STOP Underage Drinking

By Richard Land - Feb 14, 2005 - comment

Members of the House and Senate will introduce underage drinking legislation on Wednesday. The bill, known as the STOP Underage Drinking Act, is based on recommendations made by the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine to develop a national strategy to prevent and reduce underage drinking.

Underage drinking is at near epidemic proportions in this country. In 2003, over ten million people under the legal drinking age of 21 had consumed alcohol within a one-month period, according to a national survey. Almost seven million of them were binge drinkers and over two million were heavy drinkers. Right now, underage drinkers are responsible for consuming 10-20 percent of all alcohol sold in the United States.

Those who start drinking before the age of 21 are more likely to be involved in a fight, commit violent crimes, experience verbal, physical, or sexual violence, drink and drive, and become alcohol dependent than those who wait to drink legally. Over a quarter of those drivers killed in motor vehicle crashes who were under the age of 21 had been drinking.

The bill would authorize an adult-oriented media campaign aimed at stopping underage drinking. This is important because most underage drinkers get alcohol from adults and most adults underestimate the problem of underage drinking. It would create a coordinated leadership role for the federal government through an interagency coordinating committee. This committee would develop national strategies to prevent underage drinking and focus on a more efficient way of targeting federal prevention resources. The bill also creates annual measures of effectiveness for underage drinking prevention efforts and makes funds available to communities to combat youth alcohol use.

Given that underage drinking costs this nation over $53 billion each year and thousands of lives are being destroyed by alcohol, we can surely afford to pass legislation that would make our efforts to combat underage drinking more effective, efficient, and accountable.

Let me urge you to contact your Senators and Congressman today and tell them that you support the STOP Underage Drinking Act and you would like them to cosponsor it. You can contact them in a matter of minutes by clicking on this link. When you get to the email page, type something like the following (or just copy and paste it and fill in the blanks) and then click send,

Dear ________________,

I believe that underage drinking is a serious problem in our country. Thousands of young people are being hurt by alcohol every year. Our government must do more to prevent underage drinking. Please cosponsor the STOP Underage Drinking Act being introduced by Senators Dewine and Dodd, Congressman Wolf and Congresswoman Roybal-Allard.

Sincerely,
(your name)

Send one to each of your senators and to your representative. It’s that simple. I hope you will join with me to stop underage drinking.

Further Learning

Learn more about: Family, Addictions, Substance Abuse, Citizenship, National

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