Children, teens at greater risk as exposure to alcohol spikes
- Aug 23, 2007 - comment
Chris Baker is very, very thankful that his boys — ages 9 and 11 — know to say “No, thanks” if and when beer is passed around.
“They are smart boys and they know how to weigh what the world is telling them against what’s right,” he said.
But that ability doesn’t come easily.
Thousands and thousands of attractive alcohol ads pour into the Baker home each year as they do everyone else’s via cable television, movies, magazines and the Internet.
And for the Bakers, alcohol is in their face now even at the grocery store, restaurants and gas stations.
“Thomasville voted yesterday (Aug. 14) to go wet,” said Baker, director of missions for the local Clarke Baptist Association.
He’s sad about that decision, what it will do to families. But Baker knows his boys will be OK.
“They’ve grown up seeing the effects of alcohol on family members whose lives are consumed by it,” he said. “We have used that as a talking point to say, ‘Boys, is this the way you want to end up?’ When commercials come on TV, we talk about it, too.”
That’s the best thing parents can do as youth exposure to alcohol increases, said Joe Bob Mizzell, director of the office of Christian ethics and chaplaincy ministries for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
“Alcohol advertisement on TV especially is a growing problem, and it’s getting worse all the time. We’re seeing this especially with sporting events, and this gives young people the impression that the athletes drink and that that means it would be all right for them to do it, too,” Mizzell said.
According to a report from the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University in Washington, alcohol companies spent $4.7 billion to place 1.4 million advertisements for alcoholic beverages on television from 2001–2005.
In addition:
- Exposure to alcohol ads increased by 41 percent for youth ages 12–20 during that same time frame.
- Malt liquor and alcopops — brightly colored, sweet drinks considered to be more appealing to young people — continue to be marketed. One such drink created by Anheuser-Busch — Spykes — came in a bottle about the size of nail polish and in flavors such as Hot Melons, Spicy Lime and Hot Chocolate. The company pulled the product from the shelves after widespread criticism that they were targeting minors.
“Until we can put a stop to some of that (targeting underage consumers), we’re not going to see much of a decline in young people’s use of alcohol,” said Dan Ireland, executive director of Alabama Citizens Action Program (ALCAP).
A 2006 article in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine said that a growing number of long-term studies show that the more alcohol advertising young people are exposed to, the more likely they are to drink or drink more.
So ALCAP and other organizations are working to “hammer on cutting back on advertising that appeals to young people particularly,” trying to get results such as Anheuser-Busch’s response.
Ireland said alcohol is the No. 1 drug problem among teens and the No. 1 killer of teens in the United States.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4,571 people under age 21 died as a result of alcohol use in 2001, the last year for which data is available. Alcohol plays a role in the three leading causes of death among young people — unintentional injuries (including drowning and car accidents), suicides and homicides.
That’s why ALCAP is targeting not just the industry and government but teens, too, trying to stop the spread of underage drinking and alcohol-related deaths.
“More than 100,000 young people go through our drug education program each year,” Ireland said. “We teach them that abstinence is the only answer to that problem. Not only is it harmful, in Alabama, it’s against the law for a minor even to possess an alcoholic beverage.”
It’s a huge problem, he said, but Alabama Baptists can help.
“Invite one of our ALCAP speakers to come to talk to your church or youth rally. Volunteer to help teach our drug education programs in schools,” Ireland said.
But especially keep teaching your children, he said.
Mizzell agreed. “It’s so prevalent that you can’t shield them from it or restrict their exposure completely, so talk to them about it.”
If your son is a Little League player, then teach him that if he gets involved with alcohol, he won’t be as good of a ball player, he said.
Roger Mardis, father of four teenagers and pastor of Agape Baptist Church, Scottsboro, in Tennessee River Baptist Association, said the best way to teach is by example.
“We don’t practice it or allow it in our home,” he said. “If I want my kids to walk in the wisdom of God, they need to know what we stand for as a family, and it has got to be a consistent message.”
For more information, call ALCAP at 205-985-9062.
This article is reprinted from the August 23, 2007, issue of The Alabama Baptist, the newspaper of the Alabama Baptist State Convention.
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