Fact Sheet: Alcohol Is A Drug

Kids’ favorite and most devastating drug is the alcohol in beer. It’s legal for adults and heavily advertised. TV ads often reach millions of teens and children with messages that appeal to their humor, sense of fantasy, or identification with sports and glamorous, young-adult activities.

·        An alarming number of young people engage in harmful binge drinking (five or more drinks at one sitting) -- 15% of 8th graders, 25% of 10th graders, and over 31% of 12th graders.

·        Alcohol is a factor in the three leading causes of deaths among 15-24 year olds: unintentional injuries, homicides, and suicides.

·        21% of young drivers 15-20 years of age who were killed in automobile crashes were intoxicated at the time of the incident.

·        Research suggests that alcohol use may lead to sexual aggression on college campuses. One study noted that 67% of male sexual aggressors, and 50% of female victims, had been drinking at the time the victimization occurred.

·        College students--many of whom are minors-- who engage in binge drinking are seven to ten times more likely to have unplanned and unprotected sex, damage property, get into trouble with authorities, or get injured.

·        Adolescent alcohol abusers show elevations in liver enzymes, an earlier indicator of liver damage.

·        Adolescent alcohol use is associated with earlier initiation of sexual activity, more frequent sexual activity, and less frequent condom use.

·        The younger the age of drinking onset, the greater the chance that an individual at some point in life will develop a clinically defined alcohol disorder.

The High Cost of Promoting Drug Use

• Expenditures for beer advertising totaled over 726 million in 1997. Television was the most widely used medium, with over 633 million spent on advertisements.
• Since 1996, hard liquor has been advertised on TV and radio. Broadcast advertising spending nearly tripled between 1996 and 1997.¹
• Mega-brewer Anheuser-Busch spent $1.3 million for each 30-second commercial during the 1998 Super Bowl, and plans to spend even more in 1999 despite the large number of kids who watch the game.

http://www.cspinet.org/booze/drugwar.htm                                               Updated December 1998

FACT SHEET:

BINGE DRINKING ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES

IS IT SERIOUS?

• College presidents agree binge drinking is the most serious problem on campus.

• In 1999, Harvard University’s School of Public Health College Alcohol Study surveyed students at 119 colleges. Here are some of the findings:

WHO BINGES?

• 44% of U.S. college students engaged in binge drinking during the two weeks before the survey.

• 51% of the MEN drank 5 or more drinks in a row

• 40% of the WOMEN drank 4 or more drinks in a row

• Students more likely to binge drink are white, age 23 or younger, and are residents of a fraternity or sorority. If they were binge drinkers in high school, they were three times more likely to binge in college.

• The percentage of students who were binge drinkers was nearly uniform from freshman to senior year, even though students under 21 are prohibited from purchasing alcohol.

• Over half the binge drinkers, almost one in four students, were frequent binge drinkers, that is, they binged three or more times in a two-week period. While one in five students reported abstaining from drinking alcohol.

WHY?

Binge drinkers cited the following as important reasons for drinking:

Drinking to get drunk (cited by 47% of students who consumed alcohol)
Status associated with drinking
Culture of alcohol consumption on campus
Peer pressure & academic stress

WHAT EFFECTS?

A higher percentage of binge drinkers than non-binge drinkers reported having experienced alcohol-related problems since the beginning of the school year. Frequent binge drinkers were 21 times more likely than non-binge drinkers to have:

Missed class	Engaged in unplanned sexual activity
Fallen behind in school work	Not used protection when having sex
Damaged property	Gotten in trouble with campus police
Been hurt or injured	Driven a car after drinking

IMPACT ON OTHER STUDENTS

About three out of four students responding to the study reported experiencing at least one adverse consequence of another student’s drinking during the school year. At colleges with a high binge drinking rates:

71% had sleep or study interrupted	23% had a serious argument
57% had to take care of an intoxicated student	16% had property damaged
36% had been insulted or humiliated	11% had been pushed, hit or assaulted
23% had experienced an unwanted sexual	1% had been the victim of a sexual advance Assault or "date rape"

IMPLICATIONS OF THE SURVEY

Binge drinking is a widespread phenomenon on most college campuses, a problem that not only interferes with the mission of higher education but also carries with it serious risks of disease, injury, and death. Findings from the Harvard survey suggest that college and university administrators will want to intensify their search for new approaches to preventing both underage and binge drinking.

http://www.cspinet.org/booze/collfact1.htm                                                              Updated March 2000

Serious About Preventing Drug Use Among Kids.

Don’t Forget Beer, the King of Drugs, and other alcoholic beverages.