Menstuff® has compiled the following information on teens and
alcohol. 7,000 young people under 16 have their first drink of
alcohol every day. Source: Substance Abuse And Mental
Health Services Administration, 2004
Calif. Hearing Targets 'Alcopop'
Marketing
Study Says Youth Who Own Alcohol-Branded Items
More Likely to Drink Lowering the
Drinking Age in New Zealand Increases Car Crashes Among
Youth
Teens Drink One-Fifth of U.S.
Alcohol
Safe Prom
Night Brochure 
Calif. Hearing Targets 'Alcopop'
Marketing
Study Says Youth Who Own Alcohol-Branded Items
More Likely to Drink
Dartmouth Medical School researchers said the study was the first to examine the relationship between alcohol merchandise and drinking. "Our research found that students who owned an alcohol-branded item were significantly more likely to have initiated alcohol use than students who did not own one," said lead researcher Dr. Auden McClure. "We recommend that parents discourage their children from wearing these products and that schools limit the display of alcohol-branded items among students."
The study, which involved students ages 10 to 14, was published in the April 2006 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Source: McClure, A. C., Dal Cin, S., Gibson, J.,
and Sargent, J. D. (2006) Ownership of Alcohol-Branded Merchandise
and Initiation of Teen Drinking. American Journal of Preventive
Medicine, 30(4): 277-283. www.jointogether.org/news/research/summaries/2006/study-says-youth-who-own.html
Lowering the Drinking Age in New Zealand Increases Car Crashes Among Youth
There is no traffic safety policy with more evidence for its effectiveness than minimum legal drinking age laws, according to Robert B. Voas, one of the study's authors. Traffic crashes by young drivers were declining in New Zealand when that country decided to lower its drinking age. Thereafter, the overall road toll for those drivers rose dramatically. Most remarkable was the trickle-down effect that was seen in the 15- to 17-year-olds, Voas said. Clearly, they're getting alcohol from older friends.
People in the United States who argue for lowering the drinking age should pay attention. Currently, there are five U.S. States that have legislation pending to lower their minimum legal drinking age. The outcomes found in the New Zealand study are similar to those from the United States after drinking ages were lowered in many states the early 1970s. A number of studies on the effects of those drinking age changes showed a substantial increase in traffic crashes involving young people. Today, all 50 states have a minimum 21 drinking age.
This study was published in the January 2006 edition of the Journal of American Public Health. The study was authored by Kypros Kypri, Robert B. Voas, John D. Langley, Shaun C.R. Stephenson, Dorothy J. Begg, A. Scott Tippetts, and Gabrielle S. Davie.
Reprinted from the Winter 2006 issue of the Reporter, the newsletter of the International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety.
Source: Kypri, K., Voas, R.B., Langley, J.D.,
Stephenson, S.C.R., Begg, D.J., Tippets, A.S., & Davie, G.S.
(2006). Minimum Purchasing Age for Alcohol and Traffic Crash Injuries
Among 15- to 19-Year-Olds in New Zealand. American Journal of Public
Health, 96(1), 126-131. www.jointogether.org/news/research/summaries/2006/lowering-the-drinking-age-in.html
Teens Drink One-Fifth of U.S.
Alcohol
Attempting to correct botched statistics they released a year ago, researchers from Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse analyzed three sets of data from 1999 and said underage drinking amounted to 19.7 percent of alcohol consumed that year, or $22.5 billion. The previous estimate - now discredited - was 25 percent.
''Excessive'' drinking by adults - consumption of more than two drinks daily - amounted to 30.4 percent, or $34.4 billion, the researchers said. Their definition of excessive drinking is similar to the government's.
''These analyses show that it is not in the alcohol industry's financial interest to voluntarily enact strategies to reduce underage or adult excessive drinking,'' the researchers said.
The Columbia center is an advocacy group led by Joseph Califano Jr., a former U.S. secretary of health, education and welfare who has been an outspoken critic of alcohol marketers.
The group issued a report last year saying that young people ages 12 through 20 consume 25 percent of the nation's alcohol, a figure based on the 1998 National Household Survey of Drug Abuse. Critics questioned the statistics, and Califano's group acknowledged it failed to adjust its figures to reflect teens' percentage of the nation's population.
The new analysis appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.
It included data from the 1999 version of the household survey, which involved more than 50,000 people aged 12 and older questioned at home. It also included data from two surveys of youngsters 12 and older who were questioned at school.
Representatives of the alcohol industry called the new study as faulty as the old one, and questioned the researchers' definition of excessive adult drinking.
The government agency that conducts the household survey, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, has estimated the percentage of alcohol consumed by youngsters at 11.4 percent.
Califano's figure is higher because he based it on different sources, and his research seems sound, said Charles Curie, administrator of the agency.
''I give them credit that they wanted to clarify the figures,'' Curie said.
Source: Lindsey Tanner
First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you. - F. Scott Fitgerald
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