On February 11, the House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Education Reform held a hearing to discuss efforts to prevent underage drinking. Subcommittee Chair Mike Castle (R-DE) said that the hearing would focus on “awareness and prevention programs that are geared toward students in elementary, middle, and high school that successfully prevent and discourage youth from drinking alcohol before they are of legal age.” Acknowledging that significant gains have been made since the 1970s, Rep. Castle added, “The 2002 National Survey on Drug Use and Health…found that 10.7 million young people, ages 12 to 20, reported drinking alcohol within a 30-day period. About 3 in 10 high school seniors reported binge drinking.”
Ranking Member Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) noted the devastating social and economic consequences of underage drinking but pointed out that there is no federal campaign to combat underage drinking. “In fact, in his FY2005 budget, President Bush has recommended eliminating funding for the one federal school-based alcohol prevention program.” Furthermore, “When we talk today about programs that work to prevent underage drinking, we need to remember that along with programs that focus directly on the youth, we also need programs to educate adults about what they do to contribute to underage drinking,” she added.
The subcommittee heard from former Rep. Susan Molinari, who now chairs The Century Council, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting drunk driving and underage drinking. “The Council’s education efforts start in middle school and continue through college,” she said. “We involve all sectors of the community, including beverage alcohol wholesalers and retailers, law enforcement, public officials, educators, insurers, health care professionals and private citizen organizations in the fight against drunk driving and underage drinking.”
Programs supported by the council, and highlighted by Ms. Molinari during her testimony, include:
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Robert Newton, speaking on behalf of the Betty Ford Center and the Partnership for Recovery, said that “underage drinkers are responsible for almost 20% of all alcohol consumed in the United States, with $22.5 billion spent on alcohol in 1999.” In discussing the negative consequences of underage drinking, he said that it “can damage developing brains and put our children at higher risk for sexual assault and suicide.” He cited one study that found that “37% of eighth grade females who drank heavily reported attempting suicide, compared with 11% who did not drink.”
Mr. Newton recommended that Congress: 1) reform alcohol advertising; 2) fund a Department of Health and Human Services underage drinking campaign; 3) develop a federal strategy to prevent underage drinking; 4) raise alcohol excise taxes; 5) support community mobilization efforts; and 6) strengthen law enforcement efforts.
Jacqueline Hackett of Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) discussed SADD’s efforts. “Perhaps the most important reason that SADD works is that it’s about students talking to each other, using words and activities that are most likely to make a difference,” she said. “SADD chapters provide information and education about the harmful effects of drug and alcohol, but they also host alternative drug-free activities for students, mentor younger elementary and middle school students and reach out to other groups in the community such as law enforcement, the media and the business community,” she said, adding that there are currently 10,000 SADD chapters nationwide with 350,000 active members.
Stating that “teens have easy access to alcohol,” Wendy Hamilton of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), said, “They are saturated with irresponsible alcohol ads. Underage drinking laws are not well enforced. And, parents and communities often look the other way when kids drink, in many cases even providing the alcohol.” She argued that national efforts to combat underage drinking are inadequate: “While illicit drugs and tobacco youth prevention have received considerable attention and funding from the federal government, underage drinking has consistently been ignored.” She cited a recent National Academy of Science report that found that $1.8 billion was spent on preventing illicit drug abuse in FY2000, while $71.1 million was spent on preventing underage alcohol use.
More specifically, Ms. Hamilton pointed to the proposed elimination of $30 million in targeted funding for alcohol prevention programs through the Department of Education’s Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities program. “While a very modest sum compared to the economic and social costs of youth alcohol use, this cut demonstrates a clear lack of commitment to reducing underage drinking,” she stated.
Francine Katz of Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. told the subcommittee that her company has invested nearly $1 billion in fighting the abuse of alcohol. “We don’t want kids to drink, and we are committed to giving parents and others who deal with the problem real solutions,” she said. “Equally important to this financial investment is the human capital that Anheuser-Busch and our wholesalers have expended in this fight. Whether it’s manning a booth to hand out materials designed to help parents talk to their kids about drinking; hosting training sessions for servers to help them spot fake IDs; meeting with school principals to offer third party speakers who address topics with students like drunk driving and alcohol awareness, this human capital demonstrates out collective commitment to being part of the solution.”
