Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Why Adults Ignore Underage Drinking and Other Stories
It's Monday morning, and tales about the weekend start trickling in. Did you hear about the sweet 16? Three kids passed out, one girl turned up naked and unconscious, and the police came and hauled everyone in. Tut-tut, isn't it awful. Next Monday: different characters, same outcome.
Ho-hum. Underage drinking is routine in a lot of American cities and towns, including mine. Indeed, according to demographic data from the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health released by the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as a 2010 longitudinal study of 20,000 students, predominantly white, well-educated, and affluent Northeastern communities turn out the highest rates of underage drinkers. Summit N.J., where I live, fits right in the sweet spot of that demographic zone.
This comes as no surprise. Kids here drink, and everybody knows it. They hide Absolut vodka in their Nalgene bottles, run off with a six-pack of Heineken from the family refrigerator, slip a cabernet from Dad's wine cellar into their backpacks, and have at it in someone's basement, backyard, or -- miracle of miracles! -- a friend's vacant house. The empties turn up in the woods behind an elementary school, along the side of the road that goes out of town, and in the rhododendron bushes in my frontyard. Most of us grudgingly toss the bottles and cans in our own recycling bins.
Rather than fight it, many parents have raised the white flag and allowed their underage children to drink at home. What's more, some parents, advertently or not, supply their kids with booze: the American Medical Association reports that 25 percent of all teenagers, and 33 percent of teenage girls get alcohol from their parents, while 40 percent of teens say they get their booze from friends' parents. The numbers bear this out: according to the AMA, about one-fifth of 12- to 20-year-olds are binge drinkers and most kids take their first drink at age 12.
Parents who permit or ignore underage drinking are reluctant to talk about it openly, for obvious reasons (i.e., it's illegal.) But off the record, some common explanations emerge. Most important, parents believe that kids will drink regardless of the rules, and that allowing it to happen at home is safer than sending them out to drink elsewhere. If drunk driving can be prevented, they reason, the big risk is gone. As well, parents understand that demanding abstinence from a son or daughter will condemn that child to social exile. And anyway, underage drinking is not that big a deal, they believe, as long as it doesn't get out of hand or lead to drugs. Look, we did it, and we're OK. Finally, being the bad guy all the time --the one saying "no" again, the one having to feign indifference when your son screams "I hate you!", the one who is immediately told "No, Mom, we're not drinking" -- gets old. And we're all so tired, fantasizing already about that chilled bottle of sauvignon blanc waiting for us in the refrigerator.
"Parents think it's the lesser of all evils," John Moriarty, the marketing director of Sunrise Detox in Stirling, N.J., told me in early April. "But nothing could be further from the truth," he said. A boatload of studies and articles spell out the dangers of even moderate drinking among teenagers. Alcohol damages young brains. The AMA study discovered that 14- to 21-year-olds who abused alcohol had "about 10 percent smaller hippocampi" -- where the brain learns and remembers -- and that the harm might be irreversible. Alcohol use is inseparable from the leading causes of teenage death, starting with car accidents and moving right on down to suicides, homicides and overdoses, with or without additional substances. Of those kids who start drinking before they're 15, 40 percent show some signs of alcoholism as adults. Alcohol use goes hand-in-hand with other nightmarish behaviors: rape, delinquency and the use of "real" drugs, including a new favorite in New Jersey -- synthetic pot known as K2, which is associated with seizures, blackouts, cardiac infarction and psychosis. "Most parents aren't aware of the long-term brain damage, stunted brain development and the susceptibility to other addictive drugs," Moriarty told me.
Given the science about underage drinking, and the terrifying inevitability of prom and graduation-related drunken deaths, the laissez faire approach that many adults take when it comes to teenage drinking makes less and less sense. Of course, understanding risk has never been a strong suit of the human race; witness all the kids driven hither and yon, safe from potential kidnappers and growing obese from inactivity. But in communities that pay lip service to children's well-being -- where riots erupt over the lack of field space, where Board of Ed meetings go bad when school districts can no longer fund Latin and parents demand that vending machines spitting out Coke and cheese doodles be removed immediately -- looking the other way when kids are actively harming themselves in our basements and in the basements of our friends is... bizarre. "You have to look at what's going on," John Moriarty said. "No one wants to look at it."
Most chilling of all is the realization that even if you do behave like a grown-up -- set limits, demand abstinence, call other parents when you've heard rumors about binges, lay down the law about the consequences, all while keeping the lines of communication open -- your children and their friends will probably find ways around the rules, will likely sneak booze and lie about it, and will try to host parties in your house when you're thinking you've got it all covered. Drunken kids will end up in your basement and mine. Without a clear-eyed examination of the problem along with some kind of collective determination to take it on, there's nothing any of us can do about it alone.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-flanagan/underage-drinking_b_848412.html
Ho-hum. Underage drinking is routine in a lot of American cities and towns, including mine. Indeed, according to demographic data from the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health released by the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as a 2010 longitudinal study of 20,000 students, predominantly white, well-educated, and affluent Northeastern communities turn out the highest rates of underage drinkers. Summit N.J., where I live, fits right in the sweet spot of that demographic zone.
This comes as no surprise. Kids here drink, and everybody knows it. They hide Absolut vodka in their Nalgene bottles, run off with a six-pack of Heineken from the family refrigerator, slip a cabernet from Dad's wine cellar into their backpacks, and have at it in someone's basement, backyard, or -- miracle of miracles! -- a friend's vacant house. The empties turn up in the woods behind an elementary school, along the side of the road that goes out of town, and in the rhododendron bushes in my frontyard. Most of us grudgingly toss the bottles and cans in our own recycling bins.
Rather than fight it, many parents have raised the white flag and allowed their underage children to drink at home. What's more, some parents, advertently or not, supply their kids with booze: the American Medical Association reports that 25 percent of all teenagers, and 33 percent of teenage girls get alcohol from their parents, while 40 percent of teens say they get their booze from friends' parents. The numbers bear this out: according to the AMA, about one-fifth of 12- to 20-year-olds are binge drinkers and most kids take their first drink at age 12.
Parents who permit or ignore underage drinking are reluctant to talk about it openly, for obvious reasons (i.e., it's illegal.) But off the record, some common explanations emerge. Most important, parents believe that kids will drink regardless of the rules, and that allowing it to happen at home is safer than sending them out to drink elsewhere. If drunk driving can be prevented, they reason, the big risk is gone. As well, parents understand that demanding abstinence from a son or daughter will condemn that child to social exile. And anyway, underage drinking is not that big a deal, they believe, as long as it doesn't get out of hand or lead to drugs. Look, we did it, and we're OK. Finally, being the bad guy all the time --the one saying "no" again, the one having to feign indifference when your son screams "I hate you!", the one who is immediately told "No, Mom, we're not drinking" -- gets old. And we're all so tired, fantasizing already about that chilled bottle of sauvignon blanc waiting for us in the refrigerator.
"Parents think it's the lesser of all evils," John Moriarty, the marketing director of Sunrise Detox in Stirling, N.J., told me in early April. "But nothing could be further from the truth," he said. A boatload of studies and articles spell out the dangers of even moderate drinking among teenagers. Alcohol damages young brains. The AMA study discovered that 14- to 21-year-olds who abused alcohol had "about 10 percent smaller hippocampi" -- where the brain learns and remembers -- and that the harm might be irreversible. Alcohol use is inseparable from the leading causes of teenage death, starting with car accidents and moving right on down to suicides, homicides and overdoses, with or without additional substances. Of those kids who start drinking before they're 15, 40 percent show some signs of alcoholism as adults. Alcohol use goes hand-in-hand with other nightmarish behaviors: rape, delinquency and the use of "real" drugs, including a new favorite in New Jersey -- synthetic pot known as K2, which is associated with seizures, blackouts, cardiac infarction and psychosis. "Most parents aren't aware of the long-term brain damage, stunted brain development and the susceptibility to other addictive drugs," Moriarty told me.
Given the science about underage drinking, and the terrifying inevitability of prom and graduation-related drunken deaths, the laissez faire approach that many adults take when it comes to teenage drinking makes less and less sense. Of course, understanding risk has never been a strong suit of the human race; witness all the kids driven hither and yon, safe from potential kidnappers and growing obese from inactivity. But in communities that pay lip service to children's well-being -- where riots erupt over the lack of field space, where Board of Ed meetings go bad when school districts can no longer fund Latin and parents demand that vending machines spitting out Coke and cheese doodles be removed immediately -- looking the other way when kids are actively harming themselves in our basements and in the basements of our friends is... bizarre. "You have to look at what's going on," John Moriarty said. "No one wants to look at it."
Most chilling of all is the realization that even if you do behave like a grown-up -- set limits, demand abstinence, call other parents when you've heard rumors about binges, lay down the law about the consequences, all while keeping the lines of communication open -- your children and their friends will probably find ways around the rules, will likely sneak booze and lie about it, and will try to host parties in your house when you're thinking you've got it all covered. Drunken kids will end up in your basement and mine. Without a clear-eyed examination of the problem along with some kind of collective determination to take it on, there's nothing any of us can do about it alone.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-flanagan/underage-drinking_b_848412.html
Monday, April 25, 2011
Fact Sheet
Drinking Levels among Youth
The 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey5 found that among high school students, during the past 30 days
•42% drank some amount of alcohol.
•24% binge drank.
•10% drove after drinking alcohol.
•28% rode with a driver who had been drinking alcohol.
Other national surveys indicate
•In 2008 the National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported that 28% of youth aged 12 to 20 years drink alcohol and 19% reported binge drinking.6
•In 2009, the Monitoring the Future Survey reported that 37% of 8th graders and 72% of 12th graders had tried alcohol, and 15% of 8th graders and 44% of 12th graders drank during the past month.7
http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/underage-drinking.htm
The 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey5 found that among high school students, during the past 30 days
•42% drank some amount of alcohol.
•24% binge drank.
•10% drove after drinking alcohol.
•28% rode with a driver who had been drinking alcohol.
Other national surveys indicate
•In 2008 the National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported that 28% of youth aged 12 to 20 years drink alcohol and 19% reported binge drinking.6
•In 2009, the Monitoring the Future Survey reported that 37% of 8th graders and 72% of 12th graders had tried alcohol, and 15% of 8th graders and 44% of 12th graders drank during the past month.7
http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/underage-drinking.htm
Friday, April 15, 2011
Dangerous Effects on the Body
Brain Effects—Scientists currently are examining just how alcohol affects the developing brain, but it’s a difficult task. Subtle changes in the brain may be difficult to detect but still have a significant impact on long-term thinking and memory skills. Add to this the fact that adolescent brains are still maturing, and the study of alcohol’s effects becomes even more complex. Research has shown that animals fed alcohol during this critical developmental stage continue to show long-lasting impairment from alcohol as they age (47). It’s simply not known how alcohol will affect the long-term memory and learning skills of people who began drinking heavily as adolescents.
Liver Effects—Elevated liver enzymes, indicating some degree of liver damage, have been found in some adolescents who drink alcohol (48). Young drinkers who are overweight or obese showed elevated liver enzymes even with only moderate levels of drinking (49).
Growth and Endocrine Effects—In both males and females, puberty is a period associated with marked hormonal changes, including increases in the sex hormones, estrogen and testosterone. These hormones, in turn, increase production of other hormones and growth factors (50), which are vital for normal organ development. Drinking alcohol during this period of rapid growth and development (i.e., prior to or during puberty) may upset the critical hormonal balance necessary for normal development of organs, muscles, and bones. Studies in animals also show that consuming alcohol during puberty adversely affects the maturation of the reproductive system (51).
Liver Effects—Elevated liver enzymes, indicating some degree of liver damage, have been found in some adolescents who drink alcohol (48). Young drinkers who are overweight or obese showed elevated liver enzymes even with only moderate levels of drinking (49).
Growth and Endocrine Effects—In both males and females, puberty is a period associated with marked hormonal changes, including increases in the sex hormones, estrogen and testosterone. These hormones, in turn, increase production of other hormones and growth factors (50), which are vital for normal organ development. Drinking alcohol during this period of rapid growth and development (i.e., prior to or during puberty) may upset the critical hormonal balance necessary for normal development of organs, muscles, and bones. Studies in animals also show that consuming alcohol during puberty adversely affects the maturation of the reproductive system (51).
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Health Risks
Teens who drink are also more likely to participate in other risky behaviors. The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA) published the "National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XIV" in August 2009. They state that compared with teens who have not had alcohol, teens who get drunk are "eighteen times likelier to have tried marijuana" and "twice as likely to know a girl who was forced to do something sexual she didn't want to do; and nearly four times likelier to know a guy who used drugs or alcohol to hook up."
http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=GALE%7C00000000LVW8&documentId=GALE%7CPC3021900174&mode=view
http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=GALE%7C00000000LVW8&documentId=GALE%7CPC3021900174&mode=view
Alcohol and Teen Health
Alcohol and Teen Health
Alcohol contributes to liver disease and may increase the risk of some cancers. Even taken in small quantities, it can affect brain development, and, in large quantities, can cause permanent brain damage. According to NIAAA, "Adolescents also are vulnerable to alcohol-induced brain damage, which could contribute to poor performance at school or work. In addition, youthful drinking is associated with an increased likelihood of developing alcohol abuse or dependence later in life." NIAAA also cites that underage alcohol use is more likely to kill young people than all illegal drugs combined, due to drinking and driving. It also increases suicide risk, sexual assault, and high-risk sex.
http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=GALE%7C00000000LVW8&documentId=GALE%7CPC3021900174&mode=view
Alcohol contributes to liver disease and may increase the risk of some cancers. Even taken in small quantities, it can affect brain development, and, in large quantities, can cause permanent brain damage. According to NIAAA, "Adolescents also are vulnerable to alcohol-induced brain damage, which could contribute to poor performance at school or work. In addition, youthful drinking is associated with an increased likelihood of developing alcohol abuse or dependence later in life." NIAAA also cites that underage alcohol use is more likely to kill young people than all illegal drugs combined, due to drinking and driving. It also increases suicide risk, sexual assault, and high-risk sex.
http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=GALE%7C00000000LVW8&documentId=GALE%7CPC3021900174&mode=view
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