Addiction, Treatment and Recovery

The facts are deadly. Underage drinkers, joined by adults who regularly drink excessive amounts of alcohol, account for half of all the alcohol consumed in this country. That devastating finding is supported by many research studies, including a recent one in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Another alarming statistic is that nearly 20 percent of all the beer, wine and hard liquor consumed in this country goes down the throats of children and teenagers.

These facts have profound implications for parents and their children, for public policy, and for the alcohol industry.

Drinking alcohol represents a fatal attraction for millions of our children and teenagers. Especially in this season of senior proms, graduation nights and summer vacations, the ramifications of underage drinking are frightening.

Alcohol is inextricably linked to the three leading causes of teen deaths: accidents, homicides, suicide. Alcohol abuse is implicated in all types of juvenile crime, including nearly 70 percent of violent offenses.

Sadly (and tragically), very little is being done to effectively combat the phenomenon of underage, excessive drinking. College and university officials are verbally expressing concern, but in a meaningful sense they’re doing little more that sticking a finger in the proverbial dike. When I visit campuses and pick up a copy of the college newspaper, I’m inevitably struck by all the advertising placed by liquor companies. Those ads beg the question: since most undergraduates have not reached the legal drinking age, why are you aiming product and lifestyle advertising directly at those (mostly) teenagers?

And that in turn begs another question: How can we expect a good-faith effort by the alcohol industry to work cooperatively with us in the education community and drug treatment field to combat underage drinking? Are they really prepared to cooperate with the public health and healthcare communities to find and fund practical ways to curb underage drinking?

There is, I’m afraid, the stench of hypocrisy surrounding the “drink responsibly” ad campaigns being waged by (mostly) beer companies on college campuses. On the one hand, they’re trying to wave the flag of good corporate citizenship. On the other, they’re cleverly promoting a whole lifestyle (via print ads, TV commercials and sponsorship of sports and entertainment events) that equates “cool” and “fun” with drinking alcohol.

It also needs to be said that for young people who’ve crossed the line from alcohol use and abuse to alcohol (and other drug) dependency, treatment hardly exists. If it’s tough for adults to access effective treatment programs for their addiction to alcohol and/or other drugs, it’s nearly impossible for addicted adolescents and teenagers to get help.

What can be done to combat the epidemic of underage drinking? And to get treatment for those young people who’ve succumbed to the disease of addiction?

First and foremost, we need to place these issues on the national public policy and media agendas.

A modest proposal: how about well-publicized hearings on Capitol Hill? Or a White House summit?

[My thanks to Joseph Califano and the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University for their attention to these crucial issues.]

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