Thomas Mott Osborne: “underage drinking flies under the radar screen for most people. Alcohol is legal and widely accepted by adults, and yet…”

“underage drinking flies under the radar screen for most people. Alcohol is legal and widely accepted by adults, and yet many times we do not realize the devastation that this is causing for young people. The average at which young people begin drinking is 12.7 years of age, and that age is declining annually. Binge drinking is something that is very common among young people. On average, teenagers drink more by double what adults drink per sitting and per consumption. Teens who start drinking before age 15 are four times more likely to become addicted to alcohol than someone who starts drinking at age 21 or later. Prevention efforts have been, I would say, very minimal. The Federal Government currently spends about 25 times more annually to combat youth drug use than to prevent underage alcohol use. Alcohol is a gateway drug. Usually those who begin to use cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine do not start with those drugs. They start with alcohol. Television ads for alcohol products outnumber responsibility messages by 32-1. In other words, those ads that promote the consumption of alcohol are 32 times more prevalent than those ads that urge restraint, responsible drinking or discourage underage drinking. From 2001 to 2003, the industry spent $2.5 billion on television advertising and promoting their product and only $27 million, a mere fraction, on responsibility programs.…”