News / Education
New Reports Point Out Life-Threatening Dangers of Alcohol Use by Teens
One of these new reports, Quantity and Frequency of Alcohol Use among Underage Drinkers, states that the ten million young Americans (ages 12 to 20) who report consumption of alcohol are drinking an average of six days a month, an average of nearly five drinks apiece each day. This compares to 2.8 alcoholic drinks per day for drinkers aged 21 or older. This report also states that underage drinkers consume more than 11 percent of all the alcoholic drinks consumed in the United States.
The other new report, Substance Abuse and Dependence Following Initiation or Alcohol or Illicit Drug Use tells us that the overwhelming majority of those who start using alcohol are still using it a year or more later.
One of the most compelling statistics related to young alcohol consumption is this one: Alcohol consumption starting in the teens results in alcoholism four times as often as alcohol consumption that starts at twenty-one years of age. Each year nearly three-quarters of a million people are admitted to treatment for alcohol addiction. And nearly 40 percent of those will enter treatment five or more times in an attempt to recover from their addiction.
Nearly fifty million Americans engage in binge drinking each month, which means five or more drinks at one sitting. And in 2005, nearly a quarter of a million people were injured in car crashes in which alcohol was involved; more than 14,000 died.
“When you work with those who seek rehab for alcohol abuse, you see before you the destruction that alcohol consumption does to a person’s life when it becomes habitual or addictive,” stated Ryan Thorpe, Director of Admissions at Narconon Arrowhead, one of the country’s leading drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers, located in Canadian, Oklahoma. “The problem of youth abusing alcohol needs to be addressed from two different angles. First is to make effective education available to underage drinkers which will save thousands of these young lives. And, second is to make effective rehabilitation programs available for those who have become addicted to alcohol. In this way those citizens can begin to undo the damage alcohol consumption or addiction has created.”
Asking alcohol manufacturers to stop marketing to youth is asking them to lose the $22.5 billion dollars a year they make from underage drinking. Parents can be effective in protecting their children from problems with alcohol. April’s Alcohol Awareness Month provides a great opportunity to teach children that the appropriate amount of underage drinking is none, and advise moderation after reaching the legal age to drink. For help understanding the problems of drug and alcohol addiction, parents are invited to call Narconon Arrowhead and ask for the free booklet The Life Cycle and Mechanics of Addiction by calling 1-800-468-6933.
For information on Narconon’s successful drug treatment and educational programs and materials, contact Narconon Arrowhead at 1-800-468-6933 or visit their website at wws.stopaddiction.com. The Narconon program was founded in 1966 by William Benitez in Arizona State Prison, and is based on the humanitarian works of L. Ron Hubbard. In more than 120 centers around the world, Narconon programs restore drug and alcohol abusers and addicts to a clean and sober lifestyle.
