TIME: Almanac 1995

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<text id=91TT2816> <title> Dec. 16, 1991: Drink Until You Finally Drop </title> <history> TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991 Dec. 16, 1991 The Smile of Freedom </history> <article> <source>Time Magazine</source> <hdr> SOCIETY, Page 64 Drink Until You Finally Drop </hdr><body> Chronic alcohol abuse is becoming the entertainment of choice, and the No. 1 health problem, for an alarming number of kids By John Elson--Reported by Ann Blackman/Washington and Dan Cray/Los Angeles, with other bureaus Live, from anywhere, it's Friday night: time for the youth of America to "rage." Time also to get broasted, buzzed, catatonic, messed up, ripped, screwed, trashed, wasted, zoned out. Time, to put it in language older folks can understand, to get totally, hopelessly drunk. Not at bars, of course: everywhere in America you have to be 21 to drink there--legally, that is--and anyway it's not the hip thing to do. These days teenagers buy into keg parties at homes where parents have left town for the weekend, where dangerous chugalug games are played to get booze and beer flowing into their system faster. Or they hang out at impromptu, one-night-only underground clubs that youthful entrepreneurs have set up in abandoned factories or warehouses, with the same goal in mind. Despite the fact that the nation's per capita alcohol consumption has been on a decline for years, drinking among minors, in the words of Surgeon General Antonia Novello, "is out of control." More specifically, "unsupervised parties where kids drink are out of control. And the perception among parents that drinking is O.K. is out of control. We're going to lose a whole generation if we don't pay attention." A study issued by Novello's office last June showed that 8 million of the nation's 20.7 million youths in grades 7 through 12 drink alcoholic beverages every week. Of those kids, 454,000 admit to weekly "binges"--meaning they consume five or more drinks in a single brief sitting. Another study, by the University of Michigan, reports that almost one-third of high school seniors drink to excess at least once every two weeks. And according to a survey prepared for USA Today, 46% of student leaders say drinking is their high school's biggest problem, followed by apathy. "Serious drinking is a fact of life," says Phuong Nguyen, senior-class president at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in a Washington suburb. The problem isn't new, nor is the concern to control it. During the 1980s, states that had set 18 as the legal drinking age gradually adopted what is now the national standard: you must be 21 to purchase alcoholic beverages. But there are loopholes in the various regulations. Curiously, the binge-drinking epidemic among teens comes at a time when drug abuse in this age group has been declining. The University of Michigan survey, taken in 1990, found that only 27% of the seniors had smoked marijuana in the past year, compared with 49% of seniors who took part in a 1980 poll. Andrew McGuire, head of the Trauma Foundation at San Francisco General Hospital, says "alcohol abuse is the No. 1 health problem of young people in America." More than that, it appears to be the leading cause of death among teenagers. For many of these deaths, predictably, the police verdict is driving while intoxicated. In New York City last month, six youths were killed when the car in which they were riding went out of control while it was speeding late at night on a deserted street in the Bronx. The 18-year-old driver, who had only a learner's permit, had consumed more than twice the amount of alcohol required to qualify as legally drunk. In 1989, according to the National Traffic Safety Administration, 3,539 deaths in the 15-to-20 age group resulted from traffic accidents in which alcohol played a part. Government officials are only now beginning to focus on what they believe is the vastly underreported number of alcohol-related incidents among those in their teens and early 20s: suicide, murder, date rape, family violence. Alcohol abuse was a major factor in 41% of all academic problems and 28% of college dropouts, according to a 1991 study by Virginia's George Mason University and West Chester University of Pennsylvania. If kids start drinking in their teens, they usually keep on doing it in college, unless some trauma intervenes. The federal Office of Substance Abuse Prevention reports that undergraduates currently spend $4.2 billion a year on booze--far more than they spend on textbooks. Nearly three-fourths of all college students drink at least once a month, says the Department of Health and Human Services, and 41% of them indulge in heavy drinking--that is, four or five drinks in a row--at least once every two weeks. Many of those students are still underage. Academic officials say booze is almost invariably present when students get into trouble. "Alcohol continues to be the No. 1 drug of choice on campus and everywhere else," says Mary Rouse, dean of students at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. "The correlation between sexual assault and drinking, vandalism and drinking, racism and drinking, is predictable. The trouble never starts until drinking begins." Where it often begins is at home--without adult monitoring. Large unsupervised parties where kids drink to get drunk as fast as possible are regular weekend happenings for many American teenagers. And parents who grew up in the drug culture of the late '60s and early '70s often look the other way. "I know they are drinking in the basement, but I never go down there," admits a mother of Washington teenagers. "If anything happens, my excuse is that I don't know what they are doing." What they are doing can be fatal. Last August 15-year-old Brian Ball of Trenton, Texas, died after downing 26 shots of vodka in 90 minutes at an all-you-can-drink party. Guests paid $3 to attend, but once they were in the door, liquor cost just 50 cents a shot. At many such booze fests, the kids play drinking games like "Three Man Up," to speed up consumption. In this game players roll dice, and every time someone rolls a multiple of three, the player who has been designated the "Three Man" must take a drink. If the Three Man rolls a multiple, his title passes to another player. If you can't find a house with look-the-other-way parents, there's always an illegal club. In Los Angeles a smart young promoter type will locate a vacant building that can be broken into for a one-night stand, hire a pal with a good sound system to put together dance tracks and serve as deejay, and then hand out flyers urging kids to call a certain number if they want to party at a "major rager." An hour before show time, the organizer tapes an answering-machine message telling customers the location. Of course the club promoters play it safe. When teenagers drive to the touted locale, someone will be there--with a map showing where the party really is. Cost of the map: $20. Don't expect refunds if you get lost--cash collectors are changed every 15 minutes, just in case the police show up. Why are so many kids drinking themselves into a stupor? Boredom, peer pressure, escape from psychological pain and wanting to feel good are the usual answers. Since most of their parents drink, teenagers tend to think of alcohol as a less threatening drug than cocaine or marijuana. Says White House drug czar Bob Martinez: "Adults often send a message to their kids that this is acceptable behavior. With marijuana, cocaine and heroin, there is no mixed message. With alcohol, there is." To David Anderson, a research professor at George Mason University's Center for Health Promotion, teenagers who indulge in binge drinking "delude themselves into thinking they can find their identity with alcohol. These kids are in search of community. And they have a quest for intimacy--who can I be at one with?" Belatedly, America's elders are beginning to treat teenage drinking with the seriousness it deserves. The White House office coordinating the Administration's drug-control policy has recently broadened its mandate to include alcohol abuse, and is scheduled to give President Bush a strategy for combatting the problem by January. Surgeon General Novello is among those who are trying to eliminate loopholes in states' minimum-age laws that make it easy for minors to buy and drink booze. For example, 35 states allow minors to possess alcohol under certain circumstances--with parental consent, for instance, or in private residences. And 19 states have no laws that would punish teens for using false IDs to purchase alcohol. Slowly, the legal picture is changing. Nine states have passed "social host" laws that allow adults to be sued if minors drink in their home no matter whether the adults are aware of the drinking. High schools have added courses on alcoholism, and many colleges feature alcohol-awareness weeks, during which students pledge themselves to abstain from booze. But there is a paradox here that symbolizes the depth of the problem. All too often these instant Lents end with alcohol-fueled "I survived the week" blasts in frats and dorms. The party animal is a tough beast to tame. </body></article> </text>