15 Dec 2017

The Icelandic Model: beating teen binge drinking

From Nine To Noon, 9:29 am on 15 December 2017

Iceland has all but vanquished its teenage binge drinking and drug taking culture in under twenty years - thanks to "the Icelandic Model". In 1998 42% of Iceland's 15 and 16 year olds said they'd got drunk in the past month. By last year this figure had fallen to just 5%. There's been a sharp decline in drug use and smoking too. Professor Álfgeir Kristjánsson from West Virginia University's School of Public Health tells Kathryn Ryan how parental pledges, night-time patrols, skating, badminton and ping pong were instrumental in this turn-around.