UK kids get drunk for half the cost of candy

London: Youngsters in the UK can get drunk for half the price of a chocolate bar, a new study has revealed. Supermarkets and off-licences are selling cider for as little as 10p per unit of alcohol. Lager can be bought for just 26p a pint. The average price of chocolate such as a Yorkie bar is 60p.

Researchers visited England`s eight biggest cities outside London to monitor booze prices. They found three-litre bottles of strong cider - containing seven per cent alcohol-on sale for just 2.25 pounds. But 2.25 pounds is around a third of a child`s average weekly pocket money. "Young men and women can buy their maximum recommended weekly allowance of alcohol for the price of a small latte coffee or cheap magazine," the Sun quoted CCHIC spokeswoman Deborah Evans as saying. "Meanwhile, the true cost of alcohol is picked up by taxpayers in the form of soaring hospital admissions, crime and anti-social behaviour," she said. The survey also found alcopops aimed at teenagers sold alongside fruit juices rather than in the stores` alcohol sections. Evans has called for "strong and decisive action to tackle the plague of illness and injury caused by selling alcohol cheaper than water". ANI