Pub hours may change to combat binge drinking
Changes to pub licensing hours, fixed penalty notices for possession of less than 1g of cannabis and the introduction of a minimum alcohol unit price are all under consideration.
Under the Home Department's 2015 to 2020 Drug and Alcohol Strategy, a range of new measures are to be looked at in an attempt to tackle on-island substance abuse.
The department has drawn up an action plan and one of its key initiatives will be to reduce drug and alcohol-related offending and anti-social behaviour.
It will be exploring changes to licensing hours and fixed penalty notices for low-level drug and alcohol offending such as possession of less than a gram of cannabis. Minimum alcohol pricing, as recommended by medical officer of health Dr Stephen Bridgman, will also be looked at.
Strategy coordinator Andrea Nightingale said the new document, to be debated next month, was a five-year strategy and the department wanted to leave the door open to future changes.
'Things move on very quickly and develop,' she said. 'We want to make sure the strategy is open for us to watch what is happening in other jurisdictions and allow us to use their research and outcomes.'
