GROUP: TEENS ADMIT TO BINGE DRINKING

WASHINGTON - Nearly a third of high school students say they binge drink at
least once a month, according to a new report by an advocacy group. The
government estimates underage drinkers account for 11.4 percent of all
alcohol consumed in the United States.

"Underage drinking has reached epidemic proportions in America," said
Joseph Califano Jr., president of the National Center on Addiction and
Substance Abuse at Columbia University, which issued the report Tuesday.

The report, which analyzes two years' research, "is a clarion call for
national mobilization to curb underage drinking," said Califano, a former
U.S. secretary of health, education and welfare.

Califano's group also asserted that young people between the ages of 12 and
20 accounted for 25 percent of all alcoholic beverages consumed in the
United States.

That contention prompted the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration, the government agency that conducted the 1998 survey cited
by Califano's group, to issue a statement saying underage drinkers account
for 11.4 percent of U.S. alcohol consumption.

"Regardless of any discrepancies ..., any alcohol use before age 21 is
unacceptable and against the law," said the agency, an arm of the
Department of Health and Human Services.

Citing the government figures, the alcoholic beverage industry accused
Califano's group of falsifying its numbers.

"It looks like Mr. Califano and CASA have adopted Enron's accounting
practices," said Phil Lynch, a spokesman for Brown-Forman Corp., whose
products include Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey.

Frank Coleman, a spokesman for the Distilled Spirits Council of the United
States, called Califano "a serial abuser of statistics for sensational
purposes."

Both the government and CASA percentages were based on a 1998 National
Household Survey on Drug Abuse in which 25,500 people, including 9,759
between the ages of 12 and 20 were questioned in their homes.

While the 12-20 age group represented 38 percent of those surveyed, they
account for about only 13 percent of the total U.S. population, according
to 2000 Census Bureau figures. The government says it weighted its survey
results to account for the age discrepancy between its survey sample and
the total population.

Califano, in an interview Tuesday, defended his group's decision not to
make that adjustment.

"The household survey is taken by going into a home and asking parents if
you can talk to their children. If parents are in the living room and you
(the surveyor and the teen) are in the kitchen, the odds of getting a
really solid answer are slim. So there's a tremendous underestimate in
reporting," Califano said.

Some of the CASA report's findings:

Eighty-seven percent of adults who drink had their first drink before age 21.

The gender gap for drinking is disappearing. Female ninth-graders were just
as likely to be drinkers as male ninth-graders.

Eighty-one percent of high school students have consumed alcohol, compared
with 70 percent who have smoked cigarettes and 47 percent who have used
marijuana.

Most teens who experiment with alcohol continue using it. Among high school
seniors who had tried alcohol, 91.3 percent still were drinking in the 12th
grade.

The percentage of teens who drink in binges - 31 percent among high school
students - was obtained by using the Youth Risk Behavior Survey of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, published in 2000.

Binge drinking often is described as four consecutive drinks for a woman or
five drinks for a man. According to an American Medical Association survey
last year, binge drinking is among parents' top worries. Around 44 percent
of college students admit to binge drinking, and nearly a fourth of those
binge frequently.

On the Net: National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse:
http://www.casacolumbia.org

Distilled Spirits Council: http://www.discus.health.org/

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration:
http://www.samhsa.gov