Task force could help stem underage college drinking

Colleges and universities should take lead on setting and enforcing rules on their campuses.

Stopping underage drinking on college campuses should be a top concern of parents and academia. In recent years, there have been tragic alcohol-related deaths, and something should be done to address this issue.

Yet, we agree with state Sen. Shirley Turner, D-Mercer, the solution is unlikely to be found in legislation that imposes a uniform fix for the state's many campuses. As Turner said, the universities and colleges should be allowed to set and enforce their own rules. If the problem spills off campus, there already are laws to handle underage drinkers.

Some academic leaders have proposed lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, when people are considered adult in other areas of society, such as the health-care, criminal justice and military systems. The Amethyst Initiative, a group of 134 college presidents and chancellors, favor making it legal for their 18- to 20-year-old students to drink. Most now do so illegally and colleges have proved inadequate to stop this behavior.

Under federal law, states can set the legal drinking age for their residents, but would lose 10 percent of their federal highway funds. The federal penalty recognizes that young people too often are involved in drinking-and-driving accidents.

On the other hand, many European countries have a much lower drinking age than the United States but balance that with much tougher drunken driving laws. Generally, there are not higher rates of alcohol-related incidents among European youths than here.

It is an issue worthy of more study, as Turner has proposed. She and Senate President Dick Codey, D-Essex, support creating a task force to look into the issue. But lowering the drinking age probably won't be acceptable to many New Jerseyans, especially those who have lost a loved one in an alcohol-related incident. But that doesn't mean the whole issue should not be reviewed. Students, parents, educators and lawmakers need to have this conversation to figure out how to get students and others to act more responsibly.
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source: Courier Post Online

Somewhat Better Outcomes With Longer-Term Treatment For Opioid-Addicted Youth

New research published in the November 5 issue of JAMA reveals that long-term therapy rather than short-term therapy for opioid-addicted adolescents yields better results. Those who received continuing treatment with the combination medication buprenorphine-naloxone were less likely to test positive for opioids and reported lower rates of opioid use compared to adolescents who participated in a short-term detoxification program with the same medication.

Adolescents tend to abuse opioids in the form of heroin or prescription pain-relief medications. Recent research suggests that more and more young people are abusing these types of drugs, and therefore treatment needs are rising as well. "The usual treatment for opioid-addicted youth is short-term detoxification and individual or group therapy in residential or outpatient settings over weeks or months. Clinicians report that relapse is high, yet many programs remain strongly committed to this approach and, except for treating withdrawal, do not use agonist medication [drugs that mimic the effect of opioids by altering the receptor]," write George Woody, M.D. (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia) and colleagues.

To compare outcomes of opioid-addicted adolescents who receive either short-term detoxification or long-term treatment using buprenorphine-naloxone, Dr. Woody and colleagues conducted a study with 152 patients, 15 to 21 years of age. The long-term treatment medication consists of an oral medication that relieves symptoms of opiate withdrawal (buprenorphine) and a drug that prevents or reverses the effects of injected opioids (naloxone). Patients who were randomized to receive the 12-week buprenorphine-naloxone treatment received up to 24 mg. per day for 9 weeks and smaller amounts through the twelfth week. The remaining participants (the detox group) received up to 14 mg. per day, with doses tapering off through day 14. Individual and group counseling was offered to all participants.

Wood and colleagues found that at weeks 4 and 8, the detox group had a higher percentage of opioid-positive urine test results. Specifically, after 4 weeks, 61% of participants in the detox group had opioid-positive urine test results compared to 26% of participants in the 12-week buprenorphine-naloxone group. The figures after 8 weeks were 54% positive in the detox group and 23% positive in the 12-week buprenorphine-naloxone group. By the twelfth week, the buprenorphine-naloxone group had been tapered off of their treatment and 43% tested positive for opioids compared to 51% of detox group patients.

About 21% of detox group patients and 70% of buprenorphine-naloxone patients remained in treatment by week 12. Patients in the 12-week buprenorphine-naloxone group reported, during weeks 1 through 12, less use of opioids, cocaine and marijuana, as well as less injecting and less need for additional addiction treatment. Both groups measured high levels of opioid use at follow-up.

The authors clarify that, "Taken together, these data show that stopping buprenorphine-naloxone had comparably negative effects in both groups, with effects occurring earlier and with somewhat greater severity in patients in the detox group."

"Because much opioid addiction treatment has shifted from inpatient to outpatient where buprenorphine-naloxone can be administered, having it available in primary care, family practice, and adolescent programs has the potential to expand the treatment options currently available to opioid-addicted youth and significantly improve outcomes," conclude Woody and colleagues." Other effective medications, or longer and more intensive psychosocial treatments, may have similarly positive results. Studies are needed to explore these possibilities and to assess the efficacy and safety of longer-term treatment with buprenorphine for young individuals with opioid dependence."

David A. Fiellin, M.D. (Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn.) writes in an accompanying editorial that more evidence is necessary in order to claim any treatment is effective for opioid-addicted individuals.

He concludes that: "The results of this trial should prompt clinicians to use caution when tapering buprenorphine-naloxone in adolescent patients who receive this medication. Supportive counseling; close monitoring for relapse; and, in some cases, naltrexone should be offered following buprenorphine tapers. From a research perspective, additional efforts are needed to provide a stronger evidence base from which to make recommendations for adolescents who use opioids. There is limited research on prevention of opioid experimentation and effective strategies to identify experimentation and intercede to disrupt the transition from opioid use to abuse and dependence."
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source: MediLexicon News

Survey: Alcohol abuse remains problem at UConn

STORRS, Conn. --One of every four University of Connecticut students say they have blacked out from heavy drinking during Spring Weekend festivities, according to a new survey.

The review, conducted by UConn's Center for Survey Research and Analysis, also says two of every five students surveyed say they got "severely drunk" during the annual party.

Some UConn officials said they were shocked by the findings, especially since the university has stepped up enforcement and offers many alcohol-free recreation events. However, national experts and some students say they were less surprised.

The survey mirrors national trends, said Brandon Busteed, founder and chief executive officer of Outside the Classroom, a company that works with colleges to fight high-risk drinking.

"That is a very frightening statistic, but I don't think it's too far out from national statistics, which is kind of depressing," Busteed said of the 25 percent blackout figure.

The university's Department of Wellness and Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention Services commissioned the survey to gauge what students want out of Spring Weekend, and how UConn can make it safer and more memorable for them.

The festivities, which occur just before final exams, draw up to 20,000 students and their guests each spring.

Unsanctioned off-campus parties at nearby apartment complexes frequently generate dozens of arrests, assaults and ambulance trips for inebriated and injured party guests.

UConn Spring Weekend events gained national attention in 1998, when a party in an off-campus parking lot led to rioting. This year, the student newspaper's editor said she was sexually accosted at one of the parties and wrote about it on the paper's front page.

A committee examining Spring Weekend has been holding informal hearings for the past two weeks to get suggestions from police, doctors, student, apartment complex owners, Mansfield town employees and others.

The survey results come from an online questionnaire sent in March to all of the approximately 15,000 UConn undergraduates ages 18 or older on the Storrs campus.

The survey did not include the most recent Spring Weekend in April, since it was distributed about a month earlier.

A total of 2,571 students responded, with 1,709 answering the question about whether they had blacked out due to substance use during a Spring Weekend.

The survey defined "blacking out" as being conscious, but having no recollection due to substance use. It distinguished blacking out from "passing out," which was described as being unresponsive due to substance use.

Twelve percent of students reported passing out at a Spring Weekend.

"I agree that it's a shocking number," said Julie Elkins, assistant to the vice president for student affairs at UConn. "In some ways, it reminds me of folks who usually drink responsibly, and then New Year's Eve hits and they make choices they normally don't. I think Spring Weekend is their New Year's Eve."

Given the level of drinking, Student Body President Ryan McHardy said, the number of blackouts reported was right on the mark.

"Am I surprised? No, and it's unfortunate. That's the behavior I've seen in Spring Weekend," McHardy said.

"There's an expectation that's going to happen," McHardy said. "That, to me, seems to be the No. 1 issue that needs to be addressed."
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source: http://www.boston.com

Alcohol-related arrests up at IU Southeast

The Indiana University Southeast Campus Police Department is now dealing with a problem many campuses have had for years — alcohol offenses.

For the first time, IUS offers on-campus housing for students this year. With residents comes more students trying to test the limits.

Less than two months since the residence halls opened, campus police have already made nine alcohol-related arrests. Several others have been cited or given referrals. By comparison, IUS reported only two on-campus alcohol violations and six referrals from 2004 until 2006. The 2007 crime reports will be released next month.

“This is something we’ve never really had to deal with before,” said Dennis Simon, campus chief of police. “We’ve had very few arrests in the past.”

In fact, the police department is in the process of changing its crime reporting system so that an arrest log will be available in the campus police office. In the past, there were so few arrests they never had to worry about that.

So far, two arrests were made and three citation issued for minor consumption. There have been four operating while intoxicated arrests, two disorderly conduct arrests and one possession of marijuana arrest.

Simon believes the number of alcohol violations will continue to drop as students realize campus police and school administrators will not tolerate alcohol on campus.

“Problems have decreased significantly after the first two weeks,” he said. “We indicated to people that you can’t get away with breaking the rules.”

Most of the problems have involved non-students visiting students on campus, Simon said. Six out of nine people arrested were not students.

The university prohibits alcohol, tobacco and weapons on campus. The only exception is when alcohol is allowed at certain events approved by the chancellor.

Simon met with Floyd County Prosecutor Keith Henderson earlier this year, and both agreed to let the school handle minor offenses like alcohol consumption. In those situations, campus police will issue referrals and Student Affairs decides the discipline. The range of penalties include probation and suspension or even removal from campus housing for repeat offenders.

“We want students to have a good college experience,” Simon said.

Simon also thanked the Community Advisors, students who are selected to monitor residence halls, saying they had been “vigilant.”
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source: News and Tribune

Younger drinkers risk ruining their lives

As a college president, I have many reasons to be concerned about the consumption of alcohol by my students. Perhaps the most clear-cut reasons are legal. Students who consume alcohol under the age of 21 are breaking state law. Furthermore, even those who are of legal drinking age might cause civil liability to accrue to the college if they drink to excess and cause harm to themselves or others.

However, the most important issues surrounding excessive and underage student drinking are, for me and my fellow presidents, not legal. Of much greater concern are the potential adverse consequences to the students themselves. Nationally almost 2,000 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die each year from unintentional injuries in which alcohol was a factor. Additional hundreds of thousands of students are injured; many of them seriously. These deaths and injuries are avoidable.

Every empirical study I have seen in 25 years of studying the issue in Canada and the United States confirms that there is a direct relationship between the legal drinking age and the incidence of alcohol-related death and injury. For that reason, I would not support any reduction in the legal drinking age. This was one of the alternatives posited by the Amethyst Initiative as a way of combating underage and binge drinking. It is unfortunate that the drinking age has attracted the most attention, especially since it seems doubtful that lowering the drinking age would lead to any appreciable amelioration of the most serious consequences.

In the first place, patterns of high-risk drinking behavior are already typically well-established before students arrive at college. Findings from the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study, published in the Journal of American College Health (Volume 50, No.5, 223-236), state that in 2001, 43.6 percent of underage college students were classified as binge drinkers, meaning consumption of at least five drinks in a row for men or four drinks in a row for women during the two weeks before completion of the study questionnaire. The vast majority of these began drinking in high school and, increasingly, underage drinking and binge drinking are regularly occurring as low as the eighth grade or earlier.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse has found that the reported first use of alcohol went from age 17 1/2 in 1965 to 14 in 2003. Research further shows that the earlier students begin consuming alcohol, the more likely they will engage in behavior harmful to themselves and others.

Clearly this problem is as wide-ranging as the adverse consequences it brings about. Unsafe sexual practices, sexual abuse, health problems, drunk driving, property damage, vandalism, assault and alcohol dependence can all be added to the list.

And then there is the often less visible but very real matter of academic consequences. In the 1980s I reviewed thousands of files from students applying to Canadian law schools. Hundreds of those revealed a similar pattern: poor grades in the freshman year, a modest GPA increase in the sophomore year and then substantial improvement in the junior and senior years. Usually no explanation would be given for this other than a vague reference to "problems of adjustment."

Requests for a more detailed explanation typically yielded a rueful account of how the first year and a half of college were spent in a beery fog before reality intervened. Sadly too late for those whose grades, averaged over four years, were uncompetitive for law school or graduate school and who had to lower their expectations as a result. What a waste of human capital, individually sad but cumulatively tragic.

How do we as a society deal with this? Senate President Richard Codey has asked New Jersey's colleges to provide details of their alcohol policies. It is a fair request and one to which we should be glad to respond given the extensive policy frameworks, policing regimens, educational programs and health intervention measures we have developed. More importantly, it holds out the opportunity to frame the discussion properly.

Why are so many — but by no means all — college students acculturated to abusing alcohol? It can't just be about "adjustment" and new-found freedom since many of our students are sophisticated and experienced in ways that previous generations were not. We also need to go further and ask why alcohol abuse has been matched by a similar abuse of prescription pain relievers, tranquilizers, stimulants and sedatives. And why are these drugs so accessible?

I and my fellow presidents look forward to making progress in answering these questions.
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Dr. Peter P. Mercer is president of Ramapo College of New Jersey.
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source: My Central Jersey, http://www.mycentraljersey.com

Painkiller Abuse Can Predispose Adolescents to Lifelong Addiction

Adolescent mice exposed to the painkiller Oxycontin can sustain lifelong and permanent changes in their reward system – changes that increase the drug’s euphoric properties and make such adolescents more vulnerable to the drug’s effects later in adulthood.

No child aspires to a lifetime of addiction. But their brains might. In new research to appear online in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology this week, Rockefeller University researchers reveal that adolescent brains exposed to the painkiller Oxycontin can sustain lifelong and permanent changes in their reward system – changes that increase the drug’s euphoric properties and make such adolescents more vulnerable to the drug’s effects later in adulthood.

The research, led by Mary Jeanne Kreek, head of the Laboratory of the Biology of Addictive Diseases, is the first to directly compare levels of the chemical dopamine in adolescent and adult mice in response to increasing doses of the painkiller. Kreek, first author Yong Zhang, a research associate in the lab, and their colleagues found that adolescent mice self-administered Oxycontin less frequently than adults, suggesting that adolescents were more sensitive to its rewarding effects. These adolescent mice, when re-exposed to a low dose of the drug as adults, also had significantly higher dopamine levels in the brain’s reward center compared to adult mice newly exposed to the drug.

“Together, these results suggest that adolescents who abuse prescription pain killers may be tuning their brain to a lifelong battle with opiate addiction if they re-exposed themselves to the drug as adults,” says Kreek. ”The neurobiological changes seem to sensitize the brain to the drug’s powerfully rewarding properties.”

During adolescence, the brain undergoes marked changes. For example, the brain's reward pathway increases production of dopamine receptors until mid-adolescence and then either production declines or numbers of receptors decline. By abusing Oxycontin during this developmental period, adolescents may inadvertently trick the brain to keep more of those receptors than it really needs. If these receptors stick around and the adolescent is re-exposed to the drug as an adult, the rush of euphoria may be more addictive than the feeling experienced by adults who had never before tried the drug.

In contrast to illicit drug use among adolescents, the problem of nonmedical use of painkillers such as Oxycontin and Vicodin has escalated in recent years, with the onset of abuse occurring most frequently in adolescents and young adults. Recent studies by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration have shown that 11 percent of persons 12 years old or older have used a prescription opiate illicitly. “Despite the early use of these drugs in young people, little is known about how they differentially affect adolescent brains undergoing developmental change,” says Kreek. “These findings gives us a new perspective from which to develop better strategies for prevention and therapy.”

This research was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
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source: http://www.innovations-report.com

Curbing Binge Drinking Takes Group Effort

Every state has a minimum drinking age of 21, and the vast majority of college students are younger than that. Yet drinking, and in particular drinking to get drunk, remains a major health and social problem on campuses. Car crashes and other accidental injuries, sexual assaults, fights, community violence, academic failure and deaths from an overdose of alcohol are among the consequences.

College students spend about $5.5 billion a year on alcohol, more than they spend on books, soft drinks and other beverages combined. Alcohol is a factor in the deaths of about 1,700 college students each year.

The consequences can be particularly severe when people binge drink, a drinking pattern adopted by 44 percent of college students, national surveys have shown. Binge drinking is defined as consuming five or more drinks for men or four or more for women in a row, usually within two hours.

“Most alcohol-related harms experienced by college students occur among drinkers captured by the five/four measure of consumption,” Henry Wechsler of the Harvard School of Public Health and Toben F. Nelson of the University of Minnesota wrote in July in The Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

A petition circulating among college presidents seeks to lower the drinking age to 18 on the theory that it would reduce the number of students who binge drink beyond the boundaries of college campuses. But opponents say there is no hard evidence for this belief and a better plan would be to change the drinking culture on campus.

About half of college binge drinkers arrive on campus having engaged in similar behavior in high school; an equal number acquire this behavior in college, Elissa R. Weitzman of Harvard and colleagues reported.

Every year, tens of thousands of college students wind up in emergency rooms suffering from the life-threatening effects of alcohol intoxication. And every year, about a dozen students, including some of the best and brightest and most athletically talented, die from acute alcohol poisoning. In one study of students who suffered alcohol-related injuries, 21 percent reported consuming eight or more drinks in a row.

Although Greek houses, which have the highest rates of binge drinking, are infamous for a free-flowing alcohol culture, studies have found that student athletes and sports fans are also among the heaviest drinkers, often gathering to drink to oblivion after an athletic event.

A Community Approach

A concerted effort has been made in the last decade to define the factors that prompt binge drinking on campuses and devise effective methods to combat it. What has become most obvious to researchers is that colleges cannot achieve this on their own.

“Basically, having programs to reduce binge drinking on college campuses in the absence of broad-based community interventions to do likewise may be a bit like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic,” said Dr. Timothy S. Naimi of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study, which began in 1993, has identified several environmental and community factors that encourage binge drinking. Dr. Wechsler, who directed the study, said in an interview that high-volume alcohol sales, for example, and promotions in bars around campuses encourage drinking to excess.

“Some sell alcohol in large containers, fishbowls and pitchers,” he said. “There are special promotions: women’s nights where the women can drink free; 25-cent beers; two drinks for the price of one; and gut-busters, where people can drink all they want for one price until they have to go to the bathroom. Sites with these kinds of promotions have more binge drinking.

“Price is an issue,” he added. “It can be cheaper to get drunk on the weekend than to go to a movie.”

Although it is a college’s duty to educate students about the effects of alcohol and the risks of drinking too much, “education by itself doesn’t work,” Dr. Wechsler said. “You must attack the supply side as well as the demand side.”

More than half the alcohol outlets surrounding colleges that participated in the Harvard study offered promotions with price discounts, and nearly three-fourths that served alcohol on the premises had price discounts on weekends.

The study found that the sites of heaviest drinking by college students were off-campus bars and parties held off-campus and at fraternity and sorority houses.

Strong Policies Work

Among the factors associated with lower levels of drinking were strong state and local drunken-driving policies aimed at youths and young adults, as well as state alcohol-control policies like keg registration and laws restricting happy hours, open containers in public, beer sold in pitchers and billboards and other types of alcohol advertising.

“College sports events should not be sponsored by alcohol purveyors,” Dr. Wechsler said.

Community measures that helped to curtail binge drinking during the eight-year course of the study included a limit on alcohol outlets near campus, mandatory training for beverage servers, a crackdown on unlicensed alcohol sales and greater monitoring of alcohol outlets to curtail under-age drinking and excessive consumption by legal drinkers.

Campus practices that resulted in small but significant reductions in binge drinking included greater supervision of fraternities and sororities and more stringent accreditation requirements for Greek houses, policies to notify parents when students have trouble with alcohol, an increase in substance-free residence halls and more alcohol-free activities like movies and dances, especially on weekend nights.

But, Dr. Wechsler said, “college presidents can’t do it alone. They need help from legislative and community leaders. Alcohol is sold and consumed in the community. Residents need to get together to get it under control.”

What Parents Can Do

Dr. Wechsler urged that parents “put pressure on schools.” They should ask officials at the schools their children attend, or plan to attend, what they are doing to control drinking — especially binge drinking. When visiting schools, parents should check out the quality of life in the dorms. If they detect problems suggestive of heavy drinking, like excessive noise or vomit in the bathrooms, “they should demand that these issues be addressed,” he said.

Of course, he added, “parents should talk to their kids about drinking. Parents shouldn’t think that if it’s a beer and not a drug it’s of no consequence. Beer kills more people than drugs.”

Parents might also make it clear to students that they are expected to perform admirably outside the classroom as well as within it. Studies have shown that there is less drinking by students concerned about their grades, but also by those involved in volunteer work and other activities on and off campus.
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source: New York Times

Start discussing ways to educate about alcohol

This summer, I signed the Amethyst Initiative, a statement from university presidents that invites public discussion on how Americans deal with alcohol. It proposes that America has developed a culture of dangerous binge drinking, particularly on college campuses. The signatories call on elected officials and the public to weigh all the consequences of current alcohol policies and invite new ideas on how best to prepare young adults to make responsible decisions about alcohol use.

More than 120 college and university presidents have signed in support of initiating this discussion. Some support the current 21-year-old drinking age; others may want to change it. But they are united in their concern about the effects of binge drinking.

Binge drinking is a cultural pattern that differs from past approaches to alcohol. Let me offer my own story: I did not drink until I was in college at a time when the drinking age in Massachusetts was 18. I was introduced to the graciousness of a sherry hour. Wine or beer was served as part of a semester-end get-together at a professor's house. After church, parishioners would invite students to their homes to discuss the sermon over spaghetti and Chianti. Drinking was part of a larger culture of sociability and community.

That's not true today. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cites a report saying that 70 percent of binge-drinking incidents occur among adults over 24. People ages 14-24 are 15.5 percent of the population but account for 30 percent of binge-drinking episodes.

I applaud the efforts of organizations such as MADD in raising awareness that drinking and driving do not mix. But while the current 21-year-old drinking age may have helped discourage drinking and driving, it has not stemmed the incidence of young people who drink. We have taken drinking, particularly for traditional college-age students, and driven it underground. While fewer people between 18 and 21 are dying from alcohol-related accidents, more students are binge drinking and getting drunk before attending an event. More are victims of alcohol poisoning and alcohol-related date rape. More drink to get drunk.

Unlike when I went to college, there is no similar opportunity today to educate students about drinking because it is against the law for faculty, staff and off-campus adults to serve alcohol to students under 21. Responsible drinking is a learned behavior. We know that the overwhelming majority of college-age students drink, but we cannot model what responsible drinking is like.

Over the years, colleges have seen an increase in students coming to us with binge-drinking habits that began in high school. At Butler, we offer alcohol-education programs from the first day students arrive on campus. We remind students of the law and the dangers of drinking to excess. We issue citations for alcohol violations.

Butler has had success in reining in binge drinking, but all universities deal with this issue. It is not enough to preach abstinence, sanction offenders and pick up the pieces after a student has been a victim of alcohol abuse. There must be education about alcohol from childhood through adulthood. That's what the Amethyst discussion is all about.
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source: Indy Star

Five Ways Parents Can Help Middle School Kids Delay Their First Drink

The first few weeks of middle school are a frenzy of friends, parties, and school events. It's also time for parents to start talking with their kids about the dangers of drinking alcohol, according to The Science Inside Alcohol Project of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Twenty percent of 14 year-olds say they've been drunk at least once, according to the Surgeon General, and recent news points out dangers of alcohol use by the young:

-- The Partnership for A Drug-Free America released a study in August, 2008 of 6,500 teens in which 73% said school stress caused them to drink and take drugs.

-- A Columbia University study, also released in August found that "problem parents," those who let their kids stay out past 10:00 PM on school nights in particular, are putting them in situations where they are at risk for drinking and drug use.

-- About 100 university leaders called for a national discussion of lowering the drinking age back to 18, saying it's not clear that 21 works.
The middle school years are crucial in the battle to prevent early alcohol use. Young adolescents' bodies and friendships are changing. They start pulling away from parents; yet seek out other adults for guidance. It's the most vulnerable time, specialists say, but also one of the last times they still can be influenced by adults.

No one sets out to be a disengaged parent. But it's hard to be vigilant and talk to your kids about complicated topics when you are constantly on the go. "As parents better understand the physiological effects of alcohol on the body and the fact that their children might be starting younger, it can motivate them to have this sometimes awkward conversation," says Shirley Malcom, head of the Education & Resources Directorate at AAAS. "That's where the science can help."
Members of AAAS' The Science Inside Alcohol Project are writing a book for middle school parents and developing an interactive Web-based science and health curriculum explaining how alcohol affects adolescents' brains and bodies. Based on extensive research, the AAAS team suggests five steps parents can take to talk with their kids about alcohol.

1. Find Teachable Moments - We live in a culture of celebrity. If a celebrity your child admires admits to a drinking problem, or an instance of alcohol abuse occurs in your community, talk about it. Ask your middle school student if she knows anyone who drinks alcohol and whether it is at parties or has been brought into her school. Answer questions. Have this conversation often.

2. Talk to Your Kids When Everything is Fine - Middle school students are volatile, hormonal beings. They are sweet and wonderful one moment, and blow up the next. Pick a time when things are quiet and they're a captive audience such as in the backseat of your car. Don't take no for an answer.

3. Engage Your Kids in the Science of Alcohol - Adolescents are incredibly self-involved. Alcohol can cause memory loss, impair sports performance, incite embarrassing behavior and affect how they feel and look. Make them aware of these facts. If there is a history of alcoholism in your family explain about genetic predispositions towards alcohol abuse.

4. Be Vigilant - There's no alternative to monitoring your kids. Have an early curfew. Know where they are at all times. Even if you are not home on a weeknight, make sure you can reach your kids by phone. Get to know their new friends and their parents. Find out what their rules and level of engagement are.

5. Learn to Trust Your Child - Now's the time when all the work you've put into creating a value system for your child begins to pay off. Set limits and enforce rules, but remember to give your child room to make his or her decisions, within your comfort zone. Praise them when they do well. It's worth a thousand words.
The Science Inside Alcohol Project of AAAS is funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).
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source: http://www.marketwatch.com

Alcohol battle pays dividends, UVa study finds

Some University of Virginia students’ perceptions of their peers’ drinking habits are changing, a new study suggests.

Data from an estimated 15,000 surveys done from 2001 to 2006 has led to a marketing campaign researchers said is correcting misconceptions about what many people believe is more or less a collegiate pastime.

James Turner, executive director of Student Health at UVa, said Monday that the study is based on surveys of undergraduate students.

The study’s findings included showing that over the six-year period students reported driving under the influence fewer times in 2001 than they did in 2006.

While Turner said some students assume the opposite.

“It’s these misconceptions of the norms that tend to drive behavior,” Turner said.

Schools across the country have used similar approaches — known as “social norming” — to curb alcohol abuse, promote recycling and combat prescription drug abuse, among other things.

During the study, the UVa surveys asked students to pair their alcohol consumption with a list of consequences they may have experienced after drinking too much.

The list included missing class, having unprotected sex and getting in trouble with police.

After comparing 2006 numbers with those from 2001, the study found that roughly 2,000 fewer students were injured by alcohol-related events and that 550 fewer engaged in unprotected sex.

The study also found the number of students who reported experiencing no alcohol-related consequences was down by 2,500. And that females tended to respond positively to the university’s social norming marketing 30 percent more often than males, Turner said.

Poster campaign

Turner said the university has reinforced those findings by promoting them campus-wide on posters and on the Internet.

It’s also led to the distribution of more than 30,000 cards that help students gauge their alcohol intake.

Linda Hancock is director of the Wellness Resource Center at Virginia Commonwealth University, where since 2002 freshmen have been surveyed about their perceptions of safe sex and responsible alcohol use prior to their first day of classes.

After the initial surveys, Hancock said, students are inundated with posters around campus that debunk misconceptions about the state of VCU students’ health habits. Officials also print “stall journals” with VCU survey data and place them in bathrooms around the university.

Hancock said people are often skeptical after hearing VCU students live healthy lifestyles. Among students, that perception can come from repeatedly seeing unhealthy living among the same people again and again and thinking it’s normal, Hancock said.

“The majority who don’t get hammered don’t get seen,” she said.

Hancock said VCU’s surveys report 25 percent of the students don’t drink and that upwards of 70 percent are not drinking in a range she describes as “high risk,” or having a blood-alcohol level above .08, the legal limit in Virginia.

The UVa study also reported that 25 percent of its students report being alcohol-free, Turner said.

H. Wesley Perkins, a sociology professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in upstate New York, said that while plenty of schools have tried implementing social norms programs, many don’t stick with them long enough to see substantial results.

Some schools put up posters during Alcohol Awareness Week and then “go home for the year,” he said.

Social norms

Perkins helped pioneer work on social norms in the mid-1980s and helped with the UVa study. He said the five-year data collection period produced figures he believes other schools would find if they stuck longterm with norming programs.

At Hobart and William Smith — population less than 2,000 — Perkins said a four-year study in the late 1990s showed “high-risk drinking” was cut by 40 percent over the life of the study.

Around the country he’s also found that “scare tactics” and cracking down on policy enforcement often lead to a backlash from students.

At Florida State University, health officials try to correct misconceptions among their student body — roughly 35,000 undergraduates this fall — with mandatory classes for those found committing an alcohol violation on or off campus.

Those classes also try to find out if a student has underlying problems, such as prescription-medication abuse, said Lesley Sacher, director of FSU’s Thagard Student Health Center.

Sober data

Outside of a student getting in trouble, the college has also used public service announcements, billboards and advertisements on buses to put sober data out.

“When you’re dealing with a complex social issue, there’s really no magic bullet,” Sacher said of the university’s multiple approaches.

Lynn Reyes, a drug and alcohol counselor at the University of Arizona, said she finds mandatory classes for students who get into trouble with alcohol to be effective.

“My preference is to talk to students one on one about norms,” Reyes said.
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source: Charlottesville Daily Progress, http://www.dailyprogress.com/

Drinking to destruction

With a difficult exam behind or a weekend ahead, a college student goes drinking. After the youth ties one—or make that several—on, he or she is noticeably drunk, but friends simply put the inebriated to bed to "sleep it off." Instead of passing out, the student passes away—and becomes another troubling statistic of alcohol poisoning. Drinking games play a deadly role, which explains the flat reception for a video game called "Beer Pong."

Rising toll
An Associated Press analysis of federal records found that 157 college-age people, 18 to 23, drank themselves to death from 1999 through 2005, the most recent year for which figures are available. The number of alcohol-poisoning deaths per year nearly doubled over that span, from 18 in 1999 to a peak of 35 in 2005, though the total went up and down from year to year and dipped as low as 14 in 2001.

Point of oblivion
A separate AP analysis of hundreds of news articles about alcohol-poisoning deaths in the past decade found that victims drank themselves well past the point of oblivion — with an average blood-alcohol level of 0.40 percent, or five times the legal limit for driving.

Fighting bingeing
Schools and communities have responded in a variety of ways, including programs to teach incoming freshmen the dangers of extreme drinking; designating professors to help students avoid overdoing it; and passing laws to discourage binge drinking.

This week, a Las Vegas-based company changed the name of an upcoming video game to "Pong Toss," instead of "Beer Pong" — the name of a popular college drinking game. Connecticut's Atty. Gen. Richard Blumenthal had said Monday that a video-game-rating board's decision to approve "Beer Pong" for children as young as 13 showed the organization needed to take the issue of teen drinking more seriously.

Spike on weekends
The federal data showed deaths spiking on weekends — when young people are more likely to go out with the goal of getting drunk — and in December, when college students wrap up finals. Most of the dead were young men.

College students on average drink only a little more than adults in a typical week or month, said Scott Walters, an assistant professor of behavioral sciences at the University of Texas School of Public Health. College students "tend to save the drinks up and drink them all at once."

Fears for Freshmen
Freshmen were found to be at greatest risk, with 11 of 18 freshmen deaths occurring during the first semester.

Walters said one reason is that freshmen are on their own for the first time and trying new things. Also, there is a mentality that "if you're under 21 and someone's got alcohol, you've got to drink it, because you never know when somebody's going to have it again."

One practice—drinking 21 shots on a 21st birthday—has proven especially lethal. Of the college-age deaths reviewed, 11 people, including eight college students, died celebrating their 21st birthdays.
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source: Chicago Tribune

Simplistic response to a complex problem

The culture of binge drinking is a plague on Britain. It causes misery in some of the country's most deprived areas and transforms even the most genteel town centres into no-go areas at weekends. With this bleak context in mind, it is understandable that ministers in Scotland are considering an increase in the legal age for purchasing alcohol from off-licences and supermarkets from 18 to 21. The role of alcohol in fuelling yobbish behaviour north of the border is exacerbated by its effect on health. Scotland has one of the fastest growing rates of liver cirrhosis in the world. Does it not make sense to make alcohol harder to get hold of, if only for teenagers?

The answer is no. While one can sympathise with politicians wanting to take radical action to curb binge drinking, the remedy does not lie in simplistic legislative responses. Just as new 24-hour drinking laws did not lead to the boom in alcohol-related crime that some scaremongering press predicted, so raising the legal age of buying alcohol from off-licences will not bring about a dramatic decline in the type of anti-social behaviour associated with binge drinking.

There are several practical problems with the policy under consideration by the Scottish executive.

Allowing those aged between 18 and 21 to drink alcohol but not purchase it makes no sense. The fact that they would be able to buy alcohol in pubs and clubs would further confuse the situation. It also seems absurd that an 18-year-old will be able to vote, smoke and drink, but not buy alcohol from a supermarket.

The emphasis should be on enforcing the law, not changing it. Ample powers already exist to tackle the effects of binge drinking. In many cases, binge drinkers are underage teenagers. The police already have the power to move them on from public spaces and confiscate their alcohol.

They could also take more action against off-licences selling alcohol to the underage, or against those passing on alcohol to those not old enough to buy it for themselves. The main flaw to the proposal, however, is that it fails to grasp that Britain's binge-drinking problem, shared elsewhere in northern Europe, is a cultural one.

As such, the key to fighting it lies not in fiddling with the statute book, but in fostering a longer-term change in attitudes. Such a shift can only be achieved through a concerted education campaign that makes all of us rethink our relationship with alcohol. It is no quick fix, but it remains the only realistic way of creating a more responsible attitude towards drinking in Britain.
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source: The Independent U.K

Alcohol A 'Leading Public Health Problem'

As concerned as we rightfully are about the methamphetamine plague, and other forms of drug abuse, it is a fact that alcohol is the number one drug of choice among youth in the United States today, and Oregon has the notoriety of ranking among the highest in the nation for its incidence of underage drinking.

Columbia County’s underage drinking rates are below the state’s rate for 30-day use rates - thanks in large part, we believe, to the efforts of the Clatskanie Together Coalition, the Columbia Community Mental Health, Columbia County Commission on Children and Families and other programs that are working together to raise awareness and educate our youth and communities, not just in April, but all year long.

However, Columbia County’s 30-day use rates are still above the national average, and “binge” drinking rates at both the 8th and 11th grade level are above the state average. In Clatsop County, the most recent surveys indicate that 8th grade drinking is below the statewide average, but 11th graders drink at a higher rate than the state.

Underage drinking qualifies as a leading public health problem across the United States, according to a recent declaration by the U.S. Surgeon General.

Now that’s a pretty powerful statement - Underage Drinking Qualifies As A Leading Public Health Problem! That statement has been a long time coming.

For most of the 80 years since the end of the failed experiment of prohibition, the attempts to change society’s attitudes about alcohol have been largely ignored, except by those actively involved in recovery programs - alcoholics, their families and the professionals who work with them.

It’s about time that alcohol be recognized for the public health problem it is, in a way similar to the campaign against tobacco.

Thirty-one percent of Oregon's eighth graders and half the state’s 11th graders reported regular alcohol use last year. Approximately 38,000 youngsters in Oregon have a serious alcohol problem.

Binge drinking on college campuses is “practically an epidemic,” according to a press release from the Oregon Partnership, a highly-respected statewide nonprofit organization that works to promote healthy kids and communities by raising awareness about drug and alcohol issues.

Alcohol use is associated with the leading causes of death of young people - vehicular crashes, drownings and accidents of all kinds, suicide. For those who begin drinking young and continue (and don’t die first of alcohol-caused “accidents”), alcohol takes a terrible - ultimately fatal - toll on their livers, their hearts, their brains and other organs. It is linked to several kinds of cancer. Recent research proves that adolescent drinking severely damages children’s (including young people up to their early 20s) still developing brains.

According to the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, underage drinking costs Oregonians $697 million a year in medical expenses, pain and suffering and work loss costs. And, that doesn’t include the even higher costs associated with adult alcohol abuse.

In Oregon, approximately 66 percent of men and 50 percent of women drink. Nearly six percent of older adults and 20 percent of 18-to 25-year-olds abuse or are dependent on alcohol and need treatment.

And, all of that does not speak to the tremendous loss of potential caused by alcohol use and abuse. To state the obvious, alcohol negatively impacts students’ performance in school and adults’ performance at work. Its costs to relationships, families, our society and our economy are incalculable.

Time to End a “Rite of Passage”

The recent U.S. Surgeon General’s report found that underage drinking is viewed as a rite of passage and facilitated by adults.

I don’t see why we needed the surgeon general to tell us that. It has been considered a “rite of passage” by much of the population for years, including the communities this newspaper serves - but that attitude desperately needs to be changed.

Parents must understand that they are the biggest influence in children’s lives, and the more they talk to their children about the dangers of drugs and underage drinking (and that conversation should start in grade school, the Oregon Partnership emphasizes) the less likely their kids will give in to peer pressure.

Parents who drink more, who exhibit the attitude that drinking is an important part of their lives - if they drink to relax, to have a good time, to reduce stress, to deal with problems that arise - those parents’ children will be more likely to drink - sooner and in greater amounts

And, vice versa. Research shows that parents who don’t drink frequently, or at all, and who talk with their children about why they should not engage in underage drinking or excessive drinking at any age, will have children who are less likely to drink abusively.

“Alcohol is everywhere...it is probably harder for teens to get into an R-rated movie than to get alcohol. It’s a joke.” A 14-year-old boy from California is quoted in a report on underage drinking by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University.

The most common place for youth to get alcohol? Their home, or the homes of their friends.

Ironies

In the face of the U.S. Surgeon General’s “Call to Action to Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking,” which declares that underage drinking is a major public health problem across the United States - and Oregon’s statistics are among the worst - certain ironies are glaring.

I glanced up at the television news while writing this to see Senator Hillary Clinton tossing back “boilermakers” on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania.

Oregon music industry promoters are backing a proposed rule change that would allow teens into more establishments where alcohol is served because “teens who want to listen to live music have little opportunity because they are unable to attend venues where drinking is allowed.” How about providing some live music for teens in a non-drinking venue?

TV shows, web sites, and alcoholic beverage companies recently promoted spring break binge drinking.

During the past holiday season, Kohl’s, the national department store chain with more than 800 locations nationwide - including Portland - sold drinking games involving darts, roulette, and ping pong which promote high-risk drinking. Complaints lodged and publicized by the Oregon Partnership about the sale and promotion of the drinking games caused the retailer to pull the games from the shelves.

The Oregon Partnership points out that the now infamous Oregon legislators’ trips to Hawaii funded by the Oregon Beer and Wine Distributors Association, and campaign contributions by that lobbying group are “part of a bigger problem.”

“This peddling of influence has a profound effect on dealing with one of our top public health issues - underage drinking,” says Judy Cushing, executive director of the Oregon Partnership. “One of the beer industry’s top priorities in Oregon is to prevent the raising of the beer tax, which hasn’t been raised in nearly 30 years in the state, and is one of the very lowest in the nation. We are at the bottom of the barrel on this issue and it’s because of the powerful lobbying by the industry.”

Proceeds from an increase in the beer tax would support alcohol prevention, treatment, recovery and enforcement. Some 17 percent of the alcoholic beverages sold in Oregon are consumed by underage drinkers. States that have higher taxes on beer have been found to have lower death rates among young people involved in alcohol-related accidents.

The simple truth is, we need more citizens and more elected leaders who are willing to take a stand on underage drinking.

source: Clatskanie Chief

Police seek help to stop youthful drinkers

The Arkansas City Police Department is teaming up with community members to fight a common cause: underage drinking.

According to the ACPD, underage drinking has risen in the past couple years, and so have crimes associated with it; such as sexual assault.

The ACPD held a town hall meeting held in the on the Cowley County Community College campus Monday night. Ark City Police Chief Sean Wallace hosted the meeting and narrated the presentation. Several community experts were also invited to speak and answer questions at the end of the presentation.

All the speakers agreed that underage drinking is an important issue in Cowley county.

"Our youth are our greatest resource in this county," said Cowley County Undersheriff Don Reed. He said he was surprised to find that Cowley County was No. 1 in alcohol arrests out of 10 counties that he compared it to. Reed urged cooperation between parents, community members and law enforcement. "We've all got to work together to figure out how to fix this problem," he said.

State Sen. Greta Goodwin (D-Winfield) attended on an invitation from Wallace. She praised the ACPD for organizing the meeting.

"I pride you for putting together this meeting this evening, because we need to talk," said Goodwin. She said that "15.6 percent of 100 children" binge drink every week.

Wallace spoke to parents and audience members about the effects of alcohol; notably the effects that occur at each age level. The mind does not completely mature until age 24. Wallace called the 21 year old minimum a "good compromise" between 18 and 24. Wallace warned of the effects that alcohol can have on a person during their developmental teen years. He said that many of the decision making skills present in adults at ages of 21 and up are not there yet in teenagers.

"If you add alcohol to that developmental stage you only inhibit it," he said.

Wallace said that the number of rapes in the county have risen in the past three years , along with issued Minor In Consumption charges.

"There's a direct correlation between the two," he said.

Wallace warned that abuse of alcohol can lead to abuse of other drugs. "Alcohol is traditionally a gateway drug," he said.

Steve Lungren, an Ark City resident, parent and business owner said he was surprised by the statistics relating to underage drinking.

"Twenty-five percent of the kids have a problem, it's just that simple." Lungren urged parents to take a stronger role.

"Parents, it starts with us," he said. Lungren said that he has opened up an "information highway" with his children that allow him to talk about issues like underage drinking.

Jean Laymon, a panelist who works with troubled teenagers at Cowley County Mental Health echoed Lungren's sentiments on parenting.

"Kids drink because of lack of supervision, she said, adding, "An absent parent is a huge, huge factor in the kids that I see."

She said most of the adults she counsels for excessive DUIs have said they started drinking between the ages of 14 and 16.

All of the speakers condemned alcoholic parties hosted by parents.

"Parents that are allowing their kids to drink, or let their kids drink at home are simply not good parents," Laymon said. Reed echoed her statements. "Even when you have the best intentions these things just don't work out," he said, citing examples that he has seen in his career.

Teenagers were encouraged to speak out against drinking to their peers. "You can make a difference with just a simple message," said Wallace. Reed said that attention should also be focused on those who do not drink underage. "We've got a lot of good kids in this county who aren't in trouble, so let''s not forget them," he said.

One of the most personal accounts of drinking and its dangers came from panelist Rebecca Heimer, Ark City High School senior and president of Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD). Heimer struggled with alcoholic parents.

"We never really lived a stable life." She said the issue of underage drinking was "very, very personal."

"Kids are our future and I don't want them to go down the same path that my parents did," said Heimer. SADD now has 234 members at ACHS. Heimer has been a member for four years.

Speakers praised the teenagers who attended the meeting. "You guys are the ones that say no, and you guys do make an impact on those around you," said Laymon.

"You are our most precious asset and resource," said Wallace, speaking to the teens.

There were some high school students in the crowd that appreciated what was being said.

High school senior Kip smith said "It does change your outlook. It gives you statistics to look off of."Senior Kosh Metzinger said "the statistics really stuck in my head. Number one (out of 10 counties), that's pretty bad."

source: Arkansas City Traveler

Carroll focuses on underage drinking

It's a day Patricia McCollum and Penny Clark will never forget. The sisters were called into a small, cramped hospital room and were told by the coroner that their brother, Lester, was killed in an automobile accident.

Every bone in Lester's body was broken, and it took emergency crews more than two hours to cut him out of his vehicle. The family could not touch Lester's body because it would fall apart due to all the broken bones.

So, all the sisters had left of their brother was a quart-sized, resealable plastic bag that contained his keys, wallet and wedding band.

However, the automobile crash was not by chance. The accident was inevitable because Lester was an alcoholic. He was drinking heavily the last few weeks before he died as he was going through a difficult divorce. This drinking problem led him to show up to work drunk and eventually, the drinking led to his demise as he was driving around intoxicated.

"I have trouble talking about this," McCollum said. "We used to have a lot of fun together. I wish I could say goodbye."

McCollum and Clark hope their brother's death 16 years ago will leave the same impression on young people as it has on them - drinking alcohol and driving do not mix. This was the message the members of Mothers Against Drunk Driving gave on Monday night at the Champions for a Drug-Free Carroll County town hall meeting.

The meeting was put together to address Carroll County's greatest problem - underage drinking. Champions for a Drug-Free Carroll County had a group of medical, legal and student panels to inform the public about what children are not telling their parents and how to help students who might be involved in underage drinking.

"Provide education often and early is what we are trying to do tonight," Carroll County High School student Hayley Franklin said.

In Carroll County, 32 percent of senior high school students reported participating in binge drinking. Binge drinking is where five or more alcoholic beverages are consumed in a short amount of time.

"A lot of people say they are bored," Franklin said.

Likewise, students in Kenton County, which is near Cincinnati, share the same statistics as Carroll County students when it comes to drunkenness and binge drinking.

"Most kids know where to get it," said Amy Webber of North Key. "This isn't an isolated Carroll County issue."

Logan Barr, a member of Carroll County High School's Students Against Destructive Decisions club, said 99 percent of students know where to access alcohol, if they wanted it.

"A lot of us don't think of alcohol as a drug, but it is a drug," Dr. Samer Hussein said.

Hussein said alcohol will impair one's judgment, can cause malnutrition and dementia after long-term use and affects all the organs of the body.

"You don't make proper judgments," Hussein said.

Hussein said the best way to curb underage drinking is to inform the children. He said parents need to expose their children to the problem.

"You just can't isolate them," Hussein said. "Alcohol is everywhere."

Webber said students need to know they have adults who care about them. Whether parents think their children know they care or not, children need to be told that they are cared about.

"You can go home," Webber said about students who are intoxicated. "As a friend, the best thing you can do is keep someone safe."

At home, parents need to know that they can be held legally responsible if they decide to provide their child and their child's friends with alcohol. Adults can be charged with neglect, endangering the welfare of a minor and unlawful transaction with a minor on a criminal level, if they provide alcohol to minors.

This does not include the civil lawsuit that might happen if an adult provides alcohol to a minor, the minor drives intoxicated and the minor is involved in an automobile accident.

"It gives parents a false sense of control," Webber said. "Parents who allow their children to drink at home are more likely to have a child become an alcoholic."

Carrollton Police Chief Michael Wilhoite said parents who know other adults are providing children alcohol can report the activity to police. However, the police need to have physical proof of the incident.

"We want to put an end to it," Wilhoite said.

"We're trying to tackle this head-on," said Nick Marsh, assistant county and city attorney. "We're there trying to help your child."

Parents can find help for their children through the court system without having to have their child face a judge. Court Designated Worker Amanda Caldwell said 80 percent of the juveniles she works with never go in front of a judge.

"We want you to hold your child accountable," Caldwell said.

Caldwell said parents can have their child evaluated in a mental hospital to see if their child has an alcohol or substance abuse problem. Parents can even file charges against their child through a court diversion program. Caldwell said she can work with parents to have their child follow strict behavioral guidelines.

"Not every child goes to court," Caldwell said.

However, some children do wind up in the juvenile court system.

"Every year, it's getting younger and younger," 15th District Judge Elizabeth Lester said. "Kids have more to do than ever before."

Lester said children are more than ever overstimulated by the world around them, and the overstimulation brings on boredom. She said one day, it will be alcohol, and the next day, because they are bored, it will become meth or worse.

"As a judge, I'm beginning to see the problem," Lester said. "(Juveniles) see adults as hypocrites and phonies. You all are ultimately the answer. We're just Band-Aids."

source: Madison Courier

A Different Kind of Student Exam

Jim, a Darien High School junior, does not go to school dances anymore. The 16-year-old is boycotting them because to get in, he has to take a test that he thinks is unfair: Before he and classmates are allowed to enter a dance, they are asked to breathe into a device to determine whether they have consumed alcohol.

One of the Breathalyzers used.

Darien is one of many schools across the state that requires students to submit to a Breathalyzer test to gain entrance. School officials say the test is a fair way to ensure the safety of all students and send a clear message of zero tolerance for underage drinking.

But Mr. Hennessy and some other students see it as a violation of privacy. “I think they are completely ridiculous and a breach of personal freedom,” he said. “What you do off school grounds should be your own business.”

In Simsbury and other districts like Southington and Clinton, students are tested not only at school parties, but also during the school day if they are suspected of drinking. The Breathalyzer, a small hand-held device, is the latest weapon in the arsenal that school officials, with the backing of concerned parents, are using to curb underage drinking.

Some schools are searching purses and bags at the door for alcohol, or prohibiting students from carrying any bags into a dance. Many schools are offering alcohol-free graduation parties and after-parties for proms to help curb drinking after major school functions.

Districts are working with parents who are willing to sign contracts that their homes are alcohol-free zones during student parties or at gatherings before or after school events. School athletes who get caught drinking or appear in pictures on Web sites like MySpace.com drinking are being disciplined and could be suspended from playing sports under new policies at many districts.

In a Connecticut School Health Survey in 2005, more than half of 12th graders, or 59 percent, said they had used alcohol during the month, along with 48 percent of 11th graders, 42 percent of 10th graders and 35 percent of 9th graders.

Over all, 45 percent of high school students surveyed said they had used alcohol, compared with 43 percent nationwide, according to the study, conducted by the State Department of Health with help from the Department of Education.

Nationally, experts say there has been progress in reducing drinking, with 26 percent of 12th graders reporting binge drinking in 2007, down from 30 percent in 2000. And school and health officials say Breathalyzer tests are one way to help reduce alcohol usage among students.

Craig Turner, vice chairman of the Connecticut Coalition to Stop Underage Drinking, said the increased testing in schools is an outgrowth of a state crackdown on underage drinking: In 2006, Connecticut enacted legislation that fined anyone providing alcohol to minors.

“Schools recognize that there is pressure on kids to drink to conform and to be accepted by the group, and they are working to set a standard that it won’t be allowed,” Mr. Turner said.

Administrators at some high schools using the tests said the incidence of drinking at dances prompted them to administer Breathalyzer tests to all students. By doing so, school officials said, they cannot be criticized for singling anyone out.

Simsbury High School purchased Breathalyzer equipment in 2006 and required students suspected by administrators of drinking at the senior prom to be tested. Twenty-one students were found to have been drinking and were suspended from school and the graduation ceremony that year, Neil Sullivan, Simsbury’s principal, said.

“It was very painful for the community,” Mr. Sullivan said. “We were calling into question whether we could even keep holding the dances.”

After consulting with parents, teachers and the School Board, Mr. Sullivan said, the school district decided to enact a new policy to test all students for alcohol before entering dances.

Simsbury now has six Breathalyzer kits, which cost a total of about $300, to test students at every dance this year.

“From my point of view, it has been a successful initiative because we have not had an episode of student drinking since we started,” Mr. Sullivan said.

Darien High School’s principal, Dan Haron, said his district also decided to administer the Breathalyzer tests to all students this year because of problems with alcohol at previous dances.

“We had a few unfortunate incidents at the prom last year where students had clearly been drinking prior to coming, and we wanted to make sure to discourage that behavior,” Mr. Haron said. “Our main goal is to make sure students are safe and, once they are at the dance, have fun in a wholesome way.”

By mandating that all students attending a dance take the test, the school can avoid criticism, which it faced in the past, that educators are unfairly picking on certain students, school officials said.

Mr. Haron acknowledged that many upperclassmen are not happy with the new policy and that attendance at dances has dropped.

“If there is a negative aspect, then it is that we’ve seen far fewer seniors at school dances than in previous years,” he said.

Mr. Haron also said that other schools testing students reported similar declines at dances, but he added that as students became more used to the testing, he hoped attendance would increase.

Lindsay Gordon, 17, a senior at Darien High, said some students skip the dances and drink at private parties instead.

“If kids want to drink, they will drink,” said Ms. Gordon, who is editor of the student newspaper. “They will just go to another party rather than the dance.”

Charlotte Myers, a junior at the high school, said the policy was not a deterrent. “I think it makes kids turn to other substances,” she said.

Margaret Burch, 18, a senior at New Canaan High School, which also requires students to take a Breathalyzer test before entering a school dance, said the testing makes students feel awkward.

“Here you are, all dressed up and ready, and then the principal is sticking a thing in your mouth and it gets everyone angry,” said Ms. Burch. “You just get annoyed, like why can’t they trust us.”

Some students, however, said the testing helped reduce peer pressure to drink.

“It gives kids a chance and a reason to say no; it’s a good excuse,” said McKay Potter, 18, the senior class president at Darien High school.

Many parents have welcomed the school policies.

Dr. Sandy Gordon, an emergency room physician and the father of Lindsay Gordon, the Darien High School senior, said he was grateful that the school was taking steps to ensure students’ health.

“As an emergency room doc, I’ve seen lots of teens with alcohol poisoning,” he said. “This is another level of trying to ensure our children are safe.”

Captain Fred Komm of the Darien Police Department, who oversees an underage-drinking-tips hot line in town, said schools could be held liable if students left a dance intoxicated and got into driving accidents. He said the Breathalyzer tests were helpful as part of an overall community approach to prevent underage drinking.

“It’s a positive step.” Captain Komm said. “It’s not overly intrusive.”

School officials said they realized that the tests were not going to stop all underage drinking and that they would also continue to rely on alcohol and drug education programs to inform students of the dangers.

“It doesn’t solve the problem of teenage drinking,” said Jack Sennott, chairman of the Simsbury Board of Education. “But it solves the problem of teenage drinking at school dances.”

source: New York Times

Teenagers suffering alcohol-style health problems

Teenagers are suffering health problems normally seen in long-term heavy drinkers.

In the last 18 months, the number of people admitted to the Royal Bolton Hospital with serious medical problems caused by alcohol has rocketed by more than 20 per cent.

And staff say people as young as 18 are being treated for conditions such as stomach ulcers and inflamed stomachs, brought on by drink.

The alcohol liaison team at the hospital, which helps problem drinkers, dealt with 76 referrals in February alone.

Just 18 months earlier the team was handling 60 referrals a month and staff say they expect numbers to keep rising.

Alcohol liaison nurse Emma Dermody said: "It amazes me how much younger people are drinking and what they think is acceptable. People need to be aware of what sensible limits are because drinking above these can be harmful."

Some patients are admitted with problems such as liver disease or alcohol withdrawal.

In other cases, staff only pick up on people's drink problems when questioning a patient treated for other complaints and then refer them on to the alcohol liaison team.

Nurses then point people in the right direction for suitable treatment in the community, such as rehab, residential detox or counselling.

A spokesman for Alcohol Concern said: "Sometimes the focus on crime and disorder is so intense that we forget a large number of people are doing themselves real long-term physical harm by drinking excessively.

"It's more crucial now than ever to ensure there are enough treatment spots to deal with problems before they become, in some cases, terminal."

Bolton Primary Care Trust has recently invested £120,000 into improving access to alcohol treatment services, cutting a six-month waiting list for treatment to less than two weeks.

Jan Hutchinson, director of public health for Bolton's PCT, admitted the figures were a concern.

She said: "People need to reflect on their own drinking and if they think they need help to contact their GP as soon as possible.

"The damage to their health might not be obvious but it will become apparent in years to come."

Chairman of Bolton Council's health scrutiny committee, Cllr Andy Morgan, is calling for more to be done to stop youngsters falling into the booze trap.

He said: "Binge drinking and alcohol-related crime continues to spiral out of control. Cheap alcohol and allowing bars to open around the clock has only served to exacerbate the problem.

"We need to radically re-think our alcohol strategy and make it harder for youngsters to get hold of alcohol."

The recommended weekly limits for men is 21 units and 14 units for women.

A unit is the equivalent to a small glass of wine or half a pint of lager.

source: Bolton News

Students & alcohol — Coast to coast

Stories from campuses in South Carolina, California shed light on dangers of drinking

Here's hoping college faculty in Kansas and across the nation take good notes about something 40 professors at Fresno State have started doing in their classrooms.

Or, more accurately, something the professors aren't doing.

As part of a campaign by the university to combat irresponsible drinking, the Fresno State instructors have taken a pledge to watch what they say to students about drinking.

No more jokes during Monday morning labs about weekend hangovers. No more TGIF talk during the last lecture of the week.

Michael Caldwell, an associate music professor who organized professors to take the pledge, said he took the initiative partly in reaction to the alcohol-poisoning death of a 19-year-old Fresno State student in January 2006.

In taking the pledge, Caldwell and 39 of his colleagues agreed to become familiar with laws and campus policies about alcohol, and become aware of programs and services for students seeking help for alcohol problems. They agreed to promote responsible attitudes toward alcohol in classroom discussions, and they further pledged not to make comments suggesting that all college students drink to excess. Caldwell said students have told him their instructors have made comments to the effect of, "Everybody enjoy partying this weekend," and, "OK, it's the weekend. Let's go party."

"It's easy to make flippant comments about alcohol, and bring your own life or the college atmosphere into the classroom," Caldwell said. "It's usually very innocent and unintentional."

Although Caldwell said the pledge isn't designed to blacklist anyone or make faculty uncomfortable, the initiative has caught on with only a tiny fraction of the university's 1,300 part-time and full-time faculty. One faculty member said the pledge was a restriction on speech and raised questions about academic freedom.

What a sad reaction.

It's hard to see how taking a voluntary pledge would cause any harm.

What's not so hard to see is that excessive drinking is a problem on college campuses.

The same day The Associated Press distributed a story about the pledge, the AP also circulated a story saying three fraternity members at Clemson University were charged in connection with the alcohol-related death of a freshman during an off-campus party.

The fraternity members' activities weren't directly connected to the student's death, a prosecutor said, but the three were charged with transferring beer and liquor to a minor and using fake identification to buy alcohol. The students facing charges are 19, 20 and 21 years old.

The deaths at Clemson and Fresno State happened a nation apart, but they're not isolated incidents. Alcohol abuse has led to medical problems and fatalities on campuses elsewhere.

In reaction, college administrators are taking steps to curb excessive drinking.

The pledge at Fresno State is a grassroots step in that direction, and it's worth pursuing on other campuses.

source: Topeka Capital-Journal

Heavy drinking in youth tied to heart risks later

People who drink heavily in their youth may have a higher risk of developing a collection of risk factors for heart disease and stroke, new research suggests.

In a study that examined the lifetime drinking habits of more than 2,800 adults, researchers found that those who drank heavily in their teens and young adulthood were more likely to have metabolic syndrome than those who drank more moderately throughout adulthood.

Metabolic syndrome refers to a grouping of risk factors for heart disease, stroke and diabetes - including abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, low levels of 'good' HDL cholesterol, high blood sugar and high triglycerides, a type of blood fat. People who have three or more of these problems are considered to have metabolic syndrome.

While moderate drinking can be heart-healthy - helping to boost HDL levels, for example - excessive drinking is not. The new findings suggest that drinking heavily early in life might contribute to metabolic syndrome later on.

'There are already many reasons for encouraging young people to avoid heavy drinking,' Dr Marcia Russell, one of the researchers on the study, said.

'Long-term health consequences, such as an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, may be another,' added Dr Russell, a researcher at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Berkeley, California.

She and her colleagues report their findings in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

The study included 2,818 adults ages 35 to 80 who were questioned about their lifetime drinking habits and other lifestyle factors, like whether they exercised regularly or smoked.

All of the study participants had consumed alcohol regularly at some point in their lives, but Russell and her colleagues were able to identify two major lifetime 'trajectories' of drinking: in one, people started drinking early in life and tended to drink heavily in their teens and young adulthood, then tapered off by middle-age; in the second, 'stable' trajectory, people generally drank moderately over the years.

Compared with the stable group, the early drinkers were almost one-third more likely to have metabolic syndrome. In addition, their risk of being abdominally obese was 48 per cent higher, while their odds of having low HDL cholesterol were 62 percent higher.

Dr Russell said that to her knowledge, this is the first study to take the 'lifetime approach' to understanding the relationship between alcohol and health, and more research is needed to confirm the findings.

However, it is plausible that early, heavy drinking contributes to metabolic syndrome later on. She noted that excessive drinking causes oxidative stress in the body - a state that damages body cells over time and is thought to contribute to cardiovascular disease and other ills.

She also pointed out that alcohol contains 7 calories per gram, versus only 4 calories per gram of carbohydrate or protein. Those calories, coupled with the appetite-stimulating effect of alcohol, may help explain the link between early drinking and excess weight.

source: Reuters

France fears binge drinking bug has arrived

French doctors have raised fears about the growing problem of alcohol abuse among children, amid claims that the culture of binge drinking is making in-roads from across the Channel.

For generations, France has been held up as an example of "responsible" drinking, where children are gradually introduced to the pleasures of alcohol via a glass of watered-down wine at the family table, and learn how to consume in moderation.

But a series of alcohol-related incidents involving teenagers has raised concerns among doctors and led to national media speculation on whether binge drinking is fast becoming a problem.

"For adolescents it is all about getting smashed. Obviously, we are still far behind Britain, but it is spreading fast and among all sectors of society," said Dr Philippe Batel, an alcohol specialist at Beaujon hospital in Paris.

"Nowadays it is girls, too, who are getting involved. And, contrary to received wisdom, it is children from decently-off families who are most affected by binge drinking."

One of the latest incidents involved two 16-year-old girls who, 10 days ago, were found comatose in their school lavatories at nine o'clock in the morning in the northern town of Abbéville.

They had skipped breakfast to celebrate a birthday with friends at an Irish bar next to the lycée, ordering four cherry-flavoured vodkas, then finishing off a bottle of vodka.

Three days later, an ambulance was called to help two other pupils in a state of inebriation at the same school.

France still lags far behind Britain and other north European countries in the "drink to get drunk" culture.

An independent study of youth drug use found that only three per cent of French 16-year-olds claimed to have been drunk at least three times in the previous month, compared with 23 per cent in Britain.

But some academics blame changes in attitudes to parenting in modern France.

Frédérique Gardien, an educationalist and author of Teenage Alcoholism - Time To Face The Facts, said French teenagers were "no more vulnerable today than they used to be to the dangers of alcoholism".

"What's different is that society has changed," he said. "Parents today are surrounded by all this psychoanalysis. When they want to say no to their child, it all has to be explained and negotiated.

"The child is suddenly expected to be able to understand what is good for him or herself. No one is setting down the limits which they need for a sense of security.

"So they test their own limits by seeing what happens when they do the deed."