Choose Responsibility

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A Center for Disease Control and Prevention study, which took place from 1993-2001, found that twenty-one to 25 year-olds have the highest rates of binge drinking. Eighteen to 20 year-olds have the second highest rates. . . further evidence that the 21 year-old drinking age exacerbates abusive drinking, if nominally reducing overall consumption.

If you thought that Alcopops encouraged drinking amongst young adults, wait until you hear about a new craze:  ShotPaks.  ShotPaks are small, shot-sized alcoholic drinks that come in little plastic pouches—perfect for a drinker on the go, according to manufacturers.  Marketed as a “party in a pouch,” ShotPaks are sweet, sugary drinks called “Purple Hooters” and “Kamikazes,” although the more serious drinker may want to pick up the “STR8UP” ShotPaks, which contain only straight liquor without any mixer.

Sure, there may be no glass to break, and therefore ShotPaks might seem safer at events like concerts and sports games.  However, the real danger is that the small size and sweet taste of ShotPaks make them tasty, easily concealable and, in other words, very appealing to underage drinkers.  By helping to push drinking more undercover, ShotPaks make binge drinking even harder to monitor amongst both underage and of-age drinkers—something that have dangerous consequences.

A new Associated Press study, announced yesterday, has revealed that 157 college-age people (aged 18 to 23) drank themselves to death between 1999 and 2005, and that the number of alcohol-poisoning deaths per year rose from 18 in 1999 to 35 in 2005.  Interestingly, 83 of the people who died were under the legal drinking age of 21. 

Additional analysis revealed that college students are more likely to die from binge drinking-related alcohol poisoning than non-college students, and that freshmen are most at risk during their first semester at college.  With the legal drinking age set at 21, people (especially underage drinkers) are dying from binge drinking, and the number of deaths is continuing to climb due to the common mentality of “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.”   

Some colleges have begun to adopt programs to educate students about responsible drinking—an important first step that will hopefully have some good consequences in the future.  Regardless, this new study really points out a vital question:  Is 21 working?

The results of a nationwide survey looking at the social context of underage alcohol use, performed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, were released today.  This National Survey on Drug Use and Health looked at many aspects of alcohol use and drinking behaviors amongst 12-20 year olds, and the major finding capturing the headlines is that underage drinkers are obtaining alcohol from adults, including parents and guardians.  Blaming parents and adult family members for underage alcohol use and labeling them as “enablers” may be a hasty conclusion, however.  The study indicates that 40% of underage drinkers obtained alcohol from an adult (someone over 21) for free in the past month.  However, one in four youths received alcohol from an unknown adult, and only one in twelve youths received alcohol from a parent or guardian. 

More importantly, the study does not clearly specify how parents are giving their kids alcohol.  A glass of wine at a family dinner might be statistically the same as a mother buying a keg for a son’s graduation party; however, the implications of these actions are much different.  Conclusions from the study stress that parents should be involved by providing proper guidance and ensuring their kids’ safety by preventing them from the dangerous act of drinking.  Is it possible, however, that allowing a son or daughter a glass of wine with dinner helps teach responsible drinking, and thus can be considered parental guidance?  A recent Time Magazine article discussed in a June 20^th post does an excellent job debating this issue.

In general, we are having a hard time seeing how the results of this study support a legal age 21.  Kids are finding alcohol and drinking underage, and one in five underage drinkers have binged at least once in the last month.  Moreover, this drinking is happening in private, unsupervised locations, and over half of underage drinkers have drank in someone else’s room or house during the past month.  If you ask us, that is more scary than the fact that some youths are sharing a beer with mom and dad. 

We encourage you to visit this ABC article for more information, links, and comments.

“Should You Drink with Your Kids?,” published in the June 30^th Issue of Time Magazine, is an insightful and balanced article on underage drinking and the drinking age.  Aside from addressing multiple points of view on the topic of underage drinking and drinking with parental supervision, we think that it does an excellent job of citing appropriate research and raising some important points about drinking and public health that are at the center of many of Choose Responsibility’s ideas.  We particularly like its attention to the problem of binge drinking and what may be contributing to increases in binge drinking rates over the last few years.  We encourage you to check out the article and, as always, we welcome your comments and questions.

We have previously commented on the growing popularity of “alcopops” and our concern that their advertised reputation as sweet drinks masking the taste of liquor, while delivering intoxication, makes them appeal to underage drinkers.  Alcopops are usually sold in stores’ beer aisles, also making them popular among underage drinkers, who most frequently choose beer as their drink of choice.  Large-scale consumption of these drinks by young and underage drinkers fuels the binge-drinking problem in this country, and so we were happy to read that California has recently decided to regulate and tax alcopops as distilled spirits and not as beers.  The change, which will take place in October, will tax alcopops with the current liquor tax of $3.30 per gallon, up from $0.20 per gallon, the current tax on beer.

We believe that increasing the tax on alcopops will help decrease their consumption amongst underage drinkers since a higher price tag should decrease their appeal amongst consumers.  In fact, past studies have indicated that throughout history, higher taxes on alcohol have led to a decreased likelihood of heavy drinking and binge drinking.  Higher alcohol prices have also been correlated with decreased rates of underage drinking, sexually transmitted diseases, and traffic fatalities in the past…nothing wrong with that! 

Recent comments on our May 27^th, 2008 post argue that using higher taxes to deter alcohol consumption is a neo-prohibitionist approach and that focus should be placed on responsible drinking and not the type of alcohol consumed.  However, we believe that alcopops are a unique case and that increasing the tax on these beverages is an appropriate strategy to combat irresponsible drinking.  Alcopops appeal to underage and young drinkers, who are most likely to binge drink, and so making them less appealing by raising their price targets irresponsible drinking within this age group.  This, coupled with the fact that studies have shown that higher prices deter alcohol abuse, suggests that increasing the tax on alcopops will be effective in reducing irresponsible binge drinking.  Of course, we hope that measures to teach responsible drinking, such as education programs on safe alcohol consumption, are adopted along with these adjustments in taxes.  With any luck, other states will begin to follow California’s lead and reconsider their tax policies for liquor in the near future.

To read more on the studies mentioned above, see Paying the Tab:  The Costs and Benefits of Alcohol Control, by Philip J. Cook—a very interesting read.

The London subways were a nasty sight on the morning of June 1^st due to the impromptu party the previous night, when British teens and young adults celebrated the last hurrah for drinking on public transportation.  The Economist discussed this party and drinking, in general, in a recent article, and noted the changes in drinking patterns of Britain’s youth.  While more teens now report never trying alcohol, those who have tried it are drinking larger quantities, and this is especially true for those 11-13 years old.  Demographic changes have not been drastic enough to explain this shift in drinking behavior, and it is believed that more hostile regulations on drinking in pubs and bars have encouraged teens to move their drinking elsewhere, such as the trains, parks, or street corners.  In pubs, people must behave properly in order to prevent being thrown out, and social pressures and norms tend to keep people in line and behaving according to the status quo.  Supervision and social restraint disappear when teens drink in private and are more free to do whatever they want, get as drunk as they want, etc.  Along with increases in quantity of alcohol consumed, spirits are now more common than ever before.  They also tend to be consumed when teens drink on their own, and not in pubs which often offer more beer and wine. 

We believe that these points echo our own ideas about the drinking age in the U.S. since, just as British young adults want to avoid the strict bars and drink on their own, Americans who cannot enter bars and legally drink also turn to drinking on their own.  Dangerous binge drinking often results, which can get out of control due to a lack of monitoring and supervision at private parties.  Lowering the drinking age could help prevent binge drinking by allowing young adults an opportunity to drink in public settings (bars, restaurants) where they might feel it is more inappropriate to binge drink and get ragingly drunk.  Their behavior could also be better monitored and supervised by others; a bartender is more likely than a drunk friend to cut someone off.

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It is difficult to miss “alcopops” in grocery stores — they are sweet alcoholic beverages, usually fluorescent in color, and marketed primarily to girls. Many allege that these beverages disguise the taste of alcohol, while still fuelling intoxication. While containing liquor, alcopops are sold in the beer aisle of most grocery stores, blurring the distinction between hard alcohol and beer and more concerning, making them more accessible to true underage individuals. Alcopops serve as a tool of intoxication rather than appreciation, and mix sweet, often caffeinated substances with alcohol as a means of facilitating that process.

Recently, many have called for a recategorization of alcopops as liquor rather than beer, enabling an alcohol tax and transferring the purchase of these substances to designated liquor establishments. We at Choose Responsibility strongly support these efforts, and believe that alcopops help encourage binge drinking and run counter to the goals of alcohol education.

 Another camp wants to legally define alcopops as beer rather than liquor on the basis of taxation and regulation. Governor Martin O’Malley of Maryland endorses such a bill in his state, thereby pandering to the alcohol industry and helping to further the problem of binge drinking amongst young adults.

 As more states take on the issue of Alcopops, we encourage you to voice your concerns about the implications of maintaining the status quo.

Crackdowns are simply not working. Enacting prohibition for 18-20 year-olds has pushed the consumption of alcohol out of public view and into those private settings where risky drinking practices flourish. The Portland Press Herald describes tactics colleges and communities are using to curb “underage” drinking, only to see binge drinking flourishing behind closed doors. Risky drinking will only be minimized, and education possible, when laws are brought in line with social reality. We encourage you to peruse the Portland paper’s coverage of binge drinking and share your thoughts.