May 27, 2008

HEALTH MATTERS: Binge drinking as teen can take toll later in life

By LJ Anderson / Daily News Columnist

Alcohol is the drug of choice for young people, and on average, they begin to drink at 13 years old. By college, the rate of drinking by students on campuses is 80 percent, with binge drinking a common behavior. Yet the consequences of underage drinking are described as "astonishing in their range and magnitude" by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University, increasing morbidity and mortality rates by 200 percent between middle childhood and early adulthood. For example, about 5,000 young people under the age of 21 die every year in alcohol-related events - car crashes, homicides and suicides. It plays a significant role in a long list of other events including, but not limited to, risky sexual behavior, physical and sexual assault, academic failure, alterations in the developing brain, and heavy lifetime alcohol use.

Maureen Sedonaen is founder and president of the Youth Leadership Institute (YLI) (www.yli.org), started in Marin County in 1991. The national organization has offices in Fresno, Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties, and promotes community-based youth programs.


Q: How would you describe underage drinking and college-age drinking nationally, and in the Bay Area?

A: The issue of underage drinking and college-age drinking has reached epidemic proportions. Young people drink to get drunk. Excess drinking, dangerous drinking games and social norms continue to reinforce the notion that the more the merrier. In truth, five or more drinks is binge drinking for males, and four drinks for females. In the Bay Area, our high schools and colleges deal with the negative aftermath of weekend "ragers" and parties every Monday morning. Drinking and driving, sexual assault, violence, unintended sexual behavior, and missing school and work, just to name a few, are not only commonplace but become jokes among friends - and stories of victimization among professionals.



Q: Do you have a sense of whether it is improving or getting worse?

A: The good news is that young people across the Bay Area and the nation are stepping up and taking on the issue through strong policy and advocacy efforts - whether it is taking on the Board of Equalization to tax "Alcopops" as distilled spirits rather than beer, as it is now, to passing social host and deemed approved ordinances in local municipalities. Currently, more than 15 social host ordinances are on the books in towns across the Bay. Also, youth are leading counter-advertising campaigns (www.aftertoomany.org), exercising shareholder actions to get companies like Anheuser-Busch to stop marketing their products to underage drinkers, to doing access surveys and GIS maps that highlight the proximity, practices and related community issues to liquor stores within a one-mile radius of schools and day care centers.


Q: What role do parents and others play in this problem?

A: Parents are young people's role models. The way they drink, where, when, and what provisions they put into place to stay safe and not drive are critical. Additionally, parents need to know that it is illegal to host parties in their homes where minors, other than their own, are present. Parental disapproval is a correlate to delayed and minimized drinking.



Q: How did you become personally involved in this issue?

A: Parental and sibling alcoholism in my family showed me at a very young age that excess happens, and impacts and hurts many people. In college, I worked as a resident adviser at California State University, Chico, in the privately owned residence halls where I witnessed, and sometimes unknowingly contributed to, an excessive and tolerant norm of drinking. We were the No. 1 party school, according to Playboy magazine, and lived hard to keep up that reputation. I saw kids OD, suffer from alcohol poisoning, engage in risky sexual behavior, and never made the connection to the hard drinking social norms. When I learned about environmental strategies and public health in the early to mid-'80s, it was just emerging as a field. Now I know that a group of committed people, young and old, can take on an industry that has not seen an increase in the beer tax in more than 25 years. Raising the beer tax in California by five cents would put a major dent in the state deficit, and it is estimated (that it would) decrease consumption by underage drinkers significantly. (Other solutions include) working with merchants and sellers to be trained and responsible in their sales, limiting advertising that targets kids with animals and cartoon characters, and finally, for everyone to understand that our number one drug problem in the United States is alcohol, causing casualties and problems at levels higher than all illicit drugs combined.



Q: How would you like middle-school, high-school and college-age kids to view alcohol consumption?

A: I would like to see high school kids delay their consumption altogether. I would like college kids to understand and build a culture that does not promote binge drinking, or at least, makes abstinence an acceptable choice, does not sanction and tolerate the negative and sometimes life-changing consequences, and wait until they are 21 to drink. If they cannot do this, to always be sure they are safe, do low-risk drinking (one drink per hour with food), and be aware that a large industry with large profits does not always have their best interest at heart. They need to be leaders, step up and take care of themselves, and each other. Younger kids are watching!



LJ Anderson writes on health matters every Tuesday. She can be reached at lj.anderson@yahoo.com.