In response to a recent Institute of Medicine (IOM) report on underage drinking, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee on Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services held a September 30 hearing to address the issue.
Subcommittee Chair Mike DeWine (R-OH) opened the hearing by detailing dramatic statistics on the scope of underage drinking: “It should come as no surprise that the 2002 National Survey on Drug Abuse and Health, administered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, found that 10.7 million young people, aged 12 to 20, reported drinking alcohol within a 30-day period. Of these, over 7 million were binge drinkers.” He added, “We’ve known that alcohol has been reported to be involved in 36 percent of homicides, 12 percent of male suicides, and 8 percent of female suicides involving people under 21.”
Dr. Richard Bonnie of the University of Virginia Institute of Law, who chaired the Committee on Developing a Strategy to Reduce and Prevent Underage Drinking at the IOM, detailed the recommendations outlined in the report. Noting that “alcohol use by young people is an endemic problem that is not likely to improve in the absence of significant new interventions,” Dr. Bonnie said, “All of us, acting in concert—including parents and other adults, alcohol producers, wholesalers and retail outlets, entertainment media, and community groups—must take the necessary steps to reduce the availability of alcohol to underage drinkers, to reduce the attractiveness of alcohol to young people, and to reduce opportunities for youthful drinking.”
Accordingly, Dr. Bonnie said that the IOM report emphasizes an “adult-oriented strategy” in which adults would be the primary target of a national campaign to reduce underage drinking. “Our report calls on the federal government to fund and actively support the development of a national media campaign designed to create a broad societal commitment to reduce underage drinking, to decrease adult conduct that tends to facilitate underage drinking, and to encourage parents and other adults to take specific steps in their own households, neighborhoods and businesses to discourage underage drinking,” he said.
Additionally, the report recommends boosting compliance with the legal drinking age; implementing evidence-based intervention and education programs aimed at young people; urging the alcohol industry to create an independent nonprofit foundation that would design, evaluate, and implement evidence-based programs; monitoring alcohol advertising practices; and increasing excise taxes on alcohol. “The nation needs to develop and implement effective ways to protect young people from the dangers of early drinking while respecting the interests of responsible adult consumers of alcohol,” stated Dr. Bonnie.
Speaking on behalf of the Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free, a non-partisan group devoted to increasing pubic awareness, engaging policy makers, and mobilizing action to stop childhood drinking, First Lady of Idaho Patricia Kempthorne, agreed with many of the report’s recommendations. “We are all stakeholders in the future of our children,” she said. In addition to the IOM recommendations, she urged the subcommittee to continue holding hearings on the subject and to ask the U.S. Surgeon General to issue a call to action on underage drinking. Additionally, Ms. Kempthorne recommended that national surveys collecting data on alcohol use include children as young as the age of nine and that the subcommittee support increased funding for research, prevention, and treatment programs.
Also concurring with the IOM recommendations, Wendy Hamilton of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, stated that funding to combat underage drinking was “woefully inadequate.” Citing the Office of National Drug Control Policy, she said, “In fiscal year 2000, the nation spent approximately $1.8 billion on preventing illicit drug use, which was 25 times the amount, $71.1 million, targeted at preventing underage alcohol use.”
In discussing the many consequences of underage drinking, Ms. Hamilton said, “Sexual violence, as well as unplanned and unprotected sexual activity, is another consequence of youth alcohol use.” According to a 2002 National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, she said, “Each year more than 70,000 students aged 18-24 are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape.”
Jeffrey Becker of the Beer Institute responded to criticisms leveled at the industry and detailed the industry’s efforts to educate retailers, parents, and children about the dangers of underage drinking. “Brewers have long advocated and sponsored programs to facilitate parental discussions about drinking with their young children as well as their college-bound teens…. Over the past five years, our members have distributed over 5 million pieces of material—guidebooks, videos, and others—to parents across the U.S,” he said. Additionally, members of the Beer Institute have sponsored programs and provided materials in English, Spanish, Korean, and Vietnamese for servers of alcohol to “teach them how to properly check IDs and how to spot fake IDs” and have created national advertising campaigns, including, “Live Responsibly,” “Let’s Stop Underage Drinking Before It Starts,” and “21 means 21.”
David DeAngelis, a high school student from Connecticut, echoed other witnesses’ emphasis on the role of parents. After starting a newspaper column called “Save 1” aimed at targeting adults about underage drinking, he said that he received positive feedback but often felt frustrated. “Last spring, I gave a presentation to parents at my town’s middle school and only 30 people showed up,” he said. Noting that many parents not only condone alcohol, but also provide it in their homes, Mr. DeAngelis said, “The youth of America are receiving the message that underage drinking is acceptable.”
