Three drinks a day increases risk of breast cancer by a third

Women who have more than three drinks a day of wine, beer or spirits increase their risk of breast cancer by 30 per cent.

It is not the type of alcohol that counts but the amount, US researchers will tell the European Cancer Conference in Barcelona today. The increased risk associated with a daily consumption of three or more drinks is similar to that from smoking a pack of cigarettes or taking HRT, they said.

Previous studies have provided conflicting results about whether wine drinkers are more prone to breast cancer than spirit drinkers, or vice-versa. The researchers from Kaiser Permanente, a leading US health maintenance organisation, based in California, suggest they have now settled the matter with one of the largest individual studies on the effect of alcohol on the risk.

The results show that one or two alcoholic drinks a day increases the risk of breast cancer by 10 per cent compared with light drinkers who drank less than one drink a day. There was no difference between wine beer and spirits and no difference between red and white wine. Arthur Klatsky, an author of the report, said: "A 30 per cent increased risk is not trivial. To put it into context, it is not much different from the increased risk associated with women taking oestrogenic hormones (HRT). In previous research, we have found that smoking a pack of cigarettes or more a day is related to a similar increased risk."

He added: "Statistical analyses limited to wine preferrers, beer preferrers or spirits preferrers or non-preferrers each showed that heavier drinking compared to light drinking was related to breast cancer risk in each group. This strongly confirms the relation of ethyl alcohol to increased risk.

The researchers studied the records of 70,000 women who had undergone health examinations between 1978 and 1985 of whom 2,829 had developed breast cancer by 2004. They compared the amount of alcohol drunk and the frequency of drinking as well as the type of drink – wine, beer or spirits – preferred.

Previous research conducted in the UK has shown alcohol increases the risk of breast cancer by 6 per cent for each drink consumed daily. However, that study, co-authored by Sir Richard Doll, who discovered the link between lung cancer and smoking, found no evidence that smoking contributed to breast cancer. Drinking in Britain has been rising for a decade and the proportion of women aged 16-24 consuming more than three drinks a day has doubled to 18 per cent. In July, results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition showed people who drank four drinks a day (equivalent to two pints of beer or two large glasses wine) increased their risk of bowel cancer by 25 per cent.

Dr Klatsky said although only a small proportion of women were heavy drinkers, the 30 per cent increase in their risk might mean there were 5 per cent more cases of breast cancer in the population overall. The health consequences of drinking were complicated because it also protected against heart attacks but different mechanisms were at work, he said.

"We think the heart protection benefit from alcohol is real, and is probably derived from [its effect on] cholesterol, reduced blood clotting and reduced diabetes. None of these mechanisms are known to have anything to do with breast cancer."

All the studies point to the fact that people who drink something live longer than those who drink nothing – teetotallers. But weighing up the risks can only be done by each person for themselves. The outcome is likely to depend on how much they enjoy drinking – and whether they fear heart disease or cancer more.

"Our findings provide more evidence for why heavy drinkers should quit or cut down," he said.

The Independent

Battling the Bottle

Acting U.S. Surgeon General Kenneth Moritsugu said he didn’t start drinking alcohol until after the age of 21 — and he credits his parents with setting a good example.

While growing up on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, he remembers his father enjoyed an occasional beer and his mother a rare glass of wine.

“My parents were my role models,” the nation’s top health educator said in a telephone interview while on his way to the governor’s mansion Tuesday. “It’s exactly the message that we’re trying to get out into the community — that parents and adults need to model responsible drinking, when it is appropriate and when it is legal. But also be respectful of the fact that the science tells us increasingly that underage drinking is dangerous to our youth, (and) is also dangerous to our community.”

One of the dangers is death.

Across the nation, underage drinking contributes to the death of about 5,000 young people a year through automobile accidents, homicides, suicides, drownings, burns and falls.

“These are all totally preventable deaths,” Moritsugu said before his public address at The Lensic Performing Arts Center. “We really need to do something about it, and that’s the reason that I’m here.”

At the request of first lady Barbara Richardson, Moritsugu came to New Mexico this week to promote his Call to Action to Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking. More research on adolescent alcohol use; careful coordination between parents, schools, communities and governments; and consistent policies are part of the national plan.

Binge drinking — consuming five or more drinks — is common among New Mexico students. In 2005, more than a third of high school freshmen and about half of juniors and seniors reported heavy drinking within the previous month.

“I would tend to say we have a big problem on our hands.” said Alice Sealy, who coordinates Teen Court in Santa Fe and urged offenders in the program to attend Moritsugu’s talk.

“The biggest deterrent is if parents would notice (that their children are drinking),” she said. Police who break up parties should call the parents of underage drinkers, she said, but don’t always do so.

You might not be able to keep your child from sampling alcohol before the legal drinking age — 70 percent of Americans have had at least one drink by age 18 — but you can teach your child what responsible drinking looks like and why it’s important.

Sealy agrees parental behavior is powerful. “If your kids see you drinking every night, they think it’s OK,” she said.

Though parents and guardians can legally serve alcohol to their underage children in their own home, Moritsugu said he discourages the practice. “I think that we send our kids a mixed message when we say on one hand, ‘No, you can’t drink; you shouldn’t drink.’ On the other hand we say, ‘You can drink at home,’ ” he said. “Our youth, our teenagers are looking for a clear and unequivocal message — and we need to be consistent if we’re going to get that message across.”

The societal norm of letting alcohol flow during holidays where children are present troubles Sealy, who stepped in to prevent an underage drinker from driving after a Passover Seder.

Age 21 isn’t just an arbitrary number. Science shows that brains continue to develop into the 20s.

“The earlier one starts drinking and exposes the developing brain to alcohol, the more risk ... that person is taking. If there is a risk, why take that risk?” Moritsugu said.

Those who start drinking before age 15 are five times more susceptible to alcohol problems in adulthood, studies show.

Frank Magourilos of the Santa Fe County DWI Program said the surgeon general’s prevention strategies are already in use here. The acclaimed Project Northland curriculum was implemented in Santa Fe middle schools last year and will start up next semester in Pojoaque middle schools.

Magourilos said New Mexico’s strong underage-sales law — which made it a fourth-degree felony in 2005 to sell or give alcohol to minors — seems to be an effective move. “That was a great thing that the governor did,” he said.

Statewide, the law led to 113 arrests in 2007 and 123 arrests in 2006, according to the Department of Public Safety.

Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano said joint sting operations with the state produced six arrests here last year. However, there has been only one arrest this year because of the lack of grant funding to conduct sting operations.

“Research tells us that underage drinking is connected to higher rates of teenage pregnancy, suicide and failure in school,” Dr. Alfredo Vigil, the state health secretary, said in a statement. “We all need to work together to prevent our young people from drinking and putting their lives at risk.”

Moritsugu has been acting surgeon general for more than a year, since Dr. Richard Carmona resigned because he felt pressured by the Bush administration to present a political agenda. Moritsugu is scheduled to take the underage drinking tour to eight states.

Underage drinking: What you can do

Tobacco and illegal drug use are down among American teens, but heavy underage drinking continues.

What families can do about underage alcohol use:

* Support your teens and give them space to grow.
* Set clear rules about alcohol use and enforce those rules.
* Teach your children about the dangers of underage drinking and make clear your expectations.
* Help your teens make good decisions about alcohol.
* Tell teens that any alcohol in your home is off limits to them.
* Don’t let your teens attend parties where alcohol is served.
* Help your teens get professional help if you’re worried about their involvement with alcohol.
* Understand the risk of alcohol use goes up with social transitions (graduation, getting a driver’s license), depression, contact with peers involved in deviant activities and a family history of alcoholism.
* Be a positive role model: Don’t drink too much or too often. Get help if you think you have an alcohol-related problem.

UNDERAGE DRINKING: KEY FACTS

* Alcohol dependence rates in the United States are highest among 18- to 20-year-olds.
* Teens drink less often than adults but drink a larger volume of alcohol on a single occasion.
* Underage drinking kills about 5,000 young people a year.
* Teens who choose to drink may have behavior problems; a strong desire for new experiences; or a history of family conflict, stress or alcohol problems.
* As early as age 9, children think alcohol use is OK.

The New Mexican

Binge Drinking On The Rise In Mediterranean Countries, Study Suggests

Binge drinking has traditionally been more common in Anglo-Saxon and northern European countries, known as "dry drinking cultures," than it has been in Mediterranean countries. However, a study of drinking among adults in the Madrid region of Spain indicates that binge drinking is on the rise.

"In Mediterranean countries, alcohol consumption -- particularly in the form of wine -- has very strong social and historical roots," said José Lorenzo Valencia-Martín, a medical doctor at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and corresponding author for the study.

"Wine is a component of the so-called 'Mediterranean diet' and is typically consumed almost every day in moderate amounts, during meals with family and friends. This is typical of countries with 'wet drinking cultures.' Although many people in Anglo-Saxon countries share this drinking pattern, there is also a tradition of drinking with no meal, and particularly after meals and alone, without the company of family or friends."

Both Valencia-Martín and Joan R. Villalbí, deputy director at the Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona observed that historical patterns of drinking seem to be changing, as binge drinking appears to be on the rise in Mediterranean countries.

"Although traditionally, southern European countries had a pattern of higher per capita consumption, most of which was derived from daily consumption of wine with meals," said Villalbí, "this is changing. For example, daily consumption with meals is decreasing in Spain, and beer is the most consumed alcohol. Binge drinking, particularly among youth on weekend nights, has become a health and social issue in Spain, a process mirrored in other countries of southern Europe."

For this study, researchers examined data gathered during 2000 to 2005 through telephone interviews of 12,037 persons (5,850 males, 6,187 females) considered representative of the adult population (18 to 64 years of age) in the Madrid region. Binge drinking was defined as consumption of eight or more standard units of alcohol (e 80g) for men, and six or more (e 60g) for women during any one drinking session during the previous 30 days.

Results indicate that the prevalence of binge drinking is high in Madrid -- 30.8 percent among men and 18.2 percent among women aged 18-24 years -- and is particularly notable among younger men with a higher education.

"In Spain, the frequency of binge drinking declines with age much more quickly than in Anglo-Saxon countries, where it is relatively frequent until old age," said Valencia-Martín. "And, in Spain, as in most other Western countries, binging is more frequent among those with higher education levels. This latter finding might be related to the absence of family duties among university graduates until a later age than blue-collar workers. It allows young graduates to spend more weekend nights drinking."

"Although drinking to drunkenness is not socially acceptable in Spain," observed Villalbí, "binge drinking is becoming acceptable, especially among youth. However, this is considered to be a fairly new phenomenon for which little empirical data existed. This data would have been extremely useful earlier in 2007 when there was an attempt to develop point-of-sale and publicity regulations on alcohol."

Another key finding of the study was that most of the alcohol consumed by the binge drinkers was in the form of spirits rather than beer or wine (the latter two comprise most of the alcohol consumed in Spain).

"Binge drinking seems to be an 'imported drinking pattern,' based on spirits -- such as gin, whisky, vodka, etc. -- which are not culturally rooted in Spain," said Valencia-Martín. "We think that spirits are mainly used in binging because drinkers may seek the psychoactive effects of alcohol in a relatively short time."

"Spirits and liquor combined with coke or other sodas are popular among the young," added Villalbí. "The liquor industry has been very active in marketing its products among youth, particularly 'alcopops,' and circumventing the current ban on TV publicity of drinks of more than 23 percent alcohol. Their marketing is directed explicitly to the younger age groups, linking drinking with fun and social and sexual success. There is data documenting an extreme growth in alcohol publicity expenditures and its related impact in Spain over the last few years."

Both Valencia-Martín and Villalbí believe that binge drinking is part of an evolving pattern of alcohol consumption across European countries, another consequence of what Valencia-Martín calls the globalization of drinking.

"Obviously it is a very risky consequence," he said, "because binge drinking is associated with traffic crashes, hazardous driving behavior, and injuries resulting from violent behavior. In Mediterranean countries, we must increase the social awareness of this problem, so that families and the government work together to control binge drinking among the youth."

Villalbí concurs. "If drinking is becoming a social and health problem, with important negative effects involving also non-drinkers, it cannot be left to individual options and industry initiatives," she said. "Governments must also be involved and take action. These results provide the framework for an increasing interest in European Union policies in this field."

Science Daily

Tackling Plymouth's booze problem

Alcohol support workers in Plymouth have been allowed to interview suspects in police cells to help combat binge drinking and alcohol-related crime. The scheme is said to be one of the first of its kind, with more than 1,000 suspects taking part.

The police radio in Inspector Stephen Bickley's car crackles into life.

Help is urgently needed after a disturbance outside a hotel in the city centre. Two groups have been involved in a fight and two men have been arrested. One of them needs a car to take him to Charles Cross police station.

Inspector Bickley responds immediately and within seconds he is on his way to the pick-up point.

The young man is bundled into the back seat - judging by the smell of booze on his breath, it is clear he has been drinking heavily.

Nothing unusual in that - most of the calls Plymouth police have to deal with at night are related to alcohol or drug misuse.

Since licensing laws were liberalised in 2005, the police work into the early hours sorting out incidents of drunkenness, street fights and disorder.

It used to be all over within an hour or two of the pubs and clubs closing.

"We don't have big peaks where we have large accumulations of people anymore, but we do have fighting all night," says Insp Bickley.

"There have been occasions where our early shift have come on and they've had to deal with disorder that's still ongoing from the night before."

Although police, door staff and CCTV operators in Plymouth have a well-organised operation to tackle the anti-social behaviour and violence that comes with excess drinking, senior officers believe they need to do more.

"How many years have we dealt with problems over and over again where we've got sexual assaults, violent assaults, criminal damage - where drink's behind it," says Chief Superintendent Jim Webster, the police commander in Plymouth.

"And if we just arrest the offender and just take care of the person who's drunk and ill, at that time do no more, then the problem's going to keep going over and over again."

Consequences of drink

Police looked for ways in which they could engage at an early stage with people whose drinking had brought them into contact with the criminal justice system.

They decided that it had to be done soon after they had been arrested.

"At that point people are pretty open to a conversation, people are sobering up and they can see the consequences of their drinking," says Chief Supt Webster.

"So it's a great time to get in touch with people, to really speak to them."

The "conversation" with suspects about their drinking takes place in the custody suite at Charles Cross - a large, cavernous area, on two floors, with 42 cells.

At night, the suite is like a "whirlwind", says one custody officer, with suspects being booked in, and officers and doctors carrying out checks on detainees.

Walking the corridors, you can hear banging coming from the cells - the sound of people bashing the heels of their shoes against their beds.

But it is in the morning, when things have calmed down, that alcohol support staff carry out their interviews, first asking suspects whether they want to take part.

In the first four months of the scheme, between March and June 2007, 85% agreed to do so - just under 1,000.

'No difference'

I was allowed to sit in on one interview, conducted by Mark Nevin, an alcohol support worker, with a 22-year-old man who had been arrested the night before for allegedly being drunk and disorderly.

He had been spotted trying to open the sun roof of a car. When police arrived they accused him of being abusive.

Mark begins by asking the man how much he drinks.

"Twelve to 20 pints," comes the gruff reply.

"How often do you drink that much?" asks Mark.

"Daily," the young man says.

The questions continue for 10 minutes, with marks given for each answer. At the end of the interview Mark tots up them up and says the man has scored 29 out of 40, which means he's in the "dependant" category of drinkers.

But then, to Mark's surprise, the man declares that he "hasn't got a problem". He says he is just a young guy having fun with his mates, and if his drinking gets out-of-hand in the future, then he will seek help.

Intervention crucial

All that Mark can do is hand over leaflets about drink awareness, with phone numbers to call if he needs more help.

He admits leaflets themselves won't make a "blind bit of difference", but the initial contact the man's had just might.

"The fact they have spoken to someone that is saying 'look, there is somewhere to get help' - that's the important bit, that's the intervention," he says.

"That is the most difficult thing, them actually picking up the phone. But if they have met someone it can help."

Six months into the scheme, it is too early to gauge whether it is a success - although other police forces have shown an interest in developing their own versions. Similar projects are already under way in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire.

But a large number of suspects with alcohol-related problems are at least being assessed and given basic information and advice about their drinking, and in a small number of cases they are referred for follow-up appointments.

Dr Adrian Barton, from the School of Law and Social Science at the University of Plymouth, who is monitoring the programme, says it shows there is an unmet need for more alcohol support services.

"You could probably refer 70-80% of the people who went through this project but the services are not available at present," he says.

"You can't refer people to services that are not there and that is part of the problem."

BBC News

City’s shameful binge drinking record laid bare

Liverpool's culture of excessive drinking was laid bare last night, as health bosses expressed fears the city’s binge-drinking battle plan is not being properly financed.

More than one in four people in Liverpool and Knowsley are binge- drinkers, a report to the North West Strategic Health Authority reveals.

The SHA has asked nine primary care trusts – including Liverpool – to explain how they intend to tackle the high levels of alcohol abuse.

Liverpool and Knowsley have the highest rates of binge-drinking in the North West, while Liverpool is named as one of the worst-hit places in the UK for excessive drinking. Yet Liverpool PCT has admitted it does not have a dedicated budget set aside for an alcohol reduction plan.

A “Smokefree Liverpool”-style campaign aimed at alcohol abuse is now being prepared.

PCTs with high levels of alcohol abuse are in line for extra funding to tackle the problem, with regular binge-drinkers, including those who enjoy heavy drinking week-ends, encouraged to attend “brief” counselling sessions to understand how they are harming themselves.

Liverpool PCT also plans to support employers and trade unions to tackle binge-drinking.

The SHA plans to lobby govern-ment for a change in the law to allow councils to reject extra bar, pub and restaurant licences on the grounds too much alcohol is already damaging people’s health.

According to the report:

Liverpool and Knowsley have the highest levels of binge-drinking in the region, with 27.8% and 25% of the population confirmed binge-drinkers;

Liverpool has the highest rate of hospital admissions for alcoholic-specific conditions in the North West, with almost eight admissions per 1,000 directly related to alcohol, almost double the region’s average;

Another 15 in every 1,000 hospital admissions had some link with alcohol, such as alcohol-related attacks – 50% higher than the North West average;

Liverpool has one of the highest levels of alcohol-linked crimes in the region, over 8,500 in 2004/5, the second worst in the North West;

Only Blackpool had more violent alcohol-related crimes reported to police than Liverpool, which had just under 6,000;

The city has one of the highest drink-driving convictions, almost 10% of the North West total.

Liverpool PCT said it did not have one particular budget for alcohol issues, but that projects were funded from several sources, adding it had new projects starting next month to address the problem.

But Kate Ardern, a director at North West SHA, said: “It is a concern some PCTs do not have a dedicated budget for their alcohol action plans. We are trying to determine what money should be allocated for PCTs and problems associated with alcohol will be a priority. Liverpool does do badly in many of the indicators, so it will probably get more money.”

The SHA also hopes to replicate the success of the SmokeFree lobbying campaign, which began in Liverpool, to win a change in licensing laws so councillors could refuse licences on grounds excessive boozing was already damaging public health locally.

Dr Ardern added: “We will be consulting with our partners with the aim of lobbying government, in the same way we did with SmokeFree to such great effect.

“Alcohol abuse has a serious impact on many lives, and we think councils should be able to refuse new licences on grounds of the health and social impact alcohol is having in an area. We also expect PCTs to introduce more brief interventions for those who are binge-drinking, but who aren’t damaging their health yet. Brief interventions, such as counselling, is one option.”

Professor Mark Bellis, director of the Centre for Public Health, North West Public Health Obser-vatory (NWPHO) at Liverpool John Moores University, prod-uced a report which said alcohol abuse was wiping out the benefits to public health achieved through a reduction in smoking.

He said: “Alcohol is destroying the health gains we have made by reducing smoking.

“More people are developing alcohol-related diseases and there are around 3,260 deaths relating to alcohol every year in England with more in the North West than in any other region. That is the real price we are paying for cheap alcohol and a culture where drinking to excess is not only tolerated but often encouraged.”

A spokesman for Liverpool PCT said: “Liverpool has been com-mended by the Home Office and Department of Health for the work that is being carried out to reduce alcohol-related harm.

“The SHA study asked whether a specific budget was used by the PCT to support the alcohol strat-egy. It required a yes or no ans-wer and did not give an opportun-ity to detail investment commit-ted across a number of work-streams.

In order to maximise investment in the alcohol agenda in Liverpool, a range of funding sources have been used.

Liverpool Daily Post

Council and PCT team up to tackle Camden's drink problem

Camden Council and Camden Primary Care Trust (PCT) have launched a new debate on how to tackle alcohol's harmful effects on society.

It comes as figures catalogue the hidden and widespread damage that alcohol is having on residents' lives.

According to joint research, 46,000 people, more than a quarter of all Camden residents aged 16 and above, are putting their health at risk through the amount they drink in the borough. This includes 9,000 people dependent on alcohol.

The council and PCT are calling for the government to make tackling the problems caused by alcohol misuse a higher priority. The two say the government must provide the extra resources health authorities and councils need.

The government currently provides £8 million for much needed drugs treatment services in Camden, but next to nothing for alcohol treatment services despite it being a greater problem.

Excessive drinking is putting pressure on council and health authority services. They are dealing with the fallout of increased antisocial behaviour and the damage caused to people's health and well-being.

And the lack of funding for alcohol treatment services means only one in nine dependent Camden drinkers has access to treatment. Across the country this falls to only one in 20 people.

The report found that alcohol related crimes are also on the rise. Latest figures link alcohol to at least 1,902 recorded crimes in Camden a year. Alcohol is a major cause of family breakdown, and an estimated 40 per cent of children in care are affected by a parent's alcohol misuse.

The joint report sets out how the council and PCT propose to tackle excessive drinking and the problems it causes.

The plan would build on current projects like the Rugby House project in Agar Grove, which helps people who have an alcohol addiction to recover and remain off alcohol and drugs.

Other successful projects include the council's Best Bar None scheme. This aims to reduce anti-social behaviour by encouraging landlords to improve the management of pubs and clubs.

Executive Member for Adult Social Care and Health, Councillor Martin Davies, said: "Alcohol has been regarded as a medicine and poison throughout history.

"Sadly too many people don't realise the damage that their drinking is having on them, their families and the area they live. We can't work alone on this. We need businesses and residents to play their part.

"We also need the Government to take responsibility and provide the money we need to tackle the problems caused by alcohol."

Dr Jo Copping, Consultant in Public Health Medicine at Camden Primary Care Trust said: "Reducing the harm caused by alcohol is an important priority for Camden PCT. This new strategy outlines how we will work with our partners to alleviate the damage to t he health and wellbeing of our residents resulting from alcohol misuse."

The strategy focuses the Council and health services' work on four key areas. These are:

* Reducing the effect of alcohol on communities, particularly crime and antisocial behaviour.
* Reducing the effect excessive drinking is having on people's health, ensuring residents get help and advice before their health is damaged.
* Providing better and more accessible services, including long-term help to prevent people from relapsing into alcohol dependency.
* Targeting young people, including providing more help for children with parents who misuse alcohol.

The two organisations want to hear residents' views on the strategy before publishing their final plan to tackle alcohol misuse in Camden later in the year.

24dash

Alcohol policy fails to address problem

After the death of freshman Gary DeVercelly from alcohol poisoning last spring, Rider University of Lawrenceville, N.J., decided to take a much firmer stance on alcohol consumption. This fall, the university banned alcohol on campus, added a freshmen alcohol information seminar, and positioned "watchdogs" in fraternities and sororities to enforce the new policy. Rider University also created harsher consequences for those caught, including calling parents after the first offense, a mandatory education seminar, and even potential expulsion.

Although excessive drinking has harmful and sometimes very dangerous consequences, banning alcohol from a college campus is a simplistic response that will cause more harm than good.

If students want to drink, then they will find a way to drink. This new plan will divert students, especially underclassmen, to off-campus parties, which are inherently less safe than those in residence halls, where there is the constant surveillance of RAs, campus police, and other university authority figures. Upperclassmen of legal age will be more likely to visit local bars, increasing the amount of students who will drive home and navigate city streets under the influence.

In the university's defense, it still permits alcohol in limited areas, such as the pub in the student union. But let's face it: The majority of the student body will still venture off campus for its weekend festivities.

The only answer to excessive drinking is education. Everyone at Boston College remembers completing AlcoholEdu as freshmen, attending a seminar with the BC Police Department, and receiving the occasional, "be smart this weekend," from the RA. The knowledge is there, but it's up to the student to apply it.

If Rider University president Mordechai Rozanski truly wants to make the school a "model in the fight to combat alcohol abuse on campus," he must adopt a revolutionary alcohol education program that offers information in a way that is easy to understand, remember, and apply.

The Heights

Binge drinking a common problem among college students

Binge drinking is the consumption of five or more alcoholic beverages in a short period of time. It is a dangerous practice that college-age students are participating in more and more frequently.

Although Utah is ranked lowest in the nation for college drinkers-16 percent according to a government survey-binge drinking can still be a problem.

Binge drinking can cause a person to miss class or work, ignore their responsibilities or engage in risky sexual behavior. There is also a chance of getting alcohol poisoning, which can have deadly consequences.

UVSC student Chris was 22 when he and his friends decided to throw a party. That night he drank vodka, beer, whiskey and other alcoholic drinks. "The next thing I remember, my friends had laid me out on the front lawn because I couldn't stop vomiting."

Later that night his friends, who were also highly intoxicated, laid him in bed. They put him on his side, which kept him from aspirating on his own vomit. "I was so drunk, I couldn't have moved to save my own life," he said. "I'm lucky nothing bad happened to me."

Others aren't as lucky. The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University published a study earlier this year stating there were 1,717 deaths from unintentional alcohol related injuries among college students in 2001. That is a six percent increase from 1998.

NetXNews

Alcoholic Liver Cirrhosis - Insidious Disease of Death

This article is about alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver. Cirrhosis can be caused by other physiological problems and diseases, but alcoholic liver cirrhosis is a social issue that affects not only the person suffering, but also their family and friends.

Hopefully, my story may help someone you or someone you know to recognize the symptoms of this disease and take the steps to end the process before it is too late. Death by alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver is devastating, but there can be hope if it is recognized in a timely manner and medical help is obtained.

For many years I watched my husband slowly drink himself to death. Because of the nature of “alcoholism” he was convinced he had no problem. He drank because he liked it.

He was what I refer to as a “functional alcoholic.” He seemed to maintain and function quite well. He was not vicious nor out of control. He didn’t do inappropriate things. He always got up in the morning; he attended to activities he wanted to accomplish, and he went to work on a daily basis.

After retiring, he maintained our household responsibilities of paying bills, shopping, playing with his grandchildren, and occasionally going on trips to visit relatives in another state.

Two years ago though, his body started slowing down. He refused to go places because he was afraid to travel too far from home. His many trips to the bathroom during the day began to interfere with his ability to even go to the store.

His skin began to resemble yellow, aged paper and the whites of his eyes took on the same yellow tinge. Red spots started appearing on his arms and legs. A slight bump would leave a red bruise under his skin that didn’t go away.

His feet, legs, and stomach swelled to the point that he could no longer fit comfortably in his shoes or clothes.

Yet in spite of all of this, he refused to go to the doctor. He refused to talk about his declining health. He would go to the liquor store and buy his whiskey before he started drinking for the day, as he didn’t start still after 2;00 PM and then continue till 2:00 AM.

After watching his decline and listening to his refusal to admit to his problem, I printed an Internet article describing his symptoms, only the article referred to congestive heart failure. I taped this article to his arm chair and wrote “Read This!” He did; it scared him; he called the doctor. Sadly, only because he thought he had something wrong with his heart! The alcoholic is so unwilling to admit to his disease. Someone told me once alcohol convinces its victims they have no disease.

According to an article written by Howard J. Worman, M.D., “Alcohol abuse is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality throughout the world... Alcohol affects many organ systems of the body, but perhaps most notably affected are the central nervous system and the liver. Almost all ingested alcohol is metabolized in the liver and excessive alcohol use can lead to acute and chronic liver disease. Liver cirrhosis resulting from alcohol abuse is one of the ten leading causes of death in the United States.”

After going to the doctor and after the EKG and other tests showed no significant heart problems, it was identified he had suffered a couple strokes, which had gone unrecognized as he was usually so intoxicated by bedtime his strokes must have appeared to have been just “too much booze.”

His primary care physician referred him to a gastroenterologist to identify and confirm her suspicion of cirrhosis of the liver. This took almost a month to get the referral and the appointment.

By this time, he realized his “drinking” must be causing a problem and he slowed down to just having two drinks a night and felt proud of himself as he was “watering” them down. Upon seeing the specialist, he was told “Do not drink another drop of liquor, do not look at it, and don’t even smell it! You have to abstain from drinking for six months before you can even be considered for a transplant. You could die from this.”

The doctor was firm. He looked him in the eyes, and told him the same things I had been telling him the last two years. He quit drinking that very day but it was too late. In six months he was dead. He died a horrible death.

After many trips to the hospital, the decision was made to place him in a care facility as his needs were too much for me to assist with at home. His decline was heartbreaking to watch as his body wasted away. His inability to do the physical therapy and his frustration over not being able to come home sent me home in tears many times.

Watching him go through the bouts of draining up to eight pounds or more of fluids off his stomach and seeing his mind slip to another place where his reality was “never-never land” became unbearable and sad to witness. After two months in the care facility, the days of violent vomiting of blood began - the prelude to the end.

Fear came to his eyes as he became aware his life was nearing the end. His reaching for my hand to hold as if it was a lifeline before letting go to the “other side” was at times more than I could bear.

This man who I loved for 18 years finally slipped into the silent sleep just before death. I looked at him lying there and knew he was finally at peace. As I felt his cold hands I knew death was near and bent down and kissed his forehead and said my farewell. I had to leave as I knew the solitude of the moment was between him, death and God. After I left, he silently slipped away.

I hope in telling my story, which after only two months, still bears the pain of loss, I can help someone recognize the need to reach out for help if they recognize symptoms of alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver of someone they love or of self. I offer, again, another quote from Howard J. Worman, M.D., “Remember, liver disease is not the only life-threatening complication of alcohol use disorders. All alcoholics must abstain from drinking as numerous other alcohol-related medical, social and psychological problems can lead to morbidity and mortality.”

Salem News

The last resort

With 186 weekly Alcoholics Anonymous meetings to choose from, not to mention more than 40 residential rehab clinics and even its own sober baseball team, Florida's Boca Raton is the recovery capital of America. Paul McCann catches the 'drunk bus' into a town that has given up

It's 7am on a Sunday morning in Florida and around 100 people are sitting in a circle on a long sandy beach overusing the language of self-discovery. The clouds of cigarette smoke wafting up from the circle tell you that this is no ordinary group of Americans. This is the 7am Sunrise on the Beach '(Bring your own beach chair)' meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous in the little holiday town of Delray Beach. Former drunks tend to smoke a lot.

A pretty blonde in her forties mentions the time she was stopped for drink driving with her children in the car. A muscular Hispanic man in his twenties talks about the temptations of spending weeks on the road with work buddies who drink every night. Otherwise there are few 'drunkalogs', as tales of past excess are known; instead, many speakers refer to the towering August thunder clouds hovering off the coast as evidence of the 'higher power' that helped them change their ways. There is as much non-specific, New Age spirituality in the air as there is humidity.

Among the circle is a man in a baseball cap with a little girl of about six. After listening to grown-ups emoting for half an hour she wanders off to attempt cartwheels on the sand. She passes three people in nurse's uniforms who stand off at a distance: they are therapy 'techs' or porters from a local rehab clinic who have escorted their three charges - identifiable by orange plastic wristbands - to the meeting.

This is just one of the 186 weekly AA meetings in and around the towns of Delray Beach and Boca Raton, about an hour north of Miami. There are also dozens of Narcotics Anonymous meetings and a plethora of other 12-step programmes, including Clutterers Anonymous and Obsessive Compulsive Anonymous - two meetings you hope don't ever get mixed up or invited over to each other's houses.

The meetings serve the most concentrated population of former drunks and junkies in the US. A town of regrets and second chances, Delray Beach is the recovery capital of America. There are more than 40 residential rehabs within 20 miles of the town, some $10,000-a-month country-club rehabs and others just small, anonymous clinics in office developments that bus their patients in from apartment blocks.

The rehabs run regular shuttles, known as the 'drunk buses', to Fort Lauderdale airport to pick up each new wave of incoming addicts. Many are told to get hammered on the flight, because private insurance companies will only pay for rehab if patients are still in danger of having seizures as they detox (a not-uncommon risk). If they have already sobered up, they won't be considered a medical emergency. Cocaine addicts often have to pretend to be drunks so that they can get insurance cover.

'The combination of sun and the beach is very healing,' says Jeannie Saros, 51, a one-time Montreal heroin addict and now an addiction specialist who runs group-therapy meetings in the garden of a Delray coffee shop. In the Seventies and early Eighties there were a few treatment centres in Delray and Palm Beach County that were different from hospital-based clinics. They were run by recovering addicts and had a more empathetic approach. 'The people who left them tended to stick around the area,' says Jeannie. 'I came down here in 1981, I got in recovery, and I got an identity.'

If recovering addicts go back to where they came from, everyone they know will often still be drinking and using drugs. So instead the rehabs refer their clients to the huge network of sober or halfway houses that have grown up in Delray and Boca to serve them. These are ordinary apartments where the owners use a regime of drug testing, curfews and peer pressure to keep their tenants straight. There are estimated to be at least 2,000 beds in 'sober houses', but because they don't need to be licensed, no one knows for sure. Some of the sober houses are apartment blocks housing 200 or more people. Others are ordinary family homes on suburban streets.

After six months to two years in a sober house, many in recovery decide they want to stick around a town full of people like them. There is now such a big recovery community that there are AA meetings to cater for every demographic - including meetings with titles like Sobriety in the Wind (bikers), Nubian Men (African-American), Hispanics in Progress, Sisters and Steps (women) and Seniors in Sobriety.

Shawn Tyree organises a weekly gay men's meeting on the beach. Before coming to Delray, Tyree, 32, managed a restaurant in Indiana and was once engaged to a fellow member of the ultra-conservative Apostolic Pentecostalist church. He was also addicted to the morphine derivative OxyContin and indulged in sex with men in public parks. He had a chaotic upbringing that included an alcoholic father, a mother who married seven times - one of her husbands shot himself in front of her - and sexual abuse. He now works as a 'rehab tech' and performs as a drag queen at AA fundraisers under the stage name Crispy Creme.

'After 62 days in rehab I stayed in a sober house for 10 months and saw two people there relapse and get taken out in black bags. I know I don't have the willpower to go back home and stay clean. It's just easier to do it here. I can walk down the street and see 50 people I know from meetings and the sober houses. It also helps that there is a large gay community in South Florida,' Tyree says. 'It helps with my sexuality, because it's the secrets that kill us.'

The blacked-out tattoos on the arms of Bear, 45, speak of the secret he keeps - the name of his old motorcycle gang in Boston. Bear, real name Mark Sheehan, was once shot seven times by a fellow biker. He also spent six years in prison after taking on 16 cops. 'In the past you wouldn't have wanted to know me,' he says with some degree of understatement. 'I was a garbage head - I took anything, booze, drugs, whatever there was.' When he got out of prison in January 2002 he moved straight to Delray. Now he runs his own construction business, often employing people in recovery, and is president of the Alternative MC, a sober motorcycle club. Rather fabulously, this scary-looking group raises money to buy toys for children in an adoption agency and nappies for a pregnant women's shelter. 'It also provides a kind of family for people who have lost touch with theirs,' Bear says. 'You can call on people in the recovery community 365 days a year and they will come running if you need them.'

You don't have to be gay or a biker to find sober diversions in Delray. The Crossroads baseball team - whose players range from 14 years sober down to 34 days - are as diverse and all-American as any of the bar teams they play in their local league. Only, if a Crossroads team member drinks, they are suspended for two days. There are also sober picnics, sober dances and sober cruises. There is even a newspaper, The Solution News, whose advertisers include criminal lawyers, bankruptcy specialists and other get-you-out-of-the-shit service providers.

For all the charity work, community support and sobriety book groups that pepper Delray, there is, as you might imagine, a downside to becoming a magnet for junkies and drunks.

'There are no hard figures, but there is no doubt they have a significant impact on our crime levels,' says Joseph Schroeder, the town's chief of police. 'When they fall they become victims of crime in their desperation to get drugs or become perpetrators to raise money for drugs. They also affect our suicide rate. The other day we found someone hanging from a tree on a golf course next door to the rehab they had been in.' But even in the police department the stigma of addiction is eroding. 'I have lived the dependency issue myself,' says Chief Schroeder. 'My father was an alcoholic and we were always trying to get him treatment.'

The biggest issue the police and the non-recovering community have to deal with are the sober houses that are anything but. 'Some of the halfway houses were just run-down properties being operated by landlords looking to make big returns,' says Pat Archer, a Delray city commissioner. 'They would stick four bunkbeds in every room and either they didn't care what went on in there and it would become noisy and chaotic, or they would take a big deposit off someone then throw them out on the street at 2am for having a beer. Residents' groups started agitating for action to close down sober houses near their $1m beach properties.'

Delray Beach acted to force the sober houses to clean up their act by supporting an owners' association with raised standards and protocols for what to do when someone relapsed. It also sought to enforce tenants' rights legislation that should protect people from sudden eviction, whatever their addiction.

In neighbouring Boca Raton they followed a different tack and passed a zoning ordinance, or planning law, banning sober houses from residential neighbourhoods. This law was opposed successfully in court by an unlikely alliance of a local sober house owner, Steve Manko (who is thought to have 400 beds in the town and who admitted in court making double the profits from sober people that he would by renting to families), the American Civil Liberties Union and the US Federal Government - all argued that Boca was breaking laws that prevent discrimination against the disabled.

There are worse things that can happen in the halfway houses. One owner is rumoured to have plied young women with drugs in exchange for sex. Another big landlord is said to have kickback deals with rehab treatment clinics. 'There are some people who have no sense of remorse or conscience,' says Harold Jonas, president of the South County Recovery Residence Association. 'There is one guy who catches the kids having one beer and then recommends to their parents they send them back into detox when all they really need is stabilisation. The rehab charges him $500 a day and he charges the parents $1,000 a day.' In other cases America's public healthcare fund, Medicaid, has sued some rehab operators for fraud after discovering it was paying $100 an hour to clinics that did little more than take patients shopping while calling it 'therapy'.

The most public scandal concerns a reformed cocaine addict called Allen Bombart. Bombart, who reads like a character from a Carl Hiaasen novel, converted an old Delray motel into a sober house in the Nineties. He was so successful that in 2002 he bought a former psychiatric hospital about 40 minutes from Delray for $5.5m and turned it into a 100-bed rehab called the Family. Described by some as the most beautiful rehab in Florida, the Family had swimming pools, tennis courts, horses and wooded areas for outdoor therapy sessions. It advertised for clients across the US and employed 225 people.

Things started to go wrong in 2003 when Fort Lauderdale police found Bombart's four-year-old stepson locked in the rehab owner's gold-coloured Mercedes. The child had been left in the car while Bombart went to score crack. He was sentenced to 18 months probation for possession and child endangerment and had to give up day-to-day control of the Family. Bookings dwindled, and in January this year his clinic closed, leaving employees unpaid and 18 clients with unfinished treatment.

Whatever the impact of such stories, 1.8m people are treated for alcohol and drug problems in the US every year, and the drunk buses continue their pick-ups at Fort Lauderdale airport, helping Delray's recovery community to grow.

In the garden of the Koffee Okee cafe on 6th Avenue, Wednesday nights see 30 people gather to share in free group therapy, often ending with a mass hug in the middle of the garden. At tables around the coffee shop young people interact like first-year students in any new town; only, once they get past the 'Which state are you from?' question, these teens and twentysomethings discuss the merits of their rehab and sober house rather than their course and fraternity house.

In Delray there are call centres and restaurants where 90 per cent of the staff are in recovery, and Pat Archer believes the city benefits from the influx of people with desperate histories. 'The restaurants don't have to bus people in to work in them and you get ex-lawyers working as waiters, giving you a very skilled labour force,' she says. 'As long as they stay clean and sober.'

The lesson of identity politics in the US is that eventually numbers turn into political power. Some believe the reason Delray's city authorities decided to try to clean up the halfway houses rather than kick them out was because of the number - a number which admittedly no one can tell you - of sober people living in their midst. 'The thing to understand is that once upon a time people used to go to AA meetings in masks,' says Harold Jonas, himself a former heroin addict. 'Now we've outgrown anonymity. We're everywhere, and everyone knows. Without the anonymity we can become a political force. There are moments when groups in America need to stand up and be counted, and our time is coming.' As long, that is, as everyone stays clean and sober.

The Observer

It's time to start tackling our drinking culture

In response to Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill's proposal to halve the drink-driving limit, the Scottish Secretary Des Browne said that the discussion on lowering the limit has been about for a very long time indeed.

This statement is exactly right and precisely the reason why the SNP in government wants to stop all the pontificating and take action, not contribute to yet more consultation. If the UK Government wishes to drag its heels then they should let Scotland get on with it.

This is just one area in which rapid action is needed in Edinburgh to tackle the ugly side effects of our drinking culture.

We are drinking more. The fact that binge drinking is now seen as normal and also often acceptable has serious consequences; it has turned parts of the city centre into intimidating no-go zones at night; it has doubled the rate of alcoholic liver disease in a decade; it results in scores of drunks putting pressure on the Capital's police and hospital services every week; and most worryingly, it has resulted in growing numbers of school children indulging in a drinking habit.

Cohorts of underage drinkers are now a pretty common sight on Edinburgh's streets. More than half of 13-year-olds in the city admit to having been drunk at least once in their lives, rising to 76 per cent of girls and 68 per cent of boys by the time they're 15.

We need measures to crack down on those who supply alcohol to our kids in Edinburgh. It's time to roll out test purchasing of alcohol by under age children in our pubs, supermarkets and off licences. This has been piloted in Fife with great success and the response from licence holders, volunteers and the police has been extremely positive.

Around 19 per cent of premises failed the first test purchase visit, highlighting the scale of the problem of underage sales. Even those who failed were generally positive about the scheme, as long as it is done in tandem with a robust proof of age card scheme and adequate staff training.

Cracking down on our binge drinking culture also means taking the less popular measure of cutting down on heavily discounted drinks promotions.

It's insane that a can of extra strong lager can be bought cheaper than a carton of milk. We shall soon see irresponsible two-for-one promotions ending in pubs and clubs; it's right they should end in off licences too.

These measures are urgently needed in the Capital to halt the dismal upward trend in alcohol abuse and its impact on our health, our economy and our communities.

It's time for us all to stop burying our heads in our pints and move forward to tackle this issue.

Scotsman

Beating the bottle

Since the dawn of time — or at least higher education — college has been synonymous with ivy-covered lecture halls, throngs of students traversing across campus and the consumption of inordinate amounts of alcohol. “This is college,” said marketing sophomore Viviana Ramirez. “It’s kind of the mentality of college students that, ‘Well, I’m in college, I can do whatever I want now’.” But old and new tactics are starting to chip away at this frame of mind as police, university officials and bar owners have amped up their efforts in recent years.

A new plan of attack

Beyond their typical patrol on crowded weekend nights, local police have been using alternative techniques lately.

Since the beginning of the school year, Meridian Township police have been coordinating with the East Lansing Police Department and the Ingham County Sheriff’s Office to run a series of plain clothes operations in the area.

Meridian Township police Sgt. Scott Dawson said the departments have been patrolling local streets, bars, and convenience stores to curb underage alcohol consumption.

“(Officers) are going around in the county and checking restaurants or liquor stores for either people buying or selling alcohol to minors,” Dawson said. “We’ll go into a bar undercover and see if there is anybody there that looks underage and ID them.”

Dawson said these types of projects help spread the word to students that police are actively patrolling locations where alcohol typically runs freely.

“We’re hoping to educate them that we’re actually looking for it,” he said. “Part of it is prevention by the threat of something happening.”

On campus, MSU police use a mixture of proactive messages and direct patrol to discourage binge drinking.

“During the summer, we participate with the admissions office and (the Academic Orientation Program),” MSU police Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor said. “We have officers who speak at parent orientation, and one of the things that we cover is alcohol.”

The department also uses several community patrol tactics to reduce excess alcohol consumption.

Behind the bar

Since 1998, East Lansing police have been working closely with the Responsible Hospitality Council to set management practices that most area liquor establishments follow — including 21st birthday policies, intoxicated person guidelines and keeping closer watch on the number of drinks consumed.

The result has been a more educated bar staff, more cognizant students and a more inviting downtown area, East Lansing police Chief Tom Wibert said.

“The situation downtown has definitely gotten safer,” Wibert said. “More people are being cut off now than ever before. It’s more difficult to use a fake ID than ever before, and there’s an excellent network of communication between the bars.”

Harper’s Restaurant and Brewpub, 131 Albert Ave., general manager Christian Dorsch said the council’s guidelines not only taught local staff, but informed patrons that area bars won’t tolerate overly inebriated people.

“What I’ve noticed is after having an established RHC and having a mass education to the consumer, there has been a positive change of psychology of going out and having a great time but not taking it to so far of an extreme intoxication state because the venues have strong rules,” Dorsch said.

Another school day

While it’s not a cure-all for binge drinking, one psychology professor thinks he has an answer as to how to partially curb alcohol consumption without police aid — and it’s not going to make MSU’s famous night owls smile.

A study co-authored by University of Missouri Professor Phillip K. Wood in July concluded that college students enrolled in Friday classes beginning at 8 a.m. or earlier consumed about half as much alcohol on Thursdays as those without class on Fridays. Students without early Friday classes also were up to 15 percent more likely to binge drink on Thursdays.

While the results were enough for Wood to recommend universities make efforts to require more early Friday classes, he cautions that these results are only part of the solution.

“The effects of early Friday classes are dramatic but not a magic pill,” Wood said. “Early classes are not going to solve the drinking problem.”

Early to rise Fridays

At the University of Iowa, administrators have taken notice of Wood’s work and are in the process of requiring more classes to extend the school week.

“We made the decision during the summer that we’d like to head in that direction,” said Tom Rocklin, the University of Iowa senior associate provost for undergraduate education.

“We’re going to target classes that enroll a lot of incoming students and ones with attendance requirement,” Rocklin said.

Hawkeye faculty have been tight-lipped about the change, Rocklin said, but students have been more vocal in their displeasure.

“Faculty have generally been pretty quiet about it,” Rocklin said. “Students have been less happy about the idea, and I understand that we have a long history here of not scheduling as many classes on Fridays as we do on other days. That’s something students are going to have to adjust to.”

City officials, MSU administrators, students and other community members made a recommendation to the university in 1998 to encourage that departments offer and require more Friday classes.

The recommendation was not based on Wood’s research, and numerous school officials said they were not aware of the report.

“From what we’ve been told from students, if they have important academic work to tend to, then they tend to reduce their alcohol consumption on Thursdays,” said Becky Allen, a health educator at Olin Health Center.

A constant battle

Even as the university and local police continue to convey anti-alcohol messages and patrol the area, marketing senior Bernard Gomiz said they are fighting an uphill battle.

“If they take any measures, it’s nothing that matters since whenever people want to drink, they will find any way to do it no matter what,” Gomiz said.

For all the prevention presentations MSU police deliver year-round, McGlothian-Taylor said the task of taking messages to heart rests solely in the hands of students.

“I think any time that we can get the information out to the individuals, it’s a good thing,” she said.

While the police department works to educate young people about the dangers of excessive alcohol consumption, Dawson said local police are severely limited by the lack of effective messages.

“It’s really hard to convince a 21-year-old that he shouldn’t be buying his 20-year-old friend beer,” Dawson said.

The State News

More than a fifth of Pratt teens guilty of binge drinking

It's illegal for anyone under the age of 21, but that doesn't stop teenagers from drinking alcohol - not just a few sips, or like responsible adults, one or two drinks. When teens drink they drink to get drunk.

"The majority say they enjoy the high," said Claudine Willett, director of The Counseling Center. "It feels good - the total loss of control, no inhibitions," is what teens in treatment tell her.

If they answer truthfully, more than a fifth (21.6 percent) of Pratt County teens have engaged in binge drinking - five or more consecutive drinks on at least one occasion in the two weeks prior to completing a survey used by the Kids Count project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. That's higher than the state norm, 16.7 percent. It's also higher than national statistics compiled by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in which 28 percent of youth 12-20 reported drinking in the past month, 18.8 percent were binge drinkers and 6 percent were heavy drinkers.

Teens who drink can't be easily described as the trouble-makers, the school-skippers and students at the bottom of the grading scale. A lot of kids are doing very well, participating academically, and drinking every weekend and sometimes during the week, as well as popping pills and smoking marijuana, Willett said. Some start as young as 11.

You would be surprised who's drinking or "using something," Counseling Center clients tell Willett. They say they know only one or two students in their school (middle or high school) they think or know are substance-free. Willett reminds them that they probably only know other students like themselves, but the teens are insistent that the majority of their peers drink or use some kind of drug either once in a while or on a regular basis. Based on their comments, Willett is inclined to agree.

Because she deals with abusers of both types of substances, Willett does not easily separate the two, although she said teens who drink alcohol don't necessarily use other drugs.

Beer seems to be the alcohol of choice, as well as all kinds of mixed drinks. Two students were "busted" at school with Sunny Delight orange drink laced with vodka. Anything is better than nothing; alcohol is not about preference.

Marijuana is the most popular drug and it's readily available in Pratt. Abuse of prescription and over-the-counter drugs is becoming more prevalent. Kids steal Coricidin cold medicine from the shelf at Wal-Mart, head to the restroom where they won't set off security scanners, pocket the pills and trash the packages, she said.

Information from the U.S. Surgeon General indicates that more than 30 percent of youth who drink, drink alone, when they're upset or bored. Willett's information is that Pratt County teens tend to drink at parties.

"Some have parents who are not as strict, is the way they put it, who would rather their teens drink at home than out on the street," she said. "I think that's totally wrong and gives a horrid message."

Others get together and find out whose parents are going to be gone at what time, she continued, and a lot have older friends who buy the alcohol.

Sheriff Vernon Chinn agreed that alcohol use by teens has become more "structured." He and his deputies don't often see groups of kids out on a rural road or a "truckload of beer cans" that used to mark a teen party scene. A number of adults have hosted parties for underage drinkers and while that's illegal, if they take car keys and keep kids overnight, it keeps them alive.

"Our biggest obligation is to keep kids alive," Chinn said.

Is alcohol usage by teens a problem in Pratt County?

"Absolutely," said Willett.

"It's depressing the number of people we deal with who have alcohol problems," Chinn said.

Pratt Tribune

Hazing to Hard Partying: Students Trade Life For Alcohol

Pledge practices at the Rider University chapter of Phi Kappa Tau resemble many tactics employed by fraternities across the nation including, sadly, those used at our own school. After weeks of push-up and sit-up drills and scavenger hunts through the inner-city areas of New York and Philadelphia, pledge-masters at PKT felt it was time for their sniveling wannabes to prove their manhood by sitting together alone in the woods-a bunch of guys alone in the woods-and drink a full bottle of hard-liquor each.

Gary DeVercelly, Jr., 18, of Long Beach, CA, was a PKT pledge on the day the decision was made. He downed enough of his bottle to raise his blood-alcohol level to a horrifying 0.426, more than five times the legal driving limit. His parents suffered through a truly dreadful red-eye from California to New Jersey to spend time with their son in his final hours.

He was on life-support before they arrived. The decision was made to remove the ventilator the next morning at 10:50 a.m.

These stories dominate our perception of college alcoholism, like accounts of exploding car-bombs in Mesopotamia dominate our perception of war. They grab the headlines, so to speak and prevent us from devoting full attention to any related issue less sensational.

Are the veterans who escaped death being adequately cared for when they return home?

How did we fail to ask such an obvious question, one which could have possibly prevented the disaster of the Walter Reed Medical Center?

What happened to the other pledge in that hazing story, the one who made it home from the hospital?

The consequences of alcohol abuse short of fatality by poisoning are vast, various and in many cases, equally saddening. In certain instances, alcohol doesn't cause precipitous death, but hastens it considerably. Often, the results of debilitating alcohol abuse go unnoticed and untreated until it is too late.

How we define "debilitating alcohol abuse" determines our level of vigilance. For the common college-aged drinker, alcohol is perceived as a problem when it causes fist-fights or sends someone to the hospital. The problems for more experienced drinkers are harrowing, involving the inevitable long-term effects of alcohol abuse: liver disease (more than 2 million American suffer from alcohol-related liver disease), heart disease, different forms of cancer and alcoholic hepatitis.

The problems of alcohol abuse extended beyond physical ailments are also well-chronicled. Drinkers are more likely to: argue with and separate from significant others, encounter legal problems that would have otherwise been avoided, be the victim or perpetrator of violence, lose employment, etc.

Equally troubling are the unspoken consequences of alcohol abuse-consequences our society ignores because so many people suffer from them. Alcohol abuse prevents people from fulfilling their potential in life, from achieving the career goals they'd otherwise be fully capable of, from finding true love and happiness, from appreciating the glorious natural world, from early fishing trips with dad, from remembering our best friend's weddings, from listening carefully to loved ones and making a difference in their lives. Essentially, the drinker trades life's most precious gifts for hangovers.

If we, as a society, put the bottle down, would we more quickly find a cure for cancer and AIDS? Would our relationships be stronger? Our families more united? Our dreams fulfilled?

Put the bottle down in front of you and look at it closely. Is it worth it?

New Paltz Oracle

Alcohol misuse 'harming productivity'

Four out of ten employers believe alcohol misuse to be a significant cause of lost productivity and employee absence, according to a new survey.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and People Management magazine report also found that one third of organisations have similar problems as a result of drug misuse.

Despite the level of concern the survey showed that the majority of businesses do not have policies in place to help employees with drug and alcohol dependency problems.

Just under 40 per cent of the 500 organisations surveyed provide affected employees with co-ordinated rehabilitation support to help them return to work after treatment.

And only half of employers provide access to counselling or occupational health services for employees who have dependency problems.

Providing such access is beneficial, the survey suggests, as where organisations referred employees with drug or alcohol problems to specialist treatment or gave them rehabilitation support, more than 60 per cent remained working for the organisation after successfully managing their problem.

Ben Willmott, CIPD Employee Relations Adviser and author of the report said: "Supporting employees with drug and alcohol problems has a high success rate with many individuals returning to work.

"But organisations must make employees aware of the policies and support in place otherwise they will not have the confidence to hold their hand up and acknowledge they have a problem and need help."

The Health and Safety Executive estimates that up to 14 million working days are lost each year due to alcohol related problems, costing British industry an estimated £2 billion each year.

Adfero

Police apply for park alcohol ban

Alcohol may be banned at a Flintshire country park and castle after complaints about drunken abuse.

The application to ban alcohol at Wepre Park, which includes Ewloe Castle, came from North Wales Police.

The council's countryside manager said staff were being abused by young drinkers who have held parties and lit fires in the grounds.

Historic monuments agency Cadw has backed the proposed ban, which will be discussed by Flintshire councillors.

The council maintains the 160-acre site, which attracts about 200,000 visitors ever year.

The grounds, near Connah's Quay, contain football pitches, a children's playground, a fishing pool, a visitor centre and the castle.

Senior ranger Tom Woodall said: "It's not that we're killjoys, we're just trying to curb the excesses of a minority who spoil it for everyone else.

"I've got no argument with people coming to the park to enjoy themselves, but some people make our other users feel uncomfortable.

"The underage drinking is a problem in the evenings but we also have occasions where adults' drinking causes problems.

"When you have young children, the last thing you need is a group of 20-somethings drinking and playing football and spoiling things."

A report to councillors by the authority's legal officer said North Wales Police had identified incidents of "nuisance or disorder related to alcohol consumption".

The report will be discussed by the council's executive on Tuesday.

A Cadw spokeswoman said: "Cadw work in partnership with the Wepre Country Park and would be in favour of the alcohol ban.

"A ban would help greatly in making sure that our historic environment is respected and presents a welcoming and attractive image to the public at all times."

BBC News

Working together for a safe night out in town

An Operation to drive out thugs and drugs from Peterborough city centre seems to be hitting the mark.
Measures including extra bobbies on the beat, dozens of CCTV cameras, metal detectors in bars, and the occasional use of police sniffer dogs to hunt out drugs have succeeded in making the city a much safer place than it was a few years ago.

The question for many bar and club owners now, however, seems to be – so why are people still staying away?

Five years ago, repeated incidents of trouble prompted pub, club and bar managers to put their heads together in a desperate attempt to stamp out late night crime and claw back the city's reputation.

Now they say their hard work has paid off and the place is miles safer – but many people still perceive it to be a no-go zone. This has resulted in barely 6,000 people visiting the city centre on weekend nights, compared to 14,000 over a Friday and Saturday night three years ago.

Vice-chairman of City Safe, a group that represents 28 eating, drinking and dancing venues across the city, Stewart Wright said: "We have not heard about any major violent incidents kicking off in the city centre for a while now.

"In 2002, that wasn't the case. Peterborough had a terrible reputation, and we thought something needed to be done about it and set up City Safe.

"Now things are so much better, but people need to know it."

Mr Wright said metal detectors at the doors of nightspots deter people from carrying knives, and offbeat initiatives like giving lollipops out to revellers leaving clubs, takes their mind off violence, while high visibility policing is making an impact.

Pub staff also communicate problems through a radio alert system, and the CCTV network constantly monitors the streets.

Longer opening hours have also stopped the problem of people binge drinking to get as drunk as possible in the shortest available time. Also, bar staff are now aware that they are personally liable if caught serving someone under age, and this has made them extra vigilant.

Mr Wright added: "We also really welcome extra police walking the streets. This is something we had been pushing for."

Police also believe Operation Sentinal, which involves extra patrols on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, has helped.

Pc Lee Crane said: "I do think these patrols are having an effect."

Reveller James Coe (25), from Woodston, agreed: "I don't come out in Peterborough much, but I must say that you do feel safer with all these police about."

City centre director Annette Joyce said: "The whole perception of Peterborough city centre at night needs to be changed. A lot is being done to make sure it is safe, and we need to encourage more people to enjoy it now.

"We have some great restaurants, bars and clubs. You can have either a quiet, or a wilder night out in Peterborough. But we must use it or we will lose it."

She said the city council is planning to produce a brochure at Christmas, not only promoting the things Peterborough has to offer by day, but also promoting the nightlife.

Peterborough Today

Drink-related days off a 'growing issue'

More people are taking days off work because of excessive drinking, according to a survey

A growing number of employers believe workers are taking time off sick because of drink-related problems, according to a new report.

A survey of 500 organisations by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) showed that few had formal policies for dealing with the problem of alcohol or drug misuse.

Two out of five said alcohol misuse was a "significant cause" of employee absence and lost productivity.

Just over a third of employers offered rehabilitation support to help staff with drug or alcohol problems return to work, and half provided access to counselling.

Ben Willmott, the CIPD's employee relations adviser and author of the report said: "Supporting employees with drug and alcohol problems has a high success rate with many individuals returning to work.

"But organisations must make employees aware of the policies and support in place otherwise they will not have the confidence to hold their hand up and acknowledge they have a problem and need help."

Up to 14 million working days are lost each year due to alcohol related problems, costing British industry about £2 billion each year, it has been estimated.

Almost a third of organisations said they had dismissed employees in the last two years due to alcohol problems.

Metro

Iran seizes 1 million alcohol bottles in frontier province

Iran has seized 1 million bottles of alcohol and arrested hundreds of smugglers in a border province, over the past five months, as part of a campaign against immorality, the Fars news agency said Sunday.

The seizures and arrests came in West Azarbaijan province, which borders Iraqi Kurdistan, one of the main sources of alcohol being illegally smuggled into the Islamic republic.

"As part of the campaign, 53 groups of alcohol traffickers have been dismantled, 943,000 bottles of alcohol seized, and 435 people arrested," the regional police chief Kheybar Tiba was quoted as saying.

He added that this represented a rise of 25 percent compared with the same period, a year earlier.

The drive against alcohol smuggling is part of a nationwide campaign dubbed the drive to "increase security in society," which, since April, has clamped down on un-Islamic dressing, thugs, and other behavior deemed antisocial.

Only recognized Christian minorities in Iran, such as the Armenians, are allowed to produce and consume alcohol, discreetly and behind closed doors, so as not to offend Islamic sensibilities.

Production, sale, or consumption of alcohol are, theoretically, punishable by jail, although this has not stopped significant smuggling from neighboring countries, including Azerbaijan and Turkey, as well as Iraq, and the consumption of sometimes-lethal homemade liquor.

Police make regular seizures of illicit alcohol, and officials have said police seized 4 million bottles, nationwide, in the 12 months to April.

Middle East Times

National Recovery Month highlights substance abuse

September is National Recovery Month, which is a time set aside to highlight the benefits of substance abuse treatment, applauds the contributions of treatment providers and promotes the message that recovery from substance abuse in all its forms is possible.

This year’s theme, Join the Voices for Recovery: Saving Lives, Saving Dollars, aims to raise awareness about the financial and human costs of substance use disorders and highlights the benefits that investing in treatment can have on those who enter recovery, their families and the larger community.

The cost and consequences of alcoholism and drug dependence place an enormous burden on our society. As the nation’s No. 1 health problem, addiction strains the health care system, the economy, harms family life and threatens public safety. Substance abuse crosses all societal boundaries, affects genders, every ethnic group and people in every tax bracket.

Myths

Many think that alcohol makes them warm when they are cold, sexier, manlier, womanlier, cured of their ills , less scared of people and better able to function. Enough people in the United States rely on the use of alcohol to accomplish something for them to support an almost $100 billion industry.

Scope of the problem

About 18 million Americans have alcohol problems; about 5 million to 6 million Americans have drug problems.

More than half of all adults have a family history of alcoholism or problem drinking.

More than 9 million children live with a parent dependent on alcohol and/or illicit drugs.

Consequences

One-quarter of all emergency room admissions, one-third of all suicides, and more than half of all homicides and incidents of domestic violence are alcohol-related.

Heavy drinking contributes to illness in each of the top three causes of death: heart disease, cancer and stroke.

Almost half of all traffic fatalities are alcohol-related.

Between 48 percent and 64 percent of people who die in fires have blood alcohol levels indicating intoxication.

Fetal alcohol syndrome is the leading known cause of mental retardation.

Cost

Alcohol and drug abuse costs the American economy an estimated $276 billion per year in lost productivity, health care expenditures, crime, motor vehicle crashes and other conditions.

Untreated addiction is more expensive than heart disease, diabetes and cancer combined.

Every American adult pays nearly $1,000 per year for the damages of addiction.

What can be done?

Alcoholism can be overcome with proper treatment, prevention, education and more research. By increasing access to care, the costly toll on society and the burden it places on families can be greatly reduced. Research shows conclusively that successful prevention and treatment leads to reductions in traffic fatalities, crime, unwanted pregnancy, child abuse, HIV, cancer and heart disease.

Treatment reduces drug use, improves health, improves job performance, reduces involvement with the criminal justice system, reduces family dysfunction and improves quality of life. The Comprehensive Assessment Treatment Outcomes Registry Data in Ohio have documented dramatic results in decreasing occupational problems, including the following reductions after treatment:

• Absenteeism decreased by 89 percent.

• Tardiness decreased by 92 percent.

• Problems with supervisors decreased by 56 percent.

• Mistakes in work decreased by 70 percent.

• Incomplete work decreased by 81 percent.

Americans increasingly recognize that alcoholism and drug dependence are conditions with consequences that affect both physical and behavioral health. Diagnostic and treatment services have changed in recent years and modern treatment, when adequately provided, enables a great many people to recover and rebuild productive lives. It is important that the public be aware of evidence generated by scientific inquiry, clinical evaluation and clinical experience.

The evidence demonstrates that treatment for alcohol and other drug abuse works.

The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence and the Allegany County Health Department are dedicated to fighting the stigma and the disease of alcoholism and other drug addictions by providing education, information, help and hope to the public.

Cumberland Times-News

Kids offered free iPods to stop booze culture

Drinkers as young as nine are being offered free iPods in the latest battle to curb Glasgow's binge drinking culture.

A pioneering East End project has launched a website warning them about the dangers of alcohol abuse.

The new site, which will be used in schools across the city, allows young people to play games after they have correctly answered alcohol-related questions.

And as an incentive to learn, the project is giving away one free iPod each month to the player with the highest score.

Bosses at the award-winning Greater Easterhouse Alcohol Awareness project hope the new site - youngboozebusters.com - will help widen access to information for young people aged nine to 17.

Youngsters are posed a series of questions on alcohol-related issues including the reasons people drink to excess, how alcohol affects the body and how it can adversely affect lives.

The site also features advice for parents on educating kids about the dangers of binge drinking.

Scotland has one of the worst records in Europe for binge drinking among 15 and 16-year-olds.

A new study has shown children who were binge drinkers at the age of 16 are 60% more likely to be alcoholic at 30 and 70% more likely to regularly drink heavily than those who were not.

Evelyn Lang, head of prevention and education at GEAAP, said: "We see their new website as a way of widening access to good information on alcohol awareness.

"We hope this will help them make safer choices about alcohol now and in the future."

The project is the most extensive programme of its kind in Scots primary schools.

It has been held up as a UK model for educating children about dangerous drinking.

Last year it won praise in the Mentor UK Alcohol Misuse Awards Scheme and £20,000 in funding.

Project bosses say the secret of their success is that pupils are not lectured about alcohol.

Children aged 10 to 12 are encouraged to explore their own feelings about alcohol through art, discussion and role play.

Evening Times

Grandmothers unite to fight alcohol abuse

Growing up on an Alberta Cree reserve, Theresa Whiskeyjack would always listen closely when the community's elderly residents offered up words of advice. It was the kind of respect the youth of Saddle Lake First Nation rarely show these days, the 69-year-old observes.

But as part of an intriguing new network of "grandmother guides" throughout Alberta reserves, Mrs. Whiskeyjack has been trying to revive the ancient mentoring role of aboriginal seniors to fight a modern scourge. And her attempts to help curb the reserve's epidemic of fetal-alcohol syndrome seem to be working.

"It's pitiful. It's so rampant," she said of the problem. "[However] there are some young people who are now saying 'No.' When they find out they're pregnant, they'll come up to me and say ... 'I don't drink any more, I don't do drugs and I don't smoke,' and I think, 'Good for you.

The retired friendship-centre director is among about 300 grandmothers who have gone through training organized by Health Canada, then returned to their reserves to spread the word about fetal-alcohol syndrome, and informally counsel young mothers or would-be mothers.

The department now wants to expand and formalize the concept, offering a contract of up to $90,000 to experts who can lead additional training sessions for interested grandmothers.

"I figure it's the best program that ever came out," Mrs. Whiskeyjack said. "It's basically an old way, brought forward ... It's more effective than if you went and sat in a classroom for days and days as someone read from a book."

Research conducted in individual First Nations communities suggests that close to one in five reserve children are affected

by their pregnant mothers' alcohol consumption, almost 20 times the rate in the general population. It is another fallout of the grinding poverty, isolation, past government mistreatment and widespread abuse that is a fact of life in many aboriginal settlements, experts say.

Without treatment, fetal-alcohol children are disruptive in school, often get in trouble with the law and are more likely to die violent deaths, said Dr. Gideon Koren, one of the country's leading experts in the field. "It's really a terrible endemic that we are doing little about," he said.

The grandmothers concept, with its focus on reserves helping

National Post

Blitz on young drinkers

A campaign is launched calling time on underage drinkers in St Neots.

The town is set to be a test bed for a new community-based campaign which, if successful, could be extended across the country.

Over the next six weeks, the police will be working with Trading Standards, health organisations, youth groups and retailers to combat the issue.

While the problem is not isolated to St Neots - national research suggests about a third of youngsters binge drink - the organisations behind the campaign, called Community Alcohol Partnership (CAP), believe the scheme could help make a difference in the town.

On Friday and Saturday nights teenagers can be spotted at various locations around the town (see 'Out on the Town' report on Page 13), gathering to drink, and creating an atmosphere which has been described as intimidating and anti-social.

CAP hopes to put an end to that by working with the community to cut off the supply of alcohol to the children who choose to drink.

Cambridgeshire county councillor Victor Lucas, cabinet member for Trading Standards, said: "Underage drinking is a concern across the UK and although Cambridgeshire has already been highly successful in reducing the supply of alcohol to youngsters it is a problem in the county.

"Cambridgeshire will now lead the UK in a new project which, for the first time, draws in all agencies and the community to tackle underage drinking from all angles.

"St Neots will be at the forefront of this new Community Alcohol Partnership campaign.

"This is because we know St Neots has such a strong community spirit and will be able to lead the way for the rest of Cambridgeshire and the country."

The campaign will depend on community involvement. The people of St Neots, Eatons and surrounding areas, as well as schools and parents, are being asked to help by providing information about drinking hotspots, and by refusing to buy alcohol for children.

While Trading Standards tests show only a handful of retailers have sold alcohol to under 18s, drink is still finding its way into the hands of children, increasing their health risks and, in certain circumstances, levels of criminal damage, leaving communities to foot the bill.

The campaign will include education work as well as intelligence gathering.

The Retail Alcohol Standards Group, which represents major chain stores, has pledged its support.

Chairman Nick Grant: "We believe it is vital to focus resources now on tackling underage offenders and adults buying on behalf of those under 18.

"Our stores are in the front line of enforcement and we believe the strong relations the scheme will build by bringing together different retailers, community groups and Trading Standards will be invaluable in targeting underage drinking and proxy sales.

"These problems are best targeted by working together as a community and sharing expertise, so we hope this groundbreaking scheme will serve as an inspiration in other parts of the country.

The Hunts Post

Man banned from all British pubs

A man described in court as a "major alcoholic" has been banned from every pub in the UK for two years following an unprovoked attack in a Devon bar.

Jon McGoff, 35, drank a litre of vodka before punching Dave Gover's face and biting him, Exeter Crown Court heard.

McGoff, of no fixed address pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and possessing an offensive weapon.

He was jailed for 12 months and banned from British pubs for two years.

Puncture wounds

Emily Pitts prosecuting, told the court how the landlady of the bar in Teignmouth, Lynn Tidborough, saw McGoff fiddling with his arm and thought that he might be armed with a gun.

This prompted Ms Tidborough to ask another customer to call the police.

The prosecutor said; "When McGoff interrupted the landlady of the Kings Arms as she was serving drinks, Mr Gover went over to see what the problem was."

He was then "punched in the face and knocked to the ground and McGoff took another swing at him then sunk his teeth into his arm causing five puncture wounds," the prosecutor added.

Rolling pin

The jury heard how when police arrested McGoff, who was very drunk, he was armed with a rolling pin hidden up his sleeve because two men were after him following a row over a girl friend.

Speaking for the defence, Piers Norsworthy said: "McGoff was a dramatic and major alcoholic who had behaved in a disgusting way."

Mr Norsworthy added: "At the time of this offence he was homeless and drinking a litre of vodka a day."

Passing sentence the Recorder Colin Parker told McGoff: "I accept that custody might do little, if anything at all, to get you away from alcohol but you have to be punished for what you did that night."

BBC News

700 AA groups in B.C., Yukon here to help

Usually when a convention rolls into the Township of Langley for the weekend, it's viewed as good news for those who earn their living by the jigger or by the pint as servers at any of the local watering holes.

However, for Langley's bar keepers and pub owners, business prospects from a convention held at the Langley Civic Centre over last Saturday and Sunday was as dry as they come because all the roughly 400 delegates were part of the Alcoholics Anonymous B.C. Yukon Convention.

And as a lead-up to the weekend's activities, convention organizers from Alcoholics Anonymous Districts 39, 42, and 43 (Abbotsford, Aldergrove, Langley, White Rock, Surrey and Delta) hosted a public- information luncheon on Friday to provide professionals such as doctors, lawyers, police or health-care workers and the media with information on this long-standing, worldwide organization.

And an effective way of educating the community at large about AA's non-profit organization and the devastatingly widespread disease it deals with was to place AA members at each of our luncheon tables, where we could spend some time chatting informally.

Your first lesson is quick and simple: Alcoholics are very ordinary men and women of all ages who come from all walks of life, income groups, cultures and family backgrounds.

And, despite what they've been through in combating their disease -- or in some cases are still going through -- many have a delightful sense of humour and a surprisingly sunny disposition.

"I like coming to these AA conventions because there's a dinner and dance on Saturday night and I'm still learning how to dance sober," quips Trish, who has been in AA for 13 years now.

Or Scott, who gave an enlightening luncheon talk on what the AA is -- and is not -- after introducing himself in the classic AA manner: (Hi, I'm Scott and I'm an alcoholic.) "I'm not anyone important in AA," he added.

"In fact, it's laughable to think about becoming important in an anonymous organization -- who's gonna know?" He went on to explain that AA's adherence to anonymity isn't a cop-out or coverup, it's a key part in how members help others recover by sharing their recovery experiences and challenges.

Just as importantly, Scott gave us an important overview of what the AA is not.

"We have no wish to dry up the world," he said.

"Nor do we recruit new members but we do welcome them." At our table, I ask Trish, Jade and Marty why the AA doesn't play an advocacy role in areas such as drinking and driving the way other organizations such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving do.

"We're not a reform movement," Trish explains.

"We're a solution for people who want to deal with their own alcoholism. If other groups want our help we'll walk over hot coals for them but we will not affiliate.

"We stay focused and that's how we have survived for the past 72 years." Within B.C. and the Yukon alone, (www.bcyukonaa.org) there are more than 700 AA groups.

The Vancouver Province

Does Early Alcohol Use Lead to Abuse?

For six years, John Donovan's "hobby" was to dig up hard-to-find data on children's use of alcohol. With so much attention paid to binge drinking by high-schoolers and college students, he wanted to shine a light on what was happening with kids even before junior high.

"The younger that people are when they start to drink," says Mr. Donovan, an associate professor of psychiatry and epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, "the more likely they are to have problems with alcohol in adolescence and in later life, and the more likely they are to be involved in a whole variety of other problematic behaviors," like absence from school, delinquency, use of illicit drugs, drunken driving, and risky sexual activity.

By eighth grade, about 40 percent of American students say they've had some alcohol, but Donovan looked at an even younger set in a report just published in the September issue of Prevention Science. He found that between fourth and sixth grades, the prevalence of alcohol use increases significantly. In one national survey, for instance, about 10 percent of fourth-graders and 29 percent of sixth-graders said they'd had more than a sip of alcohol. In a survey in New York State, 21 percent of fifth- and sixth-graders reported having had a drink of alcohol at some point, including 7 percent who had drunk liquor, as distinct from beer or wine.

Broad conclusions can't yet be drawn, because the data are scattered in various substance-use and behavior surveys that span more than a decade, but Donovan's hope is to impel people to examine an age group that's been largely overlooked in alcohol studies. The data suggest that prevention might best be timed around fifth-grade, he says. Such efforts would be most effective, he and others say, if they involve not just schools, but families and whole communities as well.

"Parents should know that even when they give children alcohol in family contexts, there is still a risk that their children would be more likely to be involved in problematic use later on," Donovan says.

But much more research is needed to reveal the context in which children have alcohol and the amount they drink, he and other researchers agree.

"If a kid reports that they had wine with communion ... that's a very different thing than that they one day sat down and drank a whole beer with their father," says Vivian Faden, a deputy director at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in Bethesda, Md. "Drinking with the family isn't