Surgeon General gets serious about underage drinking

Americans have been called upon to take action against underage drinking.

The Surgeon General's Office has appealed to Americans to do more to stop the nation's 11 million underage drinkers from using alcohol, and to discourage other young people from taking it up.

The Acting Surgeon General Kenneth Moritsugu, M.D., M.P.H., has come up with a 'Call to Action', a list of suggestions and recommendations to deal with the problem.

Dr. Moritsugu wants the government, school officials, parents, other adults and the young people to consider them.

Dr. Moritsugu says too many Americans consider underage drinking a rite of passage to adulthood, but research shows that young people who start drinking before the age of 15 are five times more likely to have alcohol- related problems later in life and alcohol can harm the developing adolescent brain.

Moritsugu has called for more research on adolescent alcohol use and its relationship to physical and mental development.

He says the availability of such research provides more reasons than ever before for parents and other adults to protect the health and safety of the nation's children.

The significant decline seen in tobacco and illicit drug use among teens is not reflected in underage drinking which remains at consistently high levels; that high use stems in part from tolerance by adults.

According to the 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, there are 11 million underage drinkers in the United States and 7.2 million of those are considered binge drinkers.

More than two million are classified as heavy drinkers.

The Call to Action, which was developed in collaboration with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), identifies six goals:

• Foster changes in society that facilitate healthy adolescent development and that help prevent and reduce underage drinking.

• Engage parents, schools, communities, all levels of government, all social systems that interface with youth, and youth themselves in a coordinated national effort to prevent and reduce underage drinking and its consequences.

• Promote an understanding of underage alcohol consumption in the context of human development and maturation that takes into account individual adolescent characteristics as well as environmental, ethnic, cultural, and gender differences.

• Conduct additional research on adolescent alcohol use and its relationship to development.

• Work to improve public health surveillance on underage drinking and on population-based risk factors for this behavior.

• Work to ensure that policies at all levels are consistent with the national goal of preventing and reducing underage alcohol consumption.

Dr. Moritsugu says alcohol remains the most heavily abused substance by America's youth, and the Call to Action is an attempt to change the culture and attitudes toward drinking in America as the effect of alcohol on American children can no longer be ignored.