Teen Drinking: the Facts, the Risks, and Potential Solutions

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Teen Drinking the Facts, the Risks, and
Potential Solutions

• A Presentation for Parents

Based on information provided by the Maine Office
of Substance Abuse, May 2003
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Our Purpose

• Provide information and tips for preventing teen
  alcohol use
  
• Open the lines of communication among parents
• Identify ways that parents and law enforcement
  can support each other
  
• Ultimate goal Prevent kids from engaging in
  high-risk behavior

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Ground Rules

• Keep an open mind there are lots of
  misperceptions and false assumptions that have
  been widely accepted as true
  
• Remember - we all have different experiences with
  alcohol that color our values and beliefs (family
  history, past experience, etc.)
  
• Avoid casting blame there are lots of ways to
  be good parents
  
• Find common ground what can we agree on, how
  can we avoid mixed messages?
  
• This isnt about good kids or bad kids it
  is about high-risk choices that are often
  encouraged by the environment that surrounds all
  our kids

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Maine Office of Substance Abuse Parent Campaign
Do You Really Know?

• Research conducted by the Office of Substance
  Abuse in 2002
  
• Student survey with 8-12th graders
• Random phone survey of parents of 8-12th graders
• Results show wide disparities between what teens
  say they are doing and what parents believe their
  kids are doing

Source MYDAUS 2002 and Ethos/Pan Atlantic Parent
Survey, 2002.
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Do you really know?
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What do most parents think about teen alcohol use?
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Which strategies do most parents support to
reduce underage drinking?
Source Office of Substance Abuse, HZA Parent
Survey, June 2002
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Why is underage drinking a problem?

• Kids who begin drinking by age 15 are 4x more
  likely to develop alcohol abuse/dependence than
  those who wait until age 21- the risk drops for
  every year that initial alcohol use is delayed
• (40 risk before age 15, 10 risk after age 21)
• With as little as one drink, alcohol impairs
  normal brain function in adolescents more than
  adults each episode of heavy drinking among
  adolescents and young adults can result in
  impaired learning/ memory function for up to 2
  weeks

Note sources for this information are available
on the Medical Impact page of the Office of
Substance Abuse Parent Kit
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Why is underage drinking a problem?

• Alcohol-related traffic crashes are the leading
  cause of death and disability among teenagers
  
• Alcohol is a major factor in all of the other
  leading causes of death and injury among
  teenagers homicide, suicide, burns, drownings,
  and falls
• Alcohol use has been strongly linked to
  depression, sexually transmitted diseases, and
  date rape and other criminal behavior (both as
  perpetrator and as victim)

Note sources for this information are available
on the Medical Impact page of the Office of
Substance Abuse Parent Kit
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The minimum legal drinking age is effective

• It works
• Many studies have found that drinking among 18-20
  year olds increased with the lowered drinking age
  and decreased when the drinking age was raised to
  21.
• The latest review of all the research available
  concludes The preponderance of the evidence
  suggests that higher legal drinking ages reduce
  alcohol consumption
• The majority of studies on the relationship
  between the drinking age and traffic crashes
  found that traffic crashes increased
  significantly with the lowered drinking age and
  decreased significantly when the drinking age was
  raised to 21.

Source Wagenaar A. and Toomey, T. Effects of the
Minimum Drinking Age Laws Review and Analyses of
the Literature from 1960 to 2000. Journal of
Studies on Alcohol (Supplement No. 14) 2002.
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The minimum legal drinking age is effective

• The European Myth some people claim that the
  U.S. would not have such problems with youth
  drinking if we lowered our drinking age like the
  European countries
• -Recent research shows that in a majority of
  European countries, a greater percentage of 15-16
  year olds report drinking to excess (5 drinks in
  a row) than U.S. 15-16 year olds
• -About half of the European countries have
  intoxication rates among 15-16 yr olds that are
  greater than in the U.S. (1/4 are about the same,
  and1/4 are lower)
• -Many factors influence drinking patterns across
  Europe and the U.S., including government
  policies, tax rates, retail availability,
  religious/cultural values, advertising practices,
  and social acceptability of intoxication.
• Source US Dept of Justice, Comparison of
  Drinking Rates and Problems European Countries
  and the United States, 2001.

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Laws You and Your Teen Should Know

• Illegal Possession (exceptions in the scope of
  employment or in a private home in the presence
  of the minors parent/ guardian)
  
• Illegal Transportation
• Teen OUI
• (Zero Tolerance)
• Criminal OUI
• (.08 per se)
• Refusal to be tested for blood alcohol content

• Furnishing Liquor to a Minor
• Felony provision if death or serious bodily
  injury results
  
• Allowing Minors to Consume in a Place Under Your
  Control
  
• Maine Liquor Liability Act (up to 250,000 plus
  medical expenses)

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The residual impact of an underage drinking
violation goes beyond the fines

• For example
• If over 18, they will have a permanent record
  (even juvenile records can have an impact, i.e.
  for security clearance for future military jobs)
  
• Criminal offenses can impede future job
  opportunities and college applications
  
• Transportation offenses can result in car
  insurance rate increases as well as suspension of
  a drivers license
  
• False identification offenses can result in
  suspension of a drivers license
  
• Furnishing offenses can result in jail time,
  particularly repeat offenses

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What you can do at home

• Talk with your teen
• Regularly, not once a year at prom time
• Set the rules clearly and provide consequences
• Explain why you want them to delay alcohol use
• Expect them to avoid risky situations and
  unsupervised parties
  
• Give them an excuse to resist peer pressure by
  blaming their refusal on you

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What you can do at home

• Monitor your Teen
• Ask questions before and after social events
• Get to know your childs friends and the parents
  of their friends
  
• Occasionally check to see that they are where
  they say and watch for signs of drinking when
  they return
  
• Teach them how to have fun without drinking

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What you can do at home

• Signs to watch for
• Unfortunately, by the time a pattern of
  changes is visible, a serious problem may already
  exist - the best way to catch problems early is
  to monitor carefully all the time
• Changes in friends
• Decline in school performance
• Losing interest in activities that used to be fun
  or important
  
• Poor concentration

Please note these may also be signs of
depression, suicidal ideation or other mental
illness. More information on signs of a
substance abuse problem is available in the OSA
Parent Kit.
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What you can do at home

• Self-assessment
• Are you sending mixed messages?
• Be a good role model if you drink in front of
  your children, do so within the low-risk
  guidelines (no more than 1-2 drinks daily or 4 on
  any occasion)
• Avoid telling funny drinking stories or
  glorifying alcohol use in front of your children
  dont laugh about other peoples high-risk
  drinking
• Be careful not to communicate an assumption that
  alcohol is necessary to have fun
  
• Dont assume teen drinking is an unavoidable rite
  of passage if you expect your teen to drink,
  they probably will

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What we can do as a community

• Communicate with other parents
• Get involved with a local coalition working on
  substance abuse or other youth issues
  
• Establish a parent pledge or network of parents
  who will promise not to provide alcohol to youth
  and who will ensure that any youth gatherings at
  their homes will be supervised and chem-free

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What we can do as a community

• Watch for irresponsible merchants and confront
  them if they are not carding, are observed
  selling to minors, or market alcohol in a way
  that appeals to youth
• Praise responsible merchants say thank you
  when you observe a clerk carding young people and
  refusing sales
  
• Support the efforts of school administrators to
  enforce school alcohol policies
  
• Ensure that there are plenty of chem-free fun
  social opportunities for youth to enjoy
  

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A few other thoughts

• Kids want and need parents to set clear
  boundaries and rules. Adolescence is
  developmentally a time of testing the limits if
  the limits arent clear, they may need to keep
  testing them to discover where they are.
• Peer pressure among parents can sometimes be just
  as bad or worse than among kids (and may be based
  on false assumptions that other parents are more
  permissive than they really are).
• Some parents think it is acceptable to host a
  drinking party and take away the keys in order to
  keep kids safe while it is clearly important to
  keep drinking teens off the road, kids say this
  sends them a mixed message. Consider
  both the legal issues and the long-term
  consequences of one-night solutions that focus on
  temporarily preventing only one type of harm that
  results from teen drinking.

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Ways you can help support law enforcement efforts
to reduce underage/high-risk drinking

• Call to report parties in advance if you suspect
  they will be unsupervised or alcohol present
  (this makes it possible to speak with the
  home-owner before the party)
• Report observations of sales to minors by local
  stores

• Avoid implying to kids that it is okay to break
  the law as long as you dont get caught
  
• Contact state/local policymakers to let them know
  you support efforts to reduce underage drinking
  and that you want to see the law enforced

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Other Resources

• Maine Parents Kit www.maineparents.net
  or call 1-800-499-0027
  
• Maine Office of Substance Abuse Information and
  Resource Center www.maineosa.org (or call number
  above)
  
• Mainely Parents www.mainelyparents.org
  or call 1-800-249-5506
  
• Local Contacts