April is Alcohol Awareness month. It is good to set aside a specific time each year to focus attention on the dangers of alcohol use and abuse, especially underage drinking and the dangers of alcohol use and abuse. Yet, isn't it tragic that alcohol abuse is so widespread that the issue has warranted its "own" month since 1987, when the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence first sponsored the event?

We hear a lot about kids and illicit drugs, but it is alcohol that remains the No. 1 drug problem for young people. A glance at the NCADD's fact sheet reveals some alarming statistics:

• About 10.4 million Americans between the ages of 12-20 had at least one drink last month; of these, 6.8 million were "binge" drinkers (consuming five or more drinks in a row on a single occasion), including 2.1 million heavy drinkers (consuming five or more drinks on the same occasion on at least five different days).
• 80 percent of high school seniors have used alcohol.
• Approximately two-thirds of teenagers who drink report that they can buy their own alcoholic beverages.
• The total cost of alcohol use by youth, including traffic crashes, violent crime, burns, drowning, suicide attempts, fetal alcohol syndrome, alcohol poisonings and treatment, is more than $58 billion.
• Use of alcohol or other drugs at an early age is an indicator of future alcohol or drug problems.

In 1998, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism completed a seven-year study that found that young people who begin drinking before age 15 are four times more likely to develop alcoholism and twice as likely to develop alcohol abuse (a maladaptive drinking pattern that repeatedly causes life problems) than those who begin drinking after age 21. In other words, the longer a person can put off drinking, the better.

The picture gets worse. When we dig deeper beneath the overall statistics to look more closely at alcohol usage rates and patterns among youth, we find:

• First use of alcohol typically begins around the age of 13.
• Approximately 8 percent of the nation's 8th graders, 24 percent of 10th graders, and 32 percent of 12th graders have been drunk during the last month.
• 40 percent of college students have "binged" on alcohol during the past two weeks.
• Alcohol abuse can have life-threatening, life-altering, and life-ending consequences:
• Young people who drink regularly or who binge drink are likely to drive while intoxicated, and intoxicated drivers under the age of 25 are more likely than those 25 or older to be involved in a fatal crash.
• A clear relationship exists between alcohol use and grade-point average among college students: students with GPAs of D or F drink three times as much as those who earn As.
• 32 percent of youth under 18 in long-term, state-operated juvenile institutions in 1987 were under the influence of alcohol at the time of the arrest.
• Among sexually active teens, those who average five or more drinks daily were nearly three times less likely to use condoms, thus placing them at greater risk for HIV infection.
• Researchers estimate that alcohol use is implicated in one-third to two-thirds of sexual assault and "date" rape cases among teens and college students.

It isn't easy for kids to say "no," but parents can make a difference:

• 30 percent of children in grades four through six report that they have received a lot of pressure from their classmates to drink beer.
• Teenagers whose parents talk to them regularly about the dangers of drugs are 42 percent less likely to use drugs than those whose parents don't, yet only one in four teens reports having these conversations.

Unless we work diligently to change the current reality, we will need an Alcohol Awareness month. In our next column, we'll look at what parents and communities can do to prevent underage drinking.

For more information on Alcohol Awareness Month and underage drinking, visit NCADD's Web site at http://www.ncadd.org/facts/youthalc.html.

--Published April 9, 2001