NEW
Landmark report and call for action by the NAS 9/03 read overview here
Harm to Youth-
It's A Brain Thing!
AMA
Report on harm to the Brain of Youth who drink alcohol.
Greater risk for our children .Alcohol is number one abused drug in the country,
Is the
warning label on alcohol clear?
Request for
Media
& Interviews
National Support.
"Although individual
responsibility plays a role in reducing alcohol abuse, as a legislator I
feel we should focus on the underage drinking at a policy level. A
New Orleans pollster found 77% support barring people under 21 from
bars. I agree that alcohol is entirely too available to minors. I
will continue to as an advocate of the regulation prohibiting minors
from gaining access to alcohol."
Senator
John Breaux
"Alcohol is far and away the top drug of
abuse for American kids," said Susan Foster,
CASA's vice president and director of policy research and analysis.
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21 is 21 in Louisiana -
Archived 2003 Legislative Session
Hearing in House Judiciary Committee is 5/21/03 We need you to write
all the committee members and tell them to protect our kids from the
number
one killer and most abused drug in the state. Go here to write, fax,
call them and
Tell them the law is the law.
Current Louisiana Law states that you must be 21 to
drink alcohol
Problem: 18-20
yr olds are breaking the law due to "easy access" to alcohol in bars
in Louisiana.
See the Campus Report showing how
this law is not enforceable.
A loophole that
allows18-20 year olds into bars, lounges, where it is virtually impossible to enforce our state law requiring individuals to be 21
years or older to consume alcohol.
Result:
Continued illegal alcohol consumption by
minors.
Reduces the positive effects of raising the
drinking age to 21
(Alcohol is an Illicit drug for minors)
Increased alcohol related highway fatalities
High rates of car insurance
Solution: Close the Loophole
Legislation that
that
would prevent persons 18-20 (see HB 825 by
Rep Crowe) years of age from entering into bars and
lounges, where alcohol is the principle commodity sold, and can be
consumed on the premises.
Students report that it is
"fairly easy" to "very easy" to get alcohol.
55.3 percent of students report that it is "fairly easy" or "very
easy" to get beer.
52.2 percent of students report that it is "fairly easy" or "very
easy" to get wine coolers, and
47.6 percent of students report that it is "fairly easy" or "very
easy" to get liquor.
Parents' Resource Institute for Drug Education. (July 2001).
Pride Questionnaire Report: 2000-01
National Summary, Grades 6 Through 12. Bowling Green, KY: Author.
The younger a person begins using alcohol, the
greater the chance of developing alcohol dependence or abuse
some time in their life. Of those who begin drinking at age-18, 16.6%
subsequently are classified with alcohol dependence and 7.8% with
alcohol abuse. If a person waits until age-21 before taking their
first drink, these risks decrease by over 60%source: Grant, BF and DA Dawson, “Age of Onset
of Alcohol Use and Its Association with DSM-IV Alcohol Abuse and
Dependence: Results from the National Longitudinal Alcohol
Epidemiologic Study,” Journal
of Substance Abuse, 9:103-110, 1997
More facts:
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An overwhelming number of Americans (96%) are
concerned about underage drinking; and a majority support measures
that would help reduce teen drinking, such as stricter controls on
alcohol sales, advertising, and promotion.1
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Recent advertising expenditures in the United
States for beer, wine, and liquor combined ($1.4 billion)
totaled about 20 times the amount spent on milk ads ($70.5 million). A
total of $910.4 million was spent on beer ads, $135.2 million on wine
ads, and $377 million on liquor ads.2,3
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A study of fifth- and sixth-grade students found
that those who demonstrated an awareness of beer ads also held more
favorable beliefs about drinking and intended to drink more frequently
when they grew up.4
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One study of Midwestern States found that 46
percent of ninth graders who reported drinking alcohol in the previous
month said they obtained the alcohol from a person aged 21 or older.5
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In a study conducted in 38 States and the District
of Columbia, areas with greater numbers of drinking establishments had
higher rates of alcoholism.6
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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
estimates that the 21-year-old minimum drinking age laws have
saved 20,043 lives since the mid-1970s.7
****Louisiana's loophole allowing 18-20 year olds
entrance and "drinking ability" reduces this substantially (as reflected
in LA ranked 2nd highest in the nation in DWI fatalities*****
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Among drivers aged 15-20, fatal crashes involving a
single vehicle at night are three times more likely than other fatal
crashes to be alcohol-related.8
- 31 percent of college students met criteria
for a diagnosis of alcohol abuse and 6 percent for a diagnosis of
alcohol dependence in the past 12 months, according to
questionnaire-based self-reports about their drinking (Knight et al.,
2002).
- Drunk Driving: 2.1 million students between the
ages of 18 and 24 drove under the influence of alcohol last year (Hingson
et al., 2002).
Alcohol is the leading cause of
accidental death in America. Car accidents kill more teenagers than
anything else does. Almost a quarter of all fatal traffic accidents are
alcohol related.
Over two thousand teenagers died in 1998
due to alcohol related traffic accidents.
Teenage drivers make up 6.7 percent of the total driving population, but
constitute 13 percent of the alcohol-involved drivers in fatal crashes.
This number has decreased slightly recently either due to programs to
prevent drinking and driving or
better safety measures on new automobiles (NHTSA, 1999).
National
Highway Traffic Safety Association:
www.NHTSA.org.
.
Progress......but lets close loopholes and our best as a state....
Our children deserve our best efforts to protect them from harm and
injury.
Age-21 has resulted in
decreases, not increases in youth drinking, an outcome inconsistent with
an increased allure of alcohol. In 1983, one year before the National
Minimum Purchase Age Act was passed, 88% of high school seniors reported
any alcohol use in the past year and 41% reported binge drinking. By
1997, alcohol use by seniors had dropped to 75% and the percentage of
binge drinkers had fallen to 31%.(3)
Attorney General
Richard P. Ieyoub
Legislative Leadership Award (Louisiana
was the last state to raise the drinking age to 21)
Supreme Court upheld this law as constitutional.
Louisiana Attorney General Louisiana Attorney
General Richard P. Ieyoub fought tirelessly to close a loophole in
Louisiana’s 21 year old drinking age which allowed young people between
ages of 18 and 21 to buy and consume alcohol. Attorney General Ieyoub then successfully
defended the 21 year old drinking age before the Louisiana Supreme
Court. Thanks to his efforts the 21 year old minimum drinking age
remains the only anti-DWI countermeasure passed by all 50 states. He
also pushed to lower the DWI threshold for minors to .04 percent.
He has conducted awareness campaigns
throughout Louisiana to educate students, law enforcement, and parents
about the 21 year old drinking age, the .04 DWI threshold for minors and
to promote anti-drinking and driving behavior.
| References
1 Wagenaar AC, Harwood E, Bernat D. 2002. The Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation 2001 Youth Access to Alcohol Survey: Summary
Report. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, Alcohol Epidemiology
Program
2Adams Business Research.
Adams Liquor Handbook 2001. Norwalk, CT: Adams Business
Media.; Adams Business Research. Adams Wine Handbook 2001.
New York: Adams Business Media.; Adams Business Research. Adams Beer
Handbook 2001. New York: Adams Business Media.
3 Blisard N, Balyney D,
Chandran R, et al. 1999. Analyses of Generic Dairy Advertising,
1984-97. Technical Bulletin No. 1873.Washington, DC: US Department
of Agriculture, Food and Rural Economics Division, Economic Research
Service.
4 Grube JW, Wallack L. 1994. Television beer advertising
and drinking knowledge, beliefs, and intentions among
schoolchildren. American Journal of Public Health 84(2):254-259.
5 Wagenaar AC, Toomey TL, Murray DM. 1996. Sources of
alcohol for underage drinkers. Journal of Studies on Alcohol
57(3):325-333.
6 Harford TC, Parker D, Paulter C, et al. 1979.
Relationship between the number of on-premise outlets and
alcoholism. Journal of Studies on Alcohol 40(11):1053-1057.
7 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
2001. Traffic Safety Facts 2000 — Alcohol. Washington, DC: US
Department of Transportation.
8 Hingson R, Heeren T, Winter M. 1994. Lower legal blood
alcohol limits for young drivers. Public Health Reports
109(6):738-744. |
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