Underage drinking at bars becoming less of a problem

by Sarah Campbell

While underage drinking has increased in Canada, Windsor bartenders believe fewer minors are trying to go to their establishments.

Rayven Howard, bartender at Milk Coffee Bar, said that they don’t get many underage people who try to drink.  She  believes it’s not an issue because it’s well known as a coffee shop as opposed to a bar. Howard also said Milk doesn’t often have issues with fake identification.

“A lot of bars have problems with fake IDs. Bars need someone to guard the door to look at identification, that’s how we can prevent that,” said Howard.

The number of people involved in heavy drinking is up from 2010, according to Statistics Canada. Nineteen per cent of Canadians ages 12 and up were involved with heavy drinking in 2011, compared to 17.3 per cent in 2010.  Underage drinking can lead to heavy drinking later in life. Also, approximately one million high school students who admit to drinking underage will be more inclined to abuse drugs in their lifetime.

A bartender at The Dugout, who wished to remain unnamed, said they also don’t have an issue with underage drinking. He agrees with Howard that looking at identification closely is key. The bartender also works at Mynt Nightclub and said it’s a bigger issue there.

“We need to be as tight as we can with identification and there shouldn’t be a problem,” he said.

In an effort to prevent underage drinking, Windsor bars are looking more closely at identification in order to weed out the fake ones.