More Research and Resources

Surgeon General, Federal Officials Launch Underage Drinking Prevention Series

On January 30, 2013, more than 2,400 concerned Americans participated in Preventing Underage Drinking: Introduction and Series Overview, the first of a yearlong series of webinars being hosted by members of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking (ICCPUD). To launch the series of ICCPUD webinars, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) presented messages from U.S. Surgeon General Regina M. Benjamin, M.D., M.B.A., and SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde, J.D., describing the ongoing federal response to underage drinking. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s Acting Director Kenneth R. Warren, Ph.D., discussed the nature and extent of the problem, and SAMHSA’s Center of Substance Abuse Prevention Director Frances M. Harding described the “shape of the solution.” The January 30, 2013, program is now available for online viewing at www.stopalcoholabuse.gov, the ICCPUD web portal site.

ADHD History Increases Risk for Underage Drinking, Substance Abuse

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and six other health centers across the United States studied nearly 600 children over an 8-year period, from childhood through adolescence, to test the hypothesis that children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have increased risk of substance use and abuse or dependence in adolescence. Results confirm the hypothesis: Children with ADHD histories were much more likely to drink, smoke, and engage in substance abuse than peers who had no history of ADHD. The results also reveal that increased use of cigarettes by teenagers with ADHD histories commonly occurs with use of other substances such as alcohol and marijuana. Among other findings:

· At age 15, about 35 percent of teens with an ADHD history reported using one or more substances, compared with 20 percent of teens with no ADHD background; and

· Ten percent of the ADHD group met criteria for substance abuse or dependence versus 3 percent of those with no ADHD.

No differences in rates of substance abuse between ADHD subjects taking medication and those no longer taking medication were found. Funding for the study was provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute of Mental Health. The project is discussed in Adolescent Substance Use in the Multimodal Treatment Study of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) (MTA) as a Function of Childhood ADHD, Random Assignment to Childhood Treatments, and Subsequent Medication , published online on December 28, 2012, in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

No News for Youth Could Spell Bad News for Recent Prevention Gains

A January 3, 2013, short report, based on data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) had good news about underage drinking: The percentage of teens who see great risk from heavy drinking—having five or more drinks once or twice a week—rose from 38.2 percent to 40.7 percent during 2002 to 2011. During those years, the rate of adolescent binge drinking fell significantly—from 10.7 percent to 7.4 percent. But youth perceptions of the risks associated with alcohol use are related to rates of underage drinking, and SAMHSA has now released another short report based on NSDUH findings, Trends in Exposure to Substance Use Prevention Messages among Adolescents. The new report reveals that the percentage of adolescents receiving substance abuse prevention messages in the past year from media fell significantly—from 83.2 percent in 2002 to 75.1 percent in 2011. During 2011, fully 40 percent of teens said they did not discuss underage drinking and other substance abuse with their parents, and about 25 percent of in-school adolescents did not receive prevention messages through school sources. “To prevent substance abuse among our adolescents, our young people have to know the facts about the real risks of substance abuse, and we’re not doing a very good job of that right now,” says SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde, J.D.

Underage Drinking and Suicide: An American Indian Tragedy

A new study of the prevalence and sociodemographic correlates of suicide involving acute alcohol intoxication among U.S. ethnic minorities has found that American Indians/Alaskan Natives (AI/AN) are at much greater risk than other groups. In an analysis of sociodemographic and toxicological information from 59,384 suicide deaths, Raul Caetano, M.D., Ph.D., at the Dallas Regional Campus, University of Texas School of Public Health, and his colleagues found that 47 percent of American Indians/Alaska Natives who died by their own hand had a positive blood alcohol concentration, while 22 percent of completed suicides among American Indian/Alaska Native populations were under age 21. Overall, drinking and intoxication prior to suicide were shown to be particularly prevalent among AI/AN populations and, to some extent, Latinos, compared to Whites, but less prevalent among Blacks and Asians. Acute Alcohol Intoxication and Suicide Among United States Ethnic/Racial Groups: Findings from the National Violent Death Reporting System was published online in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research on February 5, 2013. A grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism supported the study.

Older Than 21: Adult Benefits of the Minimum Legal Drinking Age

The minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) of 21 has been shown to reduce fatal and nonfatal highway crashes and overall adolescent alcohol use, reducing the risk of alcohol-related problems involving teens. Postponing the onset of alcohol use until age 21 or after dramatically reduces the likelihood of developing chronic alcohol dependence. Now, a new study has examined the alcohol use patterns of drinkers who were young adults in the 1970s and 1980s whose drinking began before the MLDA was raised to 21. These drinkers, researchers found, are likely to binge drink more often and be less likely to engage in “non-heavy drinking.” According to Andrew D. Plunk, postdoctoral research fellow at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, “Lower drinking age wasn't linked with greater alcohol consumption.… [but] those with a lower drinking age were more likely to frequently binge drink, while also being less likely to do any non-heavy drinking.” The study was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and its results are reported in The Persistent Effects of Minimum Legal Drinking Age Laws on Drinking Patterns Later in Life, published online by the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, on January 24, 2013.

Teen’s First Drinking Buddy May Be Bearer of Bad News

Teens whose best friends drink are twice as likely to begin drinking at an early age, according to a national study involving a sample of 820 adolescents, ages 14 to 17. It has previously been known that those who consume a full standard drink of alcohol before age 15 are four times likelier to develop alcohol dependence at some point in their lives. The new study sought the likeliest predictor of early drinking so that vulnerable youth could be identified and targeted for interventions to delay their onset of drinking. With grant support from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, researchers looked at how five possible predictors might determine whether a teen subject would drink: two separate measures of disruptive behavior, a family history of alcohol dependence, a measure of poor social skills, and whether most of the teen’s best friends drink alcohol. The last of these five, having a best friend who drank and had access to alcohol, turned out to be the strongest predictor, actually doubling the chances that an adolescent would begin using alcohol. These findings add further support for the use of tools such as NIAAA’s Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention for Youth: A Practitioner’s Guide. The study, titled “A model to determine the likely age of an adolescent’s first drink of alcohol,” was published online on January 6, 2013, in the journal Pediatrics.

A Sibling in the Military Increases Likelihood of Underage Drinking

Youth who reported having a sibling in the military showed the highest prevalence of lifetime alcohol and other drug use, according to a new study partially supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense. This study compares youth who have either a parent or a sibling in military service with youth who have no military connection. The analysis of data from more than 14,000 students in southern California schools with at least 10-percent military-connected enrollment found a statistically significant difference between students who had a sibling in the military and those with no family member in military service. While having a parent in the military did not increase risks for underage drinking and other substance abuse, the number of deployments of family members did have such an effect. A higher number of family member deployments were associated with the likelihood of recent use of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and other drugs. “Everyone talks about the impact of parents, but no one talks about the impact of other close family members, such as a sibling,” said Tamika D. Gilreath, Ph.D., at the University of Southern California School of Social Work, in Los Angeles. Substance Use Among Military-Connected Youth: The California Healthy Kids Survey appears in the February 2013 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

What’s Up, Doc? Underage Drinking, That’s What!

Out of an estimated total of 981,000 16-year-old binge drinkers who saw a physician during 2010, about 746,000 were not advised by their doctors to stop, or even reduce, their drinking, according to a new study led by National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) scientist Ralph W. Hingson, Sc.D., M.P.H. During these encounters, 54 percent were asked about their use of alcohol, but only 17 percent were told that they should stop drinking or cut down. Physicians were more likely to advise 16-year-olds who smoked or used other drugs to reduce or stop those behaviors than they were to counsel drinking teens to do so. The study’s authors concluded that there is a need to increase the number of physicians who apply professional guidelines to their discussions of alcohol with teenagers, even as additional research is being conducted about the effectiveness of physician interventions. One such guideline is Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention for Youth: A Practitioner’s Guide, developed by NIAAA and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Findings of the new study are discussed in Physician Advice to Adolescents About Drinking and Other Health Behaviors, published online on January 28, 2013, in Pediatrics. Funding came from NIAAA; the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute; the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the Health Resources and Services Administration; and the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

TV Ads for Alcohol: An Unhidden Persuader of Teens

“Younger adolescents appear to be susceptible to the persuasive messages contained in alcohol commercials broadcast on TV, which sometimes results in a positive affective reaction to the ads” is a conclusion of a new study. The study’s authors surveyed a large sample of Los Angeles County students once per year across 4 years, from the 7th through the 10th grades. Exposure to alcohol ads on TV among 7th graders and their reaction to such messages were found to influence their use of alcohol and the severity of alcohol problems they experienced in the 10th grade. The researchers called for educating children about how media messages are designed to persuade them and for policies to limit children’s exposure to alcohol advertising on television, on the Internet, and in other media. Exposure to Alcohol Advertisements and Teenage Alcohol-Related Problems was published online on January 28, 2013, in Pediatrics. The study was supported by grants from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the National Institutes of Health.

Data Drives Effective Underage Drinking Prevention

A new publication will help states and communities apply analytic and other data competencies to the prevention of underage drinking; other substance abuse; and mental, emotional, and behavioral (MEB) disorders. Data-Based Planning for Effective Prevention: State Epidemiological Outcomes Workgroups, released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) on January 24, 2013, presents the key principles, core expectations, and anticipated trajectory of the State Epidemiological Outcomes Workgroups (SEOWs). SEOWs were created with SAMHSA funding “… to integrate data about the nature and distribution of substance use and MEB disorders and related consequences into ongoing assessment, planning, and monitoring decisions at state and community levels.” The new publication is available in both hard-copy and downloadable PDF formats.

Defending Children From Violence and Underage Drinking

A new report from the Attorney General’s National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence finds that children traumatized by exposure to violence are at “significantly greater risk than their peers” for several serious problems, including alcohol abuse. Defending Childhood: Protect, Heal, Thrive was developed to encourage action by the federal government, states, tribes, communities, and the private sector to apply “the best available knowledge” to defending children against exposure to violence. Defending Childhood also identifies alcohol abuse as a contributing factor in child victimization and offers a roadmap for preventing violence and for helping children and youth when it affects their lives. A January 23, 2013, announcement by the Administration for Children & Families’ Family and Youth Services Bureau about the new publication estimates that the lives of 46 million of the nation’s 76 million children and youth will be “touched by violence, crime, abuse, and psychological trauma this year.” The new report begins with a message from the task force’s cochairs, Robert L. Listenbee, Jr., and Joe Torre, who write, “We pay astronomical costs to the healthcare, child welfare, justice, and other systems because we have not yet done what we know works to prevent and treat childhood exposure to violence.”

Parents of Underage Drinking Super Bowl Fans Could Face Jail Time

“Fans Don’t Let Fans Drive Drunk” is one of the messages for adults and teens that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) includes in its 2013 Super Bowl Drunk Driving Prevention campaign. To discourage alcohol-impaired driving on Super Bowl Sunday, February 3, 2013, NHTSA is joined by the National Football League and TEAM (Techniques for Effective Alcohol Management) to remind sports fans of all ages of the risks associated with drinking and driving. Campaign safety tips include “If an underage person drinks and drives, the parent may be legally liable for any damage, injury or death caused by the underage driver” and “Likewise, parents or other adults who provide alcohol to or host a party where alcohol is available to, those under age 21 could face jail time.” In October of 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that, despite declines in drinking and driving by teens, 1 in 10 high school students reported in 2011 that they had driven after drinking in the past 30 days.

Programs Combat Underage Drinking and Suicide in Tribal Youth

“American Indian and Alaska Native youth have the highest suicide rates in the country,” said Richard McKeon, chief of the suicide prevention branch of the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this population suffers the highest rate of suicide-related fatalities, and alcohol abuse is one of the factors placing them at risk for suicide. To counter such risks, several tribes are currently using SAMHSA Garrett Lee Smith Suicide Prevention grants to address risk factors among their children and teens. A January 9, 2013, Indian Country Today Media Network article describes how several tribal communities are using SAMHSA dollars and evidence-based practices to solve teen problems and prevent behaviors that create risks for suicide. As the chair of the Standing Rock Sioux Suicide Task Force, Ira Taken Alive said, “One thing is sure. In 98 percent of attempts and completions here, alcohol or drugs were involved. We need to get ahead of the substance-abuse issue, to be proactive, not reactive.”

Half of Girls Who Drink Report Binge Drinking

About 40 percent of high school girls drink, and half of them report binge drinking, according to Dafna Kanny, Ph.D., a senior scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who was interviewed by Ira Dreyfuss for the January 22, 2013, print and audio editions of HHS HealthBeat. Dr. Kanny also told HHS HealthBeat, “Fourteen million U.S. adult women, or 1 in 8, report binge drinking. Women who binge drink tend to do so frequently—about three times a month—and in large amounts.” These data and other information about binge drinking among girls and women are included in CDC’s January 2013 Vital Signs bulletin on the subject. HHS HealthBeat is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The Origins of Addiction—Free Program on January 31

A free program, available as a satellite downlink or as an on-demand webcast, will explore how the brain has changed over time, how addiction begins in the brain, and why some people may become addicted while others do not. The Origins of Addiction will take place January 31, 2013, from 1 to 2 p.m. EST. Ruben Baler, Ph.D., and Steven Grant, Ph.D., scientists with the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a member of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking, are the program’s guest panelists. The program is sponsored and produced by the Multijurisdictional Counterdrug Task Force Training program, a division of the Center for Public Safety Innovation at St. Petersburg College in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Florida National Guard also provides additional sponsorship. The Origins of Addiction will be available via a C-band satellite downlink and the Department of Defense/Defense Education and Training Network (DETN) satellite networks, private network carriers, and selected community cable access stations. For those without satellite access, The Origins of Addiction will also be offered as an on-demand webcast via the Internet. Only one point-of-contact needs to register for each viewing location. Final satellite coordinates and webcast links will be provided to all registered site coordinators 3–5 days prior to the broadcast date. Registration is now open.

Underage Drinking and Driving Claims Many Lives, Despite Recent Declines

In 2011, 846 younger drivers, ages 16 to 20, with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 or higher, were involved in fatal crashes in 2011, compared with 1,442 in 2002, according to the latest Traffic Safety Facts from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Although alcohol-impaired driving fatalities in the past 10 years have declined by 27 percent from 13,472 in 2002 to 9,878 in 2011, the new bulletin also points out that during 2011 there was one death due to alcohol-impaired driving every 53 minutes, on average. When it comes to younger drivers and alcohol, NHTSA says, “Teens are at far greater risk of death in an alcohol-related crash than the overall population, despite the fact that they are below the minimum drinking age in every State.” NHTSA calls for implementation of measures to limit youth access to alcohol and further implementation of graduated driver licensing.

January 24 Webinar: Substance Abuse and Traumatic Brain Injury

The Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury will host a webinar on January 24, 2013, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. EST, titled Substance Abuse and Traumatic Brain Injury: Magnitude, Manifestations, Myths and Management. Charles H. Bombardier, Ph.D., professor of rehabilitation medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, will be the presenter; Katherine M. Helmick, M.S., CRNP, ANP-BC, CNRN, deputy director of the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, will serve as the webinar’s moderator. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has cited data indicating that in the general population, between one third and one half of patients with a traumatic brain injury (TBI) were intoxicated when their injuries occurred. TBI patients with a substance abuse history may increase their drinking; other TBI sufferers may begin or increase their alcohol use. Continuing education credits may be requested for the January 24, 2013, webinar as part of the free registration process.

Study: Underage Drinking Predicts Adult Alcohol Problems

A new study set out to examine longitudinal relations among personality, alcohol motivations, and alcohol consumption and related problems across the developmental period from adolescence to young adulthood. Kristen G. Andersen, Ph.D., and her colleagues tracked three cohorts who were ages 12, 15, and 18 at baseline. The researchers measured the effects of baseline alcohol consumption, disinhibition, and harm avoidance on drinking motives and motives not to drink after 3 years, when the subjects had reached ages 18, 21, and 24. Then they assessed frequency of alcohol use and alcohol problems in these individuals 7 years later when they were ages 25, 28, and 31. Results show that baseline drinking, reported when subjects in each of the three age cohorts were well below the minimum legal drinking age of 21, was the strongest predictor of both subsequent drinking and adult alcohol problems. Study subjects with the highest levels of disinhibition at baseline were the least likely to abstain from drinking over time. Dr. Anderson and her associates concluded that their findings support recommendations for targeting youth identified with tendencies toward disinhibition with tailored cognitive interventions to prevent their involvement in underage drinking. Motives to Drink or Not to Drink: Longitudinal Relations Among Personality, Motives, and Alcohol Use Across Adolescence and Early Adulthood was first published online, on December 20, 2012, in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. The study was supported by grants from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Brief Intervention Helps Adolescents Curb Substance Use

Two 60-minute sessions that combined motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral therapy yielded positive results in reducing underage drinking and drug use among adolescent subjects 6 months after these brief interventions. According to Brief Intervention Helps Adolescents Curb Substance Use, half of teens with at least mild substance abuse problems were abstinent from alcohol and drugs 6 months after an intervention involving two 1-hour meetings with a therapist held 7 to 10 days apart. A third session, for parents of some teens in the study, led to even greater improvements for these youth. This third session appeared to make participating parents more aware of their children’s alcohol and drug problems and motivate them to seek additional counseling. As for the teen subjects, lead study author Dr. Ken C. Winters says, “Brief interventions are a good fit for adolescents because teens have difficulty envisioning a treatment that involves many steps, let alone a complete lifestyle change.” This article was posted online January 2, 2013, by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. It was based on a report of the study published in the April 2012 issue of the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment.

Mixing Alcohol and Energy Drinks Sends Youths to Emergency Rooms

The number of emergency department (ED) visits involving energy drinks doubled in just 4 years, from 10,068 visits in 2007 to 20,783 in 2011, with about 13 percent of these ED visits due to the dangerous practice of mixing alcohol with energy drinks. This practice has gained popularity among young adults ages 18 to 25, but particularly among college students, a group that includes many people below the minimum legal drinking age of 21. These and other findings from recent data are reported in The DAWN [Drug Abuse Warning Network] Report: Update on Emergency Department Visits Involving Energy Drinks: A Continuing Public Health Concern of January 10, 2013. DAWN is one of three major surveys conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality. The new DAWN report cites a recent report issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics cautioning against the use of energy drinks “for children of all ages, including student athletes.”

Up to $3 Million in STOP Act Grants Available

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is accepting applications for a possible total of $750,000 per year for Sober Truth on Preventing Underage Drinking Act (STOP Act) grants aimed at preventing alcohol use among underage youth. SAMHSA expects to provide funding of up to $50,000 annually in individual grants for up to 15 grantees each year during a 4-year period. Actual amounts may vary, depending on the availability of funds. A complete application package for SP-13-001 can be requested from SAMHSA by calling 1–877–SAMHSA–7 [TDD: 1–800–487–4889]. The required documents may also be downloaded from the SAMHSA website at http://www.samhsa.gov/grants. The STOP Act program was created to strengthen collaboration among the federal, state, local, and tribal governments and communities to more effectively reduce alcohol use among youth. During 2012, many STOP Act grantees hosted underage drinking prevention Town Hall Meetings in their communities.

January 16 Twitter Chat With CDC About Girls’ Binge Drinking

On Wednesday, January 16, 2:00–3:00 p.m. EST, Dr. Tom Frieden, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) director, will be joined by Dr. Bob Brewer, of CDC’s Alcohol Program, to discuss how states, communities, individuals, and health providers can work together to implement effective measures to reduce binge drinking among women and girls and the harm associated with it. To join in this discussion, follow Dr. Frieden on Twitter @DrFriedenCDC and use the hashtag #CDCchat to participate. CDC’s new Vital Signs issue on binge drinking shows that binge drinking is a serious, underrecognized problem among women and girls. One in eight women and one in five high school girls binge drink, increasing their risk of breast cancer, heart disease, sexually transmitted diseases, and unintended pregnancy.

“Don’t Drink … During Pregnancy” Is Message for Birth Defects Observance

National Birth Defects Prevention Month is observed during January. “Eating a healthy diet and working toward a healthy weight, keeping diabetes under control, quitting smoking and avoiding second hand smoke, and avoiding alcohol—all can help increase the chances of having a healthy baby” is part of the expert advice included in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Birth Defects Prevention Month Digital Press Kit. The kit includes a set of 10 tips for preventing birth defects, and the second of these is “Don't drink alcohol at any time during pregnancy.” Although rates of both teen pregnancy and underage drinking have declined in recent years, alcohol use by adolescent expectant mothers remains a serious concern. In 2004, 8.8 percent of pregnant young women, ages 15 to 17, reported binge drinking during pregnancy, according to a factsheet issued by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Center for Excellence.

Cheap Booze: What Price Young Lives?

According to a new study, “… the ability of youth to access alcohol might be curtailed by regulating the availability of single-serve, ready-to-drink alcoholic beverages, or by setting minimum prices that cover all alcoholic beverages.” Alison Burke Albers, Ph.D., of the Boston University School of Public Health, and her colleagues determined the minimum cost of the smallest containers of 25 brands of inexpensive alcohol beverages commonly sold in the United States. One of their findings is “… because the price per drink was less than $1.00 for 21 of the brands, an outlay of $5.00 purchased fıve or more drinks for 80% of these brands.” Results of the new study are reported in Minimum Financial Outlays for Purchasing Alcohol Brands in the U.S., in the January 2013 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The study was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Many studies have concluded that higher alcohol prices and alcohol taxes are associated with reductions in both excessive alcohol consumption and related, subsequent harms. Increased taxes on sales of alcohol is one of nine types of evidence-based environmental prevention that the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration recommends.

Half of High School Girls Who Drink Report Binge Drinking

According to Vital Signs: Binge Drinking Among Women and High School Girls—United States, 2011, “Binge drinking is reported by one in eight U.S. adult women and one in five high school girls. Women who binge drink tend to do so frequently and with high intensity. Most high school girls who reported current alcohol use also reported binge drinking.” The new Vital Signs was published for early release on January 8, 2013, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) online periodical, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The article is based on CDC’s analysis of data from its 2011 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and its 2011 national Youth Risk Behavior Survey. In conjunction with the new Vital Signs, CDC has launched a new website page, Binge Drinking: A Serious, Under-Recognized Problem Among Women and Girls, which includes recommendations of evidence-based strategies for preventing excessive alcohol consumption. These strategies include increasing alcohol taxes and reducing alcohol outlet density.

Mentoring Can Prevent Underage Drinking

On December 31, 2012, President Barack Obama proclaimed January 2013 as National Mentoring Month. According to the proclamation’s text, “A supportive mentor can mean the difference between struggle and success,” and the proclamation directs those interested in becoming involved in the lives of young people to the government’s United We Serve website, sponsored by the Corporation for National & Community Service. The Mentoring Materials link on the site’s homepage leads to promotional posters, bookmarks, and note cards. Research sources offered in conjunction with the National Mentoring Month observance show that formal one-to-one mentoring relationships can reduce the incidence of delinquency, substance use, and academic failure. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is a partner on the Federal Mentoring Council. In addition, SAMHSA’s National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices has reviewed and accepted four programs that include mentoring in their efforts to prevent underage drinking and other behavioral health problems.

Weak Economy May Increase Underage Drinking Risk

A study reported in a December 31, 2012, Online First journal article presents evidence that underage drinking and other behavioral problems may be more likely among children raised in unfavorable economic conditions. A new analysis of data from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, conducted by Seethalakshmi Ramanathan, M.B.B.S., D.P.M., of the State University of New York Upstate Medical University and her colleagues, looked at the relationship between high unemployment rates stemming from the 1980 and 1981–1982 recessions and rates of subsequent adolescent substance use and delinquent behaviors. Among their conclusions were “The macroeconomic environment during infancy can have serious long-term effects on substance use and delinquent behavior.” The study team found that the chance that infants would encounter behavioral problems as teenagers, including underage drinking, became greater when they were exposed to even small increases in local unemployment rates. “The results demonstrate a strong correlation between the unemployment rate during infancy and subsequent behavioral problems,” the authors said. The study is reported in Macroeconomic Environment During Infancy as a Possible Risk Factor for Adolescent Behavioral Problems, in JAMA Psychiatry, formerly the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.

Binge Drinking: The More Teens Recognize Risk, the Less They Binge

Educating underage youth about the dangers of binge drinking is paying off. The percentage of 12- to 17-year-olds who perceived great risk from binge drinking—having five or more drinks of an alcoholic beverage once or twice a week—increased from 38.2 percent in 2002 to 40.7 percent in 2011. This increase in perceived risk is reflected in a decrease in binge drinking among adolescents from 10.7 percent in 2002 to 7.4 percent in 2011, as reported in the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). In 2011, NSDUH found that 4.5 percent of teens who see great risk in binge drinking once or twice a week engaged in past-month binge drinking, compared with 9.5 percent of their peers who viewed binge drinking as posing moderate, slight, or no risk. These and other findings are included in Trends in Adolescent Substance Use and Perception of Risk from Substance Use, published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), on January 3, 2013. This report is based on data from SAMHSA’s 2011 NSDUH, released on September 24, 2012. The 2011 NSDUH showed that rates of current, binge, and heavy alcohol use among underage persons had declined between 2002 and 2011.

Family Support May Protect Well-Being of Same-Sex-Attracted Youth

An analysis of data from the Add Health Center, at the National Population Center of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, indicates that same-sex-attracted youth experience lower levels of well-being than heterosexual youth in part because they perceive less social support. Girls, in particular, report higher levels of binge drinking, drug use, and depressive symptoms in part because of this perception. The new study, funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, revealed that parental closeness and involvement may be less protective against risky behaviors for same-sex-attracted boys. A possible explanation offered by the authors is that same-sex-attracted boys attempt to meet what they perceive as parental expectations of their masculinity through risk-taking behavior. One of the authors’ recommendations is “Because families may be less of a source of social support for sexual minority youth, systems of support in schools and other community organizations are essential to protect the well-being of all youth.” Family Relationships and Adolescent Well-Being: Are Families Equally Protective for Same-Sex Attracted Youth? appears in the November 2012 issue of the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

January 10 Webinar: Motivational Interviewing

Motivational interviewing has been shown to reduce underage drinking and other youth substance use; change antisocial attitudes, values, and beliefs; reduce negative peer associations; promote identification with prosocial role models; increase self-regulation skills; and increase relapse prevention skills, according to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center. On Thursday, January 10, 2012, the center will host a free 75-minute webinar, beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET. The webinar, Motivational Interviewing: How to Communicate with Defendants and Respondents to Motivate Them to Succeed, will feature Roxanne Bailin, chief judge, 20th Judicial District, Boulder County, CO, and will focus on the relationship of the judicial and probation communities and issues related to underage alcohol abuse. A link to the free registration page is included in the center’s online webinar announcement.

January 17 Webinar: Alcohol and the Adolescent Brain

Aaron White, Ph.D., a health scientist administrator at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, will present recent research findings on the effects of alcohol on the developing brain in a 75-minute webinar, on Thursday, January 17, 2013, from 3:00 to 4:15 p.m. ET. The webinar is a part of a series hosted by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s (OJJDP) Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center. Dr. White will explain how early alcohol use can damage critical developmental processes in the adolescent brain and the importance of preventing underage drinking. A September 2012 OJJDP bulletin offered key findings of a literature review on the effects of underage drinking and stated, “Consumption of alcohol during the adolescent years can affect brain development and may result in long-term negative effects….” Free online registration for the January 17, 2012, webinar is now open.

Drinking Compromises the Teen Brain’s “Information Highway”

White matter brain tissue facilitates effective communication between regions of the brain; it’s the brain’s “information highway.” In a new study supported by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the health of white matter in the brains of teens who drank heavily and used marijuana was found to be poorer when compared with the white matter health of teens who abstained. Joanna Jacobus, postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Diego and the lead author of this new study of the effects of alcohol and marijuana use on the adolescent brain, notes that compromised white matter can mean slower cognitive processing and poorer cognitive performance, that is, poorer memory, attention, and decisionmaking. “… early initiation of alcohol and marijuana use can have negative implications on the brain,” she said. “We hope this information can be communicated to teens to help them understand why drinking during adolescence is discouraged.” Study results are reported in Longitudinal Changes in White Matter Integrity Among Adolescent Substance Users, published on December 14, 2012, in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

Marine Corps Launches Alcohol Screening Program

As of January 1, 2013, members of the U.S. Marine Corps may be subject to random alcohol breathalyzer tests as part of a tough new policy intended to curb underage drinking and excessive alcohol use in the military. Under the new Marine Corps’ Alcohol Screening Program (ASP), any Marine or sailor with a blood-alcohol level of 0.01 percent or higher is to be referred for counseling; those who test at 0.04 percent or higher will be referred to medical personnel to determine his or her fitness for duty. According to Lt. Gen. R.E. Milstead, Jr., deputy commandant for manpower and reserve affairs, the new order “is primarily for deterrence and education,” although commanders may still hand out punishment for alcohol-related offenses. The new ASP policy comes under the 21st Century Sailor and Marine initiative, announced on March 5, 2012, by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus. In September 2012, a report by the Institute of Medicine noted dramatic increases in binge drinking among members of the U.S. military and called for stepped-up enforcement of laws and regulations governing underage drinking in the services.

Study Links Alcohol Marketing, Underage Drinking, Binge Drinking

A study supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has found that alcohol marketing not only reaches and influences drinking by adolescents and young adults but, for some of them, it also is associated with their progression to heavier and binge drinking. Analysis of data from a media and substance use study involving 1,734 subjects ages 15 to 20 in the United States revealed that exposure to alcohol marketing is associated with initiation of underage drinking. Youth who have a higher receptivity to alcohol advertising were found to be more likely to consume more than five drinks in a row. According to Auden C. McClure, assistant professor of pediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and lead author of the study, “There is growing evidence that alcohol marketing is reaching adolescents and young adults, that they respond to it, and that their response is associated both with initiation of alcohol use and with progression to problem drinking.” Results are reported in Alcohol Marketing Receptivity, Marketing-Specific Cognitions, and Underage Binge Drinking, published as an Early View online article, on December 19, 2012, in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

Energy Drinks Mixed With Alcohol Pose Threats to Youth

“Alcohol mixed with energy drinks (AMED) has become increasingly popular, especially among adolescents and college students,” according to the authors of a Viewpoint article published online December 12, 2012, by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The JAMA article cites research that found that college students who consumed AMEDs were more likely to experience negative consequences, including double the risk for being involved in a sexual assault, riding with an intoxicated driver, being in an alcohol-related crash, or needing medical help.

In a November 2011 report on emergency department (ED) visits resulting from consumption of energy drinks, 3 in 10 such visits by patients ages 12 to 17 involved the combination of alcohol and energy drinks. Among those ages 18 to 24, more than half (52 percent) of energy drink–related ED admissions involved the combination of alcohol or other drugs with these products. The report was issued by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

SAMHSA Cochairs Federal Task Force on Military Mental Health

Pamela S. Hyde, J.D., Administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), cosigned a charter created to guide the Interagency Task Force on Military and Veterans Mental Health on December 13, 2012. She will serve as one of the task force’s cochairs to lead interagency efforts to expand suicide prevention strategies and to take new steps to meet the demand for mental health and substance abuse treatment. A September 2012 report, by the Committee on Prevention, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Management of Substance Use Disorders in the U.S. Armed Forces; the Board on the Health of Select Populations; and the Institute of Medicine, reported widespread alcohol problems among service personnel of all ages and took special note of inconsistent enforcement of underage drinking laws in the military. Increasing alcohol use is a warning sign for suicide among adolescents and adults, according to information available from SAMHSA’s Suicide Prevention Resource Center.

The new interagency task force was established by an August 31, 2012, executive order signed by President Barack Obama calling for increased suicide prevention and mental health services for service members, military families, and veterans. The other cochairs of the task force are Dr. Jonathan Woodson, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, and Dr. Robert A. Petzel, Under Secretary for Health, Veterans Health Administration.

Study: Parents’ Role in Drinking Among Third Graders

A study supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, involving interviews with 1,050 mothers of third-grade students (about age 9), found that nearly one third (32.8 percent) of these children had already sipped alcohol, a high-risk marker for the initiation of early underage drinking. Further, they were twice as likely to have done so “if parents involved them in adult alcohol use (fetching or pouring drinks for adults), if parents did not make a rule against child use, and if children perceived a tolerant parental attitude about child alcohol use at home.” In addition, children with more self-esteem and self-regulation were less likely to have begun sipping alcohol. Researchers were struck by the finding that “even in middle childhood, peer alcohol-related influence factors are associated with odds of sipping in a manner consistent with the known associations of similar factors with odds of adolescent drinking.” Attributes that Differentiate Children Who Sip Alcohol from Abstinent Peers, by Christine Jackson, Ph.D., and her colleagues, was published in December 2012 in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

Survey: “Steady Decline” in Teen Drinking; 12th-Grade Bingeing Increases

Alcohol use among 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students is at its lowest level since 1975, according to the 2012 Monitoring the Future Survey (MTF). Among eighth graders, 29 percent reported lifetime alcohol use, compared with 33.1 percent in 2011. For 10th graders, 54 percent reported lifetime use, down from a peak of 72 percent in 1997. However, the new survey findings include some indications of a turnaround, with 12th-grade binge drinking increasing to 24 percent since the previous year, a 2 percentage-point gain. The survey’s principal investigator, University of Michigan professor Lloyd Johnston, remarked, “This possible turnaround in alcohol consumption among the older teens is somewhat unexpected and certainly not a welcome development.” The survey was carried out in classrooms around the country earlier this year, under a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health. Findings from the 2012 MTF were announced on December 19, 2012, in Washington, DC.

Children As Young As Age 9 May Try Alcohol

MedLinePlus, a service of the National Institutes of Health’s U.S. National Library of Medicine, has updated their Talking to your teen about drinking page and states, “Children as young as 9 years old may become curious about drinking, and they may even try it alcohol.” MedLinePlus also tells readers that most children who avoid alcohol report that this is because their parents did talk to them about it. The 2012 Report to Congress on the Prevention and Reduction of Underage Drinking, released in November by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), confirms that as many as 10 percent of 9- to 10-year-olds have already started drinking. storage. In her message in the Report to Congress, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius writes, “…we can change the way that young people and their parents view underage drinking and create an environment in which underage alcohol use is understood as a serious public health and public safety problem, not a culturally ingrained rite of passage.”

Teen Dating Violence Increases Risks for Girls’ Binge Drinking

Longitudinal associations between victims of teen dating violence and multiple young adult adverse health outcomes, including binge drinking, have been found. A study of a nationally representative sample, Longitudinal Associations Between Teen Dating Violence Victimization and Adverse Health Outcomes, by Deinera Exner-Cortens, M.P.H., and colleagues, was published online on December 10, 2012, in the journal Pediatrics. The researchers found that 5 years after being victimized, young adult females ages 18 to 25 “… reported increased heavy episodic drinking, depressive symptomatology, suicidal ideation, smoking, and IPV [interpersonal violence] victimization.…” Males who had experienced teen dating violence “… reported increased antisocial behaviors, suicidal ideation, marijuana use, and adult IPV victimization.…” The study used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health; 5,681 adolescents who reported heterosexual dating experiences when they were between ages 12 and 18 participated in this national sample. The study by Exner-Cortens and colleagues was conducted with partial support from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

New Report: Underage Drinking Is Declining, But Still a Major Problem

“Data show meaningful reductions in underage drinking, particularly among younger age groups. From 2004 to 2012, young people ages 12 to 20 showed statistically significant declines in both past-month alcohol use and binge alcohol use,” according to the 2012 Report to Congress on the Prevention and Reduction of Underage Drinking, from the Secretary of Health and Human Services, released on November 30, 2012. However the new summary of the latest scientific research confirms that “alcohol continues to be the most widely used substance of abuse among America’s youth, a greater proportion of whom use alcohol than use tobacco or other drugs.”

The annual report was prepared by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) on behalf of the federal Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking (ICCPUD). SAMHSA administrator Pamela S. Hyde, J.D. serves as the ICCPUD Chair. In her Foreword to this fourth report in the series, Hyde notes that it includes a new section on prevention of binge drinking on college and university campuses, and an expanded section about underage drinking prevention and enforcement activities in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Schools Are Important, But Parents Are Key To Preventing Underage Drinking

“… school programs that address alcohol and marijuana use are definitely valuable, but the bonds parents form with their children are more important. Ideally, we can have both,” says Toby Parcel, Ph.D. Dr. Parcel is a professor of sociology at North Carolina State University and coauthor of the paper Does Capital at Home Matter More than Capital at School? The Case of Adolescent Alcohol and Marijuana Use, in the Journal of Drug Issues, published online 8 November, 2012. The article reports findings of a study by Mikaela J. Dufur, Ph.D., at Brigham Young University; Dr. Parcel; and Benjamin A. McKune, Ph.D., at Pennsylvania State University.

The team used nationally representative data from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 to explore how “family social capital” and “school social capital” may influence risks for underage drinking and youth drug use. Bonds between parents and children, lines of communication, and parental engagement in children’s lives are elements of family social capital. School social capital can include student participation in extracurricular activities, the morale of teachers, and teachers’ ability to meet individual student needs. Dr. Dufur and colleagues found that parental availability and involvement transmit prosocial norms and reduce risks for adolescent alcohol and drug use. But they also identified schools as efficient centers for promoting well-being among students and use of formal alcohol and drug prevention programs.

Genes Are Not Destiny When It Comes to Underage Drinking

Although genes appear to play a role in the development of adolescent alcohol problems, environmental factors can “considerably reduce this risk,” according to the conclusions of a new study supported by grants from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Brown University’s Robert Miranda, Jr., Ph.D., the study’s corresponding author, commented, “The implication is that risk for the developing alcohol addiction is complex and involves interplay between genetic and environmental factors.” He and his colleagues concluded from their study of 104 teens, ages 12 to 19, that such malleable factors, as parental monitoring and less association with deviant peers, could offset genetic vulnerability to underage drinking. Their findings are reported in Preliminary Evidence for a Gene–Environment Interaction in Predicting Alcohol Use Disorders in Adolescents, published on November 8, 2012, as an Early View (online) article in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

Adverse Childhood Experiences May Lead to Underage Drinking

“When children are exposed to chronic stressful events, neurodevelopment can be disrupted. Disruption in early development of the nervous system may impede a child’s ability to cope with negative or disruptive emotions and contribute to emotional and cognitive impairment. Over time, and often during adolescence, the child adopts coping mechanisms, such as substance use,” says a new online page, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), part of the website for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Collaborative for the Application of Prevention Technologies (SAMHSA/CAPT). The ACE Study is a continuing project begun in 1995 as collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the health maintenance organization Kaiser Permanente. Study data show that ACEs increase risks among youth and adults for disease; disabilities; social problems, including underage drinking and other substance abuse; and early mortality. The more ACEs in an individual’s childhood, the greater his or her risks for subsequent health problems. The new SAMHSA/CAPT page summarizes key findings from the ACE Study and offers short video discussions.

Longitudinal College Study Sees High Rates of Postgraduate Alcohol Abuse

After comparing the employment status of 620 college and university graduates whose drinking has been tracked since freshman year, researchers found no significant difference in rates of alcohol dependence among those who were unemployed or employed full or part time. Instead, alcohol abuse was highly prevalent regardless of employment status. Even among those employed full time, two out of five young adults met the criteria for alcohol abuse. These are among the findings from a longitudinal study, supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, reported in Drug use patterns in young adulthood and post-college employment, currently in press for the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. The new data from the College Life Study, at the University of Maryland’s Center on Young Adult Health and Development at the School of Public Health, point to a need for stepped-up efforts to prevent underage drinking at colleges and universities. The findings also indicate a need for expanded use of screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment for currently enrolled students in higher education and recent graduates.

Teen Experiments With Alcohol Not “Normal,” New Guide Tells Parents

A blunt response to the myth among many parents that it’s normal for teens to experiment with drugs and alcohol is “Experimenting with drugs or alcohol is not normal. USE can lead to ABUSE, which can lead to ADDICTION, so any use is unacceptable.” This warning is from the newly revised Growing up Drug-Free: A Parent’s Guide to Prevention. The new guide for parents provides detailed information about adolescents, drugs, and alcohol and about actions parents can take to prevent use or to intervene when use has already begun. It also alerts readers to new concerns, such as the popularity of energy drinks among teens, especially among younger teens, and notes, “These drinks are particularly dangerous—even deadly—when consumed with alcohol.” The 2012 edition is available on the GetSmartAboutDrugs website operated by the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and was published by DEA in partnership with the U.S. Department of Education (DoEd). DoEd and DOJ are participants in the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking.

Underage Drinking Party Dispersal Training Available

Party Prevention & Controlled Party Dispersal is the title of a 6-hour training course to help participants understand the components of a successful overarching underage drinking strategy and the need to develop a specific strategy around their controlled party dispersal operations. The course focuses on reducing underage access to alcohol and is the latest in a series of no-cost distance learning opportunities provided by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center. The series features best practices and strategies for enforcement of underage drinking laws and efforts to prevent and reduce use of alcohol among adolescents. Two earlier courses, Conducting Compliance Check Operations and Environmental Strategies, are also available from the Distance Learning page of the center’s website. Participants can receive a certificate upon completion of any of these courses.

Holiday Push for Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over

During 2010, more than 10,000 people were killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes involving an impaired driver. Data also show that over two thirds (71 percent) of those killed in December 2010 were in alcohol-impaired crashes where a driver tested at a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.15 grams per deciliter and above, nearly twice the legal limit. It is illegal in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico to drive with a BAC of 0.08 or higher. These and other facts are included in materials assembled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for its Holiday Season 2012 Drunk Driving Prevention Campaign. The campaign is aimed at the period from December 12, 2012, through January 1, 2013, and is part of NHTSA’s ongoing Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over program. Free downloadable materials range from downloadable factsheets and sample news releases to web and television ads, along with Social Media Ideas and Suggestions and many other campaign products.

Holiday Stress Tips for Military, Veterans With Invisible Wounds

“Don’t—Cope in an unhealthy way by consuming alcohol. Although cider and eggnog may be a holiday tradition, drinking too much over the holidays can have a negative effect on your reintegration process and your ability to reconnect with family.” This is one of the tips for service personnel, veterans, and their families presented in Easing Holiday and Reintegration Stress, published as part of the Real Warriors campaign sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Brain Injury. Invisible wounds, including post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, and psychological problems, can add to holiday stress for members of the armed forces and veterans, as DoD points out in Managing Stress for an Enjoyable Holiday, a November 21, 2012 blog article. According to TRICARE®, the health care program serving this population, “Underage service members or children of service members are not immune to this [drinking] problem. There are an estimated 10.8 million underage drinkers in the United States, and given the increased levels of stress in the military, our young service members, and children of service members are commonly affected.”

December 5: HHS/HRSA Webinar on Bullying Prevention for Communities

On December 5, 2012, from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. EST, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) will present “Moving from Awareness to Action in Bullying Prevention: Training Resources for the Field.” This presentation from the Federal Partners in Bullying Prevention’s webinar series will explore how local communities can activate partnerships to promote bullying prevention. During this free 1-hour webinar, presenters will discuss how communities can use HRSA’s Bullying Prevention & Response Base Training Module and Community Action Toolkit.

Youth who engage in bullying and their victims report high levels of underage drinking, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among others. The federal government’s bullying website says that youth populations who may be at higher risk for being bullied include lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth; youth with disabilities or special needs; youth from certain racial, ethnic, or national backgrounds; and youth members of some religions or faith groups.

Reforming Juvenile Justice Report Now Available

The National Academies Press has released Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach, which reports findings of a National Research Council committee convened at the request of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The committee was asked “to review recent advances in behavioral and neuroscience research and draw out the implications of this knowledge for juvenile justice reform.”

According to the publisher’s description of the new report, “Experimentation and novelty-seeking behavior, such as alcohol and drug use, unsafe sex, and reckless driving, are thought to serve a number of adaptive functions despite their risks.” But adolescents lack “mature capacity for self-regulations,” due to the uneven and incomplete development of the relevant areas of their brains. Differences between adults and adolescents raise doubts about assumptions behind 20th-century criminalization of some adolescent behaviors. Chapter 11 of the report, “Moving Forward,” offers key components for a proposed developmentally based juvenile justice system, specific recommendations, and guiding principles for juvenile justice reform.

Involved Parents Help Prevent Underage Drinking

“A growing body of research shows that adolescents engage in fewer health risk behaviors and perform better academically when their parents are actively involved in their lives,” states an online feature article on parent engagement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). CDC identifies effective parenting as a protective factor in helping young people avoid alcohol, and it reports that students whose parents are engaged in their school lives are less likely to drink. CDC defines parent engagement in schools as “parents and school staff working together to support and improve the learning, development, and health of children and adolescents.” To support this effort, the CDC has developed the evidence-based Parent Engagement: Strategies for Involving Parents in School Health.

Additional information on underage drinking prevention for parents of children from preschool age to college age is available through websites supported by federal agencies that participate in the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking.

Profits and Losses: Who Pays for Underage Drinking?

Underage drinking is estimated to have cost the U.S. economy $62 billion in 2010, according to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s (OJJDP) Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center (UDETC). Details about how this estimate was developed and additional findings from this data analysis are provided in “Understanding and utilizing costs of underage drinking,” presented at the OJJDP Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws Coordinators Symposium held in Leesburg, VA, and now available from UDETC’s website. Using Virginia as an example, the presentation shows how underage drinking results in financial benefits to alcohol companies while placing substantial burdens on state budgets. A summary slide says, “Underage drinking is a big, profitable business,” but concludes, “Our efforts are helping; underage drinking is declining.”

Underage Drinking Rates Remain Unacceptably High in Many States

“Although there has been progress in reducing the extent of underage drinking in recent years, particularly among those aged 17 and younger, the rates of underage drinking are still unacceptably high,” according to a November 20, 2012 news release from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). A new report based on SAMHSA’s National Survey on Drug Abuse and Health data, State Estimates of Underage Alcohol Use and Self-Purchase of Alcohol: 2008 to 2010, finds that 26.6 percent of 12- to 20-year-olds report drinking in the month before they were surveyed, and 8.7 percent of them purchased their own alcohol the last time they drank. SAMHSA administrator, Pamela S. Hyde, J.D., said, “Underage drinking should not be a normal part of growing up. It’s a serious and persistent public health problem that puts our young people and our communities in danger. Even though drinking is often glamorized, the truth is that underage drinking can lead to poor academic performance, sexual assault, injury, and even death.”

Among efforts that SAMHSA believes have contributed to recent declines in past-month alcohol use, binge drinking, and heavy drinking among persons ages 12 to 20 are its Strategic Prevention Framework Partnerships for Success grant program, Sober Truth on Preventing Underage Drinking Act grants, and Strategic Prevention Framework. SAMHSA’s biennially sponsored Town Hall Meetings, held in hundreds of communities across the United States and its territories, have contributed to prevention gains. In addition, nearly three dozen states, the District of Columbia, and three territories have completed SAMHSA-supported underage drinking prevention videos promoting community and state/territory efforts.

RU DRKN 2NITE?—Underage Drinking in a Digital Age

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws Coordinators Symposium, held August 8–10, 2012, included educational presentations of state-of-the-art information on a range of topics relating to underage drinking prevention. Several of these are now accessible online. Included is RU DRKN 2NITE, an 80-slide review of how youth access social media and the impact social media have on their behavior, how advertising affects underage drinking, and how alcohol industries use social media to market their products to youth and adults. Says one scholar referenced in the presentation, “The concern with social networking Web sites is that these behaviors are now published and accessible to a much larger network of adolescents than a teen’s typical peer group.”

Underage Drinking = Deaths From Unintentional Injuries

“Using safety belts, wearing bicycle and motorcycle helmets, reducing drinking and driving, and enforcing graduated driver licensing,” are protective measures recommended for preventing unintentional injuries, the leading cause of death for American children, according to Nagesh Borse, a researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). His comments were included in the November 6, 2012, print and audio editions of HHS HealthBeat. On October 2, 2012, CDC reported that, despite declines in drinking and driving by teens, 1 in 10 high school students reported in 2011 that they had driven after drinking in the past 30 days. HHS HealthBeat is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

November 29 Webinar—Celebrating Health/Wellness in Native Communities

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Native American Center for Excellence is sponsoring a 1-hour webinar on Thursday, November 29, 2012, beginning at 3 p.m. EST. Presenters Patsy Whitefoot (Yakima), Lisa Rey Thomas (Tlingit), and Theda New Breast (Blackfeet) will highlight American Indian and Alaskan Native success stories in three content areas: education as it relates to youth and families, research and evaluation and their role in community wellness, and the Gathering of Native Americans (GONA) community organizing tool and its role in supporting and promoting health and wellness in Indian Country. Free registration - space is limited.

Preholiday Campaign Reminder: Buzzed Driving is Drunk Driving

For the period of December 1–11, 2012, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is asking states and communities to participate in its Pre-Holiday Season Festivities: Buzzed Driving is Drunk Driving campaign. “The holidays are a wonderful time of year, filled with celebrations, time with loved ones and good cheer. But, for the 775 families whose loved ones were killed during December 2010 in alcohol-impaired-driving crashes, the joyous celebrations ended in disaster,” says the sample press release included in materials NHTSA offers to meet local needs. On its Teen Drivers—Youth Access To Alcohol web page, NHTSA also points out, “Teens are at far greater risk of death in an alcohol-related crash than the overall population, despite the fact they cannot legally purchase or publicly possess alcohol in any State. High visibility enforcement of underage purchase, possession, and provision laws can create a significant deterrent for violation of youth access laws, reduce underage drinking, and decrease alcohol-related crashes. Additionally, parental responsibility is key to educating and protecting our teens.”

Fostering Research Partnerships To Benefit Tribal Communities

With grant support from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), the National Congress of American Indians Policy Research Center and Montana State University’s Center for Native Health Partnerships have published 'Walk Softly and Listen Carefully’: Building Research Relationships with Tribal Communities. The report is intended to help Native and non-Native researchers, as well as tribal leaders and tribal community liaisons, form and strengthen research partnerships that are beneficial to American Indian/Alaska Native communities and respectful of their cultures. An example of such a positive research partnership in the report involves a New Mexico program, RezRIDERS (Reducing Risk through Interpersonal Development, Empowerment, Resiliency, & Self Determination), that seeks to deter substance abuse among Native youth at high risk. Requests for a hard copy of the document may be e-mailed to Michele Henson at michelehenson@montana.edu.

NIMHD is an institute of the National Institutes of Health, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Keep Trauma-Exposed Children Off the Path to Underage Drinking

“Life stressors, such as physical or sexual abuse, exposure to domestic violence within the family, witnessing community violence, and depending on parents with mental health and substance abuse problems often place the children in these families on a difficult path,” according to Supporting Infants, Toddlers, and Families Impacted by Caregiver Mental Health Problems, Substance Abuse, and Trauma: A Community Action Guide, published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). One “difficult path” for children who have been exposed to such traumatic events is that they are more likely to use alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana, according to a May 3, 2011, SAMHSA bulletin. The new Community Action Guide offers information, resources, and tips useful for engaging the wider community to come together for children and families in need of support. SAMHSA also supports Building Blocks for a Healthy Future, an early childhood substance abuse prevention program that educates parents and caregivers of children ages 3 to 6 about the basics of prevention in order to promote a healthy lifestyle. Entering the word “trauma” in the Building Blocks search feature brings up articles, lesson plans, and related resources on the topic.

Helping Children Exposed to Trauma Feel OK Again

Children and teens who have been exposed to trauma or have had other types of adverse experiences are more likely than other children who have not had such experiences to engage in drinking and other dangerous behavior. Going through a natural disaster, such as Hurricane Sandy that recently devastated areas of the northeastern United States, is traumatic for many young people and their families. To help them, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has issued Tips for Talking With and Helping Children and Youth Cope After a Disaster or Traumatic Event. According to SAMHSA, “The good news is that children and youth are usually quite resilient. Most of the time they get back to feeling ok soon after a trauma. With the right support from the adults around them, they can thrive and recover. The most important ways to help are to make sure children feel connected, cared about, and loved.”

SAMHSA’s web page on children and trauma points out that, “As the number of traumatic events experienced during childhood increases, the risk for the following health problems in adulthood increases: depression; alcoholism; drug abuse; suicide attempts; heart and liver diseases; pregnancy problems; high stress; uncontrollable anger; and family, financial, and job problems.” The support of caring adults, who are able to connect youth in their care with appropriate treatment and other services as necessary, is key to helping children and teens recover from trauma and avoid subsequent underage drinking and other problems.

Parents Can Moderate Effects of Genetic Vulnerability to Alcohol in Youth

A new study has confirmed that environmental factors, including parental monitoring and associations with peers, can help prevent underage drinking in adolescents with the A118G functional single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of the μ-opioid receptor (OPRM1) gene, a genetic modification that researchers believe predisposes individuals to developing problems with alcohol. Studies have suggested that persons with this SNP of the OPRM1 gene are at more risk for developing alcohol problems than others because they experience alcohol as more rewarding. “The key finding of this study is that while genetics appear to play a role in the development of alcohol problems among teenagers, environmental factors can considerably reduce this risk,” according to Robert Miranda, Ph.D. Dr. Miranda is an associate professor in the department of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University and corresponding author of Preliminary Evidence for a Gene–Environment Interaction in Predicting Alcohol Use Disorders in Adolescents. The November 8, 2012, Early View article is available in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and will be included in the journal’s February 2013 issue. Miranda and his associates set out to determine whether parental monitoring and association with deviant peers can moderate genetic influences in adolescent alcohol use. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, supported the study.

December 20 Webinar: Using Technology to Reduce Underage Drinking

Maximizing Today’s Technology to Reduce Underage Drinking is a free 75-minute webinar starting at 3:00 p.m. ET on December 20, 2012. This webinar is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center. Kathy Bartosz, the Enforcing the Underage Drinking Laws Program’s Nevada state coordinator, and Police Officer John Schutt will explain how geographic information system (GIS) mapping of outlet density and crime helped the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department focus efforts on hotspot areas of the city. The GIS mapping resulted in improved compliance by alcohol retailers and overall reductions in area crime. Traffic Safety Prosecutor Jared Olson will discuss how social networking platforms can be used to develop local intelligence regarding underage drinking events and direct prevention efforts. Preregistration for the December webinar is now available.

Alcohol Use Impedes Medication Adherence Among Persons With HIV

More than half (51 percent) of 178 HIV-positive study participants who were prescribed antiretroviral therapies (ART) and had drank alcohol during the prior week either skipped or stopped their ART when drinking. The researchers who conducted the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism–supported study noted that drinking may cause some patients to forget to take their ART and that there is a widespread misperception that mixing alcohol and ART is toxic. The findings are reported in Intentional Non-Adherence to Medications among HIV Positive Alcohol Drinkers: Prospective Study of Interactive Toxicity Beliefs, an October 12, 2012, Online First article in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. “The harms caused by missing their medications far outweigh the harms caused by mixing the two, if the person doesn't have liver disease,” said Seth Kalichman, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Connecticut and lead author of the study. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 39 percent of all new HIV infections reported in 2009 were among young people ages 13 to 29 and notes the frequent association of underage drinking and sexual risk-taking as a cofactor in youth HIV transmission. Participants in this study were ages 18 and older.

Heavy Drinking During Pregnancy Disrupts Brain Development in Children

Using magnetic resonance imaging scans, researchers supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) found that brain growth patterns in children whose mothers drank heavily while pregnant differed from normal patterns. Their findings suggest that children with heavy alcohol exposure have decreased brain plasticity—the brain's ability to grow and remodel itself based on experience with the outside world. Among the 70 children in the study (whose mothers consumed 13 drinks per week throughout the pregnancy, on average), the pattern of static growth was most evident in the rear portions of the brain. Heavier alcohol exposure was linked to lower intelligence, greater facial abnormalities, and little change in brain volume between scans performed every 2 years.

The study, A Longitudinal Study of the Long-Term Consequences of Drinking during Pregnancy: Heavy In Utero Alcohol Exposure Disrupts the Normal Processes of Brain Development, was published online in the October 31, 2012, issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. In addition to NIAAA, the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development provided funding for this study. A study abstract is available on PubMed.

In 2004, 8.8 percent of pregnant young women, ages 15 to 17, reported binge drinking during pregnancy, according to a factsheet issued by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Center of Excellence.

IOM Framework Assesses Community-Based Prevention

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies has released An Integrated Framework for Assessing the Value of Community-Based Prevention, offering a framework to estimate the effectiveness of community-based, nonclinical prevention policies and related strategies. The report is intended to aid those engaged in preventing disease, increasing behaviors that improve health, stopping or slowing disease progression, and reducing disparities, all at the population level. The report aims to enhance intelligent decisionmaking about best practices in prevention activities and interventions. A Report Brief summarizes the new IOM publication, which was prepared by the IOM Committee on Valuing Community-Based, Non-Clinical Prevention Programs and sponsored by the California Endowment, the de Beaumont Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Bulletin Offers Goals and Principles for Legal Supervision of Underage Drinkers

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), part of the U.S. Department of Justice, has published Community Supervision of Underage Drinkers. This Juvenile Justice Bulletin describes the goals and principles for effective community supervision of youth who have been arrested or adjudicated for underage drinking and also discusses the legal issues that professionals may encounter when working with these youth. According to the authors, an effective community supervision program should emphasize four goals: community protection, youth accountability, competency development, and individual assessment. Among the six guiding principles presented in the bulletin are the use of evidence-based practices and the need for community corrections agencies and practitioners to engage in ongoing training, data collection, and program evaluation to increase their individual and collective knowledge of underage drinking and the responses to it.

This bulletin is the third in a series about underage drinking, which OJJDP created to better inform practitioners, policymakers, and judges on the negative effects of underage drinking in the hope that this information will support the development of more effective policy and practice guidelines to combat the problem. The other two bulletins in the series to date are Underage Drinking: Practice Guidelines for Community Corrections and Effects and Consequences of Underage Drinking.

Underage Drinking Fuels Rape, Sexual Assaults

In 2010, there were 781,000 female victims and 681,000 male victims of alcohol/drug-facilitated rape in the United States. These and other data in The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey: 2010 Summary Report underscore the role that underage and excessive drinking play in sexual assaults. Access to the report is included on a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Web page about the survey, last updated on September 25, 2012. The survey collected information from English- and Spanish-speaking women and men age 18 and older. “On average, 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States,” according to CDC. The May 2011 Report to Congress on the Prevention and Reduction of Underage Drinking notes that “Underage drinking by both victim and assailant also increases the risk of physical and sexual assault” and states that “About 97,000 college students are victims of sexual assault or date rape related to alcohol use each year.”

Scoring Points Against Alcohol Abuse on College Game Days

An October 12, 2012, guest article posted on the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy’s (ONDCP) blog says, “More than a mere nuisance, the high-risk drinking and other drug use associated with game-day fan behavior is a serious public health problem and an issue that universities and surrounding communities need to address.” The article’s authors are Dr. Laura L. Forbes, Chair of the American College Health Association’s Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs Coalition, and Dr. Tavis J. Glassman, a member of the coalition. While acknowledging a lack of national research, they point out that “the high-risk drinking that takes place on game day is associated with a variety of negative consequences, such as drinking and driving, injury, loss of memory (e.g., blacking out), urinating in public, and vandalism.” Their coalition is collaborating with other organizations and stakeholders to produce a comprehensive report on the topic. Meanwhile, their ONDCP post offers two general recommendations: a broad-based campus coalition and targeted prevention based on an assessment of campus needs and readiness.

A study funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), published in the November 2007 issue of the journal Addictive Behaviors, confirmed earlier findings of significantly heavier drinking among students on the days and weekends that campus sporting events take place. NIAAA supports research about college drinking among both underage and legal-age drinkers, identifies effective prevention measures, and promotes public education on the issue.

Underage Drinking and National Substance Abuse Prevention Month

“Preventing underage drinking takes orchestrated efforts and individual commitment. During National Substance Abuse Prevention Month, join with SAMHSA to forge new partnerships to expand our reach and successes. I invite you to sign and share SAMHSA’s Prevention Pledge, find and distribute resources for prevention professionals and individuals alike, and lead by example and model healthy behaviors for those around you of all ages,” writes Frances M. Harding, director of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Center for Substance Abuse Prevention in an October 22, 2012 article for the SAMHSA blog. Harding also states, “Underage drinking is particularly worthy of our attention because it can lead to heavier alcohol use later in life. Research tells us that adults who first used alcohol before age 21 were more likely to be classified with alcohol dependence or abuse than those who had their first drink at or after age 21.” The SAMHSA blog article, Make a Commitment to Prevent Underage Drinking During National Substance Abuse Prevention Month, reports that SAMHSA has supported more than 1,500 local underage drinking prevention Town Hall Meetings in 2012; has completed underage drinking videos for 30 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands; and will launch its new Underage Drinking Prevention National Media Campaign on February 4, 2013.

NIH Translational Research Video on Substance Use Risks

Risk-Taking Behavior and Substance Use is one of four new 7-minute videos on behavioral and social science research released by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR). The substance use–related OBSSR video features Carl Lejuez, Ph.D., discussing translational research, that is, the study of the basic internal processes that lead people to addictive behaviors and application of that information. He points out that an individual’s willingness to take risks and his or her ability to tolerate psychological stress are key to understanding substance use and successful treatment. Dr. Lejuez explains and illustrates how positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement influence someone’s use of a substance and what they may reveal about why use occurs. A transcript of Dr. Lejuez’s video commentary is also available on the OBSSR web page. Dr. Lejuez is a professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Maryland, College Park, and director of the Center for Addictions, Personality, and Emotion Research.

What Do You Mean I Don’t Look Old Enough?

In a sample of 100 attempts to buy alcohol from Internet sources by students who were between the ages of 18 and 20, nearly half (45 percent) were able to make a purchase. Many alcohol venders selling online use an age verification system that simply requires purchasers to check a box confirming that, “Buyer is over 21 years of age.” In this study, 41 out of the 100 Internet alcohol vendor websites did not request age verification during the ordering process. In addition, procedures for verifying purchaser age at the point of delivery were not followed in half of these 100 transactions, even when the shipment was addressed to the actual underage student. Another method that underage youth use to obtain alcohol via the Internet is to provide the vendor with an adult neighbor’s address for shipment; the neighbor then hands the package over to the minor, unaware of the contents. These are among the findings reported in Internet Alcohol Sales to Minors, by Rebecca S. Williams, M.H.S., Ph.D., and Kurt M. Ribisl, Ph.D., both at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. The study was published in the September 2012 issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

A detailed discussion of effective measures for controlling Internet alcohol sales to minors is included in chapter 1 of Regulatory Strategies for Preventing Youth Access to Alcohol: Best Practices. This best practices document was reprinted in May 2011 by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center, and it recommends prohibiting home delivery of alcohol and either prohibiting or strictly regulating Internet and mail-order alcohol sales.

October 24 Webinar on Mobilizing To Prevent Youth Substance Abuse

On October 24, 2012, beginning at 12:00 p.m. ET, Howard Koh, M.D., M.P.H., Assistant Secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), will lead a live webinar roundtable discussion on community engagement as being key to preventing underage drinking and other youth substance abuse. He will be joined by Don Wright, M.D., M.P.H., Director of the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, HHS; and Jaclynn Sagers, Director of Tooele City Communities That Care. The panel will discuss how participants can take active roles in preventing adolescent substance abuse. The event will also highlight one program’s success mobilizing a community around adolescent alcohol and substance use in Utah. Register today for the free Tackling Substance Abuse Through a Community-Wide Coalition webinar sponsored by the HHS Healthy People 2020 initiative.

Online Peer Support and Perceived Parental Disapproval Curbs Alcohol Use

Greater alcohol content online was associated with higher levels of drinking among a sample of 3,447 people, ages 18 to 24, across the United States, according to researchers at the University of Michigan (U-M). But their newly released study also revealed that if participants believed that their parents and peers might disapprove of online images of them drinking, they would be less likely to drink. Further, young adults (including subjects below the legal drinking age of 21) who reported more online peer support were less likely to use alcohol. ”This information suggests use of these social platforms could be a good way to reach young adults with messages about alcohol and marijuana use and other health behaviors. And images may be effective in a social networking environment," said Sarah A. Stoddard, Ph.D., lead author of the study.

Permissive Norms and Young Adults’ Alcohol and Marijuana Use: The Role of Online Communities appears in the November 2012 issue of The Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. The paper was produced as part of the Virtual Networks Study, a joint project of the Prevention Research Center of Michigan (a part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Prevention Research Centers system) and the Sexuality and Health Lab in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education at the U-M School of Public Health.

Family Checkup Shows Parents How To Keep Youth Alcohol and Drug Free

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has launched Family Checkup: Positive Parenting Prevents Drug Abuse, an online resource that equips parents with research-based skills to help keep their children alcohol and drug free. Five questions developed by the Child and Family Center at the University of Oregon highlight parenting skills that are important in preventing the initiation and progression of alcohol and drug use among youth. For each question, a video clip shows positive and negative examples of a specific skill, and additional videos and information help users practice positive parenting skills. A 7-page Family Checkup guidebook is included for downloading and printing.

NIDA announced Family Checkup in conjunction with the October 2012 National Substance Abuse Prevention Month. Other information and links to resources for National Substance Abuse Prevention Month are available from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Friends’ Moms Can Prevent Underage Drinking Problems

The friends of teens whose mothers were strict were 40 percent less likely to get drunk and 38 percent less likely to engage in binge drinking than were the friends of adolescents with mothers who were not strict with them. These are among the findings of a new study by Holly B. Shakya, Ph.D., at the Gates Foundation Social Networks Project at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, and her associates. According to Dr. Khakya, “… using a style that balances warmth and communication with appropriate control and supervision—is not only associated with reduced substance abuse in our own children, but it is also associated with reduced substance abuse in our own children's friends.” She observed that these positive effects may also spread through adolescent social networks, so that as parents’ behaviors affect their children, that effect is further spread to their children’s friends. “So, good parents may be helping both their own children and the friends of their children. Thus, the benefits of parenting interventions may be multiplied throughout the community beyond parent to child,” Dr. Shakya said. An article reporting the study’s findings, “Parental influence on substance use in adolescent social networks,” was published on October 8, 2012, in the online edition of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, among other sources, has long noted that “Parents influence whether and when adolescents begin drinking as well as how their children drink.”

Underage Drinking Linked to Teen Dating Violence

Underage drinking may be both a contributor to teen dating violence and one of its consequences, according to the 2012 factsheet Understanding Teen Dating Violence, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The new CDC factsheet says that alcohol use is a risk factor for harming a dating partner. In addition, the factsheet states that teens who have been victims of dating violence are more likely than their peers who have not had such experiences to drink alcohol and use drugs. They are also more likely to be depressed, do poorly in school, develop eating disorders, or attempt suicide, and their chances of being victimized at college are greater. CDC notes that 22.4 percent of women and 15.0 percent of men first experienced some form of partner violence between the ages of 11 and 17.

692 Communities Awarded Funds To Prevent Alcohol and Drug Abuse

On October 5, 2012, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) awarded $84.6 million in Drug-Free Communities (DFC) Support Program grants to 692 community-based organizations across the country. The DFC program is directed by ONDCP in partnership with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and provides up to $625,000 over 5 years to local coalitions for their efforts to prevent underage drinking and youthful drug use. Many of the hundreds of community groups that hosted SAMHSA-sponsored 2012 Town Hall Meetings on underage drinking are current DFC grantee organizations.

Many New Veterans Have Alcohol Problems

“Studies show that alcohol misuse and abuse, hazardous drinking, and binge drinking are common among OEF [Operation Enduring Freedom] and OIF [Operation Iraqi Freedom] veterans,” according to an issue of In Brief, released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) on October 4, 2012. Veterans may use alcohol to block memories and numb feelings related to their military experience, and studies show that signs of their trauma may get worse during the first year after they return, particularly among Army Reserve and National Guard troops. Drinking may be a cofactor in other serious problems many veterans face, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, mental disorders, suicide, and conflict in family and social relationships. The new SAMHSA In Brief bulletin includes links to many resources, including screening tools.

A military culture of heavy drinking and lax enforcement of underage drinking laws may contribute to elevated levels of drinking problems among veterans. On September 17, 2012, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense, that discussed dangerous attitudes toward alcohol in the military services, noting that binge drinking among active-duty personnel increased from 35 percent in 1998 to 47 percent in 2008. The IOM recommended enforcement of underage drinking regulations, reduced density of alcohol outlets on military bases, and limits on the hours of alcohol sales at these outlets.

Justice Department, United Way Join To Help Children Exposed to Violence

Attorney General Eric Holder has announced that the United Way’s 2-1-1 “call-for-service” line is now partnering with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and other stakeholders “to more effectively identify—and assist—children who’ve been exposed to violence,” in conjunction with DOJ’s Defending Childhood Initiative. The September 28, 2012, announcement points out that children who have experienced or witnessed violence are more likely than other children to abuse alcohol and drugs. This finding is among the facts gleaned from a 2009 DOJ study that found that 60 percent of children in the United States have been exposed to violence, crime, or abuse in their homes, schools, and communities. In addition to their increased risk for underage drinking and drug abuse, these children are also more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic disorders; fail or have difficulty in school; and become delinquent and engage in criminal behavior.

Ways that parents can help protect their children from trauma and provide the help their children need if they are exposed to violence are identified in a May 2012 article written for Building Blocks for a Healthy Future (Building Blocks). Building Blocks is an early childhood substance abuse prevention program developed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The Building Blocks article also provides links to many other resources to help parents of children who have been exposed to violence

Alcohol-Impaired Driving Can Lead to Real Halloween Horror

A factsheet for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Halloween Impaired Driving Prevention observance, October 25–November 4, 2012, states, “Nationwide, Halloween is a particularly deadly night due to the high number of drunk drivers on the roads. In 2010, 41 percent of all highway fatalities across the nation on Halloween night (6 p.m. Oct. 31 to 5:59 a.m. Nov. 1) involved a driver or a motorcycle rider with a BAC [blood alcohol concentration] of .08 or higher.” NHTSA has Halloween-related materials and messages for traditional and social media use to support local prevention needs and objectives. NHTSA also encourages partnering among states, communities, and organizations to prevent impaired driving during the Halloween period. The agency’s message to Halloween drivers is Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over.

As part of its National Teen Driver Safety Week, October 14–20, 2012, NHTSA pointed out that “Mile for mile, teenagers are involved in three times as many fatal crashes as all other drivers,” with underage drinking as a major cause. For that observance, NHTSA’s slogan is Drive by the rules. Keep the privilege.

Resource Guide on Child Maltreatment Supports Underage Drinking Prevention

A new Preventing Child Maltreatment and Promoting Well-Being: A Network for Action 2012 Resource Guide is available for downloading on the Child Welfare Information Gateway website supported by the Administration for Children & Families, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. An online shopping cart allows site visitors to request one free printed copy of the new English-Spanish bilingual publication. The document notes that a history of child abuse or neglect is associated with an increased risk of alcohol and drug use among children and urges parents, “Don’t wait for your children to learn about sex, alcohol, and drugs from peers.” Instead, the guide urges adults to help children practice resistance to peer pressure. Additional resources are organized on the site under the Preventing Child Abuse & Neglect tab in the Topics column.

Alcohol Problems Persist After Juvenile Detention

A study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has found that high rates of psychiatric disorders (defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, or DSM-IV, to include substance abuse) persist in young people who were in juvenile detention at some point when they were between the ages of 10 and 18, with alcohol and drug problems the most common of these. The study tracked 1,829 people up to 5 years after they had been released from juvenile detention. A key finding was that more than 45 percent of males and nearly 30 percent of females in this population had one or more psychiatric disorders. Prevalence and Persistence of Psychiatric Disorders in Youth After Detention: : A Prospective Longitudinal Study, by Linda A. Teplin, Ph.D., at Northwestern University and her colleagues, is published in the October 2012 issue of Archives of General Psychiatry. Dr. Teplin commented, “People think these kids are locked up forever, but the average stay is only 2 weeks. Obviously, it’s better to provide community services than to build correctional facilities. Otherwise, the lack of services perpetuates the revolving door between the community and corrections.” NIDA estimates that approximately 10 percent of the 2.1 million juvenile arrests during 2008 were for drug abuse or underage drinking violations.

One in Ten High School Students Drove After Drinking in 2011

“…substantial progress has been made during the past 2 decades to reduce drinking and driving among teens,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) acknowledges in Vital Signs: Drinking and Driving Among High School Students Aged > 16 Years—United States, 1991-2011, made available on October 2, 2012. But the CDC cautions that there is still a need to further reduce teen access to alcohol and opportunities to drink and drive. According to the report, “in 2011, one in 10 U.S. high school students aged ≥16 years reported drinking and driving during the past 30 days, and 85% of those students also engaged in binge drinking during the past 30 days.” The encouraging news in the new Vital Signs is that drinking and driving in this population declined by 54%, from 22.3% to 10.3% from 1991 to 2011.

Setting the minimum legal drinking age at 21 in every state is one of several policies implemented in recent years credited with significant declines in alcohol-involved fatal crashes among teens. Zero tolerance and graduated driver licensing laws, along with other evidence-based environmental prevention strategies are helping to decrease underage drinking and associated problems.

Underage Drinking: Practice Guidelines for Community Corrections

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has released, "Underage Drinking: Practice Guidelines for Community Corrections" The bulletin offers ten guidelines for community supervision professionals who work with underage drinkers. The guidelines were derived from evidence-based practices in order to help practitioners develop a plan for screening underage drinkers, determine appropriate responses, create a case plan, and provide treatment. The bulletin is part of OJJDP's underage drinking bulletin series, which highlights the dangers of underage drinking and provides guidance for communities developing treatment and prevention programs. A September 2012 bulletin in this series presented results of a literature review on the Effects and Consequences of Underage Drinking. OJJDP is a member of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking.

Introducing Children to Alcohol at Home May Backfire

“The safest thing for parents to do is to try and delay exposure to alcohol for as long as possible,” says Ralph Hingson, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research, commenting on a new survey. The survey involved 1,050 mothers or mother surrogates in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee who were paired with their third grade children. At least 1 in 5 of these women believed that giving their children sips of alcohol could protect them from peer pressure to engage in risky drinking when they reach middle school. Forty percent of them thought that forbidding their children to drink would increase their children’s desire to do so. But experts worry that these erroneous assumptions and other myths may actually contribute to America’s underage drinking problem.

Recent scientific findings indicate that the earlier alcohol use begins, the greater the likelihood of subsequent alcohol problems. For example, the 2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration on September 24, 2012, found that “ … among adults aged 18 or older who first tried alcohol at age 14 or younger, 14.8 percent were classified with alcohol dependence or abuse, which was higher than the 3.5 percent of adults who had first used alcohol at age 18 or older.” In light of such evidence, Christine Jackson, Ph.D., principal author of Letting Children Sip: Understanding Why Parents Allow Alcohol Use by Elementary School–aged Children, expressed surprise at discovering that the 33 percent of third graders in her sample had already had beer, wine, or other alcohol. The new study appears online in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Parents’ Alcohol Problems Increase Risks for Underage Drinking

Teens are more likely to use alcohol if they live with a mother or father who has an alcohol use disorder (AUD), according to an analysis of data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) for the years 2002–2010. Fully 23.8 percent of teens with mothers who had a past-year AUD reported that they also were drinking, compared with 14.4 percent of their peers whose mothers did not have such problems. They were also more likely to report binge drinking (15.3 percent vs. 8.7 percent of children of mothers without AUD). If their fathers had past-year AUDs, teens were also more likely to report past-month drinking, with 18.4 percent of these teens doing so vs. 14.3 percent of the teens of fathers without AUD. The fathers’ AUDs had no statistically significant influence on rates of teen binge drinking. On February 16, 2012, SAMHSA released a report estimating that 7.5 million children under age 18, representing 10.5 percent of this age group, lived with a parent who experienced an AUD in the past year.

Indian Health Service Drug Prevention Campaign for Youth Has Star Power

The U.S. Indian Health Service (IHS) has launched a new public education campaign to empower Native youth to resist alcohol and drugs. Chaske Spencer, who plays Sam Uley in the Twilight saga movies, is the spokesperson in the I Strengthen My Nation campaign’s television spot, a short video, and on a campaign poster. Other downloadable materials include a factsheet, brochures for teens and parents, and promotional items. The new campaign encourages Native communities to address alcohol and drug abuse among teens and young adults and asks parents to discuss these topics openly with their children. IHS partnered with the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board and tribes to develop the I Strengthen My Nation campaign and a new website, weRnative.org, that offers health information to Native youth.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s recently released 2011 National Survey on Drug Use Health (NSDUH), 20 percent of American Indian/Alaska Native youth ages 12 to 20 reported past-month alcohol use, while the rate of binge drinking for this group was 13.9 percent. While these rates are lower than for some other ethnic/racial groups, the new NSDUH found that binge alcohol use for all ages was highest among American Indians/Alaska Natives, at 24.3 percent, underscoring the importance of early prevention and the I Strengthen My Nation campaign.

SAMHSA Reports 2011 Declines in Heavy and Binge Drinking by Youth

Among 12- to 20-year-olds, rates of two dangerous types of underage drinking, binge drinking and heavy drinking, were lower in 2011 than in 2010. According to a new national survey released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) on September 24, 2012:

· Binge drinking for this age group fell from 16.9 percent in 2010 to 15.8 percent in 2011; and

· Heavy drinking for this age group declined from 5.1 percent in 2010 to 4.4 percent in 2011.

In addition, SAMHSA’s 2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) reported that 25.1 percent (9.7 million) of 12- to 20-year-olds had used alcohol during the month prior to the survey. This figure compares favorably with the 28.8 percent (10.7 million) of 12- to 20-year-olds who did so according to 2002 NSDUH data. Underage drinking, however, is a cause for ongoing concern as a serious public health issue. Drinking before age 21 is illegal in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and it is associated with many harmful, costly, and often tragic consequences.

October 14–20 Is National Teen Driver Safety Week

Drive by the rules. Keep the privilege is the slogan for National Teen Driver Safety Week, October 14–20, 2012, sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The slogan appears at the end of a new NHTSA television public service announcement featured on NHTSA’s Teen Driver web page. On that web page, NHTSA also points out that “Mile for mile, teenagers are involved in three times as many fatal crashes as all other drivers,” with underage drinking as a major cause. National Teen Driver Safety Week provides opportunities for underage drinking prevention groups to promote NHTSA’s multitiered strategy to prevent deaths and injuries among teens on the nation’s highways. Elements of NHTSA’s strategy include a focus on youth access to alcohol and graduated driver licensing, or GDL. A study reported in the September 2012 issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, concluded that GDL has contributed to recent declines in adolescent drinking and driving.

African-American Youth Overexposed to Alcohol Ads

African-American youth ages 12–20 are seeing more advertisements for alcohol in magazines and on television compared with all youth ages 12–20, according to a new report from the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a project supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CAMY director David Jernigan, Ph.D., says two factors explain the report’s key finding, “First, brands are specifically targeting African-American audiences and, secondly, African-American media habits make them more vulnerable to alcohol advertising in general because of higher levels of media consumption.” In its September 27, 2012, press release about the new report, CAMY says, “At least 14 studies have found that the more young people are exposed to alcohol advertising and marketing, the more likely they are to drink, or if they are already drinking, to drink more.”

Traditionally, young African-Americans are less likely to drink or engage in binge drinking than youth of other racial and ethnic groups, as confirmed in this week’s release of the 2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. But Dr. Jernigan points out that African-American drinkers suffer greater consequences than others. The three leading causes of death among young African-Americans—homicide, suicide, and accidental injury—are all linked with alcohol consumption.

SAMHSA Awards Up to $15.1 Million for Underage Drinking Prevention

On September 13, 2012, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced the award and anticipated future funding of 81 new grants, totaling up to $15.1 million over 4 years, to prevent underage drinking through the Sober Truth on Preventing Underage Drinking Act (STOP ACT) grant program. Each grantee may receive up to $50,000 annually over 4 years, although actual amounts may vary, depending on the availability of funds and progress achieved by the awardees. A list of award recipients was included in the SAMHSA news release.

“The STOP program is based on the simple truth that to effectively address this problem we need to educate and persuade kids not to risk their health and futures through underage drinking,” said SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde, J.D. The STOP ACT grant program supports community-based coalitions to prevent and reduce alcohol use among youth ages 12–20. In 2011, about 9.7 million persons ages 12 to 20 (25.1 percent of this age group) reported drinking alcohol in the past month, according to SAMHSA’s 2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, released on September 24, 2012.

September 28 Webinar: Gathering of Native Americans (GONA)

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Native American Center for Excellence (NACE) will host the webinar Introduction to the Gathering of Native Americans (GONA) on September 28, 2012, from 2 to 4 p.m. EDT. This 2-hour webinar includes a panel of experts, including Patricia Whitefoot, Barbara Aragon, John Bird, Clayton Small, Ph.D., and Maria Trevizo. They will discuss the GONA and its application to Native American/Alaskan Native communities, the status of GONA as a best practice, and opportunities to participate in the NACE GONA Learning Community. For free registration, visit https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/968396622. Archives of completed webinars that NACE has hosted are available under the Training and Technical Assistance tab on its website.

IOM Says Military Should Enforce Underage Drinking Laws, Cut Alcohol Sales

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) says that the armed forces should enforce regulations on underage drinking, reduce the number of outlets that sell alcohol on bases, and limit the hours of operation for on-baseoutlets. These and other recommendations are in a new report from the IOM commissioned by the U.S. Department of Defense and published by the National Academies Press. “Better care for service members and their families is hampered by inadequate prevention strategies, staffing shortages, lack of coverage for services that are proved to work, and stigma associated with these disorders,” said Charles P. O’Brien, the Kenneth Appel Professor of Psychiatry, vice chair of the department of psychiatry, and director of the Center for Studies of Addiction at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine; he is also chair of the committee that wrote the report. His comments were part of a September 17, 2012, National Academies news release about the report. The release noted that the IOM had found that binge drinking among active-duty personnel had increased from 35 percent in 1998 to 47 percent in 2008. The committee took note of the significant role alcohol has played in military culture and urged the services to conduct routine screening for excessive alcohol consumption in primary care settings and provide brief counseling when screening points to risky behavior.

HHS HealthBeat: No Alcohol Is Safe if a Woman May Become Pregnant

Claire Marchetta, a researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reminds women that alcohol use during pregnancy can cause permanent problems for the baby. Interviewed for the September 19, 2012, print and audio editions of HHS HealthBeat, Marchetta says, “These can include physical problems, such as delayed growth or problems with the heart, kidneys or bones. And it can also lead to learning and behavior problems, such as lower IQ and hyperactivity.” A CDC study found that 7.6 percent of pregnant women ages 18 to 44 reported drinking alcohol in the past 30 days, a group that includes many underage drinkers. For pregnant women who reported binge drinking, the study estimated that the average frequency and intensity of binge episodes were about three times per month and six drinks on an occasion. HHS HealthBeat is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

What’s To “Like” When College Students Mention Alcohol on Facebook?

“A recent study shows that up to 83 percent of college students’ Facebook profiles refer to alcohol (Moreno et al., 2012)” is the opening of a feature article in the September 2012 issue of NIAAA Spectrum, the newsletter published by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Many of those references are boasts about underage or excessive drinking. In the article, the study’s principal author, Megan Moreno, M.D., a pediatrician at the University of Wisconsin, reports that “We found that underage college students who referenced dangerous drinking habits, such as intoxication or blacking out, were more likely to have responses on the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, or AUDIT, that indicate problem drinking or alcohol-related injury.” (AUDIT is a screening tool that clinicians use to measure problem drinking.) But the article goes on to describe promising findings in a related study Dr. Moreno also conducted. She told NIAAA Spectrum that those results suggested that social media tools, such as Facebook, can be used effectively to intervene early in a student’s risky drinking behavior. “Students told us that if they posted about drinking on their profiles, they would be willing to listen to someone offering feedback in the right way,” she said.

Heavy Drinking May Increase Risks for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

“A history of heavy alcohol abuse could impair a critical mechanism for recovering from trauma, and in doing so put people at greater risk for PTSD,” according to Andrew Holmes, Ph.D., a scientist at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and senior author of a new study by scientists at NIAAA and the University of North Carolina’s Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies. Although alcohol abuse and alcoholism have often been linked with PTSD, few studies have explored how chronic drinking may subsequently make a person more prone to such anxiety disorders. An NIAAA short report on the new findings concludes, “These results indicate that chronic drinking may impair fear extinction and alter neural circuits that mediate recovery from trauma, increasing the risk for PTSD.” The study was published online on September 2, 2012, in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Underage Drinking Prevention PowerPoints for Communities That Care

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has created new PowerPoint presentations that help communities use SAMHSA’s Communities That Care (CTC) to target youth problem behaviors such as underage drinking. CTC is a coalition-based community prevention operating system that uses a public health approach to prevent youth problem behaviors, including underage drinking, tobacco use, violence, delinquency, dropping out of school, and substance abuse. CTC files and training materials are now available for free download from the Supplemental CTC website. Installing the CTC system requires an onsite community coordinator to manage the CTC coalition; administration, analysis, and reporting of the CTC Youth Survey; and trainer costs for the six CTC trainings. Also, participating communities need to cover the costs of the prevention programs selected for implementation through the CTC process.

New National Suicide Prevention Strategy; Alcohol a Common Risk Factor

“… suicide was one of the top 10 causes of death in the United States in 2009,” according to the Introduction to 2012 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention, a new report published by the Office of the Surgeon General and the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention. Among the most common risk factors for suicide, “alcohol and drug abuse” was named as second only to mood disorders. Underage drinking is a risk factor for suicidal behavior, and suicide is among the top three causes of death among young people 15–24 years of age. Suicidal behaviors are particularly common among some subgroups of youth; an estimated 14 to 27 percent of American Indian/Alaska Native adolescents have attempted suicide. Although it is impossible to calculate a reliable suicide rate for people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, a meta-analysis of 25 studies estimated lifetime prevalence of suicide attempts among gay/bisexual male teens and adults at four times that of heterosexual males. The 2012 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention sets out four strategic directions, with 13 goals and 60 objectives, that are meant to work together in a synergistic way to prevent suicide. This report was developed with support from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Studies Find Brains of Underage Drinkers 10 Percent Smaller: OJJDP Bulletin

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has published a 12-page comprehensive bulletin that reviews the most recent literature on underage drinking and highlights major research findings. Effects and Consequences of Underage Drinking cites studies finding that the brains of adolescent drinkers were 10 percent smaller than the brains of nondrinking teens and other research suggesting that underage drinking may result in long-term cognitive deficiencies.

The new OJJDP bulletin also emphasizes that the estimated costs associated with underage drinking for 2007 were $68 billion—or $1 for every drink consumed, that 19 percent of drivers ages 16–20 involved in fatal highway crashes in 2009 had blood alcohol concentration above the legal limit of 0.08, and that underage drinking “encourages” risky sexual behavior. The September 2012 OJJDP bulletin was adapted from Underage Drinking: Intervention Principles and Practice Guidelines for Community Corrections (Crowe, Mullins, Cobb, and Lowe, 2011).

September 27th Healthy People Bullying Webinar; Bullying & Underage Drinking

Free registration is available for a September 27, 2012 Healthy People 2020 webinar, “Spotlight on Health: Bullying Among Adolescents” addressing bullying among adolescents, bullying prevention and systematic policy changes, and populations at risk. The 90-minute webinar will begin at 12 noon EDT and feature Don Wright, M.D., M.P.H., Health and Human Services Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health; Health Scientist Marci Feldman Hertz, M.S., from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); Dorothy Espelage, Ph.D., M.A., Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

High levels of underage drinking have been reported among both youth bullies and their victims, according to several sources, including the CDC. The federal government’s bullying website names four youth populations who may be at higher risk for being bullied: LGBT youth; Youth with disabilities or special needs; Youth from certain racial, ethnic, national backgrounds; Youth members of some regions or faith groups.

Fall Semester Is the Time for Parents To Discuss College Drinking

It appears that the first 6 weeks of the first semester are critical to a new college student’s academic success. During these first weeks, many college students initiate patterns of heavy drinking, and, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), parental discussions about alcohol with their college students may be most crucial during this same period. To encourage parental discussions and other actions to prevent underage and excessive drinking by college students, NIAAA offers new materials, such as “Fall Semester: A Time for Parents to Revisit Discussions about College Drinking,” the factsheet “College Drinking,” and a 4-page summary of facts about alcohol use in college and prevention topics.

Many freshman students arrive at college with drinking habits that began earlier in their adolescence. Once they are on campus, however, the environment of college alcohol use can lead them to even riskier drinking. An archived 2012 webcast hosted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, in which NIAAA staff participated, examined the unique challenges involved in college drinking prevention and presented examples of how evidence-based environmental prevention can lead to positive change.

President Orders Expanded Military/Family Suicide, Behavioral Health Services

On August 31, 2012, President Barack Obama signed an Executive order “directing key federal departments to expand suicide prevention strategies and take steps to meet the current and future demand for mental health and substance abuse treatment services for veterans, service members, and their families.” The Executive order calls for strengthened suicide prevention efforts for this population and increased attention to both post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). The Suicide Prevention Resource Center, supported by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), called for attention to the President’s action in conjunction with National Suicide Prevention Week, September 9–15, 2012.

Alcohol use is a risk factor for suicide, and heavy drinking is more prevalent among those entering military service, including many who are below age 21, and among young adults ages 18 to 25, serving in the military. PTSD and alcohol problems often occur together; among Vietnam veterans seeking treatment for PTSD, 60 to 80 percent had alcohol problems. SAMHSA cites data indicating that in the general population, between one third and one half of TBI patients were intoxicated when their injuries occurred. The extent to which drinking may contribute to TBI among members of the military services has not been determined. But TBI patients with a substance abuse history may increase their drinking; other TBI sufferers may begin or increase their alcohol use. Preventing underage drinking among service personnel, veterans, and their families may reduce incidents of PTSD, TBI, and suicide.

Early and Heavy Alcohol Use Increases Risk of Alcohol Problems as Young Adults

“… our first recommendation would be to delay the onset of any alcohol use as long as possible,” says Meghan Rabbitt Morean, a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University School of Medicine and lead author of a new study about the consequences of early underage drinking as they are experienced by emerging adults. Her results confirm other findings showing that an early age of first drink (AFD) increases risks for heavier drinking and more negative consequences of drinking later on. But Dr. Morean and her colleagues also conclude that when early AFD is combined with early initiation of heavy drinking, risk increases. Thus, 15-year-olds who start drinking are at greater risk for subsequent heavy drinking and alcohol-related problems than teens who do not begin drinking until age 17. However, if those 15-year-old drinkers also drank to intoxication at 15, their risk would be greater than if they had their first drink at age 15 but did not become intoxicated until age 17.

An article detailing the new study, which was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, will appear in the November 2012 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and is currently available at Early View. While Dr. Morean and her coauthors focused on the effects of early AFD and early heavy drinking on consequences some years later in the lives of underage drinkers, she also points out that “… beginning to drink at an early age is associated with more immediate problems, such as compromised brain development and liver damage during adolescence, risky sexual behaviors, poor performance in school, and use of other substances like marijuana and cocaine.”

Marines To Drop “Responsible Drinking” From New Alcohol Campaign

A draft version of a new alcohol prevention campaign for the U.S. Marine Corps is scheduled to be delivered in September 2012 to the service’s high-level Executive Force Preservation Board. The new campaign will talk about the dangers of drinking and driving, impaired decisionmaking, and alcohol-related health problems and will promote alcohol-free alternative activities for Marines. But one message that it will not repeat from the corps’ earlier prevention efforts is a call for responsible drinking. “We’re not convinced that [promoting] responsible drinking is working,” says Brig. Gen. Robert Hedelund, director of the Marine and Family Programs Division of Manpower and Reserve Affairs. According to Dr. Keita Franklin, who helped shape the new campaign by conducting focus groups involving hundreds of Marine participants, “One of our fixes is to stop talking about responsible drinking, because no one knows what it means.” For example, when one focus group was asked to define responsible drinking, a participant said that this would be “18 beers or so” but another countered, “No, more like 15.”

Underage drinking is among the risk factors for developing alcohol abuse and alcoholism listed in the "Alcohol Use" chapter of the Leaders Guide for Managing Marines in Distress. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has reported that 38.6 percent of males in the Marine Corps between the ages of 18 and 25 engage in heavy drinking, more than double the rate (17.8 percent) of civilian men in the same age group and higher than any of the other military branches. Elevated rates of alcohol abuse are reflected in numerous alcohol-related problems, and alcohol is implicated in about half of the corps’ cases of sexual assault and a third of the domestic violence incidents. Alcohol is also believed to play a role in the Marine Corps’ rising rates of attempted and completed suicides.

Movies Glorifying College Drinking Influence Freshman Alcohol Use, Problems

Citing data from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) on America’s college drinking problems, researchers at Niagara University measured direct and indirect effects on college freshman of exposure to movies that students themselves identified as having “significant content that glorifies drinking in college.” Exposure to such movies affected drinking and its consequences through expectancies about the use of alcohol and perceived norms, including college alcohol beliefs (the extent to which alcohol is viewed as central to college life), positive and negative expectancies about the use of alcohol, and descriptive and injunctive norms for drinking. The study, by Timothy M. Osberg and his colleagues at Niagara University, analyzed data obtained from 479 first semester freshman students ranging in age from 17 to 20. The list of 24 student-identified college-drinking movie titles administered to participants included Accepted (2006), Animal House (1978), Old School (2003), Sydney White (2007), The House Bunny (2008), and Van Wilder (2002). NIAAA has identified the first 6 weeks of freshman year as a particularly vulnerable time for heavy drinking and alcohol-related consequences at college.

September 12 Walk for Native American Suicide Prevention

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Office of Behavioral Health Equity has announced the 1st Annual Walk to Raise Awareness about Suicide among Native Americans, for September 12, 2012, in conjunction with National Suicide Prevention Week (September 9–15). Participating tribal communities will hold walks and other activities to call attention to the issue. A factsheet from SAMHSA’s Suicide Prevention Resource Center ranks suicide as the second leading cause of death for American Indians and Alaska Natives between the ages of 10 and 34. Native American and Alaskan Native youth have the highest rates of suicide-related fatalities, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). CDC lists “alcohol or drug abuse” as a risk factor for suicide. In SAMHSA’s 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 22.9 percent of American Indian or Alaska Native youth, ages 12 to 20, reported current alcohol use.

Given the significance of suicide as a health concern for Native populations, the Indian Health Service has created an American Indian and Alaska Native Suicide Prevention website. Also tied to the 2012 National Suicide Prevention Week, SAMHSA has launched an online suicide prevention campaign, “You Matter,” and the campaign’s website includes an increase in the use of alcohol or drug as one of the warning signs for suicide.

September 9 Is International FASD Awareness Day

A statement from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) about the September 9, 2012, International Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) Awareness Day observance includes this reminder: “The message is simple, not just on Sept. 9, but every day. Women who are, who may be, or who are trying to become pregnant, should not drink alcohol.” NIAAA also notes that 30 percent of women still drink during pregnancy, almost four decades after researchers linked a variety of disabilities in newborns to their mothers’ alcohol consumption while pregnant.

In 2004, 8.8 percent of young women, ages 15 to 17, reported binge drinking during pregnancy, according to a factsheet issued by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Center of Excellence. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center estimates that the cost to the United States in 2010 of babies born with fetal alcohol syndrome to mothers ages 15 to 20 was more than $1.3 billion.

September 20, 2012 Webinar on Underage Drinking Research

On September 20, 2012, at 3:00 p.m. EDT, Ralph Hingson, Sc.D., M.P.H., director of the Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, will be the principal presenter during a free 90-minute webinar about underage drinking research that has been conducted since the 2007 Surgeon’s General’s Call to Action To Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking was published. Dr. Hingson will present new findings on trends in and consequences of underage drinking as well as evidence-based individual, environmental, and community-based interventions to prevent and reduce underage drinking. The Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) will host the webinar. Rhonda Ramsey-Molina, CADCA’s deputy director of Dissemination and Coalition Relations, will serve as moderator for the session.

Dr. Hingson has authored or coauthored 150 research articles and book chapters on alcohol use, including studies of the effects of raising the legal drinking age, zero tolerance laws for drivers under 21, assessments of morbidity and mortality associated with underage drinking, drinking by U.S. college students ages 18–24, and interventions to reduce both underage and excessive drinking by college students. On February 6, 2012, he joined an expert panel in Making the Grade on College Drinking Prevention, a live webcast hosted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The webcast is archived for online viewing

Underage Drinking Males up to Three Times Likelier To Abuse Rx Drugs

Using demographic and clinical data from the 2006–2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), a team of researchers led by Lynn Fiellin, M.D., associate professor of medicine at Yale University, has found that early alcohol use, cigarette use, and marijuana use are all associated, to varying degrees, with a two-to-three times greater likelihood of subsequent abuse of prescription opioids. With partial support from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the study by Dr. Fiellin and her colleagues found that 57 percent of young adult prescription drug abusers had abused alcohol during their teens. For males, adolescent use of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana was linked with a significant increased risk for abuse of prescription painkillers. Among females, only teen use of marijuana increased the likelihood of later prescription drug abuse. The study was reported in the August 21, 2012, online edition of the Journal of Adolescent Health.

According to 2010 NSDUH data, the nonmedical use of prescription drugs was the second most prevalent category of illicit drug use. In many communities, state and local concerns about misuse of prescription drugs among young alcohol abusers were included in the programs of 2012 underage drinking prevention Town Hall Meetings sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

World Suicide Prevention Day—September 10, 2012

In Preventing Suicide: A Toolkit for High Schools, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) identifies underage drinking as a risk factor for youth suicide and recommends preventing underage alcohol use as an effective measure for preventing teen suicide. A decade earlier, an analysis of SAMHSA data concluded that “Youths who reported past year alcohol or illicit drug use were more likely than youths who did not use these substances to be at risk for suicide.” SAMHSA’s Suicide Prevention Resource Center supports World Suicide Prevention Day, September 10, 2012, and offers multiple resources, including an online Best Practices Registry. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline—1–800–273–TALK (8255)—is a free, 24-hour hotline available to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress and is one of several additional resources that SAMHSA offers to help prevent suicide.

American Indian Spiritual Beliefs Help Prevent Underage Drinking

A study involving seventh- and eighth-grade American Indian students in five southwestern urban middle schools has concluded that adherence to Native American spirituality is a strong predictor of anti-alcohol and anti-drug attitudes, norms, and expectations among American Indian youth. Affiliation with the Native American Church, but not with Christian churches, was protective against alcohol use even though Christian beliefs were associated with lower levels of substance abuse overall. However, contrary to other research findings, this study found that a general sense of spirituality unconnected to Native traditions or other specific beliefs did not appear to be protective.

The authors of “Spirituality and Religion: Intertwined Protective Factors for Substance Use Among Urban American Indian Youth,” published in The Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, found that spirituality held some importance for more than 80 percent of respondents. Seventy-nine percent of the students felt it was “somewhat” or “very important” to follow traditional American Indian beliefs, and about half felt it was important to follow Christian beliefs. The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health supported the new study.

Restricted Access to Alcohol Cuts Risks of Teen Violence, Suicide

Three in four high school students say they’ve drunk alcohol, and more than one in three report drinking during the past month. One in three has been in a physical fight during the past year. These facts are presented in the August 17, 2012, edition of HealthBeat, titled Risky teens, which discusses the association of underage drinking with teen violence. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s researcher Dr. Danice Eaton tells HealthBeat, “High school boys are most likely to have been in a physical fight. On the other hand, girls are most likely to have seriously considered attempting suicide, and to have drunk alcohol.” She urges parents to discuss risks of alcohol use with their teens, know where their teens are, and determine whether an adult is present.

In 2005, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) found that 28.4 percent of youth ages 12 to 17 who took part in serious fighting at school or work reported drinking alcohol at least once in the previous 30 days. Underage drinking has long been identified as a risk factor for teen suicide, a concern addressed in SAMHSA’s June 2012 Preventing Suicide: A Toolkit for High Schools. The new toolkit includes “restricted access to alcohol” in its list of protective factors for youth suicide. Policies that reduce and limit youth access to alcohol have been the focus of recent public discussions in many U.S. communities.

Early Alcohol Use Predicts Heavy Drinking at College

A Yale University study, funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), has confirmed that those who begin drinking at the youngest ages are the most likely to engage in heavy drinking later on. The earlier that teens began drinking, the more likely that they would struggle to control their alcohol consumption during their senior year at college. According to Meghan E. Morean, Ph.D., lead author of the study, “Quickly progressing from first alcohol use to drinking to intoxication was also an important predictor of heavy drinking and the experience of alcohol related problems during senior year of college.”

She acknowledged that other studies have established similar links between an early age of first drink and negative alcohol-related outcomes. Among those outcomes: compromised brain development, drug abuse, cirrhosis of the liver, and risky sexual behaviors. “Age of First Use and Delay to First Intoxication in Relation to Trajectories of Heavy Drinking and Alcohol-Related Problems During Emerging Adulthood” was published online on August 15, 2012, in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

Underage Male Drinkers Far More Likely to Abuse Prescription Drugs

Using demographic and clinical data from the 2006-2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), a team of researchers led by Dr. Lynn Fiellin, associate professor of medicine at Yale University, has found that early alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use are all associated, to varying degrees, with a two- to-three times greater likelihood of subsequent abuse of prescription opioids. With partial support from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the study by Dr. Fiellin and her colleagues found that 57 percent of young adult prescription drug abusers had abused alcohol during their teens. For males, adolescent use of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana were all linked with a significantly increased risk for abuse of prescription painkillers. Among females, only teen use of marijuana increased the likelihood of later prescription drug abuse. The study was reported in the August 21, 2012, online edition of the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Data from the 2010 NSDUH show nonmedical use of prescription drugs as the second most prevalent category of illicit drug use. In many communities, state and local concerns about misuse of prescription drugs among young alcohol abusers were included in the programs of 2012 SAMHSA-sponsored underage drinking prevention Town Hall Meetings.

Rural Treatment Admissions Are Younger and More Likely To Be Alcohol-Related

In 2009, rural admissions for substance abuse treatment were younger than urban admissions and were more likely to report alcohol as the primary substance of abuse, according to a report of Treatment Episode Data Set findings, A Comparison of Rural and Urban Substance Abuse Treatment Admissions, issued by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). For all age groups, 49.5 percent of rural Americans admitted to substance abuse treatment reported alcohol as their primary substance of abuse, compared with 36.1 percent of urban Americans seeking treatment. Among rural admissions, initiation of substance abuse began earlier than for those treated in urban settings. The use of alcohol and/or drugs by age 11 was reported by 10.2 percent of rural treatment admissions, between ages 12 to 14 by 25.1 percent, and between ages 15 to 17 by 32.1 percent. Among urban admissions, the comparable percentages were 6.6, 21.1, and 26.7, respectively.

In an August 14, 2012, news release announcing the new data, SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde, J.D., said, “There is a real need in this country for substance abuse prevention and treatment in both rural and urban areas. This report underscores that need. It’s a tool that policymakers and treatment providers can use to more effectively meet the substance abuse prevention and treatment needs of the communities they serve.”

Parents of College-Bound Youth Hold One Key to Underage Drinking Prevention

“Substance use was lowest for those teens whose parents were knowledgeable and consistent, and who also had friends whose parents were knowledgeable and consistent,” states Michael Cleveland, of the Prevention Research Center at Penn State University, in the August 15, 2012, “Peer pressure and parents” edition of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ HealthBeat. This tip is available as a 59-second audio message, as well as in text format, and underscores the advice to parents of first-year college students offered by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). In its latest College Drinking factsheet, NIAAA states, “Research shows that students who choose not to drink often do so because their parents discussed alcohol use and its adverse consequences with them.”

Along with strong parent involvement, changing the culture of college drinking requires “comprehensive, integrated programs with multiple complementary components.” Several types of evidence-based prevention that have been found effective on campuses are discussed by an expert panel in Making the Grade in College Drinking Prevention, a live interactive webcast hosted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in 2012.

Screening Tools Can Prevent College Alcohol Problems

PREVENTION UPDATE: AOD Screening Tools for College Students, a June 2012 publication from the U.S. Department of Education’s Higher Education Center for Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Violence Prevention (HEC) describes and provides hyperlinks to several screening instruments for identifying those college students who are at the greatest risk for alcohol problems. HEC notes that the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) has called this form of early detection “the first step in prevention.” But successful screenings call for choosing an appropriate instrument that is feasible to implement and the HEC Update focuses on those that have been used at colleges and universities and have undergone evaluation.

In its online College Drinking fact sheet, NIAAA says: “Many students come to college with established drinking habits, and the college environment can exacerbate the problem. Research shows that more than 80 percent of college students drink alcohol, and almost half report binge drinking in the past 2 weeks.” The new HEC document cites evaluation findings to support use of screening instruments among college drinkers and has links to other resources.

The use of evidence-based types of environmental prevention have been shown to be effective in preventing and reducing underage drinking and excessive alcohol use among college students, as well. A panel of experts discussed several of these in a now-archived live webcast Town Hall Meeting held on February 6, 2012.

Almost 40 Percent of Treatment Admissions Are for Alcohol and Drug Co-Use

An analysis of the 2009 Treatment Episode Data Set shows that 730,228 substance abuse treatment admissions (37.2 percent) reported abuse of alcohol and at least one other drug, according to a July 24, 2012, Data Spotlight issued by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality. Noting that combined alcohol and drug use tends to be associated with heavier drinking, the new SAMHSA Data Spotlight cautions, “It is important for treatment providers to identify patients who use alcohol with other drugs since that is an especially dangerous usage pattern.”

Underage drinking has long been associated with an increased risk for illicit drug use. Although the new data analysis is not broken down by age groups, a January 13, 2011, SAMHSA report, based on its Drug Abuse Warning Network’s findings, stated that 30 percent of alcohol-related emergency department visits in 2008 by people between the ages of 12 and 20 involved alcohol in combination with other drugs.

Sept. 20 Webinar: Managing Alcohol Outlet Density to Reduce Youth Access

Save the date: On Thursday, September 20, 2012, at 3:00 p.m. EDT, the Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center will present a free 75-minute webinar, Managing Alcohol Outlet Density to Reduce Youth Access to Alcohol. Areas with higher alcohol outlet density have higher levels of heavy drinking and alcohol-related problems. During the webinar, presenters will share information about regulatory strategies that communities use to manage alcohol outlet density to limit youth access to alcohol. For example, geographic buffer zones between an alcohol establishment and a youth-related area reduce youth access to alcohol by making it less prevalent in their immediate environment. Limiting youth access to alcohol can help improve public health, safety, and well-being by reducing crime rates, victimization, personal injuries, and fatalities. The presenters will also share information about useful resources to aid implementation of these types of efforts.

The Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center is supported by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, a member of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking (ICCPUD). Reducing demand for, availability of, and access to alcohol by persons under the age of 21 is one of three ICCPUD goals, as reported in a 2011 report to Congress on the issue of underage drinking.

Marketing Alcohol and Risky Behavior to Teens

Alcohol ads that violate the industry’s voluntary alcohol advertising standards were more likely to be found in magazines with higher youth readerships, according to a new study from the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Researchers reviewed 1,261 ads for alcopops, beer, spirits, or wine that appeared more than 2,500 times in 11 different magazines with youth readerships equaling or exceeding 15 percent. Examples of code violations the researchers found included ads appearing to target a primarily underage audience, ads highlighting the high alcohol content of a product, or ads portraying alcohol consumption in conjunction with activities requiring a high degree of alertness or coordination.

“It’s time to seriously consider stronger limits on youth exposure to alcohol advertising,” according to CAMY director and study coauthor David Jernigan, Ph.D. He noted that the violations to the alcohol industry’s voluntary code revealed by the study suggest that self-regulatory measures are not working. The study, Risky Messages in Alcohol Advertising, 2003–2007: Results From Content Analysis, supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was published online on June 19, 2012, in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

State Laws Can Cut Underage Drinking and Driving in Half

A new study concludes that two types of laws now in force in many states reduce hazardous drinking and driving behaviors among teens. One type is graduated driving licensing (GDL) laws that help new young drivers gain experience in less risky driving situations while progressing to full unrestricted driving privileges. The second type is use-and-lose laws that suspend or revoke driving privileges for violations of underage drinking laws. The study was conducted by Patricia A. Cavazos-Rehg, a research assistant professor at Washington University School of Medicine, and her colleagues. According to Cavazos-Rehg, “… a student in a state with the strongest GDL and use-and-lose laws would be approximately half as likely as a student in a state with the weakest GDL and use-and-lose laws to drive after drinking."

For their study, Cavazos-Rehg and her colleagues analyzed data on the drinking and driving behaviors for 221,362 youth (111,345 males, 110,017 females), ages 16–17 years old, from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System for the years 1999–2009. Results will be published in the September 2012 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View. Their findings echo those of a separate study of GDL effectiveness reported in May of this year by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the Highway Loss Data Institute, based on data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System.

Brain Activity May Predict Teens’ Risk of Heavy Drinking

A pattern of adolescent brain activity that may help predict which young people are at increased risk for heavy drinking has been identified by University of California–San Diego researchers. On the basis of 3-year tracking of 40 teens whose magnetic resonance imaging scans were obtained before they started drinking, the researchers found that those who had initially showed less activation in certain brain areas were at a greater risk for becoming heavy drinkers. These results add to evidence that certain individuals may be more vulnerable to alcohol and the potential for alcohol abuse and addiction owing to biological characteristics, although environment may determine whether or not they choose to drink. The research was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and is reported in the September 2012 issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

Alcoholic Energy Drink Consumption Increases Risk Taking by College Students

More than 60 percent of subjects were younger than age 21 in a study that found college students who consume alcohol-laced energy drinks were more likely to engage in casual, often risky, sex. “Energy drink consumption is correlated with substance use, unsafe sexual activity and several other forms of risk-taking,” according to the study’s author, Kathleen E. Miller, Ph.D., at the University at Buffalo. Two thirds of 795 undergraduate consumers of energy drinks in Dr. Miller’s study had used energy drinks as mixers with alcoholic beverages. The results of Dr. Miller’s work, conducted with support from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, are reported in an article in the June 2012 issue of the Journal of Caffeine Research.

In a separate Journal of American College Health article, Dr. Miller reported that her study also linked heavy consumption of energy drinks with what she termed a “toxic” jock identity among college athletes. Such an identity emphasizes hypermasculinity and a willingness to take excessive risks, which are associated with problem drinking, sexual risk-taking, interpersonal violence, academic misconduct, delinquency, and suicide attempts.

Navy Launches Alcohol Survey To Revamp “Right Spirit” Campaign

On August 6, 2012, the U.S. Navy invited its more than 320,000 active personnel to participate in an online survey about alcohol attitudes, knowledge, and practices in order to refit its 1995 “Right Spirit” campaign with timely new alcohol abuse prevention messages. In March of this year, the Navy’s “Domino Strategy on How To Drink Responsibly” campaign set sail to promote what the Navy describes as a 0-1-2 approach to drinking. This approach advocates zero drinks “for people who are under 21, operating any type of vehicle, pregnant, trying to become pregnant or breastfeeding, recovering alcoholics or chemically dependent, and using certain medications; at most one standard drink per day for women; and no more than two standard drinks per day for men.”

The Navy’s alcohol prevention campaigns are under the auspices of Navy Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention (NADAP). NADAP promotes the Department of Defense’s “That Guy” campaign, as well. “That Guy” uses a humorous approach to encourage young enlisted personnel to reject binge drinking and reminds them that it detracts from the things they care about: Family, friends, dating, sex, money, and reputation. Military personnel often use alcohol as a way to cope with stress, boredom, loneliness, and the lack of other recreational activities. A work culture that includes easy availability of alcohol, ritualized drinking opportunities, and inconsistent policies also facilitates heavy and binge drinking in this population.

National Institutes of Health Urges Parents To Talk to Teens Now About Alcohol

“Children as young as 9 years old may become curious about drinking, and they may even try alcohol,” according to a Risks of underage drinking page recently updated for the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) MedlinePlus website of health information for patients and their families and friends. The new underage drinking page says that the best time to start talking with teens about alcohol is “now” and presents key points about the harmful effects of underage drinking, gleaned from publications of NIH’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). In its newest consumer information about underage drinking, NIAAA emphasizes the important role that parents can play in their children’s decisions about alcohol. Helping adult family members play this role effectively is a basic element in preventing underage drinking.

Age 21 Alcohol Law Is “Balanced and Effective” Researchers Conclude

“The National Uniform Drinking Act Age 21 has been a balanced, effective, and popular tool in helping to combat the many problems associated with underage drinking—for students or nonstudents alike” is the conclusion of a Commentary in the July 2012 issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. The piece supports findings of a study by Fitzpatrick and colleagues reported in the same journal, examining whether lowering the current drinking age would be an effective means of reducing underage drinking problems, as claimed by the Amethyst Initiative, a collaboration of 135 college and university presidents who have challenged the current laws. “Research shows,” the commentary stated, “when the drinking age is 21, those younger than 21 drink less and continue to drink less through their early 20s.” The authors also note substantial, well-documented declines in alcohol-involved youth highway fatalities, homicides, suicides, and unintentional injuries associated with the age 21 Minimum Legal Drinking Age Laws, or MLDAs, as these state policies are also known.

The Commentary was penned by noted researchers Robert B. Voas, Ph.D., and James C. Fell. In their conclusions, Dr. Voas and Fell observe, “States are still free to set their drinking age lower than 21, if they are willing to accept the increase in youthful deaths and give up federal highway funds.”

New Tribal HIV/STD Kit Calls for Community Alcohol Policies

“Community policies addressing drug and alcohol use or gang activity, which can increase sexual violence and encourage unhealthy decision-making,” is one of the activities and interventions in the Additional Information and Resources section of the new Tribal HIV/STD Advocacy Kit and Policy Guide.

The kit was released by the Indian Health Service in conjunction with the International AIDS Conference that took place in Washington, DC, during the week of July 22, 2012.

In 2010, more than 11 percent of American Indian or Alaskan Native youth ages 12 to 17 reported binge drinking. The association between alcohol use and risks for HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases is well established. For example, the National Institute on Drug Abuse states, “… alcohol intoxication affects judgment and can lead to risky sexual behavior that puts participants at risk of contracting or transmitting HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. In addition, drug use and abuse can facilitate the progress of HIV infection by further compromising the immune system.” More than a dozen community-based tribal organizations held 2012 underage drinking prevention Town Hall Meetings to promote evidence-based environmental prevention policies.

Teens Who Drink Do Poorly in Schools Where Alcohol Use Is Uncommon

Does alcohol boost confidence and a sense of fitting in among teens? Not “among students in schools with tightly-connected friendship cliques and low levels of alcohol abuse,” according to new research at the University of Texas at Austin. In fact, sociology professor Robert Crosnoe and his associates found that in such settings underage drinking leads to “increased social stress and poor grades.” The study used data on more than 8,000 adolescents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, a component of the National Institutes of Health.

The new study results are described in the July 25, 2012, edition of HealthBeat, “Drinking where kids don’t fit in”; HealthBeat is a series of health promotion and disease prevention text and audio messages posted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services five times a week. In addition, Dr. Crosnoe and his colleagues authored a May 2, 2012, article about their work in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

Parents Play a Central Role in Teen Decisions About Alcohol

“Although many factors influence whether teens use alcohol, one thing is clear: parents play a central role in teens’ decisions,” according to an introduction to new resources offered by the Office of Adolescent Health (OAH), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to help parents prevent underage drinking. The resources provide tips on the topics How You Make a Difference, Talk with Your Teen, and Ideas for Getting Started. Additional information on adolescent alcohol use, including links to individual state data, is available through the OAH Adolescents Health Topics web page on substance abuse.

According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, “Parents … can play a big role in shaping young people’s attitudes toward drinking.” That influence can work either way: Close parental involvement in children’s lives can reduce chances of underage drinking, but the children of binge drinking parents are more likely to binge drink themselves.

“Peer pressure and parents” Prevention Tips Offered Online in Text and Audio

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has added “Peer pressure and parents” to HealthBeat, its series of 59-second health promotion and disease prevention text and audio messages posted 5 days a week. The message informs parents about recent research concluding that teens are less likely to engage in underage drinking when their parents and the parents of their friends are knowledgeable about their children’s behavior and consistent in applying rules regarding substance abuse.

The researchers found that the parents of the friends of high school students can have just as much influence as their own parents when it comes to substance abuse. “Among friendship groups with ‘good parents’ there's a synergistic effect—if your parents are consistent and aware of your whereabouts, and your friends' parents are also consistent and aware of their (children's) whereabouts, then you are less likely to use substances,” according to Michael J. Cleveland, lead author of the study. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute on Drug Abuse cofunded the study, along with the William T. Grant Foundation.

Alcohol-Related Injuries Cut in Half in Campus Study of Comprehensive Prevention

Alcohol-related injuries caused by students decreased by 50 percent on five North Carolina university campuses participating in a study supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). In the Study to Prevent Alcohol Related Consequences (SPARC), researchers found that a community organizing approach that promoted implementation of environmental interventions by campus-community coalitions reduced student car accidents, DUIs/DWIs, the need for medical treatment as a result of drinking, physical fights and sexual assaults, and other consequences of underage and excessive drinking.

Strategies implemented by all of the participating campuses in the 3-year SPARC study included approaches to restrict the provision of alcohol to underage or intoxicated students, increase or improve coordination between campus and community police, and establish consistent disciplinary actions resulting from policy violations. Dr. Ralph Hingson, who directs NIAAA’s Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research and participated in a February 6, 2012, live webcast about campus alcohol prevention, observed, “It is particularly noteworthy that this combined campus/community effort not only reduced harms personally experienced by the drinker, but also harms resulting from others’ alcohol misuse.”

Highly Visible Impaired-Driving Crackdowns Save Lives

When the public knows that law enforcement is on the lookout for drivers who have been drinking, alcohol-impaired highway fatalities decline by as much as 20 percent, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). That’s why NHTSA has asked communities to join its Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over impaired-driving national enforcement crackdown from August 17 through September 3, 2012.

Although the NHTSA campaign promotes sober driving for anyone who gets behind the wheel, NHTSA notes on its Teen Drivers page that “Teens are at far greater risk of death in an alcohol-related crash than the overall population, despite the fact they cannot legally purchase or publicly possess alcohol in any State.” To reduce teen highway deaths, NHTSA recommends that communities implement comprehensive prevention strategies, including high-visibility enforcement of underage drinking laws and graduated driver licensing laws.

Many Pregnant Young Women Still Drink

According to a new Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 4.5 percent of pregnant women between the ages of 18 and 24 report alcohol use. As the report notes, “Alcohol use during pregnancy is a leading preventable cause of birth defects and developmental disabilities. Alcohol-exposed pregnancies (AEPs) can lead to fetal alcohol syndrome and other fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs), which result in neurodevelopmental deficits and lifelong disability.”

The new report is based on data from CDC’s 2006–2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey, which did not sample alcohol use by pregnant women younger than age 18. A factsheet from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Center of Excellence states that 8.8 percent of pregnant women ages 15 to 17 reported past-month binge drinking in 2004. The Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency and Prevention’s Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center estimates that the cost to the United States in 2010 of babies born with fetal alcohol syndrome to mothers ages 15 to 20 was more than $1.3 billion.

Underage Drinking Is Gateway to Smoking, Drug Abuse

Underage drinking often leads to use of tobacco, marijuana, and other illicit drugs, according to a new study analyzing data collected from 14,577 high school seniors for the 2008 Monitoring the Future survey sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). An article in the August 2012 issue of the Journal of School Health calls alcohol “the gateway” drug. The new study found that students who used alcohol exhibited a significantly greater likelihood—up to 16 times—of licit and illicit substance use.

“The longer that alcohol initiation is delayed, the more likely that other drug or substance use will be delayed or prevented as well,” Dr. Adam Berry, the study’s author at the University of Florida, said. Preventing underage drinking is the subject of a 2011 report to Congress that concludes, “The primary preventive issue in underage drinking is to delay onset of alcohol use for as long as possible, and preferably until the age of 21.”

Supporting local implementation of evidence-based environmental prevention is the focus at many of the more than 1,500 Town Hall Meetings taking place across the United States in 2012, with the support of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). SAMHSA leads the 15-member federal Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking, in which NIDA participates.

Underage Drinking Can Put a Chill on Summer Fun

“… half of all water recreation deaths of teens and adults involve the use of alcohol,” says the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) in a new factsheet about the risks of underage drinking and adult alcohol use in combination with typical summer activities. Swimmers, surfers, and divers who have been drinking face multiple risks due to impaired judgment and the chance of developing hypothermia. Boaters who have been drinking alcohol also risk more injuries: NIAAA estimates that alcohol may be involved in as much as 60 percent of all boating fatalities.

The new NIAAA factsheet goes on to state, “The summer holidays are some of the most dangerous times of the year to be on the road.” This concern is echoed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) “On the Road,” from its Focus on Safety: Cool Tips for a Safe Summer Trip; NHTSA estimates that someone in the United States dies in an alcohol-impaired highway crash every 45 minutes. Chances of dying in an alcohol-related highway crash are much greater for teens than for the general population, NHTSA reports.

In addition, summertime is a period when underage drinking is more likely to begin than at almost any other time in the year, according to estimates released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in a July 2012 report.

11,000 Teens Begin Drinking on an Average Day in June or July

On an average day in June or July, 11,000 adolescents ages 17 and under will begin using alcohol, compared with between 5,000 and 8,000 who may do so in the other months (excluding December, another 11,000-per-day peak month), according to a new report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). “Monthly Variation in Substance Use Initiation among Adolescents,” from The NSDUH Report, dated July 2, 2012, reflects data obtain from SAMHSA’s annual survey, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) for the years 2002–2010.

“These months [June and July] include periods when adolescents are on break from school and may have more idle time, fewer responsibilities, and less adult supervision,” the report states. From the findings, SAMHSA draws several implications about promoting more effective efforts to prevent underage drinking during the summer. Such efforts include stepped up public education campaigns, support and promotion of alcohol- and drug-free alternative activities for youth, law enforcement efforts to stop alcohol sales to minors, and parental reinforcement of underage drinking prevention messages. Community efforts to implement evidence-based environmental prevention are also showing promising results in keeping underage youth alcohol free throughout the year.

Impaired Drivers Make the Fourth of July a Deadly Holiday

Half of young drivers killed in motor vehicle crashes over the 2010 Fourth of July holiday period were alcohol impaired (blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 or higher). “Young (18 to 34 years old) people still don’t get the message that drinking and driving kills,” according to a Fourth of July Fact Sheet, available from the Traffic Safety Marketing website supported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The Traffic Safety Marketing website serves as a clearinghouse for customizable campaign materials to support local highway law enforcement and social norming efforts over June 24–July 6, 2012. Banner ads, earned media materials, logos, posters, public service announcements for radio and television, and a video can all be downloaded and customized with state or local identification.

Because the percentage of fatalities from impaired driving spikes around the Fourth of July, NHTSA is telling drivers to anticipate stepped-up local enforcement efforts during the coming holiday period. One such method, sobriety and traffic safety checkpoints, is one of several types of evidence-based environmental prevention that have been shown to help communities prevent and reduce underage drinking.

New College e-Kit Targets Underage Student Drinking

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center has released the College e-Kit, designed to connect law enforcement, prevention advocates, campus representatives, students, and other community leaders with resources to effectively reduce underage student access to alcohol and consumption of alcoholic beverages through environmental management practices. Alcohol use, heavy drinking, and binge drinking are prevalent among underage college students. According to the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health Survey, young adults, ages 18 to 22, enrolled full time in college were more likely than their peers not enrolled full time (i.e., part-time college students and persons not enrolled in college) to use alcohol in the past month, binge drink, and drink heavily.

Resources in the new e-kit emphasize the effectiveness of evidence-based environmental prevention, which also is a theme of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s webcast of a live Town Hall Meeting titled Making the Grade on College Drinking Prevention. This webcast features a panel of national experts discussing the challenges of underage drinking at colleges and universities and the benefits of environmental prevention.

Most States Do Little To Protect Youth From Alcohol Marketing

According to State Laws to Reduce the Impact of Alcohol Marketing on Youth: Current Status and Model Policies, a May 2012 report from the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, “states have … largely ignored the public health impact of alcohol advertising and … have taken only minimal steps to address youth exposure to alcohol marketing.” The report also concludes that “whatever limitations exist within state statutes and laws are further hampered by the lack of enforcement by state agencies.”

The new report from CAMY, a project funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, identifies eight best practices that states could use to address youth exposure to alcohol marketing and advertising. A table in the report shows that only 11 states use more than one of these best practices while 22 states use none. Besides the eight best practices, CAMY says that “… media literacy is another strategy that has shown promise, but it is expensive to implement and has not been tested on a broad scale.”

FTC Study To Evaluate Industry Controls on Advertising to Youth

On April 12, 2012, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) asked 14 major alcoholic beverage advertisers to provide information for the agency’s fourth major study on the effectiveness of voluntary industry guidelines for reducing advertising and marketing to underage audiences by beer, wine, and distilled spirits manufacturers. For the first time, the agency is requesting information on Internet and digital marketing. As in previous studies, the FTC will seek advertising expenditure and placement data and background information about the advertisers’ business practices. The results of previous studies has led to improved voluntary advertising placement standards; guidelines for placing ads on radio, in print, on television, and on the Internet; a requirement that suppliers conduct periodic internal audits of past placements; and systems for external review of complaints about compliance.

Underage Drinkers Targeted in New Suicide Prevention Toolkit

Underage drinking is a major risk factor for suicidal behavior, according to a new toolkit to prevent suicide among high school students released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) on June 22, 2012. Data from SAMHSA’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health show that 19.6 percent of underage drinkers were at risk for suicide, compared with 8.6 percent of their nondrinking peers. The toolkit points out that bullying and cultural factors can place some groups of young people at heightened risk for suicide, as well. For example, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth, the focus of a SAMHSA salute to June’s LGBT Pride Month, report higher rates of harassment, suicide and substance abuse .

Restricted access to alcohol is among the protective factors for suicide prevention for young people recommended in the new SAMHSA toolkit. Controlling the availability of alcohol to youth is a focus of many of the Town Hall Meetings on underage drinking that SAMHSA is sponsoring during 2012.

Federal Alcohol Research Agency Posts New Information on Underage Drinking

Underage drinking is one of four Info by Topic sections reachable from the homepage of the new website of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). The underage drinking section notes that:

· Underage drinking occurs whenever persons under the minimum legal drinking age of 21 drink alcohol.

· Underage drinking is a risk that attracts many developing adolescents and teens. These young people often don’t realize the damaging effects drinking can have on their lives, families, and communities.

· In addition to being illegal, underage drinking is a widespread public health problem that can create many risks.

Self-described as “the largest funder of alcohol research in the world,” the NIAAA also issued an updated 5-page factsheet on underage drinking in March 2012, which includes sections on “Preventing Underage Drinking,” “The Role Parents Play,” “Warning Signs of Underage Drinking,” and “Treating Underage Drinking Problems.”

June 21 Webinar on Successful Family Skills To Prevent Underage Drinking

Seven Simple Skills to Promote Happy Families, Healthy Brains, and Alcohol- and Drug-Free Kids is a free June 21, 2012, webinar offered by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center. Skill-building information from the Strengthening Families Program’s Home-Use DVD will be presented by the DVD’s executive producer, Jaynie Brown. The Strengthening Families Program is a family skills training intervention designed to enhance school success and reduce youth substance use and aggression among 10- to 14-year-olds The program is included in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP). Webinar participants should note that the Strengthening Families Program’s Home-Use DVD, available for purchase from the developer, targets children ages 10- to 16-years-old.

According to the center’s announcement of the June 21 webinar, “For children to do well in school, succeed in life, and remain addiction free, parents need to be well trained in how to bond, set boundaries, and monitor kids’ activities. Likewise, children need to be taught skills like accepting “no” nicely, following instructions, and saying “NO!” to underage drinking and drugs.”

National Prevention Council Action Plan Targets Excessive Alcohol Use

Preventing Drug Abuse and Excessive Alcohol Use is one of seven priorities in the National Prevention Action Plan, released on June 13, 2012, by U.S. Surgeon General Vice Admiral Regina M. Benjamin, M.D., M.B.A. In this new Action Plan, excessive alcohol use is defined to include underage drinking. The Action Plan is the next step in the federal implementation of the National Prevention Strategy, issued in 2011. Recommendations relating to underage drinking in the National Prevention Strategy include:

· Support state, tribal, local, and territorial implementation and enforcement of alcohol control policies;

· Create environments that empower young people not to drink or use other drugs; and

· Identify alcohol and other drug abuse disorders early and provide brief intervention, referral, and treatment.

According to a supporting document: “Evidence-based policies that decrease excessive alcohol use and related harms include those that prohibit the sale of alcohol to minors and intoxicated persons; reduce days and hours of sale; and limit the number of places that legally sell alcohol.” These recommended actions are among several types of evidence-based environmental prevention being promoted at community Town Hall Meetings on underage drinking taking place across America during 2012.

New Federal Survey Has Good News/Bad News on Underage Drinking

“We are encouraged that more of today’s high school students are choosing healthier, safer behaviors … and are avoiding behaviors that we know can cause them harm, such as binge drinking or riding with impaired drivers,” said Howell Wechsler, Ed.D., M.P.H., director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Division of Adolescent and School Health. He spoke during a June 7, 2012, CDC telebriefing about the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance—United States, 2011 (YRBS). However, the new YRBS also found that 20.5 percent of students in at least one of grades 9–12 in all 50 states and the District of Columbia reported drinking alcohol (more than a few sips) by age 13. Research has found that more than 40 percent of those who begin drinking before age 13 are classified as alcohol dependent at some point in their lives.

Other key underage drinking findings in the 2011 YRBS: Nationwide, 38.7 percent of students had had at least one drink in the 30 days prior to the survey, while 21.9 percent of them had had five or more drinks of alcohol in a row (i.e., within a couple of hours) on at least 1 day during the 30 days before the survey (i.e., binge drinking). The YRBS; the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA); and the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s (NIDA) Monitoring the Future survey, are the U.S. government’s annual underage drinking data collection systems. CDC, NIDA, and SAMHSA are members of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking.

New Online Calculator Shows States How to Save Young Lives on Highways

A new online calculator can show individual states how they can improve highway safety if they adopt the most beneficial graduated driver licensing (GDL) provisions in effect today. More than 500 deaths and more than 9,500 collisions might be prevented on the nation’s highways if every state adopted all five elements of the strongest young driver laws. The five key components are permit age, practice driving hours, license age, and night driving and teen passenger restrictions. In some states, adoption of the toughest GDL provisions could cut their rates of fatal crashes among 15- to 17-year-olds in half or even more. These are the main findings of a new analysis by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), which is meant to encourage states to improve GDL laws. The institute and HLDI created the online calculator with data obtained from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System.

Evidence strongly supports the finding that GDL is effective in reducing underage drinking consequences. GDL is one of nine types of environmental prevention that the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is encouraging host organizations of 2012 underage drinking prevention Town Hall Meetings to promote in their communities.

Youngest Binge Drinkers Drink Most Excessively

A study reported in the July 12, 2012, issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine has concluded that binge drinkers who are 18 years old and older generally drink at “levels well above” those used to define binge drinking. The youngest binge drinkers, who were between the ages of 18 and 34 and included a large percentage of underage drinkers, consumed more than eight drinks during a single drinking episode, with males and those with the least education reporting even higher amounts. The study is based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and used the widely accepted measures for binge drinking of at least four drinks for women and at least five drinks for men per occasion.

The study authors point out that their results will help those planning the use of effective types of environmental prevention, such as increasing the price of alcohol and regulating alcohol outlet density. These and other environmental prevention measures are the focus of many of this year’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration–sponsored Town Hall Meetings on underage drinking prevention.

Pediatricians Can Reduce Underage Drinking

A study involving more than 2,000 teens in the United States and the Czech Republic has concluded that a six-question screening, followed by a 2- or 3-minute conversation between a teenager and a doctor, may cut the risk of underage drinking by nearly half over the 3 months following the intervention and by as much as one quarter over 12 months’ time.

These findings support widespread use of such tools as the Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention for Youth: A Practitioner’s Guide, published by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in 2011 and developed in collaboration with the American Academy of Pediatrics, a team of underage drinking researchers and clinical specialists, and practicing health care professionals. Given the many costly and potentially tragic consequences of alcohol use before age 21, the demonstrated benefits of screening and brief intervention make this a valuable addition to the inventory of prevention measures available to health professionals and their communities.

National Underage Drinking Prevention Day Webcast, May 21, at 1:00 p.m. EDT

On May 21, 2012, from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. EDT, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Center for Substance Abuse Prevention will host Getting to Outcomes in Underage Drinking Prevention, a live, interactive Webcast about communities that are using Town Hall Meetings to engage individuals and organizations in achieving measurable outcomes through of the use of evidence-based environmental prevention. A panel of national, State, and local activists will discuss approaches that are working to prevent and reduce underage alcohol use and its consequences and will respond to questions and comments from online participants. This Webcast supports SAMHSA’s National Prevention Week from May 20 to 26, 2012. Monday, May 21, is Underage Drinking Prevention Day.

National Prevention Week Participant Toolkit Now Available

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA) Center for Substance Abuse Prevention has created the National Prevention Week Participant Toolkit to support National Prevention Week from May 20 to 26, 2012. The toolkit contains information about this new national observance, event ideas, budgeting tips, tools for event promotion (including templates for traditional and social media), factsheets—including a new underage drinking factsheet—and additional behavioral health resources. It is available for downloading through the SAMHSA Store. Prevention of Underage Drinking is the National Prevention Week theme for Monday, May 21.

Underage College Drinking: A Significant Public Health Problem

According to a 4-page College Drinking factsheet (April 2012) published by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), abusive and underage college drinking is a significant public health problem, and such drinking exacts an enormous toll on the intellectual and social lives of college students across the United States. The factsheet summarizes recent statistics on the consequences of drinking among college students and recommendations for addressing college drinking.

The director of NIAAA’s Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research, Ralph W. Hingson, Sc.D., M.P.H., participated in the archived February 6, 2012, Making the Grade on College Drinking Prevention Town Hall Webcast. Data, and the prevention challenges and opportunities captured in the new factsheet, are discussed in depth by Dr. Hingson and the Webcast’s panel.

Military Children Face Underage Drinking Challenges

April is the Department of Defense’s Month of the Military Child, a time to honor the sacrifices made by the daughters and sons of America’s armed services members and veterans and to focus on challenges many of them face, including their risks for underage drinking. Teens who experience depression over the deployment of one or both parents, for example, are much more likely to use alcohol and illicit drugs. Higher rates of alcohol use among members of the military are another risk factor for underage drinking among their children. A new tool to help service personnel identify their alcohol problems and get help was launched in conjunction with National Alcohol Screening Day, on April 5, 2012.

Risk factors are one side of the military children’s story; their ability to make positive adjustments to stresses in their lives is the other side. Helping to foster their resilience is a key component in underage drinking prevention for this population. The resilience found in many military children will be emphasized in National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day events, on May 9, 2012.

Gender Gap in Underage Alcohol-Related Driving Fatalities Has Closed

In 1996, young women between the ages of 16 and 20 who got behind the wheel of a car after consuming alcohol were only half as likely to be involved in a fatal crash as male drinking drivers in the same age group. According to a new study, by 2007 that gender gap in underage drinking fatalities had disappeared. The reasons are not yet fully understood, but the study’s lead author, Robert B. Voas, Ph.D., suggests that a rise in risky driving behavior among young female drinkers is a factor. Gender differences still exist in the rates of underage drinking: In 2010, more males than females ages 12 to 20 reported current alcohol use (28.3 vs. 24.1 percent), binge drinking (19.8 vs. 14.0 percent), and heavy drinking (6.7 vs. 3.5 percent).

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism supported the data collection used in the study. Both are agency members of the Federal Interagency Coordinating Committee for the Prevention of Underage Drinking.

Underage Drinking Prevention Is Focus of April’s Alcohol Awareness Month

Alcohol Awareness Month, held every April, is an opportunity to raise awareness of alcohol abuse and encourage people to make healthy, safe choices. The observance was originated in 1987 by the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, and its 2012 theme is “Healthy Choices, Healthy Communities: Prevent Underage Drinking.” Hundreds of Town Hall Meetings, sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, are taking place in conjunction with Alcohol Awareness Month and are supporting implementation of evidence-based environmental prevention to reduce and prevent underage alcohol use.

National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day—May 9, 2012

National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day is a key strategy of the Caring for Every Child’s Mental Health Campaign, a component of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Public Awareness and Support Strategic Initiative. Following up on last year’s focus on the effects of trauma on children’s mental health, the 2012 observance will highlight resilience in children who have experienced trauma, including young members of military families. For the 2011 National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day, SAMHSA released a short report, Helping Children and Youth Who Have Experienced Traumatic Events. The report found that children who had experienced traumatic events were more likely to drink alcohol, and it presented one of several recent data analyses making the link between trauma and other serious problems, including underage drinking.

SAMHSA’s First National Prevention Week—May 20–26, 2012

We are the ones. How are you taking action? is the theme for the first annual National Prevention Week sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), May 20–26, 2012. Each day of National Prevention Week will have a unique focus, to encourage maximum participation and local tie-in. The week begins on Monday, May 21, supporting Goal 1.2—Prevent or reduce consequences of underage drinking and adult problem drinking—of SAMHSA’s Strategic Initiative #1.

The new health observance is an opportunity for community members to learn more about behavioral health issues and get involved in prevention efforts that continue throughout the year. A Prevention Pledge Web page links participants with multiple resources and encourages use of social media for delivering prevention messages. SAMHSA also offers Resources for Your Community, beginning with key underage drinking prevention links, to help National Prevention Week participants take action to make prevention work for their communities

Latest Issue of the NIAAA Spectrum Focuses on Underage Drinking

The first 2012 issue of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s NIAAA Spectrum features multiple articles about underage drinking research; includes a link for ordering and downloading NIAAA’s new Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention for Youth: A Practitioner's Guide; and offers an overview of the problem, prevention progress, and future research. The online publication provides an Archives tab to access past issues and a Subscribe to this Site button.

NIAAA is one of 16 Federal agency members of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking (ICCPUD). For information about ICCPUD and its activities, visit www.stopalcoholabuse.gov.

UNhappy Hour: The High Price of Underage Drinking

On Thursday, March 15, 2012, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center will host Looking at Underage Drinking Costs Data: What Do the Numbers Tell Us? This national electronic seminar will feature Dr. Ted Miller, a leading expert on injury and violence incidence, costs, and consequences as well as substance abuse costs. Dr. Miller will be joined by State and community Enforcement of Underage Drinking Laws staff to discuss the importance of data and where to obtain it. The seminar is well timed for hundreds of communities hosting the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s 2012 Underage Drinking Prevention Town Hall Meetings, where the economic impact of alcohol use by youth is likely to be a frequent topic. For 2010, total costs associated with underage drinking in the United States were estimated at $62 billion.

Written materials on the topic, including documents developed by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation for the project, will be sent to participants in advance. In addition, a Web-based element is included to enable participants with Web access to follow PowerPoint presentations during the conference. Callers will have an opportunity to comment and ask questions. Registration is free for the 75-minute program, which will take place on March 15, from 3:00 to 4:15 p.m. EST.

U.S. Army Concerned About Binge Drinking Among Potential Recruits

The Army Gold Book is a resource for leaders, policymakers, commanders, and service providers as they work together to address the health needs and challenges of military personnel and their families. According to the document, formally known as the Army 2020 Generating Health and Discipline in the Force—Report 2012, “Of the 33 million binge drinkers [in the United States], a disturbing 93% were between the ages of 16 and 25 years old—the focused cohort for Army recruitment.” The new Army Gold Book was released on January 24, 2012, and makes extensive use of data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

The 2012 Army Gold Book has chapters on drug and alcohol abuse and other behavioral health issues. The publication complements SAMHSA information about service members and their families.

Making the Grade on College Drinking Prevention, Live Town Hall Meeting Webcast—Feb. 6, 2012

Please join the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) on February 6, 2012, from 1:40 to 2:55 p.m. (EST), as it hosts Making the Grade on College Drinking Prevention, a free Webcast of a national 2012 Town Hall Meeting on underage drinking prevention. Dr. William DeJong, Boston University School of Public Health, will moderate a panel that will include Dr. Ralph W. Hingson, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research, and representatives from campus communities. The panel will discuss both challenges and successes in preventing alcohol use by college students, with a focus on environmental prevention, and also will answer questions from a live and online audience. For more details, visit http://www.stopalcoholabuse.gov/townhallmeetings/resources/trainings/webcasts/making-the-grade/default.aspx.

Announcing the event, the director of SAMHSA’s Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, Frances M. Harding, said: “As the mother of a college-age daughter, I believe that this Town Hall Meeting focuses attention on a critical public health issue. Underage drinking at the college level has severe consequences. Each year, nearly 6,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are injured under the influence of alcohol and over 1,800 students die from alcohol-related causes. More than 150,000 students develop an alcohol-related health problem, while as many as 1.5 percent of students report a suicide attempt due to drinking or drug use.”

Binge Drinking Most Common and Intense Among 18- to 24-Year-Olds

Young people aged 18 to 24 not only had the highest prevalence of binge drinking (28.2 percent) in 2010, but they also tended to drink most excessively, consuming an average of 9.3 drinks on an occasion. This new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which defines binge drinking as four or more drinks for women and five or more drinks for men on an occasion during the past 30 days, is published in the January 10, 2012, issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. A striking conclusion of the report is that, “Binge drinking accounts for more than half of the estimated 80,000 average annual deaths and three quarters of $223.5 billion in economic costs resulting from excessive alcohol consumption in the United States.”

Several evidence-based types of environmental prevention have been shown to be effective in preventing and reducing underage drinking, including youthful binge drinking. Recommendations from CDC’s Community Preventive Services Task Force’s Community Guide have also been effective. CDC offers a video on the consequences of binge drinking.

Public–Private Partners Release Alcohol Videos

“Kids tend to drink opportunistically,” according to Vivian Faden, Ph.D., director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s (NIAAA) Office of Science Policy and Communications, in the short new video Teens and Alcohol: A Bad Mix. Because it is illegal for underage youth to drink, she says, “… they can’t plan when to have a drink, so many try to drink as much as they can.” The video, coproduced with the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA), is hosted by CADCA Vice President Mary Elizabeth Elliott and is one of a pair of NIAAA–CADCA alcohol education videos released in November 2011. Elliott also hosts College Drinking: A Risky Curriculum, with Dr. Faden pointing out that “… drinking is seen as an essential component of socializing ...” among students of all ages, a perception that presents a challenge to prevention efforts at colleges and universities.

The new NIAAA–CADCA videos complement the growing library of brief State/Territory underage drinking prevention videos developed with production support from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in collaboration with members of the National Prevention Network. These titles also can be viewed on the SAMHSA YouTube channel.

CAMY Charts Alcohol Industry’s Digital Marketing

The Center on Alcohol on Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health released a four-part YouTube movie charting the alcohol industry’s push into digital marketing and raising questions whether the industry’s self-regulation is adequately protecting underage youth from exposure to the “alcohol experience” available on social marketing platforms. CAMY also released a brochure providing a snapshot of its data on underage youth exposure to alcohol marketing across media marketing platforms, in addition to information on the effect of alcohol advertising on underage youth drinking behavior. David Jernigan, director of CAMY, encourages “parents to be aware of alcohol ads in mainstream and social media platforms to educate their technology-savvy teens about the real harms of underage drinking in spite of the alcohol industry’s message of glamour and allure.”

As the 2011 National Prevention Strategy states, “Exposure to alcohol marketing may increase the likelihood that young people will start drinking or drink more; therefore, reducing youth exposure to alcohol marketing can change attitudes toward drinking.” At least 14 scientific studies have found that the more young people are exposed to alcohol marketing, the more likely they are to start drinking or, if already drinking, to drink more.

2011 Survey Reports “Historic Declines” in Underage Drinking in Grades 8, 10, and 12

According to the 2011 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey conducted by the University of Michigan with funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), “five-year trends showed significant decreases in alcohol use among nearly all grades and across all prevalence periods.” From 2006 to 2011, binge use of alcohol (defined as five or more drinks in a row in the last 2 weeks) decreased from 8.7 percent to 6.4 percent among 8th graders, 19.9 percent to 14.7 percent among 10th graders, and 25.4 percent to 21.6 percent among high school seniors. Decreases were observed, from 2010 to 2011, in lifetime, past-year, daily, and binge use of alcohol among 10th graders; lifetime and past-year use among 8th graders; and daily use among 12th graders. But a news release announcing the new data notes that “… alcohol is still the drug of choice among all three age groups queried.”

Additional information on the MTF survey and comments from NIDA Director Dr. Nora Volkow, Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske, MTF principal investigator Dr. Lloyd Johnston, and other officials were included in a December 14, 2011, press briefing about the new data. MTF is one of three major surveys sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that provide data on substance use among youth. The others are the National Survey on Drug Use and Health and the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey.

2010 NSDUH Alcohol and Drug Survey Public Use Data Files Available

Public use data and documentation files for the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) are now available for download, online analysis, and Quick Tables through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive (SAMHDA) Web site. Through the SAMHDA site, users can create tables and charts that tell the underage drinking story in easy-to-follow visuals by topics such as Alcohol: Recency of Use by Age.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) first report on the 2010 NSDUH, titled Results From the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Summary of National Findings, provides highlights of the 2010 survey. Underage alcohol use is a featured topic, along with new data about illicit drug, tobacco use, and initiation of substance use; youth prevention–related measures; substance dependence, abuse, and treatment; and trends in substance use among youth and young adults.

National Impaired Driving Prevention Month, 2011

“All of us have the power to effect change and work to end drunk, drugged, and distracted driving in America. In our homes and communities, we can engage our youth and discuss the consequences of drug and alcohol abuse,” President Barack Obama said in a November 30, 2011, Presidential Proclamation announcing the annual December campaign to prevent driving impairment due to drinking, drug use, and other distractions. An August 11, 2011, Research Note issued by the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that 19 percent of drivers aged 15 to 20 involved in 2009 fatal crashes were alcohol impaired (with blood alcohol content of 0.08 or more).

In a new Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) report based on National Survey on Drug Use and Health data, adolescents whose parents drove under the influence of alcohol were more likely to do so themselves. An article posted on the Federal Government’s Web portal of underage drinking prevention resources has information, ideas, and links to resources to help communities, families, and youth plan for healthy and safe holidays. Holiday-themed materials for impaired driving prevention and a Super Bowl Impaired Driving Prevention campaign are available from NHTSA. Mothers Against Drunk Driving offers additional tips for participating in the annual impaired driving prevention campaign.

Energy Drinks + Alcohol = Serious Health Risk

“Energy drinks used in excess or in combination with alcohol or drugs can pose a serious health risk,” said Pamela S. Hyde, J.D., Administrator in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), about a new report, Emergency Department Visits Involving Energy Drinks. This report is based on data from SAMHSA’s 2005–2009 Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) reports. In the DAWN data analysis, 44 percent of the emergency department visits involving energy drinks were associated with the combined use of an energy drink with other substances such as alcohol, pharmaceuticals, or illicit drugs. The rate of combination use of energy drinks and other substances of abuse was greatest among young adults aged 18 to 25 (52 percent).

For healthcare professionals and others working with underage drinkers (including cases where energy drinks are involved), the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism offers A Pocket Guide for Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention for Youth.

Lower Alcohol Outlet Density = Less Underage Drinking

The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has collaborated with Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America to produce a manual to help States and communities implement a type of environmental prevention shown to reduce and prevent underage drinking. Strategizer 55—Regulating Alcohol Outlet Density: An Action Guide reviews research showing that reducing the concentration of bars, restaurants serving alcohol, and liquor and package stores in a particular geographic area contributes to measurable declines in underage drinking and associated problems. The manual also provides practical information in the form of issue briefs, model ordinances, and worksheets to help State agencies and communities take steps to control the density of alcohol outlets. A May 2011 Report to Congress on the Prevention and Reduction of Underage Drinking by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administrationalso notes that limiting alcohol outlet density is an effective approach to preventing and reducing adolescent alcohol use.

2.8 Million Youth Whose Dads Are Veterans More Likely To Drink

Among youth aged 12 to 17 living with fathers who are military veterans, 41.5 percent report underage drinking, compared to 36.1 percent of their age group living with nonveteran fathers. According to a new Data Spotlight issued by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality on November 10, 2011, “Compared with youths whose fathers were not veterans, children of veteran fathers were significantly more likely to have used … alcohol.”

Between 2002 and 2010, an annual average of 2.8 million youth aged 12 to 17 lived with a father who had served in the Armed Forces (i.e., Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard).

Graduated Drivers Licensing Cuts Fatal Teen Crashes

Programs that grant privileges to new drivers in phases—known as graduated licensing programs —dramatically reduce the rate of teen driver fatal crashes, according to three studies funded by the National Institutes of Health Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The NICHD-supported research shows that such programs reduced the rate of fatal crashes among 16- to 17-year-olds by 8 to 14 percent. Reductions were greatest in States that had adopted graduated driver licensing laws in combination with mandatory seat belt laws or laws requiring a loss of the driver’s license as a penalty for possession or use of alcohol by youth aged 20 or younger.

“These studies not only confirm the effectiveness of graduated licensing approach, they also identify additional protective factors,” said Rebecca L. Clark, Ph.D., chief of the NICHD Demographic and Behavioral Sciences branch. According to the Governors Highway Safety Association, graduated licensing laws were adopted by all 50 States and the District of Columbia between 1996 and 2011.

Native American Teens Found Most Vulnerable to Alcohol, Drugs

A new study of 2005–2008 survey data has found that Native American teens were the most likely ethnic group to use drugs or alcohol, with almost 48 percent reporting past use. The rate of underage drinking by Native American teens was 37 percent. By comparison, 35.3 percent of White teens, 32.2 percent of Hispanic teens, 24.8 percent of African-Americans teens, and 18.9 percent of Asian or Pacific Islander teens reported underage drinking. Overall, more than a third of American teenagers had used alcohol or drugs, with 32 percent reporting alcohol use, 19 percent reporting drug use, and 15 percent saying they use both.

The study, reported in the November 2011 issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Researchers at the Duke University Medical Center collected data on more than 72,000 teens aged 12 to 17 who took part in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s 2005 to 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. According to the lead author of the study, Li-Tzy Wu, “These findings call for efforts to identify and expand prevention measures that are culturally effective and address the quality and acceptability of treatment for adolescents with substance use problems.”

The Age 21 Minimum Legal Drinking Age Law Revisited

The U.S. Department of Education’s Higher Education Center for Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Violence Prevention (HEC) has updated its online resources for those responding to questions about the merits of current laws in every State and the District of Columbia that prohibit the purchase of alcohol by persons below the age of 21.

The 2-page HEC factsheet on the topic was revised in September 2011 and provides links to documents from Federal agencies and other credible sources detailing the positive public health outcomes attributed to the age 21 alcohol laws. For example, the factsheet summarizes conclusions of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism about the policy: “Compared to other programs aimed at youth in general, increasing the legal age for purchase and consumption of alcohol has been the most successful effort to date in reducing underage drinking and alcohol-related problems.”

Excessive alcohol consumption costs taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.

The cost of excessive alcohol consumption in the United States in 2006 reached $223.5 billion or about $1.90 per drink, according to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Almost three quarters of these costs were due to binge drinking, defined as consumption of four or more alcoholic beverages per occasion for women or five or more drinks per occasion for men, the report said.

Excessive alcohol consumption, or heavy drinking, is defined as consumption of an average of more than one alcoholic beverage per day for women, and an average of more than two alcoholic beverages per day for men, and any drinking by pregnant women or underage youth.

Researchers found the costs largely resulted from losses in workplace productivity (72 percent of the total cost), health care expenses for problems caused by excessive drinking (11 percent of the total cost), law enforcement and other criminal justice expenses related to excessive alcohol consumption (9 percent of the total cost), and motor vehicle crash costs from impaired driving (6 percent of the total cost). The study did not consider a number of other costs such as those due to pain and suffering by the excessive drinker or others who were affected by the drinking, and thus $223.5 billion may be an underestimate. Researchers estimated that excessive drinking cost $746 per person in the United States in 2006.

“Fortunately, there are a number of effective public health strategies that communities can use to reduce binge drinking and related harms, such as increasing the price of alcohol and reducing the number of places that sell and serve it,” said Robert Brewer, M.D., M.P.H., Alcohol Program Leader at CDC and one of the authors of the report.

One—Two Punch: NIH Innovative Screening Tool for Underage Drinkers.

With just two questions, health care professionals can spot children and teenagers at risk for alcohol-related problems. Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention for Youth: A Practitioner’s Guide is now available from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Developed in collaboration with the American Academy of Pediatrics, clinical researchers, and health practitioners, the guide features a two-question screening tool about youth’s personal experience with alcohol and their friends’ drinking habits. It also includes an innovative youth alcohol risk estimator to help clinicians overcome time-pressure hurdles and other common barriers to youth alcohol screening.

“We know that alcohol is by far the drug of choice among youth,” says NIAAA Acting Director Kenneth R. Warren, Ph.D. “Underage drinking is also a marker for other unhealthy behaviors and it often goes undetected. This new tool was designed to allow busy practitioners who manage the health and well-being of children and adolescents to conduct fast, effective alcohol screens and brief interventions.”

Letter Released Highlighting President Obama’s 2011 Drug Control Strategy

ONDCP Director Gil Kerlikowske and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan released a letter to higher education institutions highlighting President Obama's 2011 National Drug Control Strategy (Strategy).

The 2011 Strategy supports two of President Obama's goals for our Nation—reducing illegal drug use by 10 percent within 5 years and having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020. Because the consequences of substance use on academic performance are significant, the 2011 Strategy emphasizes the importance of responding to illegal drug use and high-risk drinking on college campuses and the Department of Education's continued efforts to incorporate alcohol and other drug abuse prevention into higher education.

FTC Steps In—Requires Four Loko Malt Beverage Package Changes.

The marketers of Four Loko, the supersized, high-alcohol beverage, have agreed to stop allegedly deceptive claims to settle Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charges.

FTC alleges that Phusion Projects falsely claimed that a 23.5-ounce can of Four Loko, with 11 or 12 percent alcohol by volume, contains alcohol equivalent to one or two regular 12-ounce beers and that a consumer could drink one can safely in its entirety on a single occasion.

In fact, according to FTC, one can of Four Loko contains as much alcohol as four to five 12-ounce cans of regular beer. Consuming a single can of Four Loko on a single occasion constitutes “binge drinking,” which is defined by health officials as men drinking five (and women drinking four) or more standard alcoholic drinks in about 2 hours.

The administrative settlement requires Phusion Projects to include disclosures on containers of Four Loko, or any other flavored malt beverage containing more alcohol than two-and-a-half regular beers, stating how much alcohol—compared to the amount of alcohol found in regular beer—is in the drink. The order also specifies the location and appearance of the disclosure. For example, the disclosure for a 23.5-ounce can of Four Loko with 12 percent alcohol by volume would state: “This can has as much alcohol as 4.5 regular (12 oz. 5% alc/vol) beers.”

Teens with more friends more likely to drink alcohol.

A new study published by Academic Pediatrics reports that adolescents with a large social network of friends are more likely to start drinking alcohol than teens who aren’t front and center in their high school social scene.

The findings from the study of 2,610 U.S. students in grades 7 through 11 suggest that limiting the size of teens’ social networks and spending more family time bonding may help delay the start of alcohol use. The results show that parents have an important role to play, according to study author Marlon Mundt of the University of Wisconsin, Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.

“Parental modeling of responsible alcohol use and having fun together as a family offer protective benefit against adolescent alcohol initiation,” Mundt explained in a journal news release.

This work was supported by a grant to Mundt from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), NIAAA 1K01 AA018410-01.

SAMHSA and DEA Open Eyes with Interactive Exhibit.

Target America is a traveling exhibit designed to open eyes about the science and cost of underage drinking and other substance abuse.

The exhibit, which debuted at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Museum in 2002, presents a redesign along with newly expanded content and resources geared toward parents and teens. The exhibit includes the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) interactive learning experience that lets visitors explore the facts related to underage drinking, illicit drug use, and prescription drug misuse and abuse. Visitors will also learn how they can help individuals who are at risk for or contemplating suicide. Target America will be at the Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa, Florida, until September 3, 2012.

Newly Released NSDUH Shows Continued Decrease in UAD.

According to the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), rates of current underage drinking (UAD), including binge and heavy alcohol use, dropped from 2009 to 2010, continuing a trend that began in 2002.

The annual NSDUH survey, conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), was released by SAMHSA at the kickoff of the 22nd annual National Recovery Month (Recovery Month) observance. Despite some troubling trends in other illicit drug use and substance abuse, among 12- to 17-year-olds there was a decrease between 2009 and 2010 in the current drinking rate (from 14.7 down to 13.6 percent). Other encouraging UAD statistics include:

Rates of current, binge, and heavy alcohol use among underage persons declined between 2002 and 2010. The rate of current alcohol use among 12- to 20-year-olds dropped from 28.8 percent in 2002 to 26.3 percent in 2010. The binge drinking rate decreased from 19.3 to 17.0 percent, and the rate of heavy drinking dropped from 6.2 to 5.1 percent.

NSDUH is a scientifically conducted annual survey of approximately 67,500 people, aged 12 and older, throughout the country. Because of NSDUH’s statistical power, it is the Nation’s premier source of statistical information on the scope and nature of many substance abuse behavioral health issues affecting the Nation.

DOJ Grants $19 Million To Enforce UAD Laws.

The Department of Justice's (DOJ’s) Office of Justice Programs announced block grant awards of more than $19 million to 50 states, five territories, and the District of Columbia to enforce state and local underage drinking (UAD) laws.

The awards support a wide range of activities, including compliance checks of retail alcohol outlets to reduce sales to minors, crackdowns on false IDs, programs to deter older youth or adults from providing alcohol to minors, “party patrols” to prevent access to alcohol at large youth gatherings, and “cops in shops” to thwart minors' attempts to buy alcohol.

New Bulletin Released on Reducing UAD in the Air Force.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has released Reducing Drinking Among Underage Air Force Members in Five Communities. The bulletin describes the early findings of an evaluation of OJJDP’s Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws initiative in five Air Force communities. The authors compare rates of drinking in the five communities to comparison groups and to the Air Force overall. The bulletin is the first in a series that OJJDP is producing on underage drinking, which will highlight the dangers of underage drinking and provide guidelines for policy and practice.

Report to Congress Addresses the Prevention and Reduction of Underage Drinking

The report to Congress, published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, presents the nature and extent of underage drinking while discussing the role of the Federal Government in preventing and reducing underage drinking. It also reports on State policies, enforcement activities, and prevention programs under way to address the problem.

New Findings From Task Force on Reducing UAD

Holding alcohol retailers liable for injuries or damage caused by their intoxicated and underage customers can reduce motor vehicle deaths, homicides, injuries, and other alcohol-related problems, according to the Community Preventive Services Task Force. This task force of public health and prevention experts has determined that commercial host liability can be an effective intervention.

Now Available. The Teen Brain: Still Under Construction

This brochure from the National Institute of Mental Health describes the significance of brain changes during the teen years, including evidence to suggest that the adolescent brain responds to alcohol differently than the adult brain. This difference may help explain the elevated risk of binge drinking in youth.

New EUDL Resource Now Available.

Fact-packed one-pager highlights the Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws (EUDL) program’s accomplishments in reducing the risks of underage drinking. It also highlights the increase in the use of evidence-based strategies that communities have helped implement and reflects outcomes such as improved military readiness. Please let us know how your community uses the one-pager so we can share your ideas.

And the Winner Is …

I Am More Than Meets the Eye wins the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA’s) public service announcement (PSA) contest. Made by teens and young adults from RYSE Center, a youth center in Richmond, CA, the PSA highlights the ways young people can focus on their own talents and inner strengths to prevent substance abuse and promote emotional well-being in their communities. This winning PSA will receive wide-reaching exposure and national distribution. It will also be a feature at the Drug Enforcement Administration’s “Target America” traveling exhibit where it will be seen by thousands of visitors.

CDC’s ARDI Gets a Makeover.

Estimates of alcohol-related health impacts on the Nation, including deaths and years of potential life lost, from 54 acute and chronic causes are available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) more user-friendly Alcohol-Related Disease Impact (ARDI) software. Geared toward State health departments and substance abuse professionals, ARDI’s national and State estimates are reported by age, including an “under 21” category, and gender. ARDI also allows users to perform custom searches, i.e., by location or among specific racial or ethnic groups. These estimates provide vital information to better understand the health consequences of excessive alcohol use in the Nation and to help develop State policies.

Blueprint To Reduce Drug Use and Its Consequences Is Released.

The Obama Administration released the 2011 National Drug Control Strategy, which takes a collaborative, balanced, and science-based approach to reduce drug use and its consequences in the United States. For the first time, the 2011 Strategy outlines specific actions designed to improve the health and safety of three special populations, including college students, affected by high rates of substance abuse. Approximately 44 percent of full-time college students, aged 18 to 22, reported binge drinking in the past 30 days. The Administration’s new Strategy continues a balanced approach to drug control that includes an emphasis on community-based drug prevention, integration of drug treatment into the mainstream health care system, and innovation in the criminal justice system.

18 vs. 21? Study Shows Setting MLDA at 21 Reduces Underage Drinking

After conducting economic analyses to estimate the effects of the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) on deaths, injuries, crime, and alcohol consumption, researchers concluded that “… the evidence strongly suggests that setting the minimum legal drinking age at 21 is better from a cost and benefit perspective than setting it at 18 and that any proposal to reduce the drinking age should face a very high burden of proof.” The study also shows that setting the MLDA at 21 clearly reduces underage alcohol consumption and its major harms.

Fourth of July Emergency Room Visits Double for Underage Males.

According to a new study by SAMHSA, emergency room visits involving underage drinking doubled for males during the Fourth of July holiday weekend. The study reveals that during the holiday weekend of July 3–4, 2009, there was a daily average of 942 emergency department visits related to alcohol use by people under the age of 21. Two thirds of these visits (622) were males, and 304 visits were females. To help parents and caregivers clearly communicate their expectations and create an action plan, SAMHSA has developed an online guide.

Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Students at Greater Risk for Underage Alcohol Use and Other Unhealthy Behaviors.

According to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, 9th–12th graders who identify themselves as being gay, lesbian, or bisexual are more likely than heterosexual students to engage in unhealthy risk behaviors, such as tobacco use, alcohol and other drug use, sexual risk behaviors, suicidal behaviors, and violence.

New study shows young athletes use fewer drugs, but more alcohol.

Using data from a study sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, researchers concluded that teens who exercise and play team sports are less likely to be smokers or use marijuana and other drugs. However, the results also showed that high school students on athletic teams drank more alcohol than their peers. The findings could affect strategies to prevent drug and alcohol abuse in young adults, the authors write in the journal Addiction.

Essential Video Playlist for Parents and Caregivers.

SAMHSA has put together a playlist of seven short videos that illustrate best practices for talking with youth about alcohol and the dangers of underage drinking, tobacco, and illicit drugs. The videos target parents, caregivers, and educators with practical tips for becoming better listeners, overcoming communications barriers, and making family rules and expectations clear to youth. One of the seven videos, Before a Teen Party, Talk About Alcohol, is showcased on the SAMHSA home page in recognition of April 2011 Alcohol Awareness Month.

National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day — May 3, 2011.

Building Resilience in Young Children Dealing With Trauma is the theme of the 2011 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day. Communities around the country will hold Awareness Day events focusing on the national theme or will adapt the theme to the populations they serve. As always, the release of a SAMHSA Short Report on children’s mental health will coincide with the Awareness Day. Research shows that youth with histories of behavioral health problems are more likely to use alcohol than are other young people. Raising awareness that positive mental health is essential to a child’s healthy development is an important step toward helping children thrive in their communities—without alcohol or related problems. To learn about how social media can support National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day, click here.

April Is Alcohol Awareness Month.

Alcohol Awareness Month opens an important window of opportunity to not only raise awareness of but also address underage alcohol use and its devastating effects on our youth, families, and communities. To help organizations across the country honor Alcohol Awareness Month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services developed a toolkit that offers tips and guidelines for taking action to raise awareness and encourage people to make healthy, safe choices. In addition, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism provides resources, including “Parenting to Prevent Childhood Alcohol Use”—a research-based flyer that describes how parents can help their children develop healthy attitudes toward drinking while minimizing the risk of their children abusing alcohol.

Help youth make this year’s Alcohol Awareness Month memorable by providing them with tips on how to throw a “booze-free bash” for their friends. Resources to get you started include the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s A Guide to Safe and Sober Event Planning and The Sara Bellum Blog.

For additional information on how to prevent and reduce underage drinking in your community, see The Surgeon General’s Call to Action To Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking: What It Means to You—A Guide to Action for Communities.

SAMHSA Hosts PSA Contest To Recognize and Encourage Youth-led Prevention.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP), is sponsoring a public service announcement (PSA) video contest to help kick off a new initiative called National Prevention Week 2012. SAMHSA is encouraging young adults, ages 18 to 25, to create a 15- or 30-second PSA that shows how they’re making a difference in their community by preventing alcohol and drug abuse and that reflects the theme of “We are the ones. How are you taking action?” Among other prizes, the winning team will be invited to the video’s premier at the National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors Annual Meeting. Encourage young adults in your community to visit the contest Web site for more details and enter. The deadline for entries is April 15, 2011.

New Study Shows Youth Aged 12 to 14 Are Drinking at Home for Free.

According to a just-released Data Spotlight Report (PDF) by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), an estimated 709,000 youths in the U.S. aged 12 to 14 drank alcohol in the past month, with a vast majority of them (93.4%) getting their alcohol for free last time they drank. Dramatically, more than 300,000 of these youth got it at home or from family—more than 100,000 received the alcohol from a parent or guardian.

SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde, J.D., cautioned that “People who begin drinking alcohol before the age of 15 are six times more likely than those who start at age 21 and older to develop alcohol problems.”

Help Support Children of Alcoholics (CoA) Week, February 13 to 19, 2011.

CoA Week reminds all Americans that children of alcoholics can avoid the negative effects of familial alcoholism and drug dependence with support from family, friends, health professionals, teachers, clergy, and others. This annual observance raises awareness about ways to build resilience in children to overcome and avoid repeating family alcohol problems. From 2002 to 2007, 7.3 million children lived with a parent who was dependent on or abused alcohol. The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study tracks the impact of alcohol abuse, among other stresses. The more stress a child endures, the greater the risk he or she has of developing health and social problems, including alcoholism. Though at greater risk, most CoA do not develop problems with alcohol, often benefitting from effective prevention and intervention.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration urges communities to participate in CoA Week on its Facebook page and has a number of related publications, including a Child Welfare Training Toolkit. The National Association for Children of Alcoholics offers CoA Week posters, pamphlets, and proclamations.

Don't Wait Until Super Bowl Half-Time To Talk to Youth About Alcohol.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has partnered with the National Football League, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and other national organizations to bolster efforts to prevent impaired driving during and after Super Bowl Sunday. Through its Fans Don’t Let Fans Drive Drunk campaign, this partnership has developed an online planner, which is available to help media promote and others enjoy a safe Super Bowl. According to NHTSA, nearly 50 percent of all traffic fatalities on Super Bowl Sunday are alcohol related. Motor vehicle crashes kill and injure more young people than any other cause. The promotional communications planner can be used to convey lifesaving messages to youth and help reduce their access to alcohol. With a downloadable feature, the planner includes television and radio public service announcements, graphics for print or Web, a national press release template, and a factsheet. These resources can help connect States, organizations, and communities in the national effort to prevent and reduce underage drinking. Explicitly stated throughout the materials is the edict to not serve alcohol to anyone under age 21.

Department of Justice Study Shows Strong Link between Serious Juvenile Offending and Alcohol and Illicit Drug Use.

A recent Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention bulletin (PDF) reported data indicating that serious juvenile offending and use of alcohol and illicit drugs are frequently connected, although no causal link was established. The findings are based on data from the Justice Department’s long-term Pathways to Desistance study, which followed more than 1,300 serious juvenile offenders for 7 years after their first conviction. The data also suggest that use of illicit drugs and alcohol is a better predictor of offending than offending is of drug use.

During the baseline interviews for the study, 37 percent of males and 35 percent of females had a diagnosable dependence on illicit drugs and/or alcohol. Others were using such drugs or alcohol in a way that could lead to dependence. Eighty percent reported using alcohol at some point in their lives, while 40 percent had used alcohol in the past 6 months, averaging one to three times a month.

Some Students Still Failing the Test on Alcohol-Free School Property.

According to a report by the U.S. Department of Education, 4 percent of high school students had at least one drink of alcohol on school property during the preceding month in 2009. Although this percentage is not measurably different from that recorded for 1993, alcohol consumption by underage students on school property continues to be a serious concern because it may lead to other crimes and misbehavior. In comparison, the percentage of high school students reporting alcohol consumption anywhere in the past 30 days decreased from 48 percent in 1993 to 42 percent in 2009.

Emergency Department Visits Related to Underage Drinking Spike on New Year’s Day.

A just-released Data Spotlight report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) indicates that underage drinking-related emergency department (ED) visits increase by 250 percent or more on New Year's Day. On New Year's Day 2009, there were an estimated 1,980 ED visits related to underage alcohol use compared to 546 such visits on an average day. SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde, J.D., described this stunning increase as “a wakeup call” to parents and others about the potential risk young people face from alcohol-related accidents, injuries, and deaths—particularly at this time of year.

New Anti-Drunk Driving Strategy Features an Offer They Can’t Refuse.

U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Ray LaHood kicked off a holiday drunk driving crackdown and applauded law enforcement officials who have pioneered the “No Refusal” strategy to get drunk drivers, including underage drinkers, off the road.

The “No Refusal” strategy gives law enforcement officers the ability to quickly obtain warrants from “on call” judges in order to take blood samples from suspected impaired drivers who refuse a breathalyzer test. According to DOT ’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), a large proportion of people pulled over for driving under the influence (DUI) refuse to take an alcohol breathalyzer test hoping to avoid prosecution. States that have adopted “No Refusal” programs report more guilty pleas, fewer trials, and more convictions for DUI—an outcome that supports prosecution and makes more drivers think twice before drinking and driving. Guidance on adopting this effective strategy is available online through the NHTSA Weekend No-Refusal Toolkit.

Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Urges Americans To Celebrate the Holidays Safely.

ONDCP has reaffirmed its commitment to Americans in recovery, reminding us that the holiday season is both a time of cheer and of challenges to those struggling with substance use disorders. One little-known fact is that underage youth are a significant percentage of those in recovery from alcohol problems. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (PDF), 9.5 percent of treatment admissions for alcohol abuse were for people under age 20. By offering nonalcoholic alternatives, you can help meet the needs and preferences of many who attend your holiday event.

ONCDP provides nonalcoholic drink recipes, including mocha or peppermint hot chocolate and mulled apple cider with orange and ginger, to make nonalcoholic alternatives fun and appealing.

2010 Monitoring the Future Survey Results Released.

The 2010 Monitoring the Future survey, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), found that alcohol use has decreased in the past 6 years among 8th, 10th, and 12th graders. The survey found that 2010 marks the lowest level of alcohol use for 12th graders since the study’s inception in 1975 and the lowest point for 8th and 10th graders since these grades were first included in the study in 1991. Binge drinking and consumption of flavored alcoholic beverages each continued a downward trend.

However, a majority of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders still report that is it “fairly easy” or “very easy” to obtain alcohol, with no significant decline in those numbers over the last 2 years. Similarly, the perceived risk of drinking alcohol has not risen significantly during the same period. So, while great progress has been made during the past 6 years, areas of concern for prevention professionals remain. The University of Michigan conducts the annual study.

Younger drivers have higher rates of alcohol- and drug-impaired driving.

State Estimates of Drunk and Drugged Driving, a new survey just released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, found that,on average, 13.2 percent of all people 16 or older drove under the influence of alcohol and 4.3 percent drove under the influence of illicit drugs in the past year. Younger drivers aged 16 to 25 had a much higher rate of drunk driving compared to those aged 26 or older (19.5 percent versus 11.8 percent). Similarly, people aged 16 to 25 had a much higher rate of drugged driving than those aged 26 or older (11.4 percent versus 2.8 percent).

A positive finding of the study is that national rates of drunk and drugged driving declined significantly between 2002–2005 and 2006–2009, from 14.6 to 13.2 percent for drunk driving and from 4.8 to 4.3 percent for drugged driving.

Healthy People 2020: New Health Goals for the New Decade.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has just released Healthy People 2020, a national blueprint for health promotion and disease prevention for the next decade. HHS also has launched a newly redesigned Healthy People Web site that allows users to tailor information to their needs and explore evidence-based resources for implementation.

Healthy People 2020 lists 21 objectives for reducing substance abuse. Several subobjectives directly address the prevention of underage drinking, such as “increase the proportion of at risk adolescents aged 12 to 17 years who, in the past year, refrained from using alcohol for the first time.” A Healthy People Web site section, Implementing Healthy People, offers MAP-IT as an interactive framework to help professionals plan and evaluate public health interventions to achieve objectives. Steps in the framework are to Mobilize, Assess, Plan, Implement, and Track.

December is National Impaired Driving Prevention Month.

President Barack Obama has declared December 2010 as National Impaired Driving Prevention Month. The proclamation states, in part, that “it is critical that we encourage our young people and fellow citizens to make responsible decisions when driving or riding as a passenger, especially if drug use is apparent.”

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (PDF), about 13,000 people were killed in 2007 in alcohol-impaired driving crashes—about one death every 40 minutes. Approximately 1,500 of those who died were 16 to 20 years old. In a national survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 10 teens reported having driven after drinking alcohol within the previous month. Nearly 3 out of 10 teens reported that they had ridden with a driver who had been drinking alcohol.

Federal Agencies Take the Wheels Off of CABs.

Within days of broad Federal action, four major producers of caffeinated alcoholic beverages, or CABs, notified the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that they will cease production and shipping of certain brands of CABs; will remove these beverages from retail stores by December 13, 2010; or will do both.

CABs are premixed beverages that contain both caffeine and alcohol. On November 17, 2010, FDA issued warning letters to four CAB manufacturers, stating that the caffeine added to their alcoholic malt beverages is an “unsafe food additive” and that further action, including seizure of their products, is possible under Federal law. On the same day, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sent warning letters to four marketers of CABs, warning that marketing these beverages—which present “unusual risks to health and safety”—may constitute an unfair or deceptive practice that violates the FTC Act. The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau notified the same companies that interstate or foreign sales or shipping of CABs is illegal if these drinks fail to meet FDA food safety standards.

One danger posed by these beverages is that caffeine—a stimulant—may make drinkers less aware of their level of intoxication, possibly leading them to drink more and be at greater risk for accidents and injuries. CABs that are marketed as energy drinks pose a special risk to young people, who already are heavy consumers of nonalcoholic energy drinks. According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fact sheet on CABs, 31 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds and 34 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds report regular consumption of energy drinks.

Heavy drinking linked to impulsive behavior—including increased alcohol consumption later in life—in boys.

New research indicates that a significant relationship exists between the amount of alcohol an individual ingests and consequent changes in levels of impulsive behavior. According to Rutgers University researcher Helene R. White, Ph.D., “Heavy alcohol use in adolescence may lead to alterations in brain structure and function that reduce behavioral (impulse) control, which could, in turn, promote further heavy drinking.”

The study was supported by grants from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, which are members of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking, and others.

The study underlines the important role of prevention in reducing underage drinking. “Decreasing heavy drinking during adolescence may decrease impulsivity by preventing damage to crucial brain areas. Therefore, decreasing drinking during adolescence could result in improved self-control at later ages,” said Andrew Littlefield, a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at the University of Missouri.

NIAAA-supported study finds strategies to reduce college drinking.

When colleges and their communities target off-campus drinking settings for interventions, harmful alcohol use among college students, including underage drinkers, can decrease, according to a National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism-funded study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (AJPM) December 2010 issue.

In the randomized trial, policy and enforcement interventions were implemented in 7 of the 14 California universities that participated in the study; the additional 7 were monitored for comparison. Researchers found significantly greater reductions in the incidence and likelihood of intoxication at off-campus parties and at bars and restaurants for students enrolled in the intervention universities.

“These findings [indicate] … that student drinking is amenable to a combination of well-chosen, evidence-based universal prevention strategies,” says Dr. Robert Saltz, Ph.D., lead researcher. For more information, listen to the AJPM podcast.

New Video from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Addresses Dangers of Binge Drinking.

The CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP) released a video that explores the health risks associated with binge drinking, including unintended pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, injury, car crashes, violence, and HIV/AIDS.

The video discusses effective community prevention strategies, such as:

Increasing alcohol excise taxes.
Reducing the number of places where people can purchase alcohol.
Reducing days and hours for alcohol sales.
Maintaining and enforcing the age 21 minimum legal drinking age.

In the video, Capt. Robert Brewer, MD, MSPH, Alcohol Program Leader of the Chronic Disease Center, debunks common myths and urges communities to create an environment that discourages binge drinking and underage drinking. View the Binge Drinking video on CDC-TV.

One in Four High School Students and Young Adults Report Binge Drinking.

Sixty percent of high school students who drink, binge drink. When high school students are combined with adults between the ages of 18 and 34, more than one in four engaged in binge drinking during the past month, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Binge drinking is defined as having four or more drinks for women and five or more drinks for men over a short period of time, usually a couple of hours. The report states that levels of binge drinking have not declined during the past 15 years.

CDC scientists analyzed data on self-reports of binge drinking within the past 30 days for about 412,000 U.S. adults aged 18 years and older from the 2009 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and for approximately 16,000 U.S. high school students from the 2009 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey.

NIAAA Study finds that 12- to 17-year olds are “intoxicated” with fewer drinks than adults.

Drink for drink, the average blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) attained by children and adolescents are much higher than those seen among college students or adults, according to a new study supported by NIAAA that appeared in the June 2009 issue of Pediatrics.

Alcohol Use Before and After the 21st Birthday.

This issue of The NSDUH Report examines alcohol use before and after the 21st birthday. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, among young adults approaching their 21st birthdays (i.e., persons surveyed in the 30 days prior to their 21st birthdays)―86.1 percent had used alcohol in their lifetime, including 62.8 percent who had initiated use before their 18th birthdays. Rates of past month and binge alcohol use were higher among young adults who had recently turned 21 than among those who were still 20 years old. Rates of past month and binge alcohol use among 21 year olds declined and then stabilized in the months following their 21st birthdays, but their rates still remained higher than those for 20 year olds.

A Developmental Perspective on Underage Alcohol Use.

This Alcohol Alert, by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, examines the complex relationship between underage drinking and development: how developmental factors influence drinking, the social and physical consequences of alcohol use, and how various developmental stages can be specifically targeted to design more effective measures for preventing or treating underage drinking.

Prevention Program Helps Teens Override a Gene Linked to Risky Behavior.

Researchers have found that a family-based substance abuse prevention program is especially effective in helping young teens with a genetic risk factor contributing to risky behavior. The study, supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, monitored the progress of 11-year-olds carrying a gene associated with impulsivity, low self-control, binge drinking, and substance abuse. Tweens who participated in the program were less likely to engage in these risky behaviors than those in the comparison group.

“The findings underscore that ‘nurture’ can influence ‘nature’ during adolescence, a pivotal time when delaying the start of alcohol consumption and other risky behaviors can have a significant impact on healthy child development,” says NIAAA Acting Director Kenneth R. Warren, Ph.D. “This study is one of the first to combine prevention research with a gene-environment study design.”

New Publication Available on Prevention Models for College Campuses.

Field Experiences in Effective Prevention: The U.S. Department of Education’s Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention Models on College Campuses Grants, published by the Higher Education Center (HEC), describes the experiences of the Department of Education’s (ED) model grantees of 2005, 2006, and 2007. Through 12 case studies, the publication relays experiences, lessons learned, and recommendations to assist campuses in developing and implementing effective prevention programs on their campuses and in surrounding communities. Some of these case studies include specific programs and strategies to prevent underage drinking. Field Experiences is a followup to Experiences in Effective Prevention, published in 2005, which covered the 1999–2001 and 2004 grantees. HEC is supported by ED’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, and the publication reflects the department’s perspective on developing, implementing, and sustaining evidence-based prevention.

To obtain copies of this publication, email edpubs@inet.ed.gov or call 1–877–433–7827. Other ways to access the publication, including a downloadable PDF, are available at the HEC Web site.

Parental R-Rated Movie Restriction and Early-Onset Alcohol Use.

A recent study sponsored by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism links children’s freedom to watch R-rated adult movies with another adult behavior: drinking. According to the study, young adolescents whose parents let them watch R-rated movies may be over three times more likely to try drinking alcohol at an earlier age. This finding lends support to research suggesting that watching movies with alcohol use is associated with earlier youth drinking. To view the study’s abstract, click here.

New Study: Alcohol Use and Binge Drinking Levels Among Blacks Are Below the National Average.

The current alcohol use rate for blacks aged 18 and older is significantly lower than the national adult average (44.3 percent versus 55.2 percent) according to a new study based on a national survey. The study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) also reveals that black adults have a lower rate of current binge drinking than the national adult average (21.7 percent versus 24.5 percent). Young black adults (aged 18-25) are markedly less likely to be currently engaged in binge drinking than young adults in the general population (25.3 percent versus 41.6 percent).

Costs of Underage Drinking in Your State.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice, a member of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking, supports the Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center. Using 2007 data, the Center has developed individual two-page factsheets profiling each State’s underage drinking problems. Included are economic costs, broken down by such categories as youth traffic crashes and youth injury; youth alcohol consumption statistics for the State; and key figures for harm associated with underage drinking. The “Underage Drinking Costs” factsheets can be accessed through the Center’s clickable map.

Children of Alcoholics (CoA) Week Observance

February 14–20, 2010

Children of Alcoholics (CoA) week is a timely reminder of the power of prevention. CoAs are “between 4 and 10 times more likely to become alcoholics than children from families with no alcoholic adults,” according to the U.S. Surgeon General. Thanks to ongoing prevention efforts, many CoAs do not engage in underage drinking nor do they repeat their family history of substance abuse.

Town Hall Meetings (THMs) to prevent underage drinking are now being organized in communities across the country. Many of these THMs will focus on the risks faced by children in families with substance abuse problems and will present effective prevention strategies to address this and similar issues.

New Study Shows that Underage Drinking-Related Hospital Emergency Department Visits Rise 11 Percent over the Memorial Day Weekend.

Daily hospital emergency department visits involving those under age 21 who used alcohol combined with other drugs are 27 percent higher during this holiday period. A new study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) reveals that daily underage drinking-related visits to hospital emergency departments are 11 percent higher during the Memorial Day weekend than they are on an average day. The latest Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) report (PDF) estimates that on an average day, there are 519 hospital emergency department visits involving underage alcohol use. For the three day Memorial Day weekend, however, the number of daily hospital emergency department visits jumps to 577.

Underage Drinking-Related Hospital Department Visits Nearly Double over the Fourth of July Weekend.

Hospital emergency department visits involving underage drinking nearly double during the Fourth of July Holiday weekend according to a new study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The study reveals that daily underage drinking-related visits to hospital emergency departments are 87 percent higher during the Fourth of July weekend than they are on an average day in July. To view the related press release, click here. To view the study, click here (PDF).

Labor Day Drinking and Driving Crackdown Can Save Young Lives.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is promoting a National Impaired Driving Prevention Enforcement Crackdown from August 20 through September 10, to coincide with the Labor Day holiday—an effort likely to save young lives. NHTSA’s impaired driving initiative places special emphasis on reaching high-risk populations, such as those under age 21 and high blood alcohol concentration (BAC) offenders. In 2007, 24.1 percent of 15- to 20-year-old drivers who were killed in a crash had a BAC of .08 or higher. While a BAC of .08 is the legal limit for those 21 and over, all States have zero-tolerance laws that make it illegal for people under age 21 to drive after any drinking. NHTSA discourages impaired driving through high-visibility law enforcement with supporting communication campaigns, enhanced prosecution and adjudication, and medical screening and brief intervention for alcohol abuse problems.

Hispanic Heritage Month: A Time To Celebrate and Support a Rich and Diverse Culture.

Hispanic Heritage Month, which begins on September 15 and runs through October 15, celebrates the culture and contributions of generations of Hispanic Americans who have enriched the Nation. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) supports the continued vitality of the Hispanic/Latino culture through a number of special initiatives that promote the health and well-being of this population. SAMHSA produces resources in Spanish specifically to help Hispanic communities, parents, and other caregivers prevent and reduce underage drinking. The SAMHSA/Ad Council campaign, “Háblales a temprana edad. Háblales con frecuencia. Haz que los demás participen.” (“Talk EARLY. Talk OFTEN. Get Others INVOLVED.”), encourages parents to speak with their children about underage drinking. Listos, en sus marcas…!Escuchen! (Ready, Set, Listen!), is a Web-based game designed to help parents and young people talk to each other about underage alcohol use, why it’s not smart, and how to prevent it. Two Guides to Action based on the Surgeon General’s Call to Action To Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking are available for Hispanic families and communities: Llamado a la acción del Cirujano General para prevenir y reducir el consumo de alcohol por menores de edad: Lo que significa para usted—Guía de acción para las familias and Llamado a la acción del Cirujano General para prevenir y reducir el consumo de alcohol por menores de edad: Lo que significa para usted—Guía de acción para las comunidades. Additional publications for and about Hispanics are available through the SAMHSA Web site.

Underage Drinking and Halloween: A Nightmare on Any Street.

The scariest part of Halloween isn’t the spooky costumes and frightening pranks. Thanks to alcohol-impaired driving, Halloween night is often one of the deadliest nights of the year on the Nation’s highways. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, for all of 2008, 36 percent (PDF) of all highway fatalities involved a driver with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08 or higher, which is illegal in every State. But on Halloween night in 2008, 60 percent of all highway fatalities across the Nation involved a driver with a BAC of 0.08 or higher. Although drinking any amount is illegal for them, during 2008, 17 percent (PDF) of 16- to 20-year-old drivers involved in fatal crashes had BAC levels of 0.08 or higher.

We Don’t Serve Teens Launches New Underage Drinking Prevention Activities.

The Federal Trade Commission will launch a new round of We Don’t Serve Teens (WDST) activities during September 2009 with new point of sale materials and radio ads, encouraging partners to speak out in support of WDST messages to help reduce underage access to alcohol.

Minimum Legal Drinking Age Law Save Lives.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration stands strongly behind the law restricting alcohol use by anyone under age 21, citing the hundreds of lives saved annually since 2005. For the most recent data, read the NHTSA Traffic Safety Facts publication, “Lives Saved in 2009 by Restraint Use and Minimum-Drinking-Age Laws.”

Help Youth Play It Safe During Prom and Graduation Season.

Across the Nation, 15 million high school students are planning prom and graduation events. Now’s the time for parents, educators, and communities to ensure that underage drinking prevention is part of those plans. Among the resources available are a flyer, sample discussion points and activities, event planning guide, and a brochure targeted to youth.

Promote Healthy Homecomings and Celebrations.

Every fall, towns, high schools, and colleges come together to welcome back former residents and alumni. Homecoming activities range from football games and tailgate parties to parades, dances, and rallies. In the coming months, many adolescents will participate in these and other celebrations where alcohol is often easily accessible.

Schools and communities can incorporate underage drinking prevention when planning and conducting traditional events and celebrations. They can:

Publicize and enforce policies against alcohol use on school and community property and at all events.
Sponsor and promote alcohol-free activities.
Make sure nonalcoholic beverages are available at all events.

Find more ideas in Menu: Strategies and Materials for Your Community (PDF 993KB) and The Surgeon General’s Call to Action To Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking: What It Means to You—A Guide to Action for Communities (PDF 974KB).

The NSDUH Report explores “Underage Alcohol Use: Where Do Young People Drink?”

The 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) asked past month alcohol users aged 12 to 20 how they obtained the last alcohol they drank and where they were when they consumed it. This issue of The NSDUH Report examines age-related changes in the locations where male and female underage drinkers use alcohol. It also examines differences by college enrollment and living situation for those aged 18 to 20. To learn more, visit: http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/2k8/location/underage.cfm.

Research Findings and Statistics on Underage Drinking and the Minimum Legal Drinking Age.

Although some have suggested that lowering the drinking age would lead to more responsible alcohol consumption among young people, the preponderance of research indicates that the legal drinking age of 21 has had positive effects on health and safety. To learn more, go to: http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/AboutNIAAA/NIAAASponsoredPrograms/drinkingage and http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/quickstats/mlda.htm

Parents Hold the Key To Preventing Underage Drinking.

Parental disapproval is the key reason children who do not drink give for their decision to avoid alcohol. Even so, a recent national study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration shows that 1 in 16 underage drinkers was given alcoholic beverages by their parents in the past month. To learn more about underage drinking and what you can do to prevent it, select the “Parents” tab from the red navigational bar at the top of this page—or go to www.stopalcoholabuse.gov/parents.aspx—for free materials and online resources to start talking with your children about the consequences of underage alcohol use.

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) Report: Quantity and Frequency of Alcohol Use among Underage Drinkers.

This report focuses on the frequency and quantity of past month alcohol use among underage drinkers (i.e., persons aged 12 to 20 who consume alcohol). Comparisons of the quantity and frequency of alcohol use in the past month also are made between underage drinkers and drinkers aged 21 or older. All findings presented in this report are based on combined 2005 and 2006 NSDUH data. View the report.

Press Release: Underage Drinking Starts Before Adolescence
New Summary of Surveys Shows Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Graders Have Already Started Drinking.

“A review of national and statewide surveys conducted over the last 15 years shows that among typical 4th graders, 10% have already had more than a sip of alcohol and 7% have had a drink in the past year. While the numbers are small in the fourth grade, the surveys show that the percent of children who have used alcohol increases with age, and doubles between grades four and six. The largest jump in rates occurs between grades five and six,” according to John E. Donovan, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychiatry and epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The study was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

View the press release.

New Start Talking Before They Start Drinking Public Service Announcements (PSAs).

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Ad Council are pleased to announce the release of new TV, outdoor, and online PSAs for the national Underage Drinking Prevention campaign. The new PSAs are a continuation of the successful Underage Drinking Campaign launched on October 31, 2005. The campaign objective is to help reduce or delay the onset of underage drinking. Specifically, the campaign targets parents of children ages 11 to 15 and encourages them to speak with their children early and often about alcohol, especially before they’ve started drinking. View and order PSAs.

Underage Drinking—Why Do Adolescents Drink, What Are the Risks, and How Can Underage Drinking Be Prevented?
NIAAA Alcohol Alert No. 67 Alcohol is the drug of choice among youth. Many young people are experiencing the consequences of drinking too much, at too early an age. As a result, underage drinking is a leading public health problem in this country.

Each year, approximately 5,000 young people under the age of 21 die as a result of underage drinking; this includes about 1,900 deaths from motor vehicle crashes, 1,600 as a result of homicides, 300 from suicide, as well as hundreds from other injuries such as falls, burns, and drownings (1–5).

Report to Congress: A Comprehensive Plan for Preventing and Reducing Underage Drinking
View the Report (PDF)

Press Release: 1200 Town Hall Meetings To Confront Underage Drinking as National Problem—Federal initiative urges parents to “Start Talking before They Start Drinking”

Alcohol and Development in Youth—A Multidisciplinary Overview Volume 28, Number 3, 2004/2005

The recent National Research Council and Institute of Medicine report, Reducing Underage Drinking: A Collective Responsibility, underscores the dangers of underage drinking, even when the level of drinking falls short of a diagnosable condition. This report also proposes a strategy to begin to address this issue. This issue of Alcohol Research & Health is a first step in National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s (NIAAA) efforts to bring the developmental perspective to bear upon the problem of underage drinking.