Call To Prosecute Teen Tipplers' Parents

There are calls to prosecute parents who give their children alcohol after new figures which show young girls are drinking almost twice as much as they were seven years go.

Females aged 11 to 13 consume an average of eight units a week, equivalent to four large glasses of wine, or more than a bottle.

The charity Alcohol Concern says parents who give alcohol to under-15s, even with a meal at home, should face prosecution.

The figures, published by the NHS, showed that boys admitted drinking an average of 12 units last year compared with eight in 2000.

Alcohol Concern chief executive Srabani Sen said: "We are simply not doing enough to protect our children from alcohol.

"Binge drinking by children can have serious consequences."

The charity is proposing a range of measures to tackle the problem.

These include a 16% increase in alcohol taxes and making Alcohol education a part of the National Curriculum to teach youngsters the dangers of drinking.

The Portman Group, which represents the drinks industry, said there was a case for raising the minimum age for drinking from five, but said that 15 was too high.

Chief executive David Poley said: "On the continent, parents give children small amounts of alcohol at home with their meals in a controlled way so they get used to drinking in moderation.

"They don't suffer from binge drinking issues."

Public health minister Caroline Flint said: "The Government is serious about tackling alcohol- related harm and excessive consumption.,

"Recent data shows that levels of binge drinking are no longer rising.

"The new alcohol strategy to be published this summer will continue to drive reductions in alcohol related offending and harmful behaviour."

She said the strategy will combine "education, treatment and tough penalties".

Sky News

Weekend bingers face double the cancer risk

Women who drink the equivalent of about two bottles of wine over a weekend more than double their risk of breast cancer.

Research shows a direct link between drinking large amounts in a short space of time and the chances of developing the disease.

Doctors found binge drinking four or five drinks on a day in the week increased the breast cancer risk by 55 per cent, compared with having one drink.

But downing 16 to 21 drinks during a weekend -about two bottles of wine upwards - puts up the risk by 150 per cent.

Experts believe alcohol is the biggest factor behind surging rates of breast cancer in the UK, with 44,000 cases diagnosed each year and 13,000 deaths.

In the latest study, Danish researchers followed the health and lifestyles of 17,647 nurses from 1993.

By 2001, 457 were diagnosed as having breast cancer.

Those who drank excessively on just one day during the week had a 55 per cent increased risk of developing breast cancer.

But it was the minority of women who binge drank from Friday through to Sunday, that were at most risk. Doctors from the Centre for Alcohol Research in Copenhagen warned such drinking increased the risk by an alarming 150 per cent.

Those drinking large amounts - 22-27 units - across the week had an increased risk of 130 per cent.

The study showed with each additional drink during the week, the risk of developing the cancer increased by four per cent.

A Cancer Research UK study estimated around one in 20 cases of breast cancer each year can be blamed on drinking.

But the risk escalates with several drinks consumed in a short space of time.

Binge-drinking in the study was classified as four or more units of alcohol in a session - UK health guidelines recommend no more than two or three units for women. A unit of alcohol is a half pint of lager, a small glass of wine or a pub measure of spirits.

More than one in five young women is a binge drinker, according to official UK figures. They show 22 per cent of women aged 16 to 24 had drunk heavily on at least one day during the previous week.

Writing in the European Journal of Public Health, Dr Lina Mirch who led the study said: "The impact of alcohol consumption in weekdays or weekends has not been addressed in previous studies of risk of breast cancer.

"To minimise the risk of breast cancer our data imply that women should not do any binge drinking or drink larger amounts of alcohol."

She said it was possible that weekend binge drinkers drank more on each drinking occasion than weekday bingers - which would explain the higher risk associated with weekend bingeing.

It is unclear how drinking alcohol promotes breast cancer but it may work by raising levels of the sex hormone oestrogen in the body.

Dr Mirch said: "The detrimental effect of binge drinking suggests a biological different effect of alcohol or its metabolites, when high serum concentrations of alcohol might be related to peaking levels of oestrogens.

"This could lead to an enhancement of the harmful effects of alcohol on breast cancer."

Dr Mirch warns that most women have little to fear from enjoying a drink occasionally.

She said: "The risk is minor for moderate levels of weekly alcohol intake, but increases for each extra drink consumed."

Heart specialists say older women benefit from modest drinking because heart disease cases soar after the menopause but it has to be balanced against an increase in breast cancer.

Dr Alison Ross, of Cancer Research UK, said: "Even small amounts of alcohol can increase the risk of breast cancer."

She said the advice to women was to limit the amount of alcohol they drank and try to keep a healthy body weight.

Daily Mail

The girls of 11 who drink 'a bottle of wine a week'

Young girls are drinking nearly twice as much alcohol as they were seven years ago, a report has found.

The study shows that female drinkers aged 11 to 13 consume an average of eight units a week, equivalent to four large glasses of wine - more than a bottle.

This is 83 per cent more than they were drinking in 2000.

Male drinkers of the same age consume an average of 12 units a week, or six pints of beer. This is a rise of 43 per cent in the same period.

Frank Soodeen, of the charity Alcohol Concern, said: "We are sleepwalking into a public health crisis if young people drink from an earlier age and start to drink more.

"The problem clearly starts from a very young age and we need to start focusing on these children. Otherwise we will see more and more older children sprawled on street corners."

It is possible that some of the 8,000 children surveyed by Alcohol Concern may have overstated their alcohol consumption to impress.

Mr Soodeen said increased alcohol consumption impacts on school performance - and drinking is the cause of 14 per cent of school exclusions.

The charity warns that alcohol caused a rise of 20 per cent in the number of children admitted to hospital between 1999 and 2005, when there were 7,500 juvenile alcohol-related admissions a year.

Alcohol dependency may now affect up to 15 per cent of 16 to 24 year olds - with brain damage a real possibility, it added.

Mr Soodeen also referred to a study conducted last year showing that 29 per cent of under-18s could buy alcohol in pubs and 21 per cent in off-licenses.

"It is shocking that nearly one in three underage people are able to buy alcohol in pubs," he said. "We need to start being more punitive with those premises that are selling alcohol like this.

"Alcohol-related harm is a much greater problem than drug-related harm and yet the Government pumps more resources into drugs. We need to rebalance our spending."

The charity said that the Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy, launched by ministers in 2004, had failed to make a significant impact on bingedrinking among the young.

Research from 2006, quoted in the report, found that there was a small decrease in the number of youngsters who had drank alcohol in the past week.

But those who did drink consumed far more than they did in 2000. The largest rise was among 11 to 13-year-olds.

The report concluded: "These are startling results for a strategy which aimed to raise awareness about alcohol misuse among young people.

"The lack of targets or focus within the strategy to reduce young people's drinking has resulted in continued increases in consumption among 11 to 15-year- olds and ongoing issues with teenage pregnancies.

"Eleven to 13-year-olds in particular are drinking more than in previous years."

The charity says the rise in the amount that pre-teens are drinking will, in many cases, lead to alcoholism.

Tory health spokesman Andrew Lansley said: "It is deeply worrying that binge drinking is so common in young teens.

"The Government has failed to deliver the message to teenagers that alcohol is bad for their health."

But public health minister Caroline Flint said: "The Government is serious about tackling alcohol-related harm and excessive consumption. Recent data shows that levels of binge drinking are no longer rising.

"Our current Know Your Limits campaign, while focusing on the 18 to 24 age group, can also inform younger age groups of the potential harms of alcohol misuse and influence their future drinking habits."

Daily Mail

Teens have a new vision of 'youth clubs' - drinking in outdoor areas

"There is nowhere else for us to go, we don't cause any damage to people, if there was more clubs or places to go we wouldn't have to take to the streets to drink. "

That's the view of one Strabane teen, aged 16, who drinks on the street.

Others may well disagree and point to the facilities available to young people in the town but areas such as the River Walk and the Canal Basin are now the ideal location for teens to be with their friends.

Is this the new 'youth club' where young people congregate to drink, socialise and 'have a laugh' with their friends?

Whilst all that seems very innocent, the fact is that it is illegal for teens to drink, illegal to drink on the street and the long term effects of their 'past-time' is dangerous.

The communty has long been aware of the blight of underage drinking on the streets of the town.

Areas such as the Riverside Walk and Canal Basin are being used for teen's social gatherings, where alcohol is consumed.

Strabane Council is aware of the issue, but a solution to the ongoing problem does not seem to be imminent.

Sinn Fein's Ivan Barr said, "Obvious areas such as the Canal Basin and the River Walkway, that are subjected to street-drinking are showing signs of substantial vandalism.

"Strabane Council takes a firm approach when dealing with this issue, Prosecution rates for street drinkers are higher in Strabane than in any other district.

Mr Barr said, "The community should come together and play a more active role in educating these youths in the dangers of alcohol and the effect it can have later in life."

Statistics show that at least 5,000 people under the age of 21 die due to alcohol related incidents, such as car accidents, homicide and suicides.

Youths do not seem to be aware of the dangers of alcohol and believe it is harmless fun.

It is extremely worringy as consuming alcohol from an early age can lead to many health risks in later stages.

That may well be the case but is it now the case that many youths do not necessarily fear the authorities, preferring to take their chances, and are unaware or complacent about the possible effects on their lives and health.

The Riverside walk, once a popular area for many families to enjoy, is littered with empty beer cases and cans.

This problem is causing huge concern for those that live in the area and parents who fear the problem will worsen if drastic action is not taken.

One concerned parent told me, "When my children leave the house, I constantly worry about where they are and what they are getting up to, I am fully aware that this town has high levels of underage drinking.

"I feel that the PSNI should be frequently patrolling these areas, as not only is it causing upset amongst residents of highlighted areas but it is extremely dangerous for those involved."

The amount of alcohol consumed by youths in Strabane is leading to many anti-social problems.

Some teens become violent and destructive, which in many cases lead to fights and incidents involving the PSNI.

Many businesses in the town have had continuous problems due to this trend, with windows being smashed and obscene amounts of vandalism.

The PSNI's Community Safety Inspector, Graham Dodds said, "We currently do spot-checks in the areas that are most affected by under-age drinking, however we can not be in two places at once.

"We do have a zero-tolerance policy and with re-offending culprits we do take things further and prosecute.

"We do not want to criminalise the youths so to prevent this the teens will be taken to their parents.

"The PSNI would be more inclined to prosecute the suppliers of the alcohol or the licensed premises that sell alcohol do under-age youths."

In this past 18 months, four licensed premises in the Strabane area have been prosecuted for the selling of alcohol to minors. The PSNI do seize any alcohol from those they suspect are underage and drinking in a public area.

When asked about the alchohol-related crime incidents he says, "We have a strict policy when violence is concerned, almost all cases that have enough evidence, will result in prosecution."

The PSNI would appeal to the public to report any licensed premises that may be serving minors.

"It would be advised to parents to keep a closer watch on your children, be aware of what they are doing and where they are going.

"If you do suspect that your child may be involved in under-age drinking inform me personally and I will ensure that the problem is dealt with."

Many feel the government need to introduce more funding so that community-based programmes can give teens an alternative to on street drinking.

At Springhill, Community activist, Paul Gallagher said, "We are currently trying to implicate new plans through the neighbourhood renewal plan.

"We are addressing the problem of under-age drinking and hopefully reducing the amount of under-age drinking and alcohol mis-use.

"We want to help those in the community that are marginalised and provide support services for those involved.

"Together with the help of the Western Drug and Alcohol association we will be able to provide education programmes to help the teens who are unaware of the dangers of alcohol."

It is undeniable that the issue of under-age drinking in streets, pubs and clubs can never completely be ruled out.

However as a community there are many ways to minimise the statistics. Working as a community may put a end to this problem.

I took to the streets of Strabane to gauge the opinions of local people on underage street drinking.

I asked, "Should more be done to prevent drinking in public places such as the Canal Basin and the River Walkway?

Local woman Dympna Kelly said, "Yes there should be more done as there are too many people drinking in streets and parks.

"It should also be dealt with by the PSNI. They should work together with the Council to solve and prevent this problem."

Suzanne Porter is angry that youths are using local amenities.

"I think it is a disgrace for so much money to be used on a public walkway, for youths to use it as a drinking place and to subject the area to high levels of vandalism.

"The people living around the area feel uncomfortable using the walk, which was initially to be used as a public attraction.

"More should be done to prevent this."

And Bryan McShane adds, "There should be more youth clubs and areas for teens to go, to keep them off the streets.

"Off-Sales should be more cautious as to who they are selling the alcohol to."

Strabane Chronicle

Spotlight on... alcohol misuse

Bob Kiley, the former Transport for London boss, recently spoke out about his alcoholism, admitting that he often drank vodka in the afternoon, but arguing that his drinking habit did not affect his work.

However, according to a survey by counselling service provider Employee Advisory Resource (EAR), one-third of employers say they don't have any support structure for staff who have difficulties with alcohol.

On average, says EAR, one in 10 employees has an alcohol problem, yet many employers may not know how to provide appropriate intervention and support to an addicted employee.

EAR's clinical director Dirk Hansen suggests that if an employee's performance is compromised, then the employer should intervene.

"If a drinking problem is suspected, based on evidence at work, then that employee should be offered referral to occupational health, a GP, an employee assistance programme, or specialised in-patient or outpatient treatment," he advises.

Hansen says that one of the primary detectors of alcoholism abuse is when the employee is no longer able to manage their life due to a clear dependency on alcohol. Signs of this could be arriving late for work, needing to leave early, absence, poor performance, or delays in completing projects.

HR needs to raise awareness among employees of substance abuse policies so that staff are fully aware of the firm's position.

However, Don Shenker, director of policy and services at Alcohol Concern, worries that too many employers who are confronted with evidence of alcohol misuse treat it as a disciplinary matter rather than a health problem.

This can be a difficult area, says Shenker, as while employers may be concerned about an employee's wellbeing, there are issues of privacy to navigate. "Employees must have a sense that they won't be penalised for admitting they have a drink problem," Shenker says. "Bosses can be the key to encouraging their workers to seek help and advice."

Professor of organisational psychology and health at Lancaster University Management School Cary Cooper advises that colleagues should not be afraid to address alcohol misuse issues.

"If someone suspects a colleague has a drink problem, they should talk to them and seek help from HR," he says.

"Most organisations know when someone is an alcoholic, but a lot of people feel they shouldn't interfere because it is personal or feel guilty about reporting a colleague."

Managing alcohol problems

* Employees need to know the company's position on alcohol use - what is considered acceptable behaviour and what is not.
* Base interventions on evidence at work, not on hearsay.
* HR's role is not to police the personal lives of the employees, but if alcohol use is having an adverse impact in the workplace, then it is HR's responsibility to intervene and offer support.
* Consider implementing a counselling service or employee assistance programme.

Personnel Today

Call to stop children's drinking

Parents who give alcohol to children aged under 15 should be prosecuted, a charity has said.

The call comes in an Alcohol Concern report on the government's Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy.

The study highlights figures that suggest a large increase in the amount of alcohol being drunk by 11 to 13-year-olds.

Public Health Minister Caroline Flint told the BBC she did not think the proposals would be enforceable.

Alcohol Concern also wants a 16% rise in alcohol taxes, a ban on brewers selling to retailers at a loss, and a crackdown on under-age alcohol sales.

It is currently illegal to give an alcoholic drink to a child under five except under medical supervision in an emergency.

The report's figures, published by the Information Centre (IC) last November, showed boys aged 11 to 13 who had drunk the previous week drank an average of 12 units of alcohol in 2006 compared to eight in 2000.

The figure for girls increased from just under five units in 2000 to just over eight in 2006.

A spokeswoman from the IC, which is a special health authority that provides information to the NHS, said: "It would be too early to say whether this most recent data was a blip or a genuine increase in drinking among this age group."

Alcohol Concern chief executive Srabani Sen said: "Our report shows that we are simply not doing enough to protect our children from alcohol.

"Binge drinking by children can have serious consequences for brain function, significantly raises the risk of alcohol dependency in later life and diminishes their life chances."

Sensible message

Ms Flint said there would be difficulties in enforcing a ban on drinking in the home.

"I don't think passing a law to ban alcohol for those under 15 would be enforceable or necessarily effective.

"But certainly one of the things that we do need to think about is how we all, as parents with families, do what we can do to have a sensible drinking message within our own homes."

She also said the government was serious about tackling alcohol-related harm and that levels of binge drinking were no longer rising.

"Recent figures showed there has been a 5% drop between 2001 and 2006, of young people aged between 11 and 15 who had drunk alcohol in the previous week.

"The new alcohol strategy to be published this summer will continue to drive reductions in alcohol related offending and harmful behaviour through a combination of education, treatment and tough penalties."

Ms Flint's views are supported by a Scottish charity which fears that putting alcohol completely out of bounds could make it more tempting.

Alcohol Focus Scotland is in favour of the continental approach of educating children responsibly about drinking and thinks that the ban proposal is a step too far.

'New social reality'

Alcohol Concern would include meal times at home in the ban on giving alcohol to young people.

Frank Soodeen, a campaigns officer for Alcohol Concern, said: "We are facing a new social reality where children seem to be adopting older behaviour at a younger age.

"One of the things we need to do is get parents on board."

He also suggested there was a need to consider new legislation regarding the issue.

The charity would like to see a ban on alcohol advertising before the 9pm television watershed and non-18 certificate films in cinemas.

The National Curriculum should include alcohol education to teach about the dangers of binge drinking, it added.

Alcohol Concern said the drink-drive limit should be lowered from 80mg to 50mg per 100ml of blood.

The charity's Glass Half Empty report looked at the government's strategy which was published three years ago.

Meanwhile, the BBC's Helen Neil said there were calls for alcohol education to be included in the national curriculum in order to raise awareness about the dangers posed by drinking.

She said tighter control on drinks advertising have also been suggested by campaigners.

BBC News

Research - Binge drinking raises cancer risk

Women who drink the equivalent of roughly two bottles of wine over a weekend more than double their risk of breast cancer, say Danish researchers.

A study of 17,647 nurses found twice the risk of breast cancer in women who drank 22-27 drinks a week compared with those who drank one to three drinks.

The risk was greatest when drinks were consumed in a short period, reported the European Journal of Public Health.

Experts said women should try and limit the amount of alcohol they drank.

Women in the study were aged over 44, and most drank a moderate amount of alcohol.

A drink was classed as a bottle of beer or a glass of wine or spirit, which in Denmark is roughly 12g of alcohol. .

More than a quarter of the women drank more than the recommended 14 drinks a week.

One in 10 were week-day binge drinkers, having more than four drinks a day and 13% were weekend binge drinkers, defined as more than 10 drinks between Friday and Sunday.

There was a 2% increased risk of breast cancer for each additional drink consumed, but at weekends there was a 4% increased risk with each additional drink.

The researchers said this was because more drinks were likely to be consumed in a weekend drinking session.

Drinking 22-27 drinks over the course of the week was linked to a 130% increased risk.

Those who drank excessively on just one day during the week increased their risk by 55%.

The researchers said higher alcohol intake may increase levels of oestrogen - a hormone associated with the development of breast cancer.

Dr Lina Morch a researcher in the Centre for Alcohol Research in Denmark, who led the study, said: "What our study suggests is that the total amount of alcohol consumed has a detrimental effect on the risk of breast cancer, but also the drinking pattern seems to have an impact on the risk.

"When more drinks are consumed within a limited time frame the concentration of alcohol in the blood peaks, which we suppose is more harmful than when the same amount of alcohol is consumed over longer time periods."

She advised women to drink moderate amounts of alcohol and to avoid consuming lots of drinks in one day.

Figures from the Health Survey for England in 2003 showed that 23% of women aged between 16 and 24 drank over 21 units a week.

A previous study by Cancer Research UK found that a woman's risk of breast cancer increases with every additional daily drink of alcohol.

Dr Alison Ross, Cancer Research UK's science information officer, said: "Researchers estimate that alcohol causes at least 2,000 breast cancer cases every year in the UK.

"Even small amounts of alcohol can increase the risk of breast cancer. Other research has shown an increase of risk of 7% for each alcoholic drink consumed on a daily basis.

"To reduce the risk of breast cancer our advice remains to limit the amount of alcohol you drink and try to keep a healthy body weight."

Female First

Female alcoholics may sustain greater cognitive damage than male alcoholics

Researchers and clinicians already know that alcohol abuse and/or dependence can lead to severe and potentially irreversible brain damage.

It is also known that women, when compared to men, seem to become more "damaged" by chronic alcohol abuse within a shorter period of drinking and with less overall consumption. A new study shows that female alcoholics may also sustain greater cognitive damage than male alcoholics.

Results are published in the May issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

"The term , telescoping, generally refers to the fact that women experience the negative physiological consequences of alcohol abuse/dependence earlier in their drinking careers and with less alcohol consumption than do men," explained Barbara A. Flannery, senior scientist at RTI International and corresponding author for the study. "For example, women have greater liver, heart and other cardiovascular consequences than do men."

"Despite our knowledge of alcohol's deleterious effects on the brain," said James C. Garbutt, professor of psychiatry and research scientist at Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, University of North Carolina, "the more subtle effects of alcohol on cognitive function and brain structure have been more challenging to assess. However, with the advent of increasingly powerful neuroimaging techniques, changes in brain structure and function can be detected in patients early in the course of alcoholism. Furthermore, neuropsychological measures can be utilized in an attempt to correlate decrements in performance with brain pathology. Together, these techniques are opening up a new perspective on alcoholism, with implications for treatment. For example, it is becoming clear that anatomical and functional changes occur before the development of overt dementia."

For this study, researchers compared the performance of four groups , Russian male (n=78) and female (n=24) alcoholics, and non-alcoholic control subjects (n=68) , on a series of neurocognitive tasks: motor speed, visuoperceptual processing, visuospatial processing, decision-making, and cognitive flexibility. Participants were recruited from the Leningrad Regional Center of Addictions, and from Pavlov Medical University.

"At a group level," said Flannery, "the female alcoholics , when compared to the male alcoholics , performed worse on tests of visual working memory, spatial planning, problem solving, and cognitive flexibility." These deficits fall under the category of executive functioning, she added, which are also called higher-order functioning because they involved the integration of more primary cognitive skills.

"Deficits in executive functioning have a more pervasive effect on one's ability to function on a daily basis," Flannery said. "For example, difficulties with problem solving could impact an individual's ability to plan and execute a strategy to overcome a dilemma in daily life."

These results would suggest that women are at risk of developing cognitive problems more rapidly than men, said Garbutt. "The results are particularly interesting because this population is a relatively , pure, alcohol-using population," he said. "This is important because one of the problems in studying alcoholism is that it is commonly associated with other drug use such as marijuana or cocaine, which may produce cognitive problems separate from alcohol. These findings indicate that specific cognitive deficits occur in alcoholism."

Both Flannery and Garbutt believe these results extend the concept of physiological "telescoping" to include cognitive "telescoping," meaning that women appear to experience both physiological and cognitive declines from alcohol use sooner and with less alcohol consumption than do men.

"Women should be made aware," said Flannery, "and this includes teenagers and college women who drink to excess, that alcohol has a more detrimental effect on them both physically and cognitively than on men and it would behoove them to drink more in moderation."

Garbutt concurs, adding that, "more specifically, the study reveals that excessive alcohol can reduce one's intellectual abilities. This is important because this knowledge might have increased motivating power to help some individuals move away from destructive drinking. Further, the observation that women may be more sensitive to these effects could help in counseling and in public-service announcements targeted towards women."

News Medical Net

School Board gets alcohol abuse grant; says binge drinking a problem in Boca

Binge drinking is a problem in Palm Beach County, according to Alison Adler, District Chief of Safety and Learning Environment for the Safe Schools Institute.

She singled out Boca Raton and Jupiter as areas where teen binge drinking is greatest in the county.

Addressing this issue, school board members recently approved a $2 million grant from the US Department of Education, spread over a three-year cycle.

However, board member Debra Robinson expressed concern over abuse education programs not reaching all students, in particular minorities.

“We need to do all we can to decrease alcohol and other substance abuse. The problem is when I look at the data, who takes advantage of the program is honestly predominately white. Is there a bias?” she asked.

Robinson said, “I’d be surprised if I saw 85 to 90 percent of all alcohol instances on campus were white children. I don’t think it’s unique to any subgroup. I’m concerned with the bias of referral. I don’t see a representative sampling. Let’s delve into why black students are not taking advantage of this, unless the statistics show there’s not a problem with the community on campuses.”

Superintendent Art Johnson, a former principal at a Boca Raton high school, said alcohol use is “definitely a problem among white students.”

“The availability of a vehicle and money is a factor. In the mornings there were a lot of incidents called Breakfast Clubs where they would drink a keg or six-pack of beer and come to school intoxicated,” he said.

Adler said there is no bias.

“We are offering alternatives to suspension and encourage all schools. Only 34 percent of students are taking it up,” she said. “This grant targets binge drinking and it’s a problem in Palm Beach County and predominantly in Boca Raton and Jupiter.”

Johnson added, “It’s predominantly a white issue with binge drinking because of the wealth factor. They have the means and the opportunity to take advantage of it.”

The grant will provide prevention services to four selected high schools as well as the development of technology-based staff development. The design and implementation will be replicated for use by other schools. Program elements include:

• Development of a Youth Council and Strategic Planning Team;

• Implementation of Class Action, a science-based model alcohol prevention program including curriculum, training, materials, payment for substitutes; partnering with Hanley Center;

• Social norms marketing;

• Staff development;

• Underage Drinking Town Hall meetings; and

• Continuation, support, and training for the Alternative to Suspension program FACE IT, a family educational substance abuse program for students and parents.
Board members said measurement tools will include: pre and post surveys, focus groups, implementation records, and satisfaction surveys.

Boca Raton News

Shock of teenage booze casualties

The number of under-18s admitted to Worcestershire's hospitals after drinking binges soared 45 per cent in the last three years.

Experts say the figures - for admissions due to drink-related illnesses such as alcohol poisoning - are just the tip of the iceberg, with many more patients, both under and over the legal drinking age, being treated for injuries and illnesses caused by alcohol, but not recorded as such.

It is costing the county's NHS £20 million every year and taxpayers £200 million.

The news mirrors a report by the Institute of Public Policy Research suggesting Britain's drinking culture is spiralling out of control, with one in three teenagers classified as a binge drinker and, from the age of 12, the number of drinkers in Britain outstripping the number of non-drinkers.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust, which runs the hospitals and whose staff are on the front line dealing with the growing problem, declined to comment on the figures other than to say any violence towards hospital staff as a result of alcohol was taken very seriously.

But Dr Richard Harling, the county's director of public health, said: "There's no doubt that this upward trend is real. People are starting to drink younger and binge drinking is more prevalent. There's no denying it puts a huge pressure on the health service and society in general.

"There needs to be a big change in society's thinking - such as what's happening with smoking - before the trend starts reversing."

Peter Thorogood, the chief officer at Worcestershire community alcohol team, said the figures came as no surprise to him.

"Our own figures show we saw 839 new clients in 2006/07 against 487 the year before.

"It's easy to see why it's happening - every year, the drinks industry spends £227 million on advertising, while the Government spends just £3.7 million on warning people of the dangers of alcohol."

But he said he did not blame the introduction of the new laws to allow 24-hour drinking which came into force in November 2005, for the rise.

Instead he attributed it to a lack of education and a change in social values.

He said: "It's the English culture. Parents, schools and the church all used to influence values but these values are rapidly disappearing.

"Also, alcoholic drinks are targeting younger and younger people, getting sweeter and sweeter.

"The Government is doing little to help - for instance funding in Worcestershire pays for 50 drug workers, but just 12 alcohol workers. There's been no investment for alcohol advisory services for years."

Worcester MP Mike Foster said alcohol problems were a cultural challenge that needed to be tackled, and it was not just the Government's responsibility.

He said: "Of course more funding could always be used, whatever the issue, but the debate is where the money should go - the acute services that deal with the problem, or the public health side of things to deal with problems early on."

Mr Thorogood said there were a number of initiatives in Worcestershire to help reduce alcohol problems. including the alcohol team training GPs to intervene when they suspect an alcohol problem, and approaching patients at Worcestershire Royal Hospital.

Also, as part of a pilot scheme, from May 1, if someone is given an £80 fine for disorderly behaviour due to alcohol, they will have the chance to not pay the fine if they agree to two help sessions with the alcohol team.

Worcester News

Men and women show alcohol problems differently

Women with drinking problems may show it in different ways than men, which could make their alcohol abuse harder to detect, according to a study published Monday.

In a study of 2,750 men and women, researchers at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis found that the sexes showed some key differences in symptoms of problem drinking. For example, men more often reported problems like bingeing or getting into fights, but women were more likely to report feeling depressed or guilty about their drinking.

Psychologist Penny E. Nichol and her colleagues report the findings in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

Traditionally, the rate of drinking problems and overt alcohol dependence has been higher among men than women. However, researchers have suggested that one reason could be a potential "male slant" in the criteria used to diagnose these problems -- criteria developed largely from studies of men.

The weight given to "male-oriented" symptoms, like bingeing and aggressive behavior, may mean that women's early drinking problems fly under the radar in some cases.

"It's possible we aren't capturing women's symptoms," Nichol told Reuters Health.

The current findings suggest it might be useful to develop a separate female-oriented scale for alcohol problems -- or at least a "gender-neutral" one, according to Nichol and her colleagues. However, much more research is needed before that happens, she said.

The researchers arrived at their findings by asking study participants a wide range of questions on their drinking habits, as well as the effects their drinking had on their feelings and behavior. Of the 105 signs of alcohol abuse the study considered, there were significant gender differences in one third.

Men more often reported they binged, got into fights when drinking, or they needed to drink increasing amounts in order to get drunk. Women were less likely to report such male-oriented symptoms, but they were more likely to have symptoms of depression or to say they felt guilty when they drank -- two traits not usually assessed in standard measures of alcohol abuse.

Instead, these measures typically focus on "outward behaviors," like when and how much a person drinks, according to Nichol. It's thought that women, in contrast, might have more "internalizing" symptoms, she noted -- a theory the current findings support.

Further studies, she said, are needed to confirm that there are significant sex differences in problem-drinking symptoms. Then researchers can look at whether sex-specific measurements improve diagnosis.

Reuters

Schuyler targets underage drinking

On April 3, a Watkins Glen mother was accused of buying alcohol for her daughter and friends to take with them on a spring break trip, bringing to light a problem among Schuyler County youths that officials say they are trying to combat.

A neighbor who spotted suspicious activity took action and prompted the arrest of Mary Lea Cornish, 37. She was charged with first-degree unlawful dealing with a child, a misdemeanor.

Cornish pleaded guilty to that charge April 7 in Watkins Glen Village Court. Village Justice Nicholas Dugo ordered a pre-sentencing investigation by the Schuyler County Probation Department, and will schedule sentencing for a later date.

In December, police busted an underage drinking party in Montour Falls that led to charges for 17 people ranging in age from 18 to 20. Most of them pleaded guilty and faced $50 fines, community service or a combination of both. The owner of the property where that party was held, Francis E. Elliott, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and was ordered to pay a $200 fine. Elliott declined to comment when contacted by telephone.

Those are only two of many incidents made public during the past few years linking underage substance abuse to Schuyler County, officials said.

Adult complacency has been an issue in Schuyler County, said Marcia Kasprzyk, Schuyler County Public Health deputy director.

"When we conducted a health survey at the end of 2005, what really jumped out at us were the (underage) injuries related to drugs and alcohol, more than twice the state average (in Schuyler County)," Kasprzyk said. "Yes, there is a problem."

During a study in 2000, 32 percent of Schuyler County high school students reported favorable attitudes toward drug and alcohol abuse and admitted having friends that abused such substances, according to a published report from the Geneva-based Council on Alcoholism and Addiction of the Finger Lakes. About 21 percent of middle school students demonstrated the same attitudes, the report states.

Nearly 40 percent of students surveyed reported having at least one family member with a serious drug or alcohol problem, according to the report.

It's difficult to compare the rural Schuyler County with other counties because of its small size, said Billie Lohr, Council on Alcoholism and Addiction of the Finger Lakes environmental prevention specialist. A more recent study was conducted by the council in December, but the results haven't been compiled yet, she said.

"Schuyler County is smaller, but they're starting to do more to address the problem," Lohr said. "They've been in the public eye more recently than other counties because these kids are getting caught. That's not to say it isn't happening in other counties, they just aren't being caught as often.

"The community recognizes that (underage drinking) is a problem," said Matthew Hayden, Schuyler County Assistant District Attorney.

The biggest concern among parents, Lohr said, is getting the message that it is destructive behavior through to their children.

"They're concerned that it is happening, and they're hoping that the morals and values they've instilled in their children will stay with them when they leave the house," Lohr said. "Once the kids leave the house, one of the largest concerns I'm hearing is that parents don't know who they can trust with their kids."

One of the biggest challenges, Lohr and Hayden said, is changing the mind-set of the community.

Lohr's council, along with the Schuyler County Commission on Underage Drinking formed about a year ago, hold forums to educate parents about criminal and civil laws pertaining to underage drinking.

"People seem to think they can have a party at their house because it might be OK with parents of the other children, but it's not. A parent could say, 'Well, he only had two drinks at my house,' but if that kid gets into trouble, say an accident, because you were in the line of consumption, you could be on the hook, making you the liable party," Hayden said. "Only a child's parents can be the ones providing alcohol in family situations."

"Some parents have no idea they can lose everything if their kids get into trouble while drinking underage, say drinking and driving, getting into an accident and causing the death of someone else," Lohr said. "Of course, that's the worst-case scenario, but it could happen."

Penalties for underage drinkers include a $50 fine, up to 30 hours of community service or completion of an alcohol awareness program or a combination of all three, Hayden said.

"That's all we can do within the perimeters of the law," he said.

"Kids know they're not supposed to drink and drive, and for the most part, they're compliant with that," Kasprzyk said. "That said, they've only taken that piece. Now, we have to carve out the rest of the message."

"If we inform the adults, the additional knowledge will trickle down to the children," Hayden said. "This empowers parents to know the law. People are starting to get it. The concept that it's OK to drink before you're 21 is not suitable. There is no real appropriate underage drinking party."

The county's commission on underage drinking is targeting parents, teachers, coaches and anyone in a position of authority who has regular interaction with people under 21, about the legal ramifications involved, Hayden said.

"There is no overnight fix," Lohr said. "Some people ask, 'What are you going to do?' I ask, 'What are we going to do?' We're trying to change the mind-set of an entire community, and it could take a couple of generations before we see a significant change."

Meanwhile, Hayden said his office is charged with enforcing the law and prosecuting people who get caught.

"If you disagree with the law, the remedy is not to break the law," Hayden said. "Petition your representatives if you want to see it change."

Star Gazette

15-year-old drank 15 pints in one night

Paramedics are increasingly being called out to treat children in Norfolk who have overdosed on booze, including one case in which a teenager drank 15 pints of lager in one night.

The extent of the county's under-age alcohol problem has been revealed after ambulance crews assisted nearly 200 under 18s who had drunk too much alcohol in just one year.

In one case, an ambulance was called after a 15-year-old boy downed 15 pints of Stella Artois lager in a single binge. Another incident involved a 12-year-old who drank a whole bottle of cider.

Today calls were made for children to think about the damage they are doing to themselves by drinking - and for parents to be more aware of what youngsters are up to at night.

Matthew Ware, spokesman for the East Anglian Ambulance NHS Trust, said: “If you are drunk, then by definition you have taken an overdose of alcohol. But there are there are probably many more calls we categorise as assaults and falls and so on.

“In quite a lot of these call-outs, the children did not go to hospital but were left in the care of their parents.

“We would rather not be attending cases like that, when there are people in more urgent need suffering things like cardiac arrests.”

Figures from the trust show that between April 1, 2006 and March 31, 2007 crews treated 197 under 18s in Norfolk who had been drinking. It is thought that many other call-outs to children could be drink-related, such as trips and falls.

As previously revealed by the Evening News, alcohol abuse and binge drinking is resulting in more and more youngsters being treated at accident and emergency (A&E) departments.

Last year, 507 people aged between 16 and 19 were treated in A& E at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital for alcohol-related problems, up from 180 in 2005.

Out these, 46 were admitted with an alcohol-related illness such as liver poisoning, kidney disease or a mental disorder related to drinking heavily.

The number of under-18s in the Norfolk area seeking long-term treatment for alcohol-related health problems also rose by 18pc in the past year.

In March, health officials voiced concerns about the sharp rise in the number of alcohol-related deaths in Norfolk.

Government statistics show that since 1997, the number of deaths in the county in which alcohol was a primary cause had risen from 50 a year to 81.

Norwich Evening News

Alcohol anklets detect drinking in Vegas court program

Robert Fry has a dirty little secret shackled to his ankle.

It sits above his work boot, right where the construction worker sweats, right where his buddy could see it and snicker -- Fry's little Big Brother, an alcohol monitoring machine that detects any drinks he sips by analyzing secretions of his skin.

Identical anklets are strapped to about 60 Clark County residents, men and women whose problems with alcohol have landed them in court.

They're people who have agreed, as part of a pretrial promise not to drink, or for a reduced bail, or in lieu of jail time, to wear the black plastic devices, called SCRAM, short for Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor.

Have a drink and SCRAM can tell. Try to take it off and SCRAM can tell. Try to rig the system by slipping something between the sweat sensor pads and skin (one person tried a slice of bologna) and SCRAM can tell. And will tell, tattling to the judge.

Alcohol Monitoring Services Inc., the Denver-based company that makes the device, has seized on Las Vegas as one of its brightest booze monitoring capitals, a jewel box of drinkers and drivers where 98 people were killed in alcohol-related car wrecks last year.

Company officials hope to increase Clark County's monitored men and women to as many as 300 by year-end.

Fry practically pickled himself last summer. Married and divorced in the same month, diagnosed with diabetes and grieving the death of his parents, the

40-year-old Las Vegan was drinking his way out of a dark place and ran right into the law.

He was arrested for driving under the influence twice within a few months. His blood-alcohol levels were measured just short of five times the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Nancy Oesterle ordered Fry to wear the anklet late last year. It indicated Fry hasn't had a drink since.

"I guess sometimes you have to be hit over the head," he said.

How it works

The anklet detects alcohol consumption by testing the wearer's sweat once an hour for ethanol vapor. The wearer uploads the results once a day to a home modem that transmits data to company headquarters in Colorado. If SCRAM detects alcohol, employees contact Aaron Fleisher, who oversees Clark County's SCRAM operation. Fleisher outfits people with the device and informs judges when someone fouls up.

In certain circles, Fleisher is known as the "SCRAM man."

"Plenty of people try to circumvent it," he said, holding the 8-ounce anklet with both hands. The device resembles bulky battery packs strung on a synthetic band. It sits snug to the skin like a watch.

SCRAM senses and reports any indication of tampering to company headquarters.

Certain products can cause the machine to detect alcohol even of the wearer isn't drinking.

Perfumes, colognes and generally anything that is applied with a propellant -- hair spray, for example -- can cause SCRAM to misfire.

But sweat analysis ultimately differentiates between a beer and a beauty product. The body's alcohol burn-off rate of the two is different. "No swimming," he said.

The device has been on the market for more than two years, and the company has outfitted more than 32,000 people nationally. The technology has been challenged in court, but SCRAM data have been ruled admissible with few exceptions.

Testing it out

Judge Oesterle, an early Clark County SCRAM adopter, has used the device in her courtroom for a year. Initially, she was skeptical.

The judge doesn't drink, so her test of the technology was to have intern Bill Partridge, a motivated student of drinking age, wear the anklet for an evening and imbibe. The test was successful.

"My law clerk made sure he was intoxicated," Oesterle said. "He was still under the influence when he came for his internship the next day, and he did very little work."

An hour-by-hour analysis of Partridge's experiment shows that when the intern arrived at work, his blood-alcohol content was almost 1.5 times the legal limit. Partridge's alcohol level had spiked with an early morning Bloody Mary.

Oesterle has since ordered

12 defendants to wear the anklet. The wearer pays a

$100 hookup fee and then $12 a day for the duration of the monitoring, which is determined by the judge.

Tony Sardis had three DUI arrests in seven years.

The 36-year-old Las Vegas food handler would get off work and start drinking. Generally, too much.

Now he's wearing the anklet, and he, like all wearers, doesn't know when it's coming off.

"If you're in this program," Sardis said, "you have a drinking problem."

Las Vegas Justice Court handed 7,017 misdemeanor DUI cases last year. It's routine for Oesterle to hear several cases a day involving people two and three times over the 0.08 limit.

Fry was embarrassed when a friend spotted the anklet peeking out from under his jeans. Perhaps more than anything else, shame has sobered the single father.

His son is unaware.

"I go out of my way to hide it from him," Fry says. "But if he asks, I'll be honest."

RGJ

Liberal culture, cheap liquor, stress feed alcoholism in the army ...

The malaise

The army's top brass has recognised alcohol abuse as a problem.

Studies show that 2 out of every 1,000 officers and 8 out of every 1,000 jawans have alcohol-related problems

Current army orders discourage holistic treatment for alcoholics

Easy access to alcohol at subsidised rates has compounded the problem

What the Army docs order

Set up deaddiction centres in Pune and Delhi.

Adopt a more humane approach. Scrap the army's existing orders that dismiss alcoholics who have had a single relapse.

Decrease the monthly quota of alcohol available through canteens.

Involve self-help groups like Alcoholics Anonymous in the rehabilitation process.

Better man management to curb stress.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. But that's for the civilians, senior officers would most likely tell young rookies in the army. A soldier needs a peg or two to keep him in good cheer and stay fighting fit. The departing British military left behind even their slang: the chhota and Patiala pegs are part of the folklore of several regiments. Nothing enhances camaraderie in the army like free-flowing liquor—free-flowing because of the subsidised rates it's available at—whether it's on festive occasions like Holi when officers and jawans share a drink, or merry evenings at the mess. Social drinking is considered a stress-buster in a force that often has to operate under considerable pressure in inhospitable conditions.

But what happens if the men in uniform take drinking beyond social levels, and become alcoholics? Old-timers will tell you that there were only stray instances "in their time" when an officer or a jawan would have to be treated for alcohol dependency. Never was it perceived as an area of concern. Now, alcoholism has been officially identified as a "problem", one that the army needs to address on an urgent basis.

The recognition that alcohol dependency among officers and men was increasing at an alarming rate came at the biannual commander's conference last October where the top brass were in attendance. Soon after the meet, the adjutant general's branch at army headquarters—responsible for all welfare measures in the army—shot off a letter (HQ letter No. 76025/GDMS-5A dated December 1, 2006) to the Army Base Hospital, Delhi, asking it to come up with proactive solutions to the problem of alcoholism.

How acute the problem is can be assessed from a medical paper authored by a senior army doctor. The data published therein shows that 2 out of every 1,000 officers are dependent on alcohol while 8 out of every 1,000 jawans showed symptoms of alcoholism. Statistics collated over the last four years clearly establish that the army has the highest number of serving personnel who were hospitalised due to alcohol abuse with the navy coming a close second. The air force reported the least number of cases. The army also had the highest number of officers and jawans who had been "boarded out" (dismissed) because of alcohol dependency.

Official figures, however, seldom reflect the full extent of the problem. Many cases go unreported to army hospitals, and those having a drinking problem do not come forward to seek help. This is because orders issued by army headquarters in 2001 (and then revised for officers in 2004) are pretty cut-and-dried: if personnel are found to be alcohol-dependent, they get only a single chance to kick the habit. In case of a relapse, they are boarded out of the army on medical grounds.

Army doctors, therefore, recommend a less harsh approach which would encourage an officer or jawan to seek medical help at an early stage.

Currently, alcohol dependency is not reported since it is feared it would lead to an officer or jawan being dismissed from service. And when he is finally admitted to hospital he is already at a stage when a relapse is inevitable. Incidentally, once admitted for alcohol dependency, the dreaded AFMS-10, popularly known as 'Form 10', is invoked to isolate alcoholic personnel, and initiate action for immediate dismissal from service if they have a relapse. In other words, it is assumed straightaway that the patient will not recover.

As a solution, the Army Base Hospital, Delhi, came up with a report as a follow-up to the note from the adjutant general's branch. Accessed by Outlook, it details the following three recommendations:

* Scrap the army's existing orders that seek to dismiss personnel who have had a single relapse.
* Reduce the quantity of alcohol issued to officers and jawans at subsidised rates.
* Set up two dedicated deaddiction centres in Delhi and Pune.

The recommendations submitted to army headquarters advocate the need for a holistic solution to the problem. The medical fraternity within the force thinks the army must first accept the causes that lead to alcohol abuse. These have been spelt out thus in the report:

* The permissive culture of the armed forces that encourages a person to drink.
* Service conditions like fighting insurgency, high altitude postings, prolonged isolation from family, inability to attend to domestic issues contribute to depression and over-indulgence in alcohol.
* Easy availability of alcohol at subsidised rates. (Over and above what is consumed in the mess, officers have access to a monthly quota from the canteen which goes up with each rank.)
* Delay in referring persons with a drinking problem for psychiatric help.

The fear of Form 10 is reflected in the sharp fall in the number of cases where army personnel have voluntarily reported their drinking problems. However, the number of cases of forced hospitalisation have gone up. According to the report submitted by the Base Hospital, Delhi, while the ideal way to treat cases of alcohol dependency would be to take into account "the inherent propensity of these disorders to relapse during the course of the illness", the current approach is "mostly adversarial, judgemental, arbitrary and punitive". But these observations are in direct conflict with the existing army rules, which clearly state: "It is not in the organisational interest of the army if a large number of officers are alcohol/drug dependent and still continue to stay".

Senior army doctors welcome the setting up of the two proposed deaddiction centres in Delhi and Pune. This, they say, is an urgent requirement because alcoholism in the army has thrown up a host of other problems that have serious repercussions. "Most of the cases of fragging (killing of fellow soldiers) have been found to be committed under the influence of alcohol. But it is an unwritten policy in the army to keep this fact out of the court of inquiry," a senior officer told Outlook.

Army headquarters is yet to take a decision on the setting up of the deaddiction centres, which insiders say would cost less than Rs 50 lakh each. Meanwhile, other issues need to be addressed immediately. For instance, a mandatory evaluation of personnel with illnesses which are likely to be caused by alcohol abuse and delinking the treatment of alcohol abuse from other psychiatric illnesses to avoid any stigma.

Defence minister A.K. Antony wasn't exactly talking about the alcohol problem in the army when he asked his army commanders "to embrace austerity and shun profligacy" last week. But it could well be applicable. Time-honoured traditions and social drinking are quite alright, as long as you are in a state to say no to that extra Patiala peg.

Outlook India

Alcoholism is a Disease, Not a Rite of Passage

The headline read "Intoxicated Students Taken To Henry Mayo." These teens were drinking at school, not just any school, but one of our local high schools. My young friend Allen, at the age of 15, was found close to death on the sidewalk near a Canyon Country park after drinking a quart of vodka in 15 minutes. Lucky for him, his friend called an ambulance and his parents. They saved his life. Year after year, despite the best efforts of parents and teachers, there are headlines across the nation (and in the Santa Clarita Valley) about teen car crashes after an exciting evening at the prom when those who attend then attend parties afterword and imbibe. A recent attempt of teen partiers to sober up a friend who was severely drunk almost killed her for lack of knowledge about alcohol poisoning. And while she made it to the hospital, her parents held vigil through the night hoping she would live. She did, but just barely. One teenager recently told me about drinking 10 shot glasses worth of alcohol at a teen party in a two-hour time period. Another who loves to party cried as she shared how she drinks, blacks out from her drinking and has been sexually assaulted while drunk.

Sadly, many teens are first presented with alcohol in their own living rooms, dining rooms and kitchens. The wink and the nod when acknowledging fake identifications and selling teens alcohol is just as prevalent. How many of you have ever been "shoulder tapped" at a local liquor store and been asked by a teen to buy alcohol? And how many of you did, thinking it is harmless - that teens have the right to party? I know, you told yourself you did it as a kid and you turned out fine.

It only takes a visit to Santa Clarita's Central Park Youth Grove Memorial to see the devastating effects alcohol has had on SCV youth. Alcohol is a drug, as surely as cocaine and marijuana are, and for many of our country's young people, alcohol is the No. 1 drug of choice. In fact, teens use alcohol more frequently and heavily than all other illicit drugs combined. While some parents may feel relieved that their teen is "only" drinking, it's important to remember that alcohol is a powerful, mood-altering drug.

April is National Alcohol Awareness Month and the focus is on one of the most critical public health issues in America today. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, alcohol is the No.1 drug of choice for children and adolescents, and its use is increasing. Each day, more than 7,000 kids in the United States under the age of 16 take their first drink.

The media is saturated with messages that equate alcohol with having a good time. From television and radio to popular teen magazines and the Internet, teens are bombarded with the "it's OK to drink" message. Unfortunately, no matter what the advertising vehicle is, these ads never show or tell the deadly consequences of teenage alcohol use.

Alcohol is a drug that can affect judgment, coordination, and long-term health, and research suggests that early use of alcohol by teenagers may contribute significantly to dependence on alcohol and other drugs later in life, with 40 percent of children who begin using alcohol before the age of 13 becoming alcoholics at some point in their lives. Alcohol is the No.1 drug of choice among America's youth and is a factor in the four leading causes of death among persons ages 10 24.

Not only does alcohol affect the mind and body in unpredictable ways, teens lack the judgment and coping skills to handle alcohol wisely.

We know that significant brain development continues through adolescence. A recent study by the National Institute of Health presents the first concrete evidence that heavy alcohol use can impair brain function in adolescents, causing, in many cases, irreversible damage.

Alcohol-related traffic accidents are a major cause of death and disability among teens. Alcohol use also is linked with the deaths of young people by drowning, fire, suicide and homicide.

Teens who use alcohol are more likely to become sexually active at earlier ages, to have sexual intercourse more often, and to have unprotected sex more than teens who do not drink.

Young people who drink are more likely than others to be victims of violent crime, including rape, aggravated assault and robbery.

Teens who drink are more likely to have problems with school work and school conduct. An individual who begins drinking as a young teen is four times more likely to develop alcohol dependence than someone who waits until adulthood to use alcohol.

The message is clear - alcohol use is a very risky business for young people. And the longer children delay alcohol use, the less likely they are to develop any problems associated with it.

Could Your Child Develop a Drinking Problem?

Kids at highest risk for alcohol-related problems are those who begin using alcohol or other drugs before the age of 15; have a parent who is a problem drinker or an alcoholic; have close friends who use alcohol and/or other drugs; have current behavioral problems and/or are failing at school; have parents who do not support them, do not communicate openly with them, and do not keep track of their behavior or whereabouts.

The more of these experiences a child has had, the greater the chances that he or she will develop problems with alcohol. Having one or more risk factors does not mean your child definitely will develop a drinking problem. It does suggest, however, you may need to act now to help protect your youngster from later problems.

Help your child say "NO" to drinking. At some point, your child will be offered alcohol. To resist such pressure, teens say they prefer quick "one-liners" that allow them to dodge a drink without making a big scene. It will probably work best for your teen to take the lead in thinking up comebacks to drink offers so he or she will feel comfortable and confident saying them. To get the brainstorming started, words like "no thanks" "alcohol's not my thing" "I don't feel like it, do you have any soda?" "Why do you KEEP pressuring me when I've said NO" will work.

Some parents may suspect that their child already has a drinking problem. While it can be hard to know for sure, certain behaviors can alert you to the possibility of an alcohol problem. Mood changes such as flare-ups of temper, irritability, and defensiveness; school problems, including poor attendance, low grades, and/or recent disciplinary action; finding alcohol in your child's room or backpack, or smelling alcohol on his or her breath; switching friends, along with a reluctance to have you get to know the new friends; and a "nothing matters" attitude, for example - sloppy appearance, a lack of involvement in former interests, and general low energy are often clues.

Some parents say that because alcohol is a legal drug, it's hard for them to think of it as being dangerous. Other parents say they find it difficult to talk about alcohol because they drink. It's never too early to start talking with your child about drinking. Some children start asking questions when they are age 4 or 5. Many parents make the mistake of waiting until their child has begun drinking. However if you listen and respond to your child early on in life, you may be able to prevent problems from developing later.

The road to adulthood isn't an easy one, but when it comes to alcohol and children, it's a dead-end street. If you think your child may be in trouble with drinking, you can protect them from years of pain by seeking advice from a mental health professional specializing in alcohol problems as soon as possible. The life you save may be your child's.

The Signal

More alcohol, more often is hardly the solution to a growing problem

Research recently released by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics show that the only criminal offence that became more common in the state in the past two years was malicious damage to property. Other research by the bureau has found that a substantial proportion of these offences were committed by intoxicated males late at night on weekends in the vicinity of licensed premises.

While property offences related to heroin and other drug use have been in decline for more than five years, alcohol-related offences are the only drug-related offences showing an increase.

NSW - along with other state governments - has liberalised liquor licensing laws because the Competition Commission has decreed they are "anti-competitive", that is, they do not allow licensed sellers of alcohol to compete through longer trading hours, and because restrictions on the number of new licences act as barriers to market entrants. The result of treating alcohol like any other commodity has been more licensed premises in our cities, and more pubs and clubs trading for up to 24 hours.

State and federal governments have developed "partnerships" with the alcohol industry to change drinking culture and reduce alcohol-related problems, resulting in "regulatory capture" with governments increasingly accepting the industry's diagnosis, and preferred remedies, for the problem.

The problem, in the industry's view, is a "minority" of drinkers who engage in antisocial behaviour. It may technically be a minority who drink in hazardous ways, but this still represents a large proportion of young Australian men on weekends. Moreover, the alcohol industry generates most of its profits from binge drinking. Conservatively estimated, two-thirds of all alcohol consumed in Australia (and 90 per cent of that consumed by young men) is consumed in ways that put drinkers' and others' health and wellbeing at risk.

The remedies preferred by the industry are public education about safe drinking, deregulation of trading hours, and industry self-regulation - policies that research shows are the least likely to reduce problem drinking.

We know the key drivers of rising consumption are the reduced price of alcohol, its availability because of extended trading hours and the extensive promotion of cheap, high-alcohol beverages.

Instead of acting on recommendations supported by independent research, state governments have adopted the paradoxical idea promoted by the industry that allowing drinking for up to 24 hours a day, seven days a week, will reduce binge drinking and public disorder.

Similar policies in Britain in the past decade have produced large increases in alcohol consumption, violence and alcohol-related health problems. Britain now has one of the highest rates of liver cirrhosis in Europe.

Australia's liberalised alcohol laws have had more modest effects than Britain's, probably because of random breath testing and a tax system that makes low-alcohol drinks cheaper. Low-alcohol beer accounts for 40 per cent of all beer consumed in Australia.

The steady increase in malicious damage offences over the past four years in NSW probably reflects the effects of liberalisations of liquor licensing. This increase promises to be a harbinger of more serious alcohol-related harm if alcohol regulation is liberalised further and consumption increases.

The State Government should heed the lessons of the alcohol summit and avoid worsening these problems, by tightening rather than liberalising liquor regulations. If it chooses instead to reward the liquor lobby for its generous support in the recent election campaign, one hopes the Bureau of Crime Statistics has the funding necessary to evaluate the effects of more liberal alcohol policies on future rates of malicious damage and assault.

Brisbane Times

Drinking age 'should be 21'

The legal drinking age in the UK should be raised to 21 in a bid to curb binge drinking among youngsters, a new report for a leading thinktank has argued.

In an article for the latest edition of Public Policy Research, the journal published by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), journalist Jasper Gerard claims that Britain has "lost the plot" over the regulation of alcohol.

Mr Gerard, a columnist for the Observer newspaper, warns that "tough love" is needed to tackle the "overwhelming" adverse social effects of binge drinking.

While acknowledging that no one measure would be able to conquer the problem of underage drinking, he argues that raising the age at which youngsters are able to consume alcohol would help teenagers come to view it as something "forbidden" to them.

The article also considers other actions which could be taken to stem drinking amongst youngsters, including the introduction of special "smart cards" for those aged between 18 and 21 which would restrict them to buying no more than three units of alcohol.

Taxes of drinks aimed at young people, including alcopops, should also be raised to deter their consumption by youngsters, argues Mr Gerard, who adds that retailers who sell alcohol to minors should be subject to more prosecutions and higher fines.

"By raising the age threshold it is at least possible that those in their early and mid teens will not see drink as something they will soon be allowed to do so therefore they might as well start doing it surreptitiously now," Mr Gerard writes.

"Instead they might come to see it as it should be: forbidden."

Politicians and health campaigners have become increasingly concerned about the misuse of alcohol by youngsters in recent years, with Department of Health figures showing that the number of under-18s admitted to accident and emergency with alcohol-related injuries has increased by 40 per cent in the past three years.

Last month an article published in the medical journal The Lancet also called for the drinking age to be raised to 21, with Dr Russell Viner, a paediatrician at University College London claiming that binge drinking was a "serious problem" among young people.

However, his call was rejected by industry bodies including the Bar Entertainment and Dance Association, (BEDA) which said that raising the drinking age would "simply further drive the trend towards unmediated access to alcohol".

Responding to the latest call to increase the legal drinking age to 21, the government said that it had no plans to implement such a policy, stressing that the "majority of people drink sensibly and responsibly".

"Instead, we are using a combination of effective education and tough enforcement to change the behaviour of the minority that don't," a government spokesman said in comments reported by the BBC.

In The News

Your Alcohol Habits Revealed Using A Tuft Of Hair

The NZ Drug detection Agency Ltd is delighted to announce a revolutionary analysis service that reveals someone’s history of alcohol abuse over many months, and then tracks their treatment. The service, developed by scientists in Britain and Germany, will be offered by The NZ Drug Detection Agency Ltd (NZDDA) in conjunction with Surescreen Diagnostics (U.K) to clinics, treatment centres and law practices all over New Zealand and Australasia.

Alcohol has just been classified as the fifth most seriously harming drug, after only heroin, cocaine, barbiturates and street methadone. In 2005, 19% of men and 8% of women were classed as ‘heavy drinkers’.

Even more shocking is the fact that liver disease is the fifth highest cause of death in Britain. Alcoholics are just as prevalent in society as diabetics. Before today, it has just not been possible to check on someone’s previous long term alcohol abuse.

How is it done?
As the hair grows, it absorbs special markers called fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE’s) and ethyl glucuronide (EtG) into its structure, which remain in the hair indefinitely. These patented markers are only produced when there is alcohol in the bloodstream, and the more markers there are, the more alcohol you have consumed. What makes this analysis revolutionary is that it gives a history going back month by month or even years if required. No other method can do this. Afterwards, an alcoholic’s treatment can be monitored periodically as their hair grows.

What are the benefits of knowing someone’s alcohol history?

• Identify long-term alcohol addicts, offer help and improve treatment success rate

• Prove a parent is fit to have custody of their children

• Identify an alcohol abuser in a safety critical job

• For forensic use, e.g. to prove whether a driver in a road accident was or was not in the habit of overindulging alcohol. (example: Princess Diana’s chauffeur, Henri Paul)

• To prove someone does not have an alcohol problem and is fit to lead (for example running a political party, or head of a corporate business – all hair colours are suitable)

• To prove someone is long-term abstinent and a suitable candidate for a liver transplant.

Scoop

Brief physician interventions have impact on problem drinking

Five minutes of straight talk between doctors and problem drinkers could help reduce the toll of alcohol-related injuries, violence and accidents.

Doctors have long questioned whether a single, short discussion with patients about their drinking could have significant effects on alcohol-related problems, despite dozens of studies supporting such "brief interventions." However, a new review should lay those doubts to rest.

Results showed that brief interventions reduced alcohol consumption by an average of four drinks per week. The study included 21 randomized controlled trials with 7,286 participants.

"The study confirms that relatively short and simple interventions can be quite significant in terms of reducing drinking in the general population," said lead review author Eileen Kaner, Ph.D., a senior lecturer in public health at Newcastle University in England.

The review appears in the current issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates research in all aspects of health care. Systematic reviews draw evidence-based conclusions about medical practice after considering both the content and quality of existing trials on a topic.

Although many physicians have dismissed brief interventions as applicable only to artificial research settings, Kaner found that "the studies in general are biased towards real practice" and there was no difference in the strength of the effects for studies conducted in research settings compared to those done in primary care doctors' offices or emergency rooms.

"These interventions, often as brief as five minutes, are very effective in a larger population sense at reducing alcohol consumption and are easily accomplished even within a busy primary care practice," said Fred Rotgers, Psy.D., associate professor of psychology at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Brief interventions target patients whose drinking has been found to be above safe levels — either because they have disclosed this on screening forms or because a test or injury has revealed possible alcohol-related problems.

During interventions, doctors tell patients about the harms associated with heavy drinking and the personal risk they face. They talk about specific amounts of alcohol and describe what low-risk drinking really means. They note the benefits of cutting back — as well as strategies for reducing consumption. They keep their tone nonjudgmental and matter-of-fact.

While some of the studies included more than one session, more sessions were not associated with significantly greater reductions in drinking.

Although most treatment resources target alcoholicsa specifically, the vast majority of alcohol-related harms such as injuries or accidents involve people who drink heavily but who are not alcoholics, such as underage binge drinkers. The development of brief interventions acknowledges and addresses this much larger group of drinkers.

Rotgers said that most people who receive these interventions are not even aware that their drinking is harmful, so they are not highly motivated to change before the conversation with their health care provider.

"Less-dependent drinkers are more likely to benefit, but more severely dependent drinkers, especially those not yet aware of the medical impact of their drinking, will also benefit," Rotgers said.

He said that many heavy drinkers — even alcoholics — quit drinking without treatment when they become aware that it is harmful, so brief interventions could help catch drinking problems early and prevent them from becoming more severe.

Although there was no statistically significant difference in the results for men and women, women are the subjects of fewer studies and therefore the review could not confirm that brief interventions are effective for women.

Previous research has shown that women are more likely to drink heavily to self-medicate psychiatric conditions like depression than men are, so it is possible that brief interventions will not work if they do not occur in conjunction with treatment for these other disorders. "Brief interventions focus completely on drinking, and thus may miss the root cause of alcohol use for women." Rotgers said.

"There is really no reason for doctors not to act on this now, especially with men," Kaner said.

Center for the Advancement of Health

Keeping teens alcohol-free

Parental disapproval turns out to be the key reason children choose not to drink alcohol.

There is bad news and good news about teenage drinking.

The bad news, research suggests, is that children who start drinking below the age of 15 are more likely to become alcoholics than those who start at the legal age of 21.

The further bad news is that new scientific evidence suggests that underage drinking could damage a teen's rapidly developing brain.

The good news is that concerned federal and state agencies are sounding the alarm about this serious problem.

The further good news is that parental disapproval turns out to be the key reason underage children choose not to drink alcohol.

Even in Utah, a state with a large Mormon population that eschews alcohol, 59 percent of Utah parents are surprised to learn that some heavy binge drinking starts as early as the sixth grade.

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has launched a media campaign called ParentsEmpowered.org designed to educate parents about the dangers of underage drinking and the proven skills to prevent it. "You have more power over the choices your children make than you may realize," say Mr. Huntsman and Utah first lady Mary Kaye Huntsman.

He believes parents who drink should tell their children that some people should not drink alcoholic beverages at all. This includes children and adolescents, pregnant women, and people who plan to drive or take part in activities that require attention or skill. These parents should make it clear they do not want their children to drink alcohol until they are 21 and then only in moderation.

Parents who do not drink should explain to their children the reasons for not drinking, whether they are religious, health-related, or due to family history. They should set clear rules about no underage drinking, know where their children are and with whom, ensure their children's social environments are alcohol-free, and have daily, positive communication and interaction with their children. They should explain that drinking alcohol is not a "rite of passage" but a dangerous drug for a teenager.

The ParentsEmpowered.org campaign draws on research by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. The research finds that alcohol affects a teen brain differently than it affects a mature adult brain. It posits that the brain goes through rapid development and "wiring" changes during the ages of 12 through 21 and that teen alcohol use can damage this wiring.

According to Larry Lunt, chairman of the Utah state agency monitoring alcohol sales, a new law cracking down on sales to young people has increased compliance from 66 percent to 88 percent. Says Mr. Lunt: "We used to say 'reducing underage drinking in Utah.' " But he says the new motto for ParentsEmpowered.org is "eliminating underage drinking in Utah."

Meanwhile, California is considering action against a product that critic Jim Kooler describes as "an insidious strategy to get teens comfortable with alcohol." The product, under labels such as Smirnoff Ice, Mike's Hard Lemonade, Bacardi Silver, and Zima, is flavored alcoholic beverages that The New York Times says look and taste like soda "but offer the kick of a cocktail." Dr. Kooler heads a state-sponsored group that promotes healthy lifestyles for teenagers. He wants California to adopt stricter rules for drinks that contain distilled spirits but are sold and taxed as beer. The Times says that if the products were taxed as hard liquor the tax would jump from 20 cents a gallon to $3.30 a gallon. Maine has already reclassified these drinks, known as alcopops and flavored malt beverages, making them more expensive and difficult to buy. Arkansas, Illinois, and Nebraska are considering doing the same. In California, such reclassification is opposed by small business owners and industry groups.

Gary Galanis, a spokesman for the big alcoholmaker Diageo, told the Times that flavored malt beverages are roughly as potent as beer. The drinks, he argued, come from brewing, not distilling, and the alcohol stems from added flavoring, not hard liquor. But attorney Jim Mosher, who studies underage drinking, says, "If beer has alcohol in it, it's a distilled spirit."

Mr. Galanis says the real problem with underage drinking is not alcopops, but access to alcohol. The numbers, he says, show that underage drinkers get alcohol from siblings over age 21 or parents. From an oddly different viewpoint, this spokesman for the alcohol industry agrees with organizations such as ParentsEmpowered.org that what parents and families do may hold the key to combating underage drinking.

Christian Science Monitor

Raise drinking age to 21, says think tank

Young people should be banned from drinking until they reach 21 or be forced to carry a card that records their alcohol intake, a think tank columnist claims yesterday.

Binge drinking has become such an "overwhelming" problem, argues journal of the left-leaning Institute for Public Policy Research, that policy makers need to practice "tough love" and put drink out of the reach of youngsters.

In an article to be published this week columnist Jasper Gerard will say that the UK has "lost the plot" over drinking laws.

He proposes raising the drinking age to 21 or requiring 18-year-olds to carry smart cards which record how much they have drunk each night and restricting them to three units of alcohol.

Gerrard will also propose increasing the number of prosecutions and the level of fines on retailers selling alcohol to under-age drinkers and upping taxes on alcopops

He said: "The adverse social effects of binge drinking are now so overwhelming that we need to practise tough love.

"By raising the age threshold it is at least possible that those in their early and mid teens will not see drink as something they will soon be allowed to do so therefore they might as well start doing it surreptitiously now. Instead they might come to see it as it should be: forbidden."

"Society is increasingly reluctant to tolerate passive smoking, so why passive boozing - which is what innocent people experience when a drunken, clunking fist attacks them on a Saturday night?"

The number of under-18s taken to hospital with alcohol related diseases and injuries rose in 2005-2006 to 8,299, a jump of 40% on figures three years ago.

A survey by charity, Alcohol Concern, found in 2005 that more than one in five 11-year-olds admitted to drinking. By the age of 12, drinkers start to outnumber non-drinkers.

Independent

Time to reassess the role of alcohol in our lives

Alcohol occupies a fond but complex place in Australian culture: many of us drink, and do so socially and safely. But there are also many people who drink too much, too often — an excess that seems to be viewed more as a hilarious night out rather than the sign of a problem. And that's the rub: we don't want to be wowserish about alcohol, but we know that excessive drinking can lead to big problems. We also know that young people are binge drinking at alarming levels: a recent survey by the Alcohol Education Rehabilitation Foundation of 500 people aged 18 to 24, for example, found that one in four regularly drinks so much they pass out — a deeply alarming figure. So why aren't we more concerned about it?

Teenagers starting to experiment with alcohol grow up into this culture of excessive drinking that, mixed with their youth and inexperience, can have terrible consequences. Which is where the tragic story of 15-year-old Leigh Clark comes in. Leigh died in 1999 after drinking a 375-millimetre bottle of imitation vodka essence, which is equivalent to 22 standard drinks. As The Sunday Age reports today, his parents have reached a confidential payout deal with the manufacturers, with lawyers suggesting this could trigger a wave of lawsuits against companies that promote drinking to children.

There has been concern for many years now that too many alcoholic beverages are being marketed to the young — the lure of the so-called "alcopops" that taste like soft drink but pack the full punch of the alcohol in them. It is high time manufacturers started to be more responsible about who is drinking these products — after all, the point of having a legal drinking age is that our society deems alcohol unsafe for people under 18. At the same time, we need to consider how alcohol is advertised, how it is made available, how well-policed underage drinking is and what kind of education programs are in place for young people.

But we also need to take responsibility for the problem as a community. What are we teaching children about alcohol? Are we also allowing them to consider not drinking, even if all their friends are? A glass of wine at dinner or a few drinks with friends is a perfectly acceptable, sociable and enjoyable use of alcohol.

But there is a tendency to regard excessive drinking, particularly among the young, as cool and a natural rite of passage, rather than a potentially dangerous activity that needs to be reigned in. And binge drinking is certainly not restricted to teenagers — they are surrounded by adults drinking to excess. Little wonder they follow suit. Binge drinking should not be dismissed as a harmless, passing phase: it can lead to potential problems with alcohol dependency later in life, and all the attendant havoc that can wreak.

Certainly, industry need to take a more responsible approach to how and to whom it markets its alcoholic products — something that should also be more tightly monitored by governments.

But perhaps we also need to look at the role alcohol plays in our adult lives, and whether laws that regulate alcohol consumption need to be reformed.

The Age

Call to raise drinking age to 21

The UK has one of the worst problems in Europe with a fifth of children aged 11 to 15 drinking at least once a week.

Public Policy Research (PPR), the journal of the IPPR think-tank, says it is time to practice "tough love", such as reviewing the minimum drinking age.

The government said there were already tough measures in place.

Binge culture

But columnist Jasper Gerard argues in PPR: "When it comes to booze, society seems to have lost its senses."

He says current regulations are failing to tackle the growing trend of underage and binge drinking.

By raising the age threshold, he claims: "It is at least possible that those in their early and mid teens will not see drink as something they will soon be allowed to do so therefore they might as well start doing it surreptitiously now."

Alternatively, he proposes getting 18-year-olds to carry smart cards which record how much they have drunk each night and making it an offence to serve more alcohol to anyone under-21 who had already consumed more than three units.

Crackdown

He conceded that no measure would stamp out youthful drinking entirely, but said it was time for a crackdown.

Alcohol Concern agreed that further action was needed, but did not think raising the legal drinking age would help, pointing out that other countries which have already done this, including the US, still have a problem with youth drinking.

But a spokesman added: "There is a sense that the regulatory landscape is lopsided.

"Licensing reform, resistance to a debate on taxation, the cancellation of the Alcohol Misuse Enforcement Campaigns which raised the profile of underage drinking issues - all happening at a time when alcohol-related harm is rising - seem to suggest the government is more concerned about making sure the drinks industry operates with as little interference as possible than with seriously grasping the nettle."

However, David Poley, chief executive of the Portman Group, said the drinks industry was already subject to "very strict and effective" regulations.

He said: "What we really need to do is change the drinking culture through education rather than making drinking a social taboo by raising the legal drinking age."

A government spokesman said: "The majority of people drink sensibly and responsibly and the government has no plans to raise the minimum drinking age.

"Instead, we are using a combination of effective education and tough enforcement to change the behaviour of the minority that don't."

He said there had been campaigns to cut sales to underage drinkers and restrictions on TV advertising of alcohol, as well as education programmes in schools about the dangers of drinking.

BBC News

Parents urged to help curb teen drinking

Parents need to tighten their rules and push other adults to take firmer stances against drinking among teenagers, speakers said Thursday evening during a forum aimed at curbing underage alcohol use.

"Underage drinking is an adult problem," said Patricia Baker of the Elgin-based Renz Addiction Counseling Center. Baker said she's spoken with many parents with lax attitudes about their children's drinking.

"This is a social norm ... and there is reason to be concerned about parents who think they need to teach their children how to drink ... that think if they're drinking at home, they're drinking under safe circumstances, that they can teach their children how to drink responsibly."

The forum, sponsored by The Courier News and its sister publication The (Aurora) Beacon News, was the latest of several communitywide responses since a Feb. 11 drunken-driving crash killed five Oswego teens.

Speakers from prevention and addiction counseling agencies around the state told an audience of about 100 parents, community leaders and legislators that to prevent future tragedies, they need to learn more about teen alcohol use.

"Don't be in denial," said Plano parent Barb Nadeau.

"You have to know what your kids are doing. You have to educate yourself about drugs and alcohol. You have to learn all this because your kids already know it."

Youths say it's a problem

Nadeau's son, Sean, a junior at Joliet Catholic Academy, said he hears about teen drinking parties that take place every weekend.

"In my school and the town that I live in, drinking is a very, very big problem," said Sean Nadeau, one of about two dozen teens from Project Snowball, an anti-drinking student group, who also attended the forum.

According to the local leaders, children are starting to drink and use drugs at younger and younger ages, and the behavior has become almost commonplace in area towns.

Stacy Anderson, assistant director for prevention at St. Charles North High School, said St. Charles Community Unit School District 303 conducted a survey of about 7,000 of its students in sixth through 12th grades and found startling results.

About a quarter of them reported drinking once or more in the last month; more than a quarter said they rode with a driver who drank; and 36 percent said they'd attended a drinking party in the past year.

"These are local statistics that are really scary," Anderson said. "I have been to more teen funerals in eight years than I have been for adults ... That scares me. It scares me a lot."

Parents ignoring problem

The problem, the speakers said, is that too many parents in the area are ignoring the problem or letting kids drink while they are home. St. Charles Police Chief James Lamkin said officers often try to break up teen drinking parties by tracing license plate numbers of cars parked outside. But when they call the parents, many "don't want to get involved."

"Parents say, 'My son or daughter doesn't drink ... Why are you bothering me? I don't want to come to the station,' " Lamkin said.

And many of those adults also succumb when their children ask them to let them drink or host underage parties in their homes.

"Make no mistake that it is a crime," warned Kane County Assistant State's Attorney Debra Bree. "Parents can be charged, and I believe in Kane County will be charged."

Statewide, legislators said they're working on a number of bills that will do everything from raising penalties for underage drinkers to blocking alcohol companies from running ads targeted at youths.

But laws will do little until adults change their attitudes, they said.

"The reality is, this is happening in your community. It is happening in your neighborhood, and if we're not very careful, it could be happening to your children," said state Sen. Linda Holmes, D-Aurora.

"As a senator, do I need to do something about it? Yes, of course. Unfortunately, what I've found is you can't legislate common sense, and you can't legislate good parenting."

The Courier News

Cheers – the lowdown on alcohol

In South Africa, you have to be 18 before you can buy alcohol in a liquor store or in a bar. In certain US states, it is 21. But despite these restrictions, alcohol is still the most easily obtained mind-altering substance available, and there are many teens who have severe drinking problems.

Don't get me wrong –