Ingenuity !

As any school teacher will verify - you need to get up mighty early to out think and our maneuver the kids of today.

That is something that prime minister Kevin Rudd has just learned !

Binge drinking by under age kids has recently been highlighted as a problem. One particular drink - Alco-Pops - seems to be a favourite with girls and to curb it's use the tax was recently sharply increased.

As usual, the kids were one step ahead. The sale of Alco-Pops nose dived but the sale of hard liquor replaced it and the kids created their own mix with soft drinks, the only problem being that the alcohol content increased well above the five percent usual in Alco-Pops.

Now the kids have move on - and discovered a source of alcohol that is not only more potent than their own mix efforts - but easy to obtain - and ridiculously cheap.

For years supermarkets and grocery stores have stocked flavouring essences used in cooking. These 100 ml and 50 ml bottles have an alcohol content of 69% - and sell for as little as one dollar a bottle.

Using the ingenuity for which kids are famous, our youngsters have discovered that not only are orange and lemon flavours very palatable, but it is possible to get drunk cheaply - and without the hassle of trying to buy liquor by getting around the age restrictions imposed by liquor outlets.

Moves are under way to close this loophole. The big supermarkets will add a trigger to computerised cash registers to alert assistants to look for proof of age when such essences pass through the scanners, but it is doubtful if the smaller grocery outlets will bother - and kids are resourceful enough to get a person of legal age to do their shopping.

Which all boils down to a fact of life which seems to escape our politicians. Nomatter what laws are passed to control a perceived problem - human nature will find a way to circumvent those laws.

Under age drinking has been with us since the dawn of time - and will still be with us when the last history book is written !