IT IS a laudable decision by the J D Wetherspoon pub chain to ban controversial alcopops, which are linked with under-age drinking.

But is it enough?

Hardly.

For while Wetherspoon's action will cut sales in their pubs by up to 15,000 bottles a week, it amounts to a drop in the ocean.

Nationwide, around three million bottles and cans of alcopop brands are sold in that time.

And though an unspecified amount are getting into the wrong hands - of children as young as 10, according to one alcohol charity today - much more needs to be done to snap the link with under-age alcohol consumption.

It is the sinister connecting of alcohol with fizzy pop that gives these drinks a special appeal to youngsters.

And it is because of this that the problem revolves more around their existence than their availability.

It is a welcome and positive step that Wetherspoon, as well as Co-op and Iceland food stores, have taken alcopops off their shelves.

It would be an even greater one if other supermarket and off-licence chains responded similarly to growing public concern.

But the buck stops elsewhere - with the drinks industry.

It is the manufacturers who have created this problem.

They have not only produced the drinks, but have given them trendy names and packaging which have particular attraction to young people.

Is it not time for them to show the same kind of responsibility as the retailers who have banned them.

And if they they will not and continue to put profit before social responsibility, should not the government act firmly to remind them of their obligations?

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.