Underage Drinking Facts
What are our kids doing?
- They are drinking in record numbers.
- The average age they begin is only 12 years old.
- 70% of youth drinking are binging (5 or more drinks).
- 91% of parents of binging kids don’t suspect.
- Some middle schoolers drink and then engage in group sex.
What is alcohol doing to our kids?
- Alcohol is killing six times as many of our kids as are all other drugs combined.
- Of all 10-24 year old deaths, 73.6% are alcohol related.
- 90% of all college campus rapes are alcohol related.
- 95% of all campus violence is alcohol related.
- 85% of all college students surveyed report having established their drinking patterns before entering college.
- Significantly reducing school performance.
- Disrupting family cohesion.
- Generating disruptive, dangerous and unlawful behaviors.
Is alcohol damaging kids’ brains?
- Kids brains tend to react to alcohol with addiction, while adult brains tend not to: 96% of all alcoholics began underage, and virtually all drug addicts began with underage drinking.
- Regular alcohol use is permanently damaging kids brains, causing cognitive impairments.
- Alcohol used by kids obstructs part of the functional development of the frontal lobe of their brains.
- Binging is more likely to cause death by over-dosing a kid’s brain than an adult’s brain.
Sources
Chautauqua Alcohol and Substance Abuse Council (CASAC)
National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependency (NCADD)
Department of Health and Human Services
Loosening the Grip: A Handbook of Alcohol Information by Jean Kinney (McGraw-Hill, 2003)
American Medical Association (AMA)
Institute of Medicine—National Research Council
Certified Alcohol and Substance Abuse Treatment Professionals
Fredonia State University
Local Chautauqua County Police
Duke University research