UNDERAGE DRINKING

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Protect Curry County's Youth

Underage Drinking in Curry County - DHS issued January, 2008 Page 1, Page 2
Adult alcohol use in Curry County - DHS issued January, 2008 Page 1, Page 2
Ways to Have Fun without Drinking
Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) Affect on Motor Skills
Snippets
Fight the Stigma of Alcohol
Is She Drinking?
Sobering Data On Student DWI Habits
Drunkenness Triples College Kids' Auto Injury Risk
Keeping Tabs On Teens May Curb Alcohol Use And Risks
Smoking, Drinking At School May Be Contagious For Teens
Sign the MADD "PROMise To Keep It Safe"
Students Pledge Month of Alcohol Abstinence
N.J. Parents Advocate for Nickel Tax Increase to Fund Treatment
Related Issues: 
Binge Drinking, Talk to Your Kid about Alcohol & Drugs, Fun Without Drinking, Booze in a Can

Oregon law encourages parents to supply alcohol to their children. It doesn't limit the type of alcohol "for religious purposes" but does make it unlawful to give alcohol, outside the home, to other than their children and not at an intoxicating level which means it would be a maximum of 2-5 12-ounce bottles of 5% beer, 2-5 ounces of hard liquor, or 10 to 25 ounces of wine in one hours time. (Those are the average limits to reach a .08 on a breathalyzer for a 100 to over 240 pound person. 1 drink equals 1 ounce of 100-proof liquor, one five ounce glass of table wine or one 12-ounce bottle of regular beer)

What is not understood, is that possession can also be within the body, so the minor must stay within the parents property until the alcohol leaves the system. 

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Alcohol Use

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8th Grade
11th Grade

Age of onset

7% drank regularly before 13

19% drank before 13

Use in Past 30 days

29%

38%

Perception of Risk or Harm

34% believe there is "great risk" for people who have one or more drinks nearly every day

33% believe that there is no harm in taking one or more drinks daily

Perception of disapproval of use by peers and adults

71% parents would think is was "very wrong" for someone their age to us alcohol

80% believe that their parents would feel it is wrong for them to drink

Source: Oregon Healthy Teens Survey, 2004

Underage drinkers account for nearly 20 percent of the alcohol consumed in the United States each year.

Alcohol is the #1 youth drug problem (SAMHSA, 2003); it kills more people under 21 than all other illicit drugs combined. (Grunbaum, 2002)

The same amount of alcohol is in a 12-ounce bottle of beer, a 12-ounce wine cooler, and a 5-ounce glass of wine.

Almost 23% of 12 to 20 year olds participated in binge drinking at least once in the past month. Source: Substance Abuse And Mental Health Services Administration, 2004

Binge drinking is 4 drinks within an hour for a female, 5 for a male. Females process alcohol differently than males; smaller amounts of alcohol are more intoxicating for females regardless of their size. (NHTSA, 2004)

Female college students drink more and have sex more while on Spring Break trips.

Over a quarter of all rape victims and over 40 percent of those convicted of rape had been drinking at the time of the attack. (BJS, 1998 )

You may be alive today because the legal drinking age is 21. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates these laws have saved over 22,000 lives from 1975 to now. (NHTSA, 2004)

Ways to Have Fun without Drinking


  • Go to a late-night diner all dressed up and order fries and a milkshake; it'll hit the spot and you'll get tons of attention!
  • Buy a bunch of one-use cameras, pass them around to your friends, and set a goal to use every last picture before the night is through!
  • Have a "Cranium" or "Act One" party at someone's house; don't forget to have lots of sodas, chips, and dips. You'll be hungry after all that dancing!
  • Host a karaoke party at your house, in a friend's barn, or at a local Elks or Rotary lodge.
  • Visit an arcade with your date or with a group, and challenge each other to a game or two.
  • Have a dance-off at the local arcade. Couples against couples. It's a blast.
  • Ask your local YMCA if you can plan an after-prom basketball tournament. Bring your favorite CDs to play in the background.
  • Go to a late night coffee house and relive the evening for hours!
  • After prom, gather in a friend's house or backyard, take your shoes off, turn up the music, and really dance! Don't forget to notify neighbors and police of your special event, and don't let guests come and go.

Source: www.madd.org/under21/0,1056,1168,00.html

Think about it!

Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) Affect on Motor Skills

  • At .020 light to moderate drinkers begin to feel some effects.
  • At .040 most people begin to feel relaxed.
  • At .060 judgment is somewhat impaired, people are less able to make rational decisions about their capabilities (e.g.. driving).
  • At .080 there is a definite impairment of muscle coordination and driving skills; this is legal level for intoxication in some states.
  • At .10 there is a clear deterioration of reaction time and control; this is legally drunk in most states.
  • At .120 vomiting usually occurs. Unless this level is reached slowly or a person has developed a tolerance to alcohol.
  • At .150 balance and movement are impaired. This blood-alcohol level means the equivalent of 1/2 pint of whiskey is circulating in the blood stream.
  • At .300 many people lose consciousness.
  • At .400 most people lose consciousness; some die.
  • At .450 breathing stops; this is a fatal dose for most people

Snippets


Beer accounts for 67% of the alcohol consumption reported in the US.

Beer consumed by the highest 10 percentile of drinks by volume represents 42% of the reported alcohol consumer in the US

Beer is disproportionately consumed in hazardous amounts (i.e., five or more drinks per occasion) relative to wine and spirits.

Nearly 82% of adults favor an increase of five cents per drink in the tax on beer, wine or liquor to pay for programs to prevent minors from drinking and to increase alcohol treatment programs.

Alcohol excise tax rates have rarely been increased to compensate for the effects of inflation. As a result, "real" tax rates have declined over most of the postwar period. This erosion of real tax rates has contributed to overall declines in real beverage prices over time.

In 1998, the estimated economic cost of alcohol abuse in the US exceeded $184 billion. This cost is equivalent to roughly $683 for every man, woman and child living in the US.

The cost to Americans of underage drinking totals nearly $53 billion, equivalent to $200 for every man, woman and child in the US

Each year, the federal government spends between $900 million and $1 billion on alcohol prevention services for people of all ages, less than 2% of the annual cost of alcohol use by youth alone.

According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, federal excise tax collections for alcoholic beverages totaled more than $8 billion in 2000. Put into perspective, this amounts to just over 4% of the $184 billion in alcohol-related costs experienced by the American public.

Fight the Stigma of Alcohol


April is National Alcohol Awareness Month. Talk with your kids about the risk.

  • Approximately 22% of 8th graders, 41% of 10th graders, and 50% of 12th graders report having consumed alcohol during the past month.
  • About 8% of 8th, 23% of 10th, and 32% of 12th graders report having been drunk during the past month.
  • About 14% of 8th, 26% of 10th, and 30% of 12th graders report binge drinking during the past two weeks.
  • Alcohol is frequently a factor in the three leading causes of death (motor vehicle crashes, homicides, and suicides) for 15 to 24 year olds.

Source: www.ncadd.org/programs/awareness/alcfacts02.html

Is She Drinking?


An estimated 4.5 million tween and teen girls drank alcohol last year, but most moms say they never knew about it. Sixteen percent of 13- to 16-year-olds admitted they drink with friends, while only five percent of moms think their daughter is drinking, according to a survey of mother-daughter pairs by the Century Council, a group of leading alcohol producers. Thirty percent of 16- to 18-year-old girls drank, but just nine percent of the mothers were aware.

Try exploring www.girlsanddrinking.org with your daughter, and start getting real honest about drinking. When girls and adults share the truth on why and how they drink, girls get great guidance for better choices.
Source: Daughters, May/June, 2006

Sobering Data On Student DWI Habits


In the March 4 issue of CMAJ, Dr. Edward Adlaf and colleagues present data from the 2001 Ontario Student Drug Use Survey, which indicate that 31.9 percent of 1846 Ontario students surveyed admitted to being a passenger in a car driven by a drunk driver in 2001.
Source: Canadian Medical Association Journal,www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/333/8895/361838.html

Drunkenness Triples College Kids' Auto Injury Risk


It also greatly raises risks for falls, sexual abuse, study finds.
Source: www.healthcentral.com/newsdetail/408/525819.html

Keeping Tabs On Teens May Curb Alcohol Use And Risks


Adolescents whose parents closely monitor their activities are less likely to use alcohol or to be in risky situations involving alcohol, suggests new research published in the American Journal of Health Behavior.
Source: Center for the Advancement of Health, www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/333/8895/361561.html

Smoking, Drinking At School May Be Contagious For Teens


Teens are more likely to share smoking and drinking habits with their peers when they attend schools with a relatively large number of students who use tobacco or alcohol, according to a new study.
Source: Center for the Advancement of Health, www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/333/8895/361560.html

Sign the MADD "PROMise To Keep It Safe" pledging to remain alcohol-free on prom night. In return for your responsible choice, receive a BuzzFree ID to get great prom discounts and incentives (offers available vary by market).
Source: www.buzzfreeprom.com/students/students_pledge.html

Students Pledge Month of Alcohol Abstinence


At Waterville High School in Waterville, Maine, four hundred students and teachers declared that they would abstain from alcohol use for the next thirty days.
Source: www.jointogether.org/news/headlines/communitystories/2006/students-pledge-month-of.html

Calif. Hearing Targets 'Alcopop' Marketing


Flavored alcoholic malt beverages -- a.k.a. 'alcopops' -- appeal to children and often are packaged to closely resemble soda, witnesses told a California Senate panel.
Source: www.jointogether.org/news/headlines/inthenews/2006/calif-hearing-targets.html

N.J. Parents Advocate for Nickel Tax Increase to Fund Treatment


The Parents to Parents Coalition (P2P), a group advocating for New Jersey to raise its alcohol tax by a nickel a drink to provide more funds for addiction treatment, recently took its case to Gov. Jon Corzine, the Cherry Hill Courier-Post reported.

Members of the group -- many of whom have lost children to drug overdoses -- came to Rowan University for a Corzine budget speech. They presented Corzine with one of the glass jugs that they are using to collect nickels as part of the campaign.

The proposed tax increase could raise $10 million for treatment, they said, roughly doubling current state spending.

"I'm tired of burying people we should be treating," says Joni Whelan, CEO of the SODAT (Services to Overcome Drug Abuse Among Teenagers) treatment program.
Source: www.jointogether.org/news/headlines/inthenews/2006/nj-parents-advocate-for.html

Think about it!

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