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Stop Underage Drinking
One of the most common stories I hear among my kids' college friends, no
matter what school they attend, is that alcohol is available everywhere,
despite the fact that most students are not of legal drinking age until
their senior year in college. It's so bad, that some are even beginning
to complain about it. The daughter of a friend of mine moved back home
to attend a community college, because there was so much drinking, noise
and partying in the dorms, she couldn't study.
But the abuse of alcohol doesn't begin in college. The Connecticut
Coalition to Stop Underage Drinking has learned from interviewing and
polling young people that:
- Most young people in Connecticut take their first drink between the
ages of 11 and 13.
- Almost 10% of Connecticut's high school students are intoxicated
between 3 and 5 times a month.
- Over 60% of high school juniors and seniors drink regularly.
- Suburban alcohol use rates are higher than urban use rates.
- Half of all unintended teen pregnancies result from one or both
parties being under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
- 68% of college students have driven while under the influence of
alcohol, while only 4% had been arrested for DUI.
Alcohol abuse in the US has reached epidemic proportions. As the adults
responsible for the well-being of our children, we need to take steps to
prevent alcohol use and abuse by children under 21. A broad-based
approach is needed. Please read the ideas presented below and select
those that you could carry out in your family, neighborhood or school.
Other ideas are welcome and will be passed along to readers.
- Put pressure on college administrators to ban alcohol from college campuses.
- Enforce the legal drinking age. In order to avoid the embarrassment of
public exposure, parents and school administrators sometimes agree to cover up
incidents of alcohol abuse, rather than requiring the young person to
appear with his or her parents in court and pay consequences (money and
community service) for breaking the laws governing underage drinking.
- Refrain from drinking alcohol during family gatherings where children
so often see rampant alcohol abuse among parents, aunts, uncles,
cousins, grandparents and other adults they know, trust and love.
Whenever children are present, make family parties and gatherings
alcohol-free.
- If there are young people under age 21 living with you, keep your
alcohol locked up.
- Educate young people about the dangers of alcohol abuse. Teach them
how to resist peer pressure. The daughter of one of my friends went to a
high school party with her boy friend one weekend. They were both 16
years old. There was alcohol at the party and both of them drank too
much. Rather than calling home for someone to pick them up, they got
into a car and attempted to drive home. The boy was driving, lost
control of the car and hit a tree. The girl wasn't injured, but the boy
sustained injury to his spine and was paralyzed permanently from the
waist down. This boy was an all-star athlete and very popular among his
peers. It was a sobering lesson that had a huge impact on the whole
school. That's a very sad way for a teen to learn such an important lesson.
- Restrict companies that make and sell alcohol from marketing and
advertising their products to youth.
- Establish sanctions against merchants who sell alcohol to people under
21 and enforce those sanctions.
- Vote against any reduction in the legal drinking age.
The Connecticut Coalition to Stop Underage Drinking reports the
following research findings:
- Children who start drinking before the age of 15 are three times as
likely to develop alcoholism during adulthood versus those who wait until
the age of 21 to drink.
- Children who get consistent no-use messages from their parents or other caring adults are three to four times less
likely to abuse substances.
What can we do to stop alcohol use and abuse among children and young
adults under age 21?
LINKS:
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Please send questions or comments to bbruno@snet.net.
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