YOUTH DRINKING CONTINUES TO DECLINE

Drinking among young people continues to drop. For example, the proportion of young people aged 12 through 17 who have consumed any alcohol during the previous month has plummeted from 50% in 1979 to 19% in 1998, according to the federal government's annual National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. Thus, the proportion of young drinkers was over two and one-half times higher in the earlier period than in 1998, the most recent year for which statistics are available.