anyone!

Until the 1950s, French children enjoyed wine over lunch at the school canteen. They could wallow in the half-litre ration a day, believed to help stave off bacteria and illness. Parents would pack their children off to school with the daily tipple – wine, beer or cider – depending on the local culture.

Headlines when this practice became outlawed made it sound like child abuse! And as Le Parisien noted in 2016, “the Ministry of National Education fought hard with some parents to make them admit that to learn, it’s better not to drink.

Some say the booze normalized French child phenomenon has helped keep youth addictions down by creating a natural relationship with wine. It’s not a no-no.

But the times they are a-changin’ – and underage binge drinking and excessive drinking are on the rise. Have been steadily for the past few years.

Is The Nonchalance Over Alcohol Sales To French Minors A Hangover?

A 2022 survey found over 7% of 17-year-olds drink about 10 times a month – a third of them, at least 10 glasses each. Others say almost a fifth of youth deaths in France are attributable to alcohol.

“For children, wine is part of the family,” sociologist and addiction prevention trainer, Guylaine Benech, said in a story for the French Food Observatory a few years back. “With 74 bottles consumed per year per capita, it’s almost always at the table. Children are perfectly aware of the importance of the divine bottle for ‘grown-ups’.”

She warns against advertising “trivializing or promoting alcohol” – and against encouraging drinking around the family table for kids.

I’m All For A Crackdown – But Not On My Alcohol Consumption

Back to the study in question … The main culprit for the booze on tap for minors at bars and supermarkets is ID cards not being requested, it says. Lawmakers have so far flouted suggestions for camera surveillance to enforce the laws. Monoprix’s answer to that (rather than run the risk of fines or employ more staff on weekends) is to ban adults too from Sunday drinking. Meanwhile, most supermarkets turn a blind eye, so bravo Monoprix. And the other good Samaritans of youth drinking control.

I guess, as a crude Australian, I could say that I’m pissed off with the hypocrisy … Even if France is forcing me not to be on the piss!