[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 14865-14866]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    THE SCOURGE OF UNDERAGE DRINKING

  Mr. OSBORNE. Mr. Speaker, I request to address the House for 5 
minutes.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Westmoreland). Without objection, the 
gentleman from Nebraska is recognized for 5 minutes.
  There was no objection.
  Mr. OSBORNE. Mr. Speaker, underage drinking flies under the radar 
screen most of the time, and I guess the reason for that is that 
alcohol is legal and is widely accepted. The average age 12- to 17-
year-olds begin drinking is 12.7 years of age.
  The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimated the number of 
underage deaths due to excessive alcohol use is roughly 4,554 a year. 
In other words, in one year we lose more young people to underage 
drinking than we have lost in Iraq in 3 years. The death rate is six 
times higher for underage drinking.
  Another death rate that is six times higher is alcohol kills six 
times more young people than all other drugs combined: heroin, cocaine, 
methamphetamine, marijuana. Six times more die from underage drinking.
  Teens who start drinking before the age of 15 are four times more 
likely to become addicted to alcohol than someone who starts drinking 
at age 21. Yet the Federal Government spends about 25 times more 
annually to combat youth drug use than to prevent underage alcohol use. 
In other words, we spend $1.8 billion on combating heroin, cocaine, 
methamphetamine, marijuana, compared to $71 million for underage 
drinking.
  Most people know that alcohol is a gateway drug. It leads to all of 
these other drugs directly, and it appears to be much more fatal and 
more dangerous when you look at the raw numbers.
  Television ads for alcohol products outnumber responsibility messages 
by 32 to 1. In other words, you will see 32 ads promoting alcohol, and 
many of those ads are very attractive to young people, for every one 
that talks about responsible use of alcohol. From 2001 to 2003, the 
alcohol industry spent $2.5 billion on television advertising their 
product, and only $27 million on responsibility programs.
  Underage drinkers currently account for 17 percent of all alcohol 
sales in the United States; and in my State, Nebraska, underage 
drinkers consume 25 percent of the alcohol sold.
  Young people tend to binge drink. They do not drink socially. Ninety-
two percent of the alcohol consumed by 12- to 14-year-olds is consumed 
when they are having five or more drinks in a row, which is called 
binge drinking, or, more often, drinking to get drunk.
  Recent studies have found that heavy exposure of the adolescent brain 
to alcohol interferes with brain development. We will take a look at 
this poster. On the right is a young person 15 years of age who 
abstains from alcohol, who was asked to do a comprehensive memory test. 
On the left is a young person who is a binge drinker who is sober at 
the time and asked to do the same test. You see the amount of cortical 
activity, the amount of brain activity firing in the young person who 
is an abstainer compared to the one who uses and abuses alcohol.
  So there is quite a difference in this regard, and I would present a 
hypothesis of mine and that is that a great many young people who drop 
out, a great number of young people who do very poorly in school are 
affected dramatically by alcohol, binge drinking, and alcohol abuse.
  There are a couple of other things on this poster that I think are 
worthy of note. There are roughly 3 million teenagers who today are 
full-blown alcoholics. Alcohol, as we mentioned, kills about six times 
more people than all other drugs combined. The total cost of underage 
drinking to the country is $53 billion a year. $53 billion a year. It 
is a huge expenditure.

[[Page 14866]]

  Mr. Speaker, we have introduced legislation, Congresswoman Roybal-
Allard, Congressman Wamp, Congressman Wolf and Congresswoman DeLauro, 
and Senators DeWine and Dodd have introduced the Sober Truth on 
Prevention of Underage Drinking, the STOP Act, which would, number one, 
create a Federal agency coordinating all of the Federal programs aimed 
at underage drinking. Right now we have underage drinking programs 
spread across 12 agencies. They are not coordinated. Sometimes they 
duplicate each other and are not very effective. So we would want those 
coordinated.
  Secondly, it authorizes a national media campaign directed at adults. 
The number one indicator of whether a young person will use alcohol and 
abuse alcohol is parental attitudes. So many parents really believe the 
myth if a young person is using alcohol, then they will not use 
marijuana, they will not use cocaine, they will not use heroin, when 
exactly the opposite is true. Because anymore, a person that abuses one 
substance will abuse another, and alcohol usually leads to further 
abuse.
  The Sober Truth on Preventing Underage Drinking Act, STOP Act, would:
  Create a Federal Interagency Coordinating Committee to coordinate the 
efforts and expertise across agencies for underage drinking;
  Authorizes a national media campaign directed at adults;
  Parents are the number one influence on underage drinking;
  Parents & friends purchase 65 percent.
  Provide additional resources to communities and colleges and 
universities to prevent underage drinking;
  1,700 college students die each year
  70,000 rapes or sexual assaults
  Increases Federal research and data collection on underage drinking.
  So we hope that we can have support for this act. We think it is 
important, and we urge its passage.

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