Alcohol should we regulate or educate?

I took part in a discussion this morning in BBC radio Berkshire about the problem (percieved or real) of teenage alcohol abuse. It has always been there, I have memories of beer binges, fags and strong mints in our den. This soon gave way to house parties and party sevens (that will age me no doubt).

This weekend friends held a teenage disco for their 14 year old daughter. Out of nearly 60 teenagers one managed to sneak a bottle of vodka in and got slightly over refreshed and one other was acting drunk but was clearly acting for the sake of cool (or should that be Kewl?).
Two from 60 would not appear to be a problem (both boys), or am I deluding myself because it was a nice middle class party?

I do consider myself blessed that both my teenage girls have have healthy views on smoking and drinking despite my less than exemplary role modelling. Thank god they could never have known me as a teen!

There is an argument that the availability and cost of alcohol is a critical factor in teenage alcohol abuse and that increasing cost and decreasing availabilty is the answer. I am not sure, prohibition in the States did little more than drive alcohol underground, fuel gandland profit and power and take tax out of the ecomomy.

Surely education is the key. If the majority of society clearly understand the risks and make sensible choices then there isn't a significant problem. Of course there will always be those that make the choice to abuse or develop problems, but if they are an educated minority the cost will be much lower (financialy and socially) than trying to regulate our way out of a problem.

So should we educate or legislate?

As a coach I have to come down on the side of education and personal responsibilty. People make the best choices they can given there knowledge, understanding and circumstance. The choices some people make may seem bizarre, criminal or insane to the the rest of us, but then we might have a very different set of criteria to make our choices from!