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Alcohol, not marijuana, is the drug of choice for most teenagers and college students. Among high school seniors, nearly half report using alcohol in the past year. Among college students, 80 percent drink and half of those binge drink. Heavy episodic, or binge drinking, is defined as 5 or more drinks at a time and can have dangerous consequences. Drinking alcohol is pervasive among minors and can have very serious consequences (Hingson, et al., 2002).
A few years ago, a colleague peeked his head through my open, office door. He had something urgent to show me. Dr. Bullock pulled out a small, orange booklet. He opened it to show me that tonight, Monday, three meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) were offered in the city of Orange. On Tuesday, two meetings were offered during the day and two at night. On Wednesday there were more classes, on Thursday still more, and so forth for every day of the week. And, this was only one city in Orange County. There were even more daily classes offered in the bigger cities of Anaheim and Newport. This little booklet listed several pages of local AA classes. What Dr. Bullock was trying to demonstrate to me is that alcoholism is a pervasive and overwhelming problem.
Who drinks? Well, let me see... there is my middle-aged neighbor on the right who runs a cooking business, sips wine all day, and is half-conscious by 4 pm. Then, there is my neighbor on the other side, who doesn't start until after dinner when her husband slams the window so we can't hear him screaming, "Nancy, you are too classy to sit here every night getting sloshed." And...my college friend who gets out of bed in the morning to fix her husband breakfast, then crawls right back in bed after he leaves and starts on her first bottle for the day. Women drink and they drink a lot but it is not well known because they drink in the quiet and comfort of their homes. Who drinks? Mom drinks, grandma drinks, and teenaged granddaughter drinks. Just about everyone drinks. It would be easier to count the people who don't drink than those who do.
Drinking has deep and lucrative roots in the American culture. In the early 20th century, drinking became such a serious problem that a constitutional amendment was passed against it. Prohibition simply succeeded in making bootleggers rich. People didn't stop drinking and ultimately Prohibition was reversed.
For many years, drinking and smoking were glamorized by Hollywood. Bette Davis always has a cigarette in her hand and the elegantly dressed Thin Man couple, Nick and Nora Charles, compete to see who can down more cocktails. In a more recent movie, American Pie, Finch tries to seduce Stiffer's mom by implying that beer is for kids but adults drink "liquor."
Finch, a high school senior, is trying to be an adult by drinking "liquor."
Personally, I grew up in the era of the cocktail culture. Homes were built with cocktail bars and furnished with cocktail tables. Mothers gave cocktail parties where they wore beautiful, cocktail dresses and served delicious, alcoholic cocktails. (For a glimpse of this cocktail culture, I direct the reader to the TV show, Mad Men.) Growing up I wanted to be sophisticated like my parents and Hollywood role models. So, like Finch I started drinking.
It should come as no surprise that teenagers drink. We live in a culture that condones drinking and makes alcohol easily available. Anybody can do to the store and buy wine, beer, or liquor. We live in a culture where their role models - parents, grandparents, and media heroes -drink. Yes, smoking and drinking are less glamorized than they once were but drinking is still pervasive and alcohol is very easy to obtain.
As a culture drinking is glamorized, accepted, and tolerated. The most extreme example of this is the pervasive drinking culture of minors on college campuses. Liquor stores are located adjacent to college campuses. Greek organizations include binge drinking as initiation rites. But, binge drinking in minors can have drastic consequences such as automobile accidents and date rape. Even mild drinking loosens inhibitions and impairs judgment. And, the drinkers themselves, aren't the only ones to suffer. The consequences of their actions affect many innocent people.
Some of the unwanted consequences of excessive, underage drinking include: death, injury assault, date rape, unsafe sex, academic problems, and property damages, and police problems. Each year approximately two million college students drive under the influence of alcohol (Hingson, et al., 2002). Among those, 1400 college students die each year from alcohol-related related unintentional injuries. About 25% of college students say drinking damaged their academic success either by missing classes, falling behind, doing poorly on exams or papers, receiving lower grades or dropping out. Interestingly, drinking is a less serious problem at community colleges, where students live at home, than at eastern universities with active fraternities.
To sum up, drinking is a pervasive problem. Teenagers grow up in a culture that glamorizes drinking and makes alcohol easily available. Unfortunately, drinking can have serious consequences. In a series of future posts, I plan to talk about alcoholism and the adolescent brain, the at-risk teen, and treatment options. Please keep reading and feel free to join in the conversation.
Hingson, R.W., Heeren, T., Zalocs, R.C., Wechsler, H. (2002). Magnitude of alcohol-related mortality and morbidity among U.S. college students ages 18-24. Journal of Studies on Alcohol. 63(2):136-144.
