PALMA BINGE DRINKING ALERT

By Humphrey Carter PALMA last night launched a new anti-binge drinking control centre which is going to monitor events along the Paseo Maritimo in the build up to the mass drinking session being organised across the country on April 8. The central government delegation and Palma city council agreed to take immediate action yesterday as large scale “botellon” binge drinking sessions were already taking place in various parts of the country, including Palma last night. The new control centre will command special medical, police and emergency units which will be on stand by every weekend from 22.30 until the binge drinkers start to disperse in the early hours. Hordes of teenagers and students are expected to swarm onto streets across the country this weekend weekend for a mass drinking session, flying in the face of legislation introduced to stop the mass binges known as “botellones”. Youths have rallied revellers by email and SMS messages for “macrobotellones” in 20 cities around, while authorities have pleaded with parents to keep their children under control and pointed out the danger of under-age drinking. The botellon (big bottle) has become a seedy part of city life over recent years as teenagers, bored at home and too poor to go to bars, bought beer, spirits and cartons of wine from food stores and lounged around in plazas, drinking the night away. Bombarded with noise, the stench of urine and vomit on the streets, and emergency rooms having to deal with drunks, many city councils brought in rules to ban drinking on the street. Police now patrol many of the botellon hot spots at the weekends, moving along groups of teenagers who mix cocktails with cheap spirits or “calimocho” - red wine and cola. They are girding up for an extra fight this weekend.