KEEP TEENAGERS SAFE

Zero Tolerance On Alcohol May Increase Drinking And Driving

Every holiday season, researchers from the University of Michigan's
Youth and Social Issues Program issue a report detailing the year's
trends in student drug use. The 2004 Monitoring the Future survey
released last week revealed little change -- with marijuana,
"ecstasy," amphetamines and steroids showing slight declines in use,
while hallucinogens, cocaine, heroin, other narcotics and
tranquilizers remained steady.

Alcohol, however, the most widely used drug among high school
students, increased in prevalence since last year among older teens,
with nearly 77 percent of seniors having tried it at some point before
graduation, and 60 percent admitting getting drunk -- half within the
past month.

As a result, parents, school officials, and law enforcement have
properly expressed heightened concern about teenage consumption of
alcohol. But some of the policies designed to eradicate underage
drinking may be making things worse.

It's worth remembering that teenage drinking is nothing new. It's been
a part of American culture since the first Puritan settlers in the
16th century. Alcohol has always been America's drug of choice -- the
substance we still use to celebrate ("Let's drink to that!"),
recreate ("I can't wait to kick back and have a cold one!"), and
medicate ("Boy, I really need a drink!"). Since alcohol is used
throughout our society, it is no wonder that teenagers use it too,
despite serious attempts to stop them.

As City University of New York professor Harry G. Levine, an eminent
alcohol historian, told me, "For 400 years, adult Americans have
drunk alcoholic drinks -- rum, ale, corn whiskey, lager beer, roaring
'20s cocktails, gin, wine, scotch, vodka and nowadays pina coladas in
cans. And for 400 years, each generation of American parents have also
worried about the drinking and drunkenness of their teenage children
and fretted about their incapacity to eliminate it, or even reduce it.
None of that is new. But the riskiness of teenage drinking is greater
now than in the past because of our reliance on automobiles."

The most lethal aspect of underage alcohol use, by far, is drunken
driving. The National Highway Safety Administration reported in 2003
that nearly 2,400 teens died in car accidents involving alcohol.

While I applaud increasing alcohol education and crackdowns on drunken
driving, including the loss of a driver's license for a DUI, I worry
that some of the current efforts to eliminate underage drinking may
actually reduce teen safety. Designated-driver programs have fallen
out of favor as we move toward punitive, zero-tolerance policies.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving, for example, has followed the lead of
sexuality education and taken an abstinence-only posture, and in
Naperville, Ill., a sober 20-year-old can be ticketed under
"presence" laws for chauffeuring friends who have been drinking.

One of the most disturbing trends targets parents. State and local
"social host" laws are popping up all over the country, from Oregon
to Florida to Vermont, which hold parents criminally responsible for
allowing underage drinking in their homes, evidenced by their
confiscation of car keys. These parents do not condone or promote
drinking. Nor do they provide alcohol at parties. But they understand
that underage drinking will occur, whether or not they approve.
Ultimately they believe their teens are safer at home where they can
be supervised, than on the road.

I hate to see safety-oriented parents vilified, but worry even more
about the teenagers they're trying to protect. When I ask young people
how they'll respond to the proliferation of these laws, which will
effectively eliminate the availability of parentally supervised homes
where they can "hang out," none say they'll stop drinking. Instead,
they say they will simply move the party to the street, the local
park, the beach or some other public place. And they'll get there by
car.

New Year's Eve is coming up, and there will be parties. We ought to
get real, and while we encourage and promote sober gatherings, have a
fallback strategy that makes sure drinking and driving don't mix.