[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 46 (Friday, March 29, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E519-E520]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL

                                 ______


                       HON. JOSEPH P. KENNEDY II

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, March 29, 1996

  Mr. KENNEDY of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, the American Medical 
Association recently reported findings of a survey that should shake 
our complacency about alcohol problems among young people in this 
country. That survey dramatizes the extent of heavy, dangerous drinking 
by persons ages 18 to 30 years.
  Some of these findings paint a disturbing picture of alcohol abuse 
among young adults: 15 percent said they drink six or more drinks a 
night, and nearly one in five is a frequent binge drinker--with males 
consuming five or more drinks and females four or more--and 7 percent 
say they drink this much every time they drink. As a result of these 
findings, the AMA has put us on notice that the most significant drug 
problem affecting young people is alcohol. Alcohol is the most widely 
used and abused drug by young and old alike.
  Despite alcohol's crippling effect on young people, beer, wine, and 
liquor marketers position their products as if they are harmless, 
essential ingredients of a healthy, active lifestyle. Young people 
deserve a more responsible, balanced message about a drug that destroys 
so many young lives and careers.
  For that reason, I rise today to salute John Soriano, a high school 
senior scholar-athlete from North Caldwell, NJ, for his contribution to 
balancing the messages that young people get about alcohol. John is the 
winner of a national writing contest, cosponsored by Scholastic Choices 
Magazine and Center for Science in the Public Interest. That contest 
asked teenagers to ``Talk Back to Alcohol Advertisers.'' His poem 
``JoAnn,'' poignantly describes the disbelief, pain, and loss following 
a drinking-related car crash.
  John Soriano's poem provides a message that most beer ads bury 
beneath endearing, animated animals or in their hype about how the brew 
will make you a man, help you win a girl, or make you a success in 
life. John's winning entry sends a message to advertisers that kids' 
lives are constantly threatened by alcohol, that the sanitized ads are 
misleading, and that more of the real story needs to be told.
  We cannot continue to ignore how the promotion of drinking to young 
people--on television, on campus, in youth-oriented magazines, on 
billboards and transit signs, at rock concerts and sporting events, 
almost everywhere--helps disrupt futures and destroys young lives and 
robs our Nation of too many of its most important resources. We need to 
go beyond passing laws that criminalize young people for illegal 
possession of alcohol; we need to do more than support school-based 
education that has little chance of competing with over $1 billion of 
alcohol advertising that offers tantalizing personal rewards for 
drinking. We need to follow John Soriano's lead, and begin to ``talk 
back to alcohol advertisers.''

                                 JoAnn

     Young and immune and I knew what was best.
     I knew that I wouldn't end up like the rest.
     JoAnn knew it too and she stayed by my side,

[[Page E520]]

     Through the times that we laughed and the times that we 
           cried,
     Social Distortion--we wouldn't give in,
     This was never a battle that we couldn't win,
     Future was bright, both of us knew,
     We could handle it all, we thought this was true,
     But a night and a dream that never would end
     We decided to spend it with a drink and a friend,
     A few bottles went by, to us it was fun,
     We left for her home at a quarter to one.

     Five years have gone by and I still feel the wheel,
     But now I live on in a chair made of steel,
     Thousands of times the pain has amassed,
     When I think of my life and opportunities past,
     I still see JoAnn about once a week,
     And I usually end up in tears at her feet,
     She talks to me softly but I don't hear a sound,
     And the tears of my conscience fall hard to the ground,
     As I lie on the grass moving up with my hands,
     We talk about futures, our loves, and our plans,
     I stay there and cry and talk for an hour,
     When I'm ready to leave, I leave her a flower.

     My soul is still trapped in the bottles that passed,
     And the sorrow I carry is certain to last,
     JoAnn says' she loves me and that should make me brave,
     But I lose it each week when I visit her grave,
     And the drinks and the dream and the one fateful night,
     I love you JoAnn, I'm sorry; Goodnight.

                          ____________________