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Dear
Parent:
In a release designating April as "Alcohol Awareness
Month," the National Council on Alcoholism and Alcohol
Abuse (NCAA) noted that "New statistics released February
26, 2002 indicating that underage drinkers account for 25
percent of alcohol consumption have come into question by
researchers and other professionals and have created a debate
about analysis and methodology. (According to the 2000 Household
Survey on Drug Abuse, a yearly poll of 25,000 people, conducted
by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration,
the the real figure is more like 11 percent.)" The bottom
line....teenage drinking is a serious problem in America,
and has been for many years. Whatever the numbers, the real
question remains: what can be done about this critical health
issue? The NCAA urges that we not lose sight of the REAL QUESTION.
In response
to queries about the statistics issued by Columbia University's
National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), Stacia
Murphy, President of the National Council on Alcoholism and
Drug Dependence commented, "Regardless of the debate,
the bottom line is that alcohol is not a drink for children.
Alcohol is a drug - a powerful, mood-altering drug that affects
children's changing and developing body systems. This is a
critical public health issue and we need to stop abdicating
responsibility and worrying about percentage points."
Early
use of alcohol can draw children into a host of problems and
aggravate existing ones; alcohol may have profound and persistent
effects on children's physical and psychological development,
even into adulthood. According to former Surgeon General David
Satcher, M.D., children who begin drinking alcohol before
the age of 15 are four times more likely to develop alcoholism
in adulthood than those children who do not begin consuming
alcohol until the legal age of 21. Unfortunately, as Dr. Satcher
noted in an interview with NCADD, "Alcohol is the drug
most frequently used by American teenagers. It is consumed
more frequently than all of the illicit drugs combined and
is the drug most likely to be associated with injury or death."
As Ms.
Murphy further notes: "It's time for the nation to acknowledge
that alcoholism is a disease, not a rite of passage."
To that, I say, "Amen." We adults can no longer
evade the serious consequences of underage and excessive college
drinking. Alcohol is constantly marketed to underage drinkers
and is strongly associated with athletic and social events
popular with high school and college students. Establishments
knowingly serve underage drinkers at happy hours, two-for-one
and all-you-can-drink specials, often with a wink and a nod
to fake identification. And, sadly, many underage drinkers
are often first presented with alcohol in their own living
rooms, dining rooms, and kitchens."
I am not
not against drinking socially; nor are most of my medical
colleagues. What I am against is a society that promotes the
heavy use of drinking by the nation's young without considering
its many negative consequences. Then, when too many of these
kids develop an addiction to the drug alcohol, the uninformed
turn their backs on them, calling their resultant alcoholism
a sign of moral failure rather than recognizing them as victims
of a medical disease.
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