Zero tolerance for underage drinking or possession of alcohol has strong public support. However, popular support doesn’t make zero tolerance effective. In fact, it’s often counterproductive. Radley Balko is an award-winning writer for the Washington Post and a member of The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board. Balko is a former policy analyst for the Cato Institute and a …
The “A Matter of Degree” program to prevent alcohol abuse is ineffective. It was to reduce drinking and alcohol-related problems on college campuses. The Program Ten universities across the U.S. received almost nine million dollars to reduce the presence of alcohol in their campus environments. One of the strongest supporters of the program, Henry Wechsler, and …
John Buell is a columnist at the Bangor Daily News. Here he gives some thoughts on underage drinking problem prevention. Also see his “Facts of Teen Prohibition: Facing Its Grim Failure – What Parents Can Do” and My critics are certain that teens are uniquely damaged even by modest amounts of alcohol. Yet if readers …
Alternatives to D.A.R.E. are important. The DARE program is very popular. However, researchers have, without exception, found it to be ineffective. Even worse, some have found it to be sometimes counterproductive. That is, worse than doing nothing. For example, see Drug Abuse Resistance Education: the Effectiveness of DARE. That’s the conclusion of the US Department …
What are the effects of alcohol advertising? Does alcohol advertising cause people to begin drinkng or to drink more? Could it cause alcohol abuse? These important questions need answers. And we need research evidence instead of opinions or gut feelings. So, alcohol advertising causes young people to begin drinking. It increases alcohol consumption. And that …
What is Choose Responsibility? Choose Responsibility is a nonprofit organization. It promotes public awareness of the dangers of reckless alcohol consumption by adults age 18-20. It does this through a program of research, publication, education, and related activities. The organization seeks to stimulate informed public discussion about alcohol in American culture. It promotes policies that …
Our society uses many techniques in efforts to reduce underage alcohol abuse. (This includes alcohol abuse by those of legal age but still young.) A few are effective, but most are not. And there’s no silver bullet. Therefore, we must continue examining additional possibilities. Here are some creative ways to try to reduce underage alcohol …
Do young people with parental alcohol problems have different drinking patterns than those without parental alcohol problems? The Study Research in Denmark studied this question. It used data from the Danish National Youth Study. This was a national survey of 75,025 high school and vocational school students. They were 15-25 years old. These were the …
Effects of Parental Supply of Alcohol Children whose parents serve them alcohol are more likely to drink full servings by age 15 or 16. However, they are much less likely to have over four or drinks on an occasion. (This is sometimes called binge drinking.) In addition, they generally have fewer drinks per occasion. In …
Alcohol Amnesty Alcohol medical emergency amnesty policies at colleges and universities are to save lives. They give a higher priority to protecting students’ safety and lives than to enforcing alcohol rules. Hundreds of colleges and universities have medical alcohol emergency amnesty policies. Clemson University implemented such a policy after a major tragedy. The existence of an …
