CQR Alcohol Abuse · 2020-03-05 · 504 CQ Researcher having consumed alcohol in the pre-vious 30...

Alcohol AbuseCan underage drinking be curbed?

Americans are abusing alcohol less than in the past

with one exception: college students, who drink

more and binge drink more often than nonstudents

of similar age. And alcohol continues to extract a

high toll from those who abuse it at any age, killing 80,000 Amer-

icans a year and draining more than $220 billion from the econo-

my. Although high school students drink and binge less, bingeing

accounts for 90 percent of the alcohol consumed by teens who

drink. Health experts also worry about the effects of new prod-

ucts, especially flavored alcoholic drinks, which seem to encourage

young women and girls to drink and drink more. To combat alco-

hol abuse, many educational institutions, community organizations

and government agencies are stepping up efforts to promote

abstinence among the young and responsible drinking by adults

who do imbibe.

I

N

S

I

D

E

THE ISSUES ....................503

BACKGROUND ................510

CHRONOLOGY ................511

CURRENT SITUATION ........515

AT ISSUE........................517

OUTLOOK ......................518

BIBLIOGRAPHY ................522

THE NEXT STEP ..............523

THISREPORT

Health experts worry about flavored alcoholicbeverages with names that suggest drunkenness,

such as Four Loko, which has been called “a binge ina can.” Some researchers say the proliferation of such beverages contributes to girls now drinking

as much or more than boys.

CQResearcherPublished by CQ Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc.

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CQ Researcher • June 8, 2012 • www.cqresearcher.comVolume 22, Number 21 • Pages 501-524

RECIPIENT OF SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS AWARD FOR

EXCELLENCE � AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION SILVER GAVEL AWARD

502 CQ Researcher

THE ISSUES

503 • Should the legal drinkingage be lowered?• Should governmentsmake it more difficult toobtain alcoholic beverages?• Should colleges ban alcohol from campus?

BACKGROUND

510 Taxing BoozeDuring the Renaissance,beer taxes often were achief revenue source.

512 Banning BoozeProhibition in the UnitedStates and 11 other countrieseventually was repealed.

515 Advertising BoozeVoluntary bans on broad-cast liquor ads ended by2011.

CURRENT SITUATION

515 Banning AdsActivists want to ban orreduce all alcohol promo-tion, especially if it reach-es children.

516 Discouraging AbuseGovernments, colleges andprivate institutions discour-age alcohol abuse.

OUTLOOK

518 Continuing DebateActivists don’t expect bigchanges in alcohol policyin the near future.

SIDEBARS AND GRAPHICS

504 Heaviest Binge DrinkingOccurs in 19 StatesDrinkers ages 18-20 have thehighest proportion of bingedrinking.

505 Highs, Lows of U.S. Alcohol ConsumptionBeer drinking has declinedsince its peak in 1981.

506 Student Drinking HauntsUniversityCommunitywide effort helps,but alcohol abuse persists atMaryland’s Frostburg State.

508 Teen Alcohol Abuse Worse in EuropeThe rate of U.S. teen drunken-ness is one-third Europe’s.

511 ChronologyKey events since 8000 B.C.

512 Health Benefits — or Not— of Alcohol“Alcohol is both a tonic anda poison,” according to theHarvard School of PublicHealth.

517 At IssueWould raising alcohol taxesreduce abuse?

FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

521 For More InformationOrganizations to contact.

522 BibliographySelected sources used.

523 The Next StepAdditional articles.

523 Citing CQ ResearcherSample bibliography formats.

ALCOHOL ABUSE

Cover: AFP/Getty Images/Paul J. Richards

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Alcohol Abuse

THE ISSUESE arlier this year, a jury

found former Univer-sity of Virginia lacrosse

player George Huguely Vguilty of second-degree mur-der in the death of his ex-girlfriend, Yeardley Love,also a UVA lacrosse player.The prosecution’s case had

been straightforward: Huguely— in a drunken rage —kicked in the door of Love’soff-campus apartment shortlybefore midnight on May 2,2010, beat her, then left herto die, her head bleedinginto a pillow on her bed. Ju-rors recommended Huguelybe sentenced to 26 years inprison. Final sentencing bythe judge is Aug. 30. 1

Huguely and his teammateshad begun drinking the daybefore to celebrate a victory,and Huguely continued al-most nonstop until he brokeinto Love’s room. She, too,had been drinking. Her blood-alcohol content was estimat-ed at around 0.14 percent —nearly twice Virginia’s limitfor driving.Love’s murder may have captured

national attention, but the alcohol abusethat fueled it was hardly unusual oncollege campuses. By many measures,alcohol consumption and abuse aredeclining in the United States, withone exception: college students, es-pecially student athletes. And alcoholcontinues to extract a high toll fromthose who abuse it at all ages.Nationally, 65 percent of college

students told researchers they recent-ly had consumed alcohol, and 44 per-cent said they had gotten drunk. 2

College students drink more alcoholand binge drink more often than non-

students of similar ages. While bingedrinking by their nonstudent peersand by high-schoolers has declined inrecent years, college bingeing has heldconstant since 1993. 3

A Health and Human Services De-partment report suggests that the col-lege environment encourages drinkingand that intercollegiate athletics alsoseem to contribute. 4 Athletes tend todrink more than other students, andlacrosse players tend to drink morethan other athletes. 5

Susan Bruce, who runs UVA’s GordieCenter for Substance Abuse Prevention,said athletes may feel pressured to drink

if they see teammates drink-ing. 6 Athletes may have a“work hard, play hard person-ality type,” said Ana Abrantes,an assistant professor at theBrown University MedicalSchool, in Providence, R.I.Besides worrying about

those who overindulge, healthexperts also are concernedabout the effects of new prod-ucts, especially flavored al-coholic beverages with namesthat suggest drunkenness,such as Four Loko, Blast andTilt. Critics say Blast, promotedby rap artist Snoop Dog, ismarketed to young African-Americans, noting that it isnot generally sold in pre-dominantly white and affluentneighborhoods.David Jernigan, director of

Johns Hopkins University’sCenter on Alcohol Marketingand Youth, in Baltimore, callsFour Loko “a binge in a can,”because the 12 percent alco-hol content, sold in 23.5-ouncecans, delivers the kick of fourto five beers.Four Loko and Tilt origi-

nally contained caffeine,which made them particular-ly potent because caffeine

counters over-drinkers’ tendency to passout, enabling them to drink more andsuffer more harm. 7 Under heavy crit-icism, the manufacturers removed thestimulants, but students seek the samebuzz by mixing alcoholic beverageswith stimulant-packed energy drinks,such as Red Bull. 8

Compared with the trends amongcollege students, drinking statistics forchildren are almost universally en-couraging, although significant num-bers of eighth- through 12th-gradersstill do drink and get drunk. Univer-sity of Michigan surveys found the per-centage of eighth-graders who reported

BY TOM PRICE

www.pennlive.com

Former University of Virginia lacrosse player GeorgeHuguely V faces 26 years in prison after his second-

degree murder conviction in the death of his girlfriend,Yeardley Love. Prosecutors said he killed her in a

drunken rage after drinking continuously for hours.While drinking and alcohol abuse are generally

declining in the United States, they are rising amongcollege students, especially student athletes.

504 CQ Researcher

having consumed alcohol in the pre-vious 30 days fell by nearly half —from 25.1 percent in 1991 to 12.7 per-cent in 2011. The percentage who saidthey had gotten drunk in the previ-ous month declined from 7.6 to 4.4.Twelfth-grade drinking dropped from54 to 40 percent and drunkennessfrom 31.6 percent to 25. 9

Scholars worry about the habits ofthose who do drink, however. Ac-cording to the Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention (CDC), bingedrinking accounts for 90 percent of al-

cohol consumed by teens, and morethan half by adults. 10

Some researchers suggest that theproliferation of flavored alcoholic bever-ages contributes to girls now drinking asmuch or more than boys. American Med-ical Association surveys found that girlsare more likely than boys to drink fla-vored beverages, and 82 percent of girlswho tried flavored alcohol said it tastesbetter than other alcoholic drinks. 11 FourLoko “tastes like candy” and is “a fasterway to get drunk,” a 17-year-old femalehigh school junior said. 12

But young people are not the onlypopulation segment with excessivedrinking problems. While drinkers 18to 20 have the highest proportion ofdrinkers who binge, older bingers —age 65 and above — binge moreoften. 13 And adult women — espe-cially those who exercise and are morehighly educated — are imbibing morethan in the past. 14

Excessive drinking kills 80,000 Amer-icans each year and drains more than$220 billion from the economy, ac-cording to the CDC. 15 About 4,700young Americans die each year be-cause of underage drinking. 16 Butheavy drinkers hurt more than them-selves. Excessive drinking killed 10,228people on American roads in 2010, anumber that’s been on a fairly steadydecline since 1982, when 26,173 diedin alcohol-related crashes. 17

Tragically, hard-drinking parentsoften pass alcohol abuse and otherailments on to their children. “Childrenfrom addictive families tend to drinkat earlier ages, tend to have moreproblems as a result of their drinkingand tend to cross the line over to ad-diction at younger ages,” says JerryMoe, national director of children’s pro-grams at the Betty Ford Institute, inPalm Desert, Calif., which fights ad-diction through research, preventionand education programs.A mother who drinks during preg-

nancy may have a newborn withfetal alcohol syndrome — central ner-vous system damage that can leadto deficiencies in academic perfor-mance, communication, memory, at-tention and decision-making. But chil-dren of heavy drinkers can suffer thegreatest problems, such as physicaland mental defects that leave themmore likely to abuse alcohol them-selves, commit crimes and wind upin jail. 18

As government, education and healthleaders grapple with problem drink-ing, here are some of the questionsthey’re asking:

ALCOHOL ABUSE

7.8-9.0

7.2-7.7

6.0-7.1

Data n/a

Heaviest Binge Drinking Occurs in 19 States

Adult bingers in 19 states consume between 7.9 and 9 drinks at one sitting, the nation’s heaviest binge-drinking rate.* Drinkers ages 18 to 20 have the highest proportion of binge drinking. Binge drinking accounts for 90 percent of the alcoholic beverages consumed by teens, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

* Binge drinking is commonly defined as consuming five or more drinks at one sitting (four for a woman).

Source: “Vital Signs: Binge Drinking Prevalence, Frequency, and Intensity Among Adults — United States, 2010,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, January 2012, www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6101a4.htm?s_cid=mm6101a4_w.

N.Y.

Ohio

Texas

Va.

Minn.

Iowa

Mo.

Calif.

Nev.

Ore.

Colo.

Wash.

Idaho

Mont.

Utah

Ariz. N.M.

Wyo.

N.D.

S.D.

Alaska

Okla. Ark.

La.

Ill.

Miss.

Tenn.

Ga.

Conn.

Mass.

R.I.

MaineVt.

W.Va. N.J.

Del.

Md.

Ala.

Fla.

Wis.

Mich.

Ind.

N.C.

S.C.

N.H.

Kan.Ky.

Hawaii

D.C.

Neb.Pa.

No. of Drinks Consumed by Binge Drinkers, 2010(among adults age 18 and older)

No. of drinks


Should the legal drinking age belowered?A group of college presidents — now

numbering 136 — raised a lot of eye-brows in 2008 when they signed apetition calling for the United Statesto lower the drinking age from 21.The educators, organized by Middle-

bury College President Emeritus JohnMcCardell Jr., argued that the higherdrinking age encourages under-age col-lege students to get drunk at clandes-tine parties rather than learn to drinkresponsibly in public. The presidentssuggested that states be allowed toissue drinking licenses to 18-year-oldswho complete an alcohol-education pro-gram. They would lose the license ifthey violated drinking laws.“I don’t believe one wakes up on a

particular birthday and is automatical-ly capable of exercising mature judg-ment about alcohol,” McCardell says.“When a young person reaches drivingage, we don’t simply toss them the keysto a car and say go figure it out.”McCardell, now vice chancellor of the

University of the South in Sewanee,Tenn., complains that current law pre-vents colleges from teaching studentsto drink responsibly, because teachersand administrators only can preachabstinence to students.The National Youth Rights Associ-

ation attacks the current drinking ageas unfair to individuals who are con-sidered adults for other purposes. “Whatdoes it say about us as a country thatwe’re willing to send our young peo-ple overseas to fight and defend ourfreedom, but when they get home wetarget them as not responsible enoughto enjoy a drink with friends or fam-ily?” association Vice President JeffreyNadel asks.Citing what he calls the “forbidden

fruit effect,” the 19-year-old Universityof Pennsylvania freshman calls currentlaw counterproductive. “Other countriesdon’t stigmatize alcohol as we do,” hesays. “People drink healthily and re-sponsibly and don’t binge drink.”

Although individual states have theauthority to set their own minimumdrinking age, all 50 states adopted a21-year-old minimum age after Con-gress passed the National MinimumUniform Drinking Age Act in 1984, atthe urging of President Ronald Rea-gan. Under that law, states with alower drinking age lose 10 percent oftheir federal highway funding. 19 With-in four years all the states had com-plied, and none has lowered its drink-ing age since.However, Rep. Jack Kingston, R-

Ga., has introduced legislation tolower the drinking age to 18 on mil-itary bases, and several state lawmak-ers introduced similar bills in 2011 and2012, according to the National Con-ference of State Legislatures. 20 Themoves have been opposed by mili-tary officials, including former DefenseSecretary Robert Gates. 21 None hasbecome law.

The proposals also have faced stiffopposition from health and safety ex-perts, government officials and eventhe head of the Distilled Spirits Coun-cil of the United States. Lowering thedrinking age would increase alcoholabuse by youths under 21, includingthose younger than 18, they warn.“All the seniors in high school would

be of legal drinking age,” Jennifer Saler-no, who runs the University of Michi-gan’s Regional Alliance for HealthySchools, points out. As a result, “the18-year-olds may be buying 15- and16-year-olds alcohol.”Timothy Naimi, an associate profes-

sor at the Boston University School ofMedicine, says damage would occur ateven younger ages. At college, 21-year-olds buy alcohol for their younger class-mates, he says. Young teenagers aren’tlikely to score booze from college stu-dents, Naimi points out, but “13- and14-year-olds do know 18-year-olds.”

* Based on reported use by those age 15 and older prior to 1970 and age 14 and older thereafter.

Source: “Apparent Per Capita Ethanol Consumption, United States, 1850-2009,” National Institutes of Health, August 2011, pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/Surveillance92/tab1_09.htm

Highs, Lows of U.S. Alcohol ConsumptionMeasured by the amount of actual alcohol (ethanol) in each drink, Americans drink less beer per capita than they did in 1981, when consumption peaked, but considerably more than in 1850. Wine consumption hovers near its 1986 peak and is more than five times its low point, in 1934 — the year after Prohibition ended. Liquor consumption is about a third of its peak in 1860.

Estimated Per Capita Alcohol Consumption* (in gallons, 1850-2009)

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

200919341860200919861934200919811850

Beer Wine Liquor

No. of gallons of actual alcohol

506 CQ Researcher

There also are scientific reasons tooppose younger drinking, the BettyFord Institute’s Moe says. “We’re learn-ing that brains aren’t fully developeduntil about age 25,” he explains, sounderage drinking can interfere withhealthy brain development.In addition, say opponents of a

lower drinking age, alcohol-related traf-fic fatalities fell significantly when thedrinking age was raised. And, theyargue, evidence from other countriesshows that early drinking leads to

more alcohol abuse. Most countriesallow 18-year-olds (or younger) todrink, and many have worse drink-ing problems than the United States.(See graph, p. 508.) 22

According to the World Health Or-ganization, for instance, Europe hasthe world’s highest per-capita illnessand death caused by alcohol. Euro-pean Union residents are the world’sheaviest-drinking people, and bingedrinking is common among all agegroups across the continent. 23

The European School Survey Pro-ject on Alcohol and Other Drugs, anongoing research effort in more than40 European countries, found last yearthat 57 percent of 15- and 16-year-oldsreported drinking within the previous30 days, and 39 percent reported “heavyepisodic drinking.” 24 In a comparableU.S. survey last year, 13 percent of eighth-and 27 percent of 10th-graders report-ed drinking at all, while 4 percent ofeighth- and 14 percent of 10th-graderssaid they got drunk. 25

ALCOHOL ABUSE

T he costs of student alcohol abuse became tragically clearto Jonathan Gibralter in September 2006, shortly afterhe became president of Frostburg State University (FSU)

in western Maryland. A local resident was assaulted and near-ly killed by a student who had been at an off-campus partywhere drinking occurred. 1 Earlier that year, before Gibraltertook office, an inebriated student drowned in his own vomitin his off-campus house. 2

The incidents led Gibralter to launch a comprehensive cam-paign against alcohol abuse. The efforts have garnered nation-al recognition for the president and the school.The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism ap-

pointed Gibralter to its College Presidents Working Group, cre-ated to help determine what research and informational mate-rials would be most effective in combating alcohol abuse amongstudents. A group of national educational organizations gaveGibralter its Presidential Leadership Award, which came with a$50,000 grant to support college projects to combat alcoholproblems. 3 The state has given the school special grants tofund anti-alcohol activities. And Frostburg State was invited tojoin 31 other colleges in a nationwide project to test the ef-fectiveness of anti-alcohol-abuse strategies.Despite it all, alcohol-related tragedy continues to haunt

Frostburg State.Students still attend alcohol-centered parties in off-campus

housing, sometimes paying an admission fee for the opportu-nity to enter and drink. 4 In November, a student stabbed an-other to death outside such a party, and police said alcohollikely played a role. 5

Brandon Busteed, founder of one of the organizations thatpresented the Presidential Leadership Award, said it’s not sur-prising that Frostburg students still drink to excess. “Even oncampuses that are doing some of the best work, the issue isstill such a big problem that all of us are a heartbeat awayfrom potential disaster,” he said. 6

Gibralter himself lamented that “we don’t always have con-trol over where [students] are and what they do.” 7 The cam-paign against alcohol abuse is an endless task, he said. “Everyyear, we get a new group of students, and we have to startall over again.”The incidents at Frostburg State — in 2006 and last year —

highlight the fact that the challenge of student drinking extendsbeyond campus. The broader community contributes to theproblem and must be part of the solution, Gibralter says. Tobridge the town-gown gap, Gibralter created a community taskforce to guide the university’s campaign against alcohol abuse.Members include students, faculty, administrators and local resi-dents — among them a bar owner and a rental-property man-ager. Gibralter and other university representatives also meetregularly with local residents to discuss mutual concerns.One such meeting, in late 2008, demonstrated the commu-

nity’s interest in the college and Gibralter’s style of leadership.Gibralter had invited bar owners and beverage distributors tocampus to discuss how they could help reduce student alco-hol abuse. “I was told nobody would show up,” he recalls. But“it was standing room only.” Among the attendees: bar own-ers, bar managers, bartenders, beer distributors, the mayor, po-lice chief and members of the Allegany County Liquor Board.A local newspaper described Gibralter’s requests of the

group, including putting all bartenders through Training for In-tervention Procedures (TIP), which teaches servers’ legal re-sponsibilities, how to recognize intoxication, how to refuse ser-vice to inebriated customers without instigating a confrontationand how to spot fake IDs.Training all servers would be a significant expense, one bar

owner noted, saying: “It would help if FSU would sponsor atraining session or something to help offset the costs.”“Consider it done,” Gibralter replied. 8

Now, a university employee is studying to become a TIPinstructor, so Frostburg State can offer free training on a regular

Student Drinking Haunts UniversityCommunitywide effort helps, but alcohol abuse persists.


McCardell says he could accept for-bidding drinking for 18-year-olds stillin high school. But he and Nadel re-ject the other arguments against thepresidents’ proposal. For instance, Mc-Cardell asks, if the brain doesn’t ma-ture until age 25, why aren’t propo-nents of the higher drinking agerecommending that it be raised to 25?And although drinking among collegestudents has declined, he points out,binge drinking has not.“Alcohol-related traffic fatalities have

gone down in every age group” for manyreasons — not just the higher drinkingage, he says. Tougher drunken-drivinglaws have helped, he says, as havestricter enforcement, increased seat-beltuse, safer cars and improved emer-gency medical care. 26

Should governments make itmore difficult to obtain alco-holic beverages?Some of the world’s most presti-

gious health agencies want govern-

ments to raise barriers between drinkersand alcohol.The World Health Organization last

year called for hiking alcohol taxes,restricting sales and banning somealcohol advertising. 27 In the UnitedStates, the CDC’s Community Pre-ventive Services Task Force recom-mended six actions to reduce alco-hol abuse:• Raising alcohol taxes;• Cracking down on sales to mi-

nors;

basis. To combat increasingly sophisticated fake IDs, the schoolwill use a state grant to supply bars with ID scanners that readmagnetic strips, bar codes and other information on cards tosearch for evidence of counterfeiting.Prevention begins with incoming freshmen, who are required

to take an online alcohol-education class; parents can take theclass as well. The university also conducts a “social-norming”campaign, in which results of student surveys are used todemonstrate that drinking and bingeing are less common thanmany students assume. The message is splashed on posters,T-shirts, bracelets and in the campus newspaper, explains Asso-ciate Dean of Students Jeff Graham. Students also run an anti-drinking peer-education program.According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s

Community Preventive Services Task Force, when students over-estimate how much their peers drink, they’re more likely to drinkexcessively themselves. 9

The university offers alcohol-free housing and activities, suchas laser-tag tournaments that begin at about 10 p.m., whenmany students would be headed for drinking parties or bars.Administrators also encourage faculty to offer more Friday class-es to discourage students from beginning weekend partying onThursday afternoons.It’s also “critically important to combine prevention efforts

with enforcement efforts,” Gibralter says. That includes “givingclear messages about high-risk behavior and the resulting con-sequences,” Graham adds.University policy permits students over 21 to have alcoholic

beverages in their rooms, but nowhere else in the residencehalls. A first violation of alcohol rules brings a $75 fine andrequires participation in a $25 alcohol-education program andnotification of parents or guardians. Subsequent offenses carryheavier penalties, including possible suspension from school.Students also can face additional fines for violating state law.

Because most problem drinking occurs off campus, the uni-versity pays for extra Frostburg Police Department patrols andhas obtained authority from the city for university police to en-force the law off campus.Gibralter says alcohol use is down, based on student surveys,

indicating that the university’s efforts have helped to reduce drink-ing and bingeing. In 1997, 90 percent of Frostburg students saidthey drank in the previous 30 days. This year, 64 percent saidthey did. Bingeing during the previous two weeks droppedfrom 59 percent to 41 percent. The average number of drinksconsumed per week by students who did drink dropped bymore than half, from 9.5 to 3.9. 10

— Tom Price

1 Robin Wilson, “Despite Alcohol Crackdown, the Party Goes On,” TheChronicle of Higher Education, Dec. 5, 2008, p. 1.2 “Regional Digest,” The (Annapolis) Capital, March 28, 2006, p. 4.3 Jennifer Raley, “FSU president receives award for diminishing role of alcohol,”Cumberland Times-News, Sept. 5, 2008, http://times-news.com/archive/x1540432728.4 Wilson, op. cit.5 Susan Reimer, “Frostburg student fatally stabbed at off-campus party,” TheBaltimore Sun, Nov. 7, 2011, http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-11-07/news/bs-md-student-frostburg-killed-20111106_1_stab-wound-frostburg-student-witnesses; and Peter Hermann, “Officials: Drinking likely played a role inslaying of Frostburg student,” The Baltimore Sun, Nov. 7, 2011, http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-11-07/news/bs-md-frostburg-killing-20111107_1_shanee-liggins-binge-drinking-back-to-back-parties.6 Wilson, op. cit.7 Reimer, op. cit.8 Kristin Harty, “Frostburg bar owners meet with university president,”Cumberland Times-News, Dec. 14, 2008, http://times-news.com/archive/x1540440018.9 “4 Tiers,” National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, July 11,2007, www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/StatsSummaries/4tier.aspx.10 “Core Survey,” in “Comparison of Alcohol and Other Drug Use,” FrostburgState University.

508 CQ Researcher

• Limiting the number of placesthat sell alcoholic beverages;• Holding servers or owners of

alcohol-dispensing establishments liablefor customers who drink too much andthen injure or kill others in drunken-driving accidents;• Limiting the hours or days when

alcohol can be sold;• Retaining government monopo-

lies on distribution of alcoholic bev-erages. 28

Industry representatives say restric-tive measures aimed at the total pop-ulation don’t reduce alcohol abuse. Stud-ies cited by advocates of restrictionsshow correlations but don’t prove causeand effect, the industry argues. And taxhikes would be unfair and damage theeconomy, they say. In fact, the Beer In-stitute is trying to roll back the $18-a-barrel federal excise tax to its pre-1991level of $9. 29

When Maryland raised its sales taxon alcoholic beverages to 9 percentfrom 6 percent last year, Sarah Long-well, managing director of the Ameri-can Beverage Institute, complained thatthe higher levy “burdens Maryland’spoorest consumers with a highly re-

gressive tax” and could have a “seriousadverse impact” on restaurant jobs. 30

And, in a letter to state legislators,the heads of the Beer Institute, the Dis-tilled Spirits Council and the Wine In-stitute warned that the tax hike wouldhurt Maryland businesses because out-of-state consumers would stay away. 31

“History has shown that, as pricesgo up, sales go down — and jobs goaway,” they wrote. 32

But supporters of higher taxesargue that reducing sales leads to re-duced consumption, which makes fora healthier population and lower costsfor alcohol-related medical care andemergency room visits.However, Distilled Spirits Council

President Peter Cressy contends thatreducing sales has little impact on al-cohol abusers. “They simply drinkdown,” he says. “They drink a lower-priced product.” Higher taxes, howev-er, hit the responsible drinker who isprice-conscious, he argues.Cressy also contends that abusers are

not affected by reducing the hours alco-hol can be sold or the number of premis-es that can sell it. “You can’t demonstratein the . . . real world that [limiting] ac-

cess has had a negative impact on so-cial indices [of alcohol abuse] or that cur-tailing access in the future will,” Cressysays. “Correlation is not causation.”What works, he says, is action that

specifically targets the abuser. “The ev-idence suggests that education, toughlaws [such as those against drunkendriving] and tough enforcement are farmore effective.”However, the CDC task force cited

studies that support its recommenda-tions, and other proponents of re-stricting access say there’s plenty ofevidence to back their positions.For instance, Philip Cook, senior as-

sociate dean for faculty and researchat Duke University’s Sanford School ofPublic Policy, who has studied alco-hol economics for 30 years, says hisfirst paper in a peer-reviewed journalin 1982 documented that state liquortaxes reduced cirrhosis mortality rates.“Among economists who study this

topic, it is now well established thatdrinking decisions are influenced byprice, and people who drink heavilywill particularly be influenced by price,”says Cook, a professor of public pol-icy studies, economics and sociologyat Duke. “When the tax or price goesup, we see reductions in the conse-quences of alcohol abuse.”Young people are especially re-

sponsive to price or tax hikes, ac-cording to the National Institute on Al-cohol Abuse and Alcoholism. “Higherbeer prices tend to decrease drinkingand binge drinking among U.S. col-lege students,” the institute reported.Taxes need to be raised because

their effectiveness has eroded over time,argues Boston University’s Naimi. Mostalcohol taxes are levied on the volumesold rather than on the price, so they’vestayed constant even though inflationhas pushed prices much higher, he ex-plains. Returning the federal beer taxto its 1991 level is the opposite of whatneeds to be done, Naimi says.Jernigan at The Johns Hopkins Cen-

ter on Alcohol Marketing and Youth

ALCOHOL ABUSE

Teen Alcohol Abuse Worse in Europe

About 14 percent of U.S. 10th-graders said in 2011 that they had been drunk in the past 30 days, compared with nearly 40 percent in Europe, where the legal drinking age is 18 or younger.

* 10th-graders who had “been drunk”

** 15- and 16-year-olds who participated in “heavy episodic drinking”

Sources: “The 2011 ESPAD Report: Substance Abuse Among Students in 35 Countries,” European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, 2012; “Trends in Annual Prevalence of Use of Various Drugs in Grades 8, 10, and 12,” Monitoring the Future, 2011, www.monitoringthefuture.org/data/11data/pr11t2.pdf

Percentage Drunk Within the Past Month, 2011

13.7%*

0% 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Europe

United States

39%**

Percentage who got drunk


contends that, be-cause of inflation,the alcohol industryessentially gets atax cut every year.Toben Nelson, an

assistant professor ofpublic health at theUniversity of Min-nesota, says studiesclearly link alcoholabuse to the num-ber of sales outletsand how longthey’re open. “Weknow from a lot ofresearch that theproblems associatedwith alcohol useare really a functionof how available al-cohol is,” he says.“Make alcohol lessavailable and people will drink less ofit and cause fewer problems.”Furthermore, privatizing state alcohol-

distribution monopolies increases con-sumption, Naimi says, because statestores tend to spend less on advertis-ing and operate fewer outlets than pri-vate liquor stores.The CDC task force cited a 2011

review of 11 studies showing “strongevidence” that motor vehicle fatalitiesand other alcohol-rated harm are re-duced by holding bartenders and es-tablishment owners liable for their ine-briated customers’ behavior. 33

Should colleges ban alcohol fromcampus?When Robert Carothers became

president of the University of RhodeIsland in 1991, his first challenges wereerasing the institution’s party-schoolreputation and raising students’ acad-emic performance.“I found I wasn’t going to achieve

that with a significant portion of thecommunity hung over from Thursdayto Monday,” he said. So in 1996, afterfive years of failing to overcome those

challenges, he banned alcohol at allcampus events, including faculty din-ners, university fundraisers, fraternityparties, sporting events and alumnihomecoming celebrations.“It was very, very difficult to stay

the course in the face of criticisms,”Carothers said later. But binge drink-ing dropped significantly, applicants’SAT scores rose and the universitystopped attracting students seeking aparty-school experience, he said. 34

That was then.Today, URI students of legal age

can have alcohol in their rooms. Uni-versity sports fans can again drink whiletailgating. Alcohol is served in thepresident’s house, the Alumni Center,the University Club, the basketball/entertainment/convention center andthe headquarters of the school’sfundraising arm, the URI Foundation.Alcohol also is allowed elsewhere oncampus, with written permission froma university official. 35

David M. Dooley, who succeededCarothers in 2009, said Carothers’ poli-cies had achieved their goals and al-cohol now could be safely reintro-

duced to campus. Uni-versity officials expectedthe availability of alco-hol to increase partici-pation in alumni andfoundation events, alongwith school profits fromalcohol sales. 36

Most colleges havenot imposed a campus-wide prohibition. Butmany are adopting poli-cies to reduce the avail-ability of alcohol.Campus prohibition

would be counterpro-ductive, said DartmouthPresident Jim Yong Kim,a public-health expert.“If we ban alcohol oncampus, rather than ouryoung people drinkinghere, they get in cars

and drive, which just accentuates thedanger,” explained Kim, who becomesWorld Bank president in July. 37

Nelson of the University of Min-nesota agrees that colleges shouldfocus on sources of alcohol in neigh-borhoods near campus. But, he adds,“Colleges that do ban alcohol have lessdrinking and drinking problems amongtheir students. At sporting events wherealcohol is less available — includingin the stadium and tailgating — stu-dents are less likely to binge drink.”The CDC task force said there is

some evidence that campus prohibi-tion works, but that scholars need todo “more comprehensive evaluation.”The task force also called for moreresearch on the effectiveness of ban-ning keg parties, establishing alcohol-free dormitories, prohibiting tailgatingwith heavy drinking and restricting orbanning alcohol at sports events.Those steps “are particularly appealing

because straightforward and relativelybrief evaluations should indicate whetherthey would be successful in reducinghigh-risk drinking on a particular cam-pus,” the task force said. 38

Zach Alexander, a senior at St. Mary’s College, in Maryland, enjoys abeer with his professors at an on-campus bar, on May 9, 2012. Morethan 130 college presidents have signed a petition calling for loweringthe drinking age from 21, arguing that the higher threshold encourages

under-age college students to get drunk at clandestine parties rather than learn to drink responsibly in public.

Getty Images/The Washington Post/Linda Davidson

510 CQ Researcher

ALCOHOL ABUSE

Some colleges are conducting prac-tical tests of those and other ideas,which Kim said is a good idea.“Every campus is different,” he said.

“There are rural campuses where mostof the drinking happens on campus.There are city campuses where thebig problem is bars that ring the out-skirts of the campuses.” 39

Harvard University is pairing stricteroversight of undergraduate drinkingwith relaxation of one recently insti-tuted ban. Effective in the fall, beer,wine and malt drinks — but not hardliquor such as rum and whiskey —will be permitted at public social events.The events must be registered and can’tserve alcohol for more than five hours.Spirits will be allowed at private par-ties in a student’s dorm room, as longas the hosts are at least 21 and theydemonstrate to their residence hall tutora “satisfactory understanding of strate-gies to create safe social environments.”In announcing that spirits again will

be allowed at some formal dances,Harvard officials described the policyas a pilot program to test whether stu-dents can drink responsibly. 40

Thirty-two schools — from BostonUniversity to Stanford, and includingRhode Island and Dartmouth — havejoined the Learning Collaborative onHigh-Risk Drinking to test promisingpolicies. Under the initiative, the schoolswill implement a variety of programs,measure results, share their findingsand try to determine what works best.“We all have methods of preven-

tion that work some of the time,” Cor-nell President David Skorton said. “Bypooling our ideas, we have a betterchance of finding solutions that im-prove our success rates.” 41

St. Mary’s College in rural southernMaryland decided to teach responsibledrinking this year by opening an on-campus pub where students mingle withfaculty and administrators. It followed analcohol-free first week of classes last fall— to make sure freshmen got a soberintroduction to campus — and a year-

long responsible-drinking campaign.“What doesn’t work is telling them

not to drink,” St. Mary’s President JosephUrgo said. “Talking to them about drink-ing, as adults, helps.” 42

BACKGROUNDTaxing Booze

T he Chinese began brewing beermore than 7,000 years ago, and a

rudimentary form of the beverage hasbeen traced back 10,000 years to theNear East. For a long time it — and,later, other alcoholic drinks — wereconsidered the healthiest beverages. 43

“Water was very, very unhealthy, sopeople consumed beer,” Belgian econ-omist Johan Swinnen explained. ForEuropeans, “it wasn’t until coffee and teawere imported in the 16th and 17th cen-turies (and made with boiling water)that people could drink nonpollutedthings that were not alcoholic.” 44

Ancient beer would not have ap-peared healthy to today’s Americans.Early brewers tended not to filter theirbeer, which commonly was served ina large jar and had yeast and hullsfloating on the surface, Swinnen wrotein his 2011 book, The Economics of Beer.Early drinkers used straws to suck outtheir beer through the flotsam.Wine (fermented fruit juice) and

mead (fermented honey and water)likely were discovered as early as beer,EconomistBusiness Editor Tom Standagewrites in his 2006 book, A History of theWorld in 6 Glasses. But beer and itsprimary ingredient — grain — couldbe stored more successfully than wine,mead, fruit or honey, and honey wasin short supply. So beer became themore practical beverage. 45

By 3000 B.C. the brewer’s art hadmoved through Mesopotamia into Eu-rope. Ancient Greeks brewed beer. So

did the Romans, although they pre-ferred wine, which the Greeks cameto prefer as well. Roman conquestsspread winemaking throughout muchof the continent.As Europeans began to explore the

Americas, they brought stores of beer,assuming the New World’s water wouldbe polluted. Although they broughttheir own brewing technology fromthe old country, they also discoveredsome Native Americans brewing theirown version of the beverage.The explorers and traders also packed

distilled spirits, which Standage called“alcohol in a compact, durable formideal for sea transit.” 46 For currencyin the Atlantic slave trade, Europeansused rum, which was distilled frombyproducts of sugar-processing in theCaribbean.Alcoholic beverages were a regular

part of the American diet from the daysof the colonists. Even the Pilgrims drankbeer. And the Puritan ship Arbella list-ed “42 Tonnes of Beere” — about10,000 gallons — on its manifest. 47

But rum became the most popularAmerican drink because it packed apunch, was cheap to make and couldbe shipped relatively inexpensively fromthe Caribbean. By the late 17th cen-tury, it became even cheaper, as NewEnglanders imported molasses anddistilled the spirit themselves. By the1730s, Americans were consumingfour gallons of rum a year for everyadult and child, and children wereamong the drinkers. The colonists’ “rumpunch” — rum, water, sugar, lemonjuice and spices — was a forerunnerof the modern cocktail, Standage writes.After the American Revolution, more

Americans moved west, where home-grown grains were more plentiful thanimported molasses. Whiskey, made fromgrain, soon surpassed rum as the na-tion’s favorite drink.Alcoholic beverages faced govern-

ment regulation from early times — foreconomic rather than health or safety

Continued on p. 512


Chronology8000-3000 B.C.Humans make alcoholic bever-ages, begin using them widely.

8000 B.C.Simple beer brewed in Near East.

5000 B.C.Chinese begin brewing beer.

3000 B.C.Brewing reaches Europe. Govern-ments begin regulating brewing.

•

1400s-1700sAlcoholic beverages accompanyexploration in the Americas.

1400s-1500sFearful of unclean water, Europeanexplorers introduce brewing to NewWorld. Spirits serve as currency forAtlantic slave trade. Beer taxes fi-nance European governments.

1600sEuropeans begin distilling rum inthe Caribbean; rum becomesAmericans’ favorite drink, and NewEnglanders begin distilling it.

Late 1700sWestern settlers distill whiskey fromgrain; it soon becomes nation’s fa-vorite drink.

1791U.S. government imposes alcoholtax to help pay off RevolutionaryWar debt. Three years later West-ern distillers launch anti-taxWhiskey Rebellion.

•

1860s-1930sU.S. temperance movements suc-ceed in banning alcohol in a

third of the states and territo-ries; later, alcohol is banned na-tionwide for 14 years.

1860sStates repeal early alcohol bans.

1919Eighteenth Amendment imposesProhibition, banning liquor nation-wide, beginning in 1920.

1920sWidespread flouting of Prohibition,rise of organized crime build pres-sure to repeal 18th Amendment.

1933Twenty-first Amendment repeals18th Amendment, leaving alcoholregulation up to the states. Mostset legal drinking age at 21.

1936Liquor producers voluntarily abstainfrom advertising on radio and in1948 on TV.

•

1950s-1980sAlcoholism is recognized as adisease. States lower drinkingage during Vietnam War butraise it again after pressurefrom mothers’ group.

1954Psychiatrist Morris Chafetz campaignsto define alcoholism as disease.

1956American Medical Association de-clares alcoholism a disease.

1966Mississippi is last state to repealstatewide Prohibition.

Early 1970sMore than two dozen states lowerdrinking age to 18 or 19. Drunken-

driving crashes involving theyoung increase, triggering cam-paign to reset drinking age to 21.

1980Mothers Against Drunk Drivingfounded.

1984Federal legislation cuts U.S. high-way aid for states with under-21drinking age. Within four years allstates have raised their drinkingage to 21. Drunken-driving deathsdrop by more than half by 2010.

•

1990s-2000sLiquor ads begin on TV, butalcohol use declines.

1996Seagram airs TV liquor ad on cablesports network and a local Texasbroadcast station. Industry drops itsbroadcast-ad ban, but TV and mostradio networks reject liquor ads.

2001NBC agrees to run TV liquor ads,then backs down under publicpressure. Ads increase on cable,local stations.

2011Except for college students, Ameri-cans are drinking and bingeing lessthan in previous 20 years, but girlsare drinking as much or more thanboys, partly — experts suggest —due to proliferation of flavored al-coholic beverages. . . . ABC andCBS begin accepting liquor ads onlate-night programming.

2012NBC allows late-night liquor adver-tising. . . . Governments debate al-lowing liquor ads in public facilities.. . . Governments, colleges ramp upcampaigns against alcohol abuse.

512 CQ Researcher

reasons. Historian Richard Unger tracedgovernment oversight of brewing to theFourth millennium B.C. Beer taxes werethe chief income source for many townsand European governments during theRenaissance. In the 15th to 17th cen-turies, beer taxes raised half the rev-enue in what is now Belgium and theNetherlands, according to Swinnen. 48

In 1591, the English ambassador toRussia described Ivan the Terrible en-couraging his subjects to drink in orderto maximize tax receipts, according toMark Lawrence Schrad, an assistant pro-fessor of political science at Pennsylva-nia’s Villanova University. 49

In the United States in 1791, thefederal alcohol excise tax helped to

pay Revolutionary War debt. TreasurySecretary Alexander Hamilton linkedthe tax to public health as well, sug-gesting the tax would discourage con-sumption and be “favourable to theagriculture, to the economy, to themorals and to the health of the soci-ety.” 50 The tax started at seven centsper gallon and increased with the al-cohol content of the drink.Distillers balked at the levy and

launched the Whiskey Rebellion, whichdrew about 6,000 armed men to aFrench and Indian-War battlefield nearPittsburgh in 1794. President GeorgeWashington dispatched 13,000 militia-men to the scene, but the rebellionhad collapsed before the federaltroops arrived. In a few years, how-

ever, the tax collapsed, too, as Con-gress repealed the levy and the Amer-ican whiskey industry grew. Distillersin Bourbon County, Ky., began mak-ing whiskey from corn instead of rye,and America’s signature drink was born.Even Washington got into the busi-

ness, setting up five whiskey stills athis Mount Vernon estate. In 1799, theyear of his death, his stills produced11,000 gallons of rye.

Banning Booze

B y early in the next century, Amer-icans’ consumption of alcoholic

beverages was three times today’s rate.And the nation’s first temperance move-

ALCOHOL ABUSE

Continued from p. 510

Humans have long had a complex relationship with al-cohol. In the Bible, Paul advised Timothy to “no longerdrink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of

your stomach and your frequent ailments.” 1

The marketing slogan — “A day without orange juice is likea day without sunshine” — was pirated from French authorAnthelme Brillat-Savarin, who in 1825 likened a day withoutsunshine to “a meal without wine.” 2 But Jule Renard, anotherFrench author, noted in his journal that “to succeed you mustadd water to your wine until there is no more wine.” 3

Modern science appears equally conflicted about the mer-its of wine, beer and distilled spirits. Jill U. Adams, a journal-ist pondering the confusion, began a Los Angeles Times storynoting recent research that found women who drink moder-ately are more likely to develop breast cancer and have a high-er chance of suffering gastrointestinal problems, but will livelonger after a heart attack and suffer from less asthma or de-mentia. And if they drink wine, they’ll have stronger bones.“Is your head spinning yet?” she asked, as an editor added

the helpful sub-headline: “It could drive one to drink.” 4

The Harvard School of Public Health sums up the situation:“It’s safe to say that alcohol is both a tonic and a poison.” 5

Some studies, for instance, have found that alcohol postponesor reduces the likelihood of dementia, heart disease, diabetes,early death, arthritis, enlarged prostate, osteoporosis, gallbladderdisease, kidney and thyroid cancer, stroke and circulatory prob-lems. 6 Other studies show that consuming alcohol can increasethe likelihood of dementia, heart disease, early death, liver disor-

ders, brain disease, fatigue, weight gain, obesity, bloating, brokenveins, depression, digestive disorders, sexual difficulties, muscledisease, immune system disorders, pancreatitis and breast, mouth,throat, neck, larynx, bowel and colorectal cancer. 7

According to the National Institutes of Health, drinking toomuch can worsen diabetes, high blood pressure, congestiveheart failure, liver problems, memory difficulties, depression andanxiety. Alcohol also can decrease the effectiveness of somemedicines and make some medicines dangerous or deadly. 8

Most studies say that moderation — usually defined as onedrink a day for women and two for men — is the key tohealthy drinking. A drink generally is described as 12 ouncesof beer, five ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of spirits.Several studies have examined whether the risks increase or

decrease with age. According to the NIH, older people aremore sensitive to alcohol because their bodies contain lesswater and break down alcohol more slowly, leaving a higherconcentration of alcohol in the blood. 9

But alcohol appears to have beneficial effects on both olderand younger people who are at risk of developing heart dis-ease. For instance, the famed Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.,found that the risks from drinking alcohol exceed the benefitsuntil middle age — except for younger people with a partic-ular risk of developing heart disease. 10 Consumer Reports alsosaid that drinking — in moderation — seems to benefit thoseat increased risk of heart disease after age 40 (for men) and50 (for women). 11 Yet another study, which followed 60- to79-year-olds for nine years, found that those with low risk of

Health Benefits — or Not — of Alcohol“Alcohol is both a tonic and a poison.”


ment sought to remove alcohol fromthe national diet — with substantialsuccess. By 1855, alcohol was illegalin about a third of the states and ter-ritories.Other countries also tried to com-

bat alcohol’s ills in different ways.Swedish cities in 1850 began to estab-lish “municipal dispensaries,” Villano-va’s Schrad explains. Leading citizenswere given control of alcohol salesand were expected to put sobrietyahead of profit. These local monopo-lies reduced drinking and drunken-ness and became national policy aroundthe turn of the century — the pre-cursors of the distribution monopoliesthat still exist in some states today,Schrad says.

Nineteenth-century prohibitiondidn’t last long in the United States.States began repealing the bans orfailing to enforce them in the 1860s,and some courts found the laws un-constitutional.Drinking — to get drunk — also

became commonplace at many col-leges. The University of Virginia’s Cav-alier Daily archive contains the lyricsto “two of the best-known songs ofthe university.” One is a fight song tra-ditionally sung after UVA touchdowns.The other, from “the university’s ear-liest days,” celebrates getting drunk. 51

Among its lyrics:“From Rugby Road to Vinegar Hill,We’re gonna get drunk tonight . . .So fill your cups, your loving cups,

As full as full can be,And as long as love and liquor last,We’ll drink to the U. of V. 52

A prohibition movement aroseagain in the early 20th century, andthe 18th Amendment to the U.S. Con-stitution banned the manufacture, saleor transportation of intoxicatingliquors within the United States inearly 1920.Prohibition did reduce drinking

and its harmful side effects. Butmany Americans continued to imbibe.A gap between ratification of the 18thAmendment in 1919 and its imple-mentation in 1920 gave Americans timeto stock up. The Yale Club in New York,for instance, built such a big stockpilethat its members drank throughout

heart disease who took twoor three drinks daily tend-ed to live longer than tee-totalers. Those who tookfour or more drinks a dayhad the same death rate asabstainers. And among thoseat risk of heart disease,even the heavier drinkersfared better than those whodidn’t drink. 12

One final apparent con-tradiction: Despite ac-knowledging the benefits ofmoderate drinking, manyexperts recommend that ab-stainers continue to refrain.“No one should begin drink-ing or drink more frequently on the basis of potential healthbenefits,” the Mayo Clinic advised. “But if you do drink alco-hol and you’re healthy, there’s probably no need to stop aslong as you drink responsibly and in moderation.” 13

— Tom Price

1 First Timothy, 5:23, Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version, http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/r/rsv/rsv-idx?type=DIV1&byte=5399468.2 John Bartlett, Familiar Quotations (1968), p. 484.3 Ibid., p. 869.

4 Jill U. Adams, “Women weigh acocktail of risks,” Los Angeles Times,Nov. 21, 2011, p. E1.5 “Alcohol: Balancing Risks and Ben-efits,” The Nutrition Source, HarvardSchool of Public Health, www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/alcohol-full-story/index.html.6 Rose Prince, “Am I drinking too much?”The (London) Telegraph, Jan. 9, 2012,www.telegraph.co.uk/health/wellbeing/8998675/Am-I-drinking-too-much.html. Also see Adams, op. cit.,and “Alcohol: Balancing Risks andBenefits,” op. cit.7 Prince, op. cit. Also see Adams, op.cit.; “Alcohol Use and Older Adults,”National Institutes of Health, http://nihseniorhealth.gov/alcoholuse/alcoholandaging/01.html; Selene Yeager,“Exercise and Alcohol: Running onEmpty Bottles,” Women’s Health,March 2012, www.womenshealthmag.com/health/exercise-and-alcohol?page=1;

“Alcohol use: If you drink, keep it moderate,” Mayo Clinic, www.mayoclinic.com/health/alcohol/SC00024; and “Alcohol: Balancing Risks and Benefits,”op. cit.8 “Alcohol Use and Older Adults,” op. cit.9 Ibid.10 “Alcohol use: If you drink, keep it moderate,” op. cit.11 “The risks and benefits of drinking alcohol,” Consumer Reports, June 2010,www.consumerreports.org/health/conditions-and-treatments/the-risks-and-benefits-of-drinking-alcohol/overview/index.htm.12 Stanton Peele, “The Hidden Health Benefits of Alcohol?” The HuffingtonPost, Aug. 16, 2010, www.huffingtonpost.com/stanton-peele/the-hidden-health-benefit_b_679321.html.13 “Alcohol use: If you drink, keep it moderate,” op. cit.

Modern science appears conflicted about the merits ofwine, beer and distilled spirits. Some studies indicate

alcohol postpones or reduces the likelihood of dementia andother disease; other studies say alcohol increases the

likelihood of the same ailments.

Getty Images/Allsport/Pascal Rondeau

514 CQ Researcher

Prohibition and hadplenty left over afterrepeal. 53

Moonshiners dis-tilled illegal spirits,and illegal breweriesproduced beer. Al-cohol was smuggledfrom Canada, theCaribbean and Eu-rope. “Speakeasies”carried on the night-club business. Andmobsters cleaned up,until Dec. 5, 1933,when the 21st amend-ment officially endedProhibition.“The 18th Amend-

ment was the fastestever to be ratified,in just over a year,”says Schrad, authorof The Poli t icalPower of Bad Ideas:Networks, Institu-tions and the Glob-al Prohibition Wave.“By 1932-33 youhave this avalanche of public supportfor repeal, and you have repeal hap-pening even faster.”Eleven other countries tried prohibi-

tion at about the same time, and all repli-cated the U.S. experience, Schrad says.Booze did not flow throughout

the country after repeal, however.Regulatory power was left with thestates, and some chose to remain“dry.” Statewide prohibition eventu-ally disappeared, although some statesallowed counties or municipalitiesto remain dry, and some still are.Mississippi was the first state to rat-ify the 18th Amendment and the lastto repeal statewide prohibition (in1966). 54 Today 34 of Mississippi’s 82counties ban spirits. Four are par-tially dry and partially wet. Thirty-sixban beer and wine but allow mu-nicipalities to choose where to per-mit beer sales. 55

Thirteen states still ban Sunday liquorsales; two also ban Sunday beer andwine sales. Four prohibit the sale ofalcoholic beverages on election days,but two of them allow local govern-ments to lift the ban. 56

Regulating Booze

A fter Prohibition, most states es-tablished a legal drinking age of

21. A few chose lower ages — 18 inNew York and 20 in Delaware, for ex-ample. In Illinois, males couldn’t drinkuntil they reached 21, but females coulddrink at 19, under the theory theywere more mature. 57

Until the 1950s, drunkenness gen-erally was viewed as misbehavior ora crime. Alcoholics were jailed ratherthan provided medical treatment. In1954, however, psychiatrist Morris

Chafetz launched acampaign to have al-coholism universallyrecognized as a dis-ease. 58 The AmericanMedical Associationdid so in 1956. 59

“I was bound and de-termined to . . . treat al-coholics as ill humanbeings who neededtreatment, not as badpeople who should beignored and neglected,”said Chafetz, who be-came the first directorof the National Instituteon Alcohol Abuse andAlcoholism in 1971. 60

While Chafetz suc-ceeded in revolutioniz-ing the public’s under-standing of alcoholism,he stirred controversywith some of his healthy-drinking proposals, suchas suggesting that gradeschools serve children di-luted wine to introduce

them to responsible drinking. 61

Generally, the legal drinking ageremained at 21 until a raging de-bate over the Vietnam War fueled asuccessful drive to lower the votingage to 18 — on the grounds that if18-year-olds could be drafted intothe military, they should have theright to vote. A companion cam-paign led 29 states to lower thedrinking age to 18 or 19 by the early1970s. 62

A rise in drunken-driving accidentsinvolving the young inspired thecountry to revisit that debate, ledlargely by Mothers Against DrunkDriving (MADD), founded in 1980by a woman whose 13-year-olddaughter was killed by a drunkendriver. In 1984 Congress passed, andPresident Reagan signed, legislationthat cut federal highway aid by 10 per-cent for states that didn’t lower their

ALCOHOL ABUSE

Liquor is poured into a sewer following a raid on a bootleggingoperation in New York City in 1921, two years after the 18th Amendmentbanned liquor nationwide. Americans widely flouted Prohibition,

which gave rise to organized crime and illicit drinking establishmentscalled speakeasies. In December 1933 the 21st Amendment ended Prohibition, leaving alcohol regulation to the states.

Most set the legal drinking age at 21.

Library of Congress/Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection


drinking ages to 21. By 1988, all hadcomplied. 63

Another campaign using thethreat of reduced federal highwayaid gradually lowered the standardfor drunken driving across the statesfrom 0.15 percent blood alcoholcontent to 0.1 percent and then, in2000, to today’s 0.08. By 2004 all thestates had complied with that re-quirement. 64

Advertising Booze

L iquor producers abstained voluntari-ly from advertising on radio, starting

in 1936, and on tele-vision starting in1948, although beerand wine producersdid advertise. The ab-s t inence begancrumbling in themid-1990s, but itwasn’t until the early2000s that televisedliquor advertising re-ally took off, ac-cording to Jerniganof the Center on Al-cohol Marketing andYouth. “In 2001there were roughly1,900 spirits ads oncable,” he says. “By2009, there are morethan 62,000.” Criticscharge the ads,which often featureyoung adults, en-courage drinking, es-pecially by the young — a contentionindustry representatives dispute.In March 1996, Seagram aired an

ad on a cable sports network and thenthree months later on a local ABCbroadcast in Texas. In October, theDistilled Spirits Council dropped thebroadcast-ad ban from its code of con-duct, and other distillers said they wouldpurchase broadcast advertisements. 65

Distilled Spirits Council President FredMeister explained the policy changeas a matter of fairness and necessity.Wine and beer were advertised ontelevision and radio, and liquor’s shareof U.S. alcohol consumption had de-clined, he said.“There are 100 million adults who

drink responsibly as part of their nor-mal adult lifestyle,” Meister said. “Theycan’t see our products [on TV], butthey can see beer and wine.” 66

Despite the council’s change ofpolicy, the broadcast television net-works and most large radio net-works continued to reject liquor ads.In 2001, NBC became the first

broadcast television network to ac-cept liquor ads, but heavy criticismsoon forced it to reverse course. Adssteadily moved onto cable and localstations, and by 2011 the networksbegan to drop their bans. First, CBSallowed liquor advertising on late-night programs. ABC then did thesame, and NBC followed suit in thespring of 2012. 67

CURRENTSITUATION

Banning Ads

When the Massachusetts Bay Tran-sit Authority (MBTA) eliminates

alcohol ads from its buses and sub-way cars this July 1, it will partly bebecause of the efforts of youngsterslike Julia Roberto, a ninth-grader atthe elite Boston Latin School.

Alcohol ads are“everywhere,” she com-plained to state trans-portation officials in De-cember, when she andother Boston schoolchildren lobbied againstthe ads on public trans-portation. “They’re in myface and I can’t avoidthem,” Roberto contin-ued. “The effects of al-cohol ads on youth andunderage drinking arewell-documented, andyet Massachusetts stillputs them out there.”The children called

MBTA buses and sub-way cars their “schoolbus,” MassachusettsTransportation SecretaryRichard A. Davey said,noting, “We have tensof thousands of kids in

the city and in the neighborhoods tak-ing the MBTA to school each day.” 68

Alcohol advertising remains a con-tentious issue, even though the broad-cast television networks now acceptads for spirits on late night programs.Claiming that alcohol promotion en-courages underage and excessive drink-ing, critics want to ban or reduce notonly alcohol advertising on television

Revelers at the annual Oktoberfest beer festival in Munich, Germany,reflect the popularity of drinking in Europe, where the drinking age is18 or lower. Europe has the world’s highest per-capita rate of illness anddeath caused by alcohol, according to the World Health Organization.Residents of the 27-nation European Union are the world’s heaviest

drinkers, and binge drinking is common among all age groups across the continent.

Getty Images/Johannes Simon

516 CQ Researcher

ALCOHOL ABUSE

but also alcohol promotion in allforms, especially when it reaches chil-dren and youths under 21.Beverage industry representatives

deny that advertising leads to moredrinking or more abuse. Many mea-sures of drinking and abuse have de-clined over the last 20 to 25 yearseven as alcohol advertising was risingsignificantly, the Distilled Spirits Coun-cil’s Cressy points out. “All advertisingin the United Statesis aimed at gettingyour brand chosenover the other brandor getting your typeof alcohol chosenover the other typeof alcohol,” not atincreasing the num-ber of drinkers orthe amount of alco-hol consumed, hesays.That position was

suppor t ed byChafetz, the firsthead of the Nation-al Institute on Alco-hol Abuse and Al-coholism. “The claimthat advertising canlead anyone downthe bottle-strewngarden path, not only to drink alco-hol but to abuse it, is pure hokum,”he once said. 69

Underage drinking is down — bysome measures to historically low lev-els. Total U.S. alcohol consumption alsohas fallen over the last 20 and 25 years.Since spirits producers began televi-sion advertising in 1996, however, an-nual consumption of spirits has risen18 percent — from 0.63 gallons perperson to 0.74. Wine consumption alsohas increased, while beer consump-tion has declined. (The figures repre-sent the amount of alcohol within thedrinks consumed, not the total amountof beer, wine or whiskey. For example,a 12-ounce beer might contain only

0.6 ounces of alcohol, a 1.5-ounce shotof whiskey the same.)The spirits and beer industry codes

restrict advertising to media in whichat least 71.6 percent of the audienceis 21 or older. That’s the percentageof the U.S. population in that age group,notes Cressy.*Critics — including the National Re-

search Council, the Institute of Medi-cine and half the states’ attorneys gen-

eral — prefer an 85-percent standard,says Jernigan of the Center on Alco-hol Marketing and Youth, becauseonly 15 percent of Americans are aged12-20, the group most likely to en-gage in underage drinking. Under thecurrent codes, many alcohol ads ap-pear in magazines and television pro-gramming with a substantial teenageaudience, they charge. While youth ex-posure to alcohol ads in magazines hasbeen declining, exposure to alcohol ad-vertising on television grew by 71 per-cent between 2001 and 2009, primari-ly because of spirits advertising on cable

networks, which soared by nearly 3,000percent, according to the center. 70

Discouraging Abuse

G overnments, colleges and otherprivate institutions are taking steps

to discourage alcohol abuse.The CDC task force recommends

“social norming” exercises, which manycampuses are imple-menting. College repre-sentatives show studentsdata about how muchdrinking really occursamong their classmatesand explain the effects ofoverdrinking. “Studentsoverestimate the amountof drinking that occursamong their peers andthen fashion their ownbehavior to meet thisperceived norm,” the taskforce explained. Studentsalso may think drinkingmakes them attractive, itsaid, when overdrinkingcan have the oppositeeffect. 71

A growing numberof colleges are provid-ing alcohol education to

incoming students. Some require stu-dents to take online courses at the be-ginning of their college career or be-fore they arrive on campus. 72 Othersaddress parents as well. 73

Increasingly popular “medicalamnesty” or “alcohol emergency” pro-grams exempt students from punish-ment if they summon help when theyor a companion need medical atten-tion due to overdrinking. Someschools require such underage drinkersto complete education or counselingprograms. At Rollins College in Win-ter Park, Fla., the students also mustkeep a counselor informed of theirdrinking habits. “We want to help them

Continued on p. 518

A police officer arrests a woman in Miami after he said she failed a field breathalyzer test. Alcoholism and auto accidents caused by

excessive drinking kill 80,000 Americans each year and drain more than $220 billion from the economy.

Getty Images/Joe Raedle

* The Wine Institute Standard is 70 percent.

no


At Issue:Would raising alcohol taxes reduce abuse?yes

yesPHILIP J. COOKSENIOR ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR FACULTYSANFORD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICYDUKE UNIVERSITY

WRITTEN FOR CQ RESEARCHER, JUNE 2012

a lcohol abuse is a multifaceted problem that requires adiverse portfolio of programs and policies. Adolescentdrinking, alcoholism, drunken driving, alcohol-enabled

domestic violence and child neglect, crime and public drunk-enness all elicit distinct, tailored policy responses. But onepolicy instrument would help reduce all these problems: alco-hol prices. With higher prices come reduced rates of alcoholabuse and improvements in public health and safety.Government influences alcohol prices in a variety of ways,

but most comprehensively through alcohol excise taxes. Unfor-tunately, Congress has not adjusted alcohol excise rates since1991, and since then inflation has significantly eroded the im-pact of those taxes. States also tax alcohol, and those ratesalso have declined in inflation-adjusted terms, despite somenominal increases. The overall result is cheaper alcohol, morealcohol abuse and more alcohol-related problems of all sortsthan would otherwise have occurred.Concerns that such taxes are regressive, or that they penal-

ize the majority who drink moderately and safely, are offbase. In fact, most Americans abstain or drink so little thatalcoholic-beverage expenditures are a trivial part of theirhousehold budget — yet they would benefit from the extragovernment revenue (which could take the place of othertaxes). Drinking, and hence excise tax payments, are concen-trated among the 7 or 8 percent of the population who drinkheavily and account for most of the alcohol-related damage.For that group especially, higher taxes would have a moderat-ing effect on consumption.The scientific evidence showing that prices directly affect

abuse levels is strong enough to support a near-consensusamong economists who study health behavior. Careful analysisof the effects of raising alcohol taxes bears out the link be-tween higher taxes and reduced alcohol abuse. Most of thesechanges in price have been small, however, so the effectshave been correspondingly small. Relatively large increases, suchas Alaska’s move to more than double alcohol taxes in 2002,have produced more substantial gains in health and safety.Of course, prices are by no means the only — or the most

important — influence on drinking patterns. The focus on ex-cise tax rates is justified simply because taxes — unlike cul-ture, demographics and other factors — are under the directcontrol of the government and thus can, at least in principle,be fine-tuned to fit the need.no

PETER H. CRESSY, ED.DPRESIDENT AND CEO DISTILLED SPIRITS COUNCIL OF THEUNITED STATES

WRITTEN FOR CQ RESEARCHER, JUNE 2012

r aising alcohol taxes doesn’t reduce alcohol abuse. Severalstudies, including a recent analysis supported by the Na-tional Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, have

concluded that heavy drinkers “are least likely to respond tohigher taxes.” Moreover, from 1997-2008 — when the affordabilityindex of alcohol increased by 25 percent — underage drinkingdropped by nearly 17 percent, according to government data.Interestingly, during the recession, when disposable income

contracted substantially, U.S. per capita alcohol consumption didnot. Consumers chose instead to drink at home, a less costly op-tion. Thus, alcohol taxes function as a tax on the hospitality in-dustry, unnecessarily harming thousands of businesses and costingtens of thousands of jobs.Alcohol taxes are inherently regressive and unfairly penalize

moderate drinkers, who are most sensitive to prices and cut backthe greatest when prices rise. Government and peer-reviewedresearch conclude that moderate drinking is associated with areduced risk of cardiovascular disease, the leading cause ofdeath. Moreover, the federal Dietary Guidelines underscore thatmoderate drinking can be part of a healthy adult lifestyle. Tothe extent that moderate consumers would be most affected bythis one-size-fits-all approach, those benefits would be lost.As economist Philip Cook states in Paying the Tab, “The

goal should be to preserve the benefits of drinking while re-ducing abuse, all without unwarranted government intrusion.”The overwhelming majority of alcohol consumers drink re-

sponsibly and already pay their fair share of taxes. For a typi-cal spirits bottle, 54 percent of the purchase price goes totaxes. It’s unfair to punish responsible drinkers with highertaxes to pay for the small percentage who drink irresponsibly.Alcohol abuse is a serious issue. The best joint efforts of

society, government and industry should continue to be ap-plied against this problem. Unfortunately, anti-alcohol advo-cates and some well-meaning but misguided public health offi-cials often embrace ineffective population-based controlsincluding higher taxes, advertising bans and severe restrictionson access as simple answers to deter alcohol abusers — asmall percentage of the overall population.The better solution is a comprehensive effort that includes

tough laws, strong enforcement, educational programs and tar-geted interventions. These methods are working. Underagedrinking — including binge drinking — and drunken drivingfatalities are at historic lows, according to government data.

518 CQ Researcher

learn from their mistakes,” said DianeWillingham, director of communitystandards and responsibility at the col-lege. 74 A half-dozen states have en-acted laws that protect underage drinkersfrom prosecution if they summon emer-gency care for someone who has be-come dangerously ill from drinking. 75

Virginia has banned alcohol adver-tising from college newspapers andjoined 15 other states that require allconvicted drunken drivers to installignition-interlock systems on their ve-hicles. The driver must blow into analcohol-detector before starting themotor vehicle. If the blood-alcohol con-tent is too high, the vehicle won’t run.Kurt Erickson, presi-dent of the Wash-ington Area Region-al Alcohol Program,said studies show thesystems cut drunken-driving recidivism bytwo-thirds. 76

MADD PresidentJan Withers says thesystems are amongthe most effectivemeans of fightingdrunken driving. Herorganization is “work-ing very hard to getthose laws on thebooks in every state,”she says.Another highly ef-

fective strategy, shesays, is “high-visibili-ty law enforcement,”such as publicizedsobriety checkpoints and “saturation pa-trols,” during which police agencies de-ploy a large force to catch large num-bers of violators. The tactic not onlycatches impaired drivers but is “a pow-erful deterrent,” she says.College students across Alabama

have launched a “LessThanUThink” anti-binge-drinking campaign, in whichstudents distribute images of unattrac-

tively drunk young people, along witha warning that it doesn’t take manydrinks to turn into a fool.“Students think they’re invincible,”

said journalism instructor Morgan Hoop-er Drinkard, coordinator of Troy Uni-versity’s LessThanUThink campaign.“Scare tactics don’t work anymore.They’re more afraid of social conse-quences than they are of getting intheir car and having a wreck.” 77

Many attempts to curb child andcollege drinking also focus on parents,who studies show have the most in-fluence on their offspring’s drinking,Withers says. “Parents often fail to fullyrealize the impact they can have onwhether or not their kids are drink-

ing,” says Moe, who works with chil-dren at the Betty Ford Institute. “Par-ents who have dinner with their kidsmultiple times a week, getting fullyengaged, make a real difference.” Par-ents also need to monitor their chil-dren’s behavior, he adds.Doing must accompany the talking,

notes Michael Siegel, a professor ofcommunity health sciences at the

Boston University School of PublicHealth. “The way parents use alcoholis going to be the way they teach theirkids,” he explains. “Kids are going topay attention to what they see, notwhat they hear.”

OUTLOOKContinuing Debate

A ctivists on alcohol issues don’t ex-pect wholesale changes in the

foreseeable future. “For the most part,I think it will just bethat muddling through,nipping around theedges,” Vi l lanova’sSchrad says.Johns Hopkins Uni-

versity’s Jernigan seesthe trends “cutting bothways in the UnitedStates. We’re getting alittle more alert aboutbad products,” such ascaffeine-infused alco-holic beverages. “Themost egregious prac-tices,” he says, will prob-ably “get fenced in orwalled off.”On the other hand,

he concedes, “we’re ina very deregulatory en-vironment.”Similarly, Duke Uni-

versity’s Cook predictsgreater availability and lower prices foralcohol. The remaining state monop-olies seem to be headed toward pri-vatization, he says. “At least for thetime being,” he says, “the alcohol in-dustry is riding high, and the publicis not eager to raise tax rates of anysort or to have more government in-tervention, even in an area as diceyas alcohol abuse.”

ALCOHOL ABUSE

Continued from p. 516

Family and friends mourn the death of 11-year-old Leandra Rosado,who was killed in October 2009 when an intoxicated driver, CarmenHuertas, the mother of another child, crashed her car full of girls goingto a sleepover in New York City. Excessive drinking killed 10,228 peopleon American roads in 2010. The number has been steadily declining

since 1982, when 26,173 died in alcohol-related crashes.

Getty Images/New York Daily News Archive/Debbie Egan-Chin


However, Boston University’s Naimisays state and local budget squeezescould facilitate higher alcohol taxes.“By doing that, you can offset tax in-creases in other areas that people ob-ject to more and, at the same time,have a positive impact on public health,”he explains.The University of Michigan’s Saler-

no, who works with public schools,foresees a community-based approachto teen alcohol abuse. “People areheaded toward developing communi-ty support for kids using substances,but also to support not using them,”she says, such as providing alterna-tives to activities that involve alcoholand other drugs. “Coalitions and col-laborations across health, education,community-based organizations, policeand the juvenile justice system canwork together to create an environ-ment that would support more healthydecisions,” she says.Such an approach could create the

resources that Moe, of the Betty FordInstitute, says are needed to discour-age underage drinking. “To tell youngpeople to say no and not give themalternatives is ludicrous,” he says. “Weneed to give them opportunities to en-gage in a whole range of activitiesthat are fun and exciting — music,sports, service to others — that don’tinvolve drinking.”Nadel, of the National Youth Rights

Association, is “optimistic, ultimately”that the drinking age will be lowered.With the support of college presidents,“we will be able to present this verycompelling case to legislators and tothe American public,” he says.But the University of Minnesota’s

Nelson says that campaign “doesn’thave a lot of current traction.”Likewise, Frostburg State Universi-

ty President Jonathan Gibralter callsthe proposal “dead in the water.” In-stead, Gibralter expects proven strate-gies to emerge from the Learning Col-laborative on High-Risk Drinking, inwhich his school participates.

Most attempts to raise taxes, restrictadvertising and make alcohol less avail-able won’t succeed, predicts the Dis-tilled Spirits Council’s Cressy. “I’m con-fident that science is so much on theside of not going down the path ofwholesale population-based controls thatthey won’t be enacted,” he says. “Free-dom of speech is always going to in-hibit what the government can do. Thatis why self-regulation is so important.”He expects debate about these is-

sues to continue for years and to af-fect industry policies. “Our industry fo-cuses sharply on having a very toughself-regulatory code,” Cressy says. “Thepressure from the population-basedside will encourage industry to put itsenergy behind things that have beendemonstrated to work.”Like Schrad, Jernigan and Cook,

Boston University’s Siegel doubts thatthe current anti-tax, anti-regulatory cli-mate will allow significant new con-trols on alcohol access. But he admitshe could be pleasantly surprised. “Manyyears ago, if you had asked whetherwe would be regulating cigarette ad-vertising and raising cigarette taxes, Iprobably would have said, ‘no, tobac-co is a very powerful industry.’“Things can change,” he says. “To-

bacco has set a model for what couldpotentially happen in alcohol.”

Notes

1 Mary Pat Flaherty, Jenna Johnson and JustinJouvenal, “George Huguely guilty of second-degree murder,” The Washington Post, Feb. 22,2012, www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/george-huguely-guilty-of-second-degree-murder/2012/02/21/gIQA1ss4TR_story.html.2 Lloyd D. Johnston, et al., “Monitoring theFuture: National Survey Results on Drug Use,1975-2010, Volume I, Secondary School Stu-dents,” University of Michigan Institute for So-cial Research, 2011, http://monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/monographs/mtf-vol1_2010.pdf.3 “Report to Congress on the Prevention andReduction of Underage Drinking,” U.S. Depart-

ment of Health and Human Services, May 2011,http://store.samhsa.gov/shin/content/SMA11-4645/SMA11-4645.pdf.4 Ibid.5 Tricia Bishop, “Huguely trial highlights al-cohol abuse at colleges, universities,” The Bal-timore Sun, Feb. 18, 2012, www.baltimoresun.com/health/bs-md-student-drinking-20120216,0,6950450,full.story.6 Ibid.7 Emily Listfield, “The Underage Drinking Epi-demic,” Parade, June 12, 2011, www.parade.com/health/2011/06/12-teen-drinking-epidemic.html.8 “The rise and fall of Four Loko,” The Week,Nov. 24, 2010, http://theweek.com/article/index/209434/the-rise-and-fall-of-four-loko.9 Lloyd D. Johnston, et al., “Monitoring theFuture: National Results on Adolescent DrugUse Overview of Key Findings, 2011,” Univer-sity of Michigan Institute for Social Research,2012, http://monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/monographs/mtf-overview2011.pdf.10 Listfield, op. cit.11 “Women, Girls, and Alcohol,” Center onAlcohol Marketing and Youth, Johns HopkinsUniversity School of Public Health, July 2011,www.camy.org/factsheets/sheets/Women_Girls_and_Alcohol.html; Tom Daykin, “WisconsinBrewers Feeling Effects of ‘Alcopops’ Backlash,”Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 7, 2006, www.redorbit.com/news/science/494292/wisconsin_brewers_feeling_effects_of_alcopops_backlash;and Michelle Blackston, “Spirited debate: somelawmakers think flavored malt beverages needtighter regulation,” State Legislatures, Oct. 1,2009, www.thefreelibrary.com/Spirited+debate%3a+some+lawmakers+think+flavored+malt+beverages+need...-a0211631673.12 Listfield, op. cit.13 “Binge Drinking,” Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention, Dec. 17, 2010, www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/binge-drinking.htm.Also see “Binge Drinking: Nationwide Problem,Local Solutions,” CDC Vital Signs, January 2012,www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/BingeDrinking/index.html.14 Selene Yeager, “Exercise and Alcohol: Run-ning on Empty Bottles,” Women’s Health, March2012, www.womenshealthmag.com/health/exercise-and-alcohol?page=1.15 “Binge Drinking: Nationwide Problem, LocalSolutions,” op. cit.16 “Report to Congress on the Prevention andReduction of Underage Drinking,” op. cit.17 “2010 Motor Vehicle Crashes: Overview,”National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,February 2012, www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/

520 CQ Researcher

811552.pdf. Also see “U.S. Driving Fatalities,Total and Alcohol-Related,” infoplease, www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0908129.html.18 “Behind Bars II: Substance Abuse and Amer-ica’s Prison Population,” National Center onAddiction and Substance Abuse, Columbia Uni-versity, February 2010, www.casacolumbia.org/articlefiles/575-report2010behindbars2.pdf.19 For background, see Kathy Koch, “Drunk-en Driving,” CQ Researcher, Oct. 6, 2000, pp.793-808.20 Gordon Jackson, “Military leaders supportproposal to lower drinking age on bases, Kingstonsays,” The Florida Times-Union, Sept. 10, 2010,http://jacksonville.com/news/georgia/2010-09-10/story/military-leaders-support-proposal-lower-drinking-age-bases-kingston.21 “Lower military drinking age would betough to defend in court,” Anchorage DailyNews, April 18, 2011, www.adn.com/2011/04/18/1816332/drinking-age.html.22 “Minimum Age Limits Worldwide,” Inter-national Center for Alcohol Policies, www.icap.org/Table/MinimumAgeLimitsWorldwide.23 “Alcohol Use Facts and Figures,” WorldHealth Organization, www.euro.who.int/en/what-we-do/health-topics/disease-prevention/alcohol-use/facts-and-figures.24 “The 2011 ESPAD Report,” European Moni-toring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction,2012, www.espad.org/Uploads/ESPAD_reports/2007/The_2007_ESPAD_Report-FULL_091006.pdf.25 Johnston, et al., “Monitoring the Future:National Results on Adolescent Drug UseOverview of Key Findings, 2011,” op. cit.26 For background, see David Hosansky, “Dis-tracted Driving,” CQ Researcher, May 4, 2012,pp. 401-424.27 “UN health agency sounds alarm on alco-

hol abuse,” The Associated Press, Feb. 11, 2011.28 “Preventing Excessive Alcohol Consumption,”The Community Guide, Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention, www.thecommunityguide.org/alcohol/index.html.29 “Beer Industry Backs Legislation to RollBack Unfair Taxes That Threaten Jobs,” BeerInstitute, May 31, 2011, www.beerinstitute.org/tier.asp?nid=620&archiveyear=2011&bid=102.30 Sarah Longwell, “Maryland’s alcohol tax: Ahard-to-swallow ‘victory,’ ” The Washington Post,May 26, 2011, www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/marylands-alcohol-tax-a-hard-to-swallow-victory/2011/05/23/AGbxyLCH_story.html.31 Brian Witte, “House panel raises alcoholtax to 9 percent,” The Associated Press, April 9,2011.32 Alexander Jackson, “Trade groups urgeBusch to reject Maryland alcohol tax,” Balti-more Business Journal, April 6, 2011.33 V. Rammohan, et al., “Effects of dram shopliability and enhanced overservice law en-forcement initiatives on excessive alcoholconsumption and related harms: Two com-munity guide systematic reviews, Abstract,”American Journal Of Preventive Medicine,September 2011, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21855749.34 Barbara Mantel, “Drinking on Campus,” CQResearcher, Aug. 18, 2006, pp. 649-672.35 “The University of Rhode Island 2010-2012Student Handbook,” University of Rhode Island,www.uri.edu/judicial/assets/URI_Student_Handbook_2010-2012.pdf.36 “In online chat, new URI president laysout his plans,” Providence Journal, Sept. 17,2009, p. 9; and Jennifer D. Jordan, “URI pres-ident expands drinking policy at events,”Providence Journal, Nov. 10, 2009, p. 2.

37 “Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim onBloomberg Surveillance,” Analyst Wire, Oct. 11,2011.38 “4 Tiers,” National Institute on Alcohol Abuseand Alcoholism, July 11, 2007, www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/StatsSummaries/4tier.aspx.39 “Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim onBloomberg Surveillance,” op. cit.40 Nathalie R. Miraval and Rebecca D. Rob-bins, “College Releases New Alcohol Policies,”The Harvard Crimson, March 30, 2012, www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/3/30/college-new-alcohol-regulation.41 “U.S. Colleges and Universities Join Forcesto Address High-Risk Drinking,” DartmouthCollege, May 2, 2011, http://now.dartmouth.edu/2011/05/u-s-colleges-and-universities-join-forces-to-address-high-risk-drinking.42 Jenna Johnson, “St. Mary’s College opens itsown pub,” The Washington Post, May 11, 2012,www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/st-marys-college-opens-its-own-pub/2012/05/11/gIQALS3OIU_story.html.43 Unless otherwise noted, information forthis historical section was drawn from thefollowing sources: Johan F. M. Swinnen, ed.,The Economics of Beer (2011); Tom Standage,A History of the World in 6 Glasses (2006);Mantel, op. cit.; Rich McManus, “ProfessorTraces Nation’s ‘Drinking Age Debates,’ ” NIHRecord, Sept. 16, 2011, http://nihrecord.od.nih.gov/newsletters/2011/09_16_2011/story1.htm.44 Devra First, “The rise of beeronomics,” TheBoston Globe, Feb. 19, 2012, http://articles.boston.com/2012-02-19/ideas/31070405_1_beer-reinheitsgebot-wine.45 Standage, op. cit.46 Ibid., p. 4.47 Ibid., p. 114.48 First, op. cit.49 Mark Lawrence Schrad, “Moscow’s Drink-ing Problem,” The New York Times, April 17,2011, p. WK 8.50 Standage, op. cit., p. 123.51 Jenna Johnson and Mary Pat Flaherty, “Boy-lan Heights bar at center of U-Va. drinkingscene,” The Washington Post, Feb. 21, 2012,www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/boylan-heights-bar-at-center-of-u-va-drinking-scene/2012/02/17/gIQAcKU9RR_story.html.52 “Traditional Songs,” Cavalier Daily DigitalArchive, University of Virginia Library, Sept. 1,1967, http://scripta.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-textwg/cavdaily.pl?str=a14.3&offset=0&fileid=19670901.53 “Whiskey a go-go,” Chicago Tribune, Oct. 2,2011, p. C26.54 Campbell Robertson, “Voters in ‘wettest dry

ALCOHOL ABUSE

About the AuthorTom Price, a longtime contributer to CQ Researcher, wrote“Assessing the United Nations” for the March 20, 2012,CQ Global Researcher. Currently a Washington-based free-lancer, he previously was a correspondent in the CoxNewspapers Washington Bureau and chief politics writerfor the Dayton Daily News and The Journal Herald in Day-ton. He is author or coauthor of five books, includingChanging The Face of Hunger and, most recently, Wash-ington, DC, Free & Dirt Cheap with his wife Susan CritesPrice. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Time,Rolling Stone and other periodicals. He earned a bachelorof science degree in journalism at Ohio University.


county’ in Mississippi end beer ban,” The NewYork Times, Feb. 6, 2010, http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2011004106_beer07.html.55 “Tobacco, Beer, and Alcohol FrequentlyAsked Questions,” Mississippi Department ofRevenue, May 12, 2012, www.tax.ms.gov/info/faqs/TobaccoBeerandAlcohol.html#s.56 “Current Blue Law States,” Distilled SpiritsCouncil, www.prohibitionrepeal.com/legacy/hall.asp.57 McManus, op. cit.58 William Grimes, “Morris Chafetz, 87, Dies,”The New York Times, Oct. 21, 2011, p. B12.59 “Timelines AMA History 1941-1960,” Amer-ican Medical Association, www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/our-history/timelines-ama-history/1941-1960.page.60 Grimes, op. cit.61 Ibid.62 “History of the 21 Minimum Drinking Age,”Mothers Against Drunk Driving, www.madd.org/underage-drinking/why21/history.html.63 Ibid.64 See Koch, op. cit.65 “Chronology of Broadcast Liquor Advertising,”Alcohol Policies Project, Center for Sciencein the Public Interest, www.cspinet.org/booze/liquor_chronology.htm.66 “Repealing Ad Prohibition,” Online NewsHour, PBS, Nov. 12, 1996, www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/november96/liquor_11-12.html.67 “Hard Time: Liquor Advertising Pours IntoTV,” Advertising Age, May 13, 2012, http://adage.com/print/234733.68 Matt Rocheleau, “Rally touts bill to ban al-cohol ads on all state property,” The BostonGlobe, Jan. 27, 2012, http://articles.boston.com/2012-01-27/metro/30667295_1_alcohol-ads-ban-alcohol-state-property.69 Emily Langer, “Morris E. Chafetz, authorityon alcohol abuse, dies at 87,” The WashingtonPost, Oct. 22, 2011, www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/morris-e-chafetz-authority-on-alcohol-abuse-dies-at-87-wife-marion-d-chafetz-dies-at-86/2011/10/20/gIQAskhd7L_story.html.70 “Youth Exposure to Alcohol Ads on TVGrowing Faster Than Adults,” Center on Alco-hol Marketing and Youth, Johns Hopkins Uni-versity School of Public Health, Dec. 13, 2010,www.camy.org/press/Press_Releases/Youth_Exposure_to_Alcohol_Ads_on_TV_Growing_Faster_Than_Adults.html.71 “4 Tiers,” op. cit.72 Tricia Bishop, “Huguely trial highlights al-cohol abuse at colleges, universities,” The Bal-

timore Sun, Feb. 18, 2012, www.baltimoresun.com/health/bs-md-student-drinking-20120216,0,6950450,full.story.73 Amy Bell, “Statistics show binge drinkinghigher in Michigan than national average,” DailyTribune, (Mount Clemens, Mich.), Feb. 13, 2012,http://dailytribune.com/articles/2012/02/13/news/doc4f39380051dea012915465.txt.74 Denise-Marie Balona, “UCF might go easyif drinkers get counseling,” Orlando Sentinel,Sept. 26, 2011, p. A1.75 Brian McVicar, “Underage drinkers wouldreceive amnesty under legislation that passedthe State House today,” The Grand Rapids Press,

March 6, 2012, http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/news_impact/print.html?entry=/2012/03/underage_drinkers_would_receiv.html.76 Justin Jouvenal, “Is Va.’s ignition-interlockrule for first-time DUI offenders too tough?”The Washington Post, April 8, 2012, www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/is-vas-ignition-interlock-rule-for-first-time-dui-offenders-too-tough/2012/04/08/gIQAmFhd4S_story.html.77 Hannah Wolfson, “University of Alabamastudents design anti-drinking campaign,” TheBirmingham News, March 12, 2012, http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2012/03/ua_students_design_anti-drinki.html.

FOR MORE INFORMATIONAlcoholics Anonymous, 475 Riverside Dr., 11th Floor, New York, NY 10115;212-870-3400; www.aa.oprg. An informal society of more than 2 million peoplewho focus on staying sober and supporting each other’s quest for sobriety.

Beer Institute, 122 C St., N.W., Suite 350, Washington DC 20001; 202-737-2337;www.beerinstitute.org. Represents the brewing industry before governments andthe general public; publishes an advertising and marketing code.

Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, 624 N. Broadway, Suite 292, Baltimore,MD 21205; 410-502-6579; www.camy.org. Based at Johns Hopkins University’sBloomberg School of Public Health; monitors the alcoholic beverage industry’smarketing practices, publishes reports and calls attention to practices it thinks canentice underage drinkers.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd., Atlanta, GA30333; 800-232-4636; www.cdc.gov. Supports research on America’s drinkinghabits, alcohol’s impact on health and effective measures for combating alcoholabuse. Web site (www.cdc.gov/Alcohol) contains large amount of informationabout alcohol and public health.

Community Preventive Services Task Force, 1600 Clifton Rd., N.E., Atlanta,GA 30333; 404-498-6375; www.thecommunityguide.org. Independent, CDC-appointedpanel that recommends research-supported measures for improving Americans’health. Panel’s alcohol Web site (www.thecommunityguide.org/alcohol) containsrecommendations for dealing with alcohol abuse.

Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, 1250 I St., N.W., Suite 400,Washington, D.C. 20005; 202-628-3544; www.discus.org. Trade association repre-senting nearly 70 percent of U.S. liquor brands; advocates the industry’s interestsbefore governments and the general public; publishes a “Code of ResponsiblePractices for Beverage Alcohol Advertising and Marketing.”

Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking,1 Choke Cherry Rd., Rockville, MD 20857; 301-407-6798 or 866-419-2514; www.stopalcoholabuse.gov. Composed of representatives from 15 agencies; coordinates U.S.government efforts to prevent or reduce underage drinking.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving, 511 E. John Carpenter Freeway, Suite 700,Irving, TX 75062; 877-275-6233; www.madd.org. Campaigns for legislation andother actions to reduce drunken driving and underage drinking.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

522 CQ Researcher

Selected Sources

BibliographyBooks

Gately, Iain, Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol, GothamBooks, 2008.From the discovery of fermentation, brewing and distilling,Gately traces the development and use of alcoholic bever-ages through history.

Schrad, Mark Lawrence, The Political Power of Bad Ideas:Networks, Institutions and the Global Prohibition Wave,Oxford University Press, 2010.A political scientist shows that Prohibition was an interna-tional phenomenon in the early 20th century.

Standage, Tom, A History of the World in 6 Glasses,Walker & Company, 2006.The business editor of The Economist applies his journalisticskills to this readable history of beer, wine, spirits, coffee, teaand Coca-Cola and how they affected users.

Swinnen, Johan F. M., ed., The Economics of Beer, OxfordUniversity Press, 2011.A distinguished Belgian economist collects 18 scholarly es-says about the role beer has played in the world economysince early civilization. The book features an abundance ofstatistics, charts and graphs.

Articles

Colman, David, “Challenging the Second ‘A’ in A.A.,” TheNew York Times, May 8, 2011, p. ST-1, www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/fashion/08anon.html?pagewanted=all.Recovering alcoholics discuss whether the anonymity of Al-coholics Anonymous is anachronistic or counter-productive.

Crawford, Selwyn, Diane Jennings and Darlean Spangen-berger, “Young alcohol abusers often re-offend, avoid treat-ment,” The Dallas Morning News, Jan. 3, 2011, p. 1.The article looks at the unique challenges posed by “minoradults,” 17- to 20-year-olds who are too young to drink legal-ly but are treated as adults in drunken driving cases by theTexas judicial system.

Johnson, Jenna, and Mary Pat Flaherty, “Boylan Heightsbar at center of U-Va. drinking scene,” The WashingtonPost, Feb. 21, 2012, www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/boylan-heights-bar-at-center-of-u-va-drinking-scene/2012/02/17/gIQAcKU9RR_story.html.Reporters examine the college drinking culture that helpedfuel the romance between George Huguely V and YeardleyLove, and then the drunken rage in which he murdered her.

McCardell, John M., “What Your College President Didn’tTell You,”The New York Times, Sept. 13, 2004, www.chooseresponsibility.org/filemanager/download/5363.

The former president of Middlebury College lays out hisargument for lowering the drinking age to 18 — and chal-lenges some common wisdom about higher education.

Wells, Jon, “He sang with all his heart,” Hamilton Spec-tator (Ontario, Canada), March 3, 2012, p. WR1.A reporter offers a heartbreaking portrait of a brilliant andtalented teenager who drank himself to death while the par-ents of a friend partied with him and after his own parentstolerated his underage drinking at home.

Yeager, Selene, “Exercise and Alcohol: Running on EmptyBottles,”Women’s Health, March 2012, www.womenshealthmag.com/health/exercise-and-alcohol?page=1.The magazine explores the counter-intuitive research find-ing that people who exercise more — especially women —drink more, or vice versa.

Reports and Studies

“Behind Bars II: Substance Abuse and America’s PrisonPopulation,”National Center on Addiction and SubstanceAbuse, Columbia University, February 2010, www.casacolumbia.org/articlefiles/575-report2010behindbars2.pdf.Looks at the role alcohol and other drugs play in crime andwhat happens to the criminals in prison and after release.

“The 2011 ESPAD Report,” European Monitoring Centrefor Drugs and Drug Addiction, 2012, www.espad.org/Uploads/ESPAD_reports/2011/The_2011_ESPAD_Report_FULL_2012-05-30.pdf.The European School Survey Project on Alcohol and OtherDrugs surveys teenagers in 40 European countries.

“Report to Congress on the Prevention and Reductionof Underage Drinking,” U.S. Department of Health andHuman Services, May 2011, http://store.samhsa.gov/shin/content/SMA11-4645/SMA11-4645.pdf.The federal agency summarizes its finding on teen alcoholuse and efforts to address it.

Johnston, Lloyd D., et. al., “Monitoring the Future: Na-tional Results on Adolescent Drug Use Overview of KeyFindings, 2011,” University of Michigan Institute for So-cial Research, 2012, http://monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/monographs/mtf-overview2011.pdf; and Johnston, LloydD., et. al., “Monitoring the Future: National Survey Re-sults on Drug Use, 1975-2010, Volume I, Secondary SchoolStudents,” University of Michigan Institute for SocialResearch, 2011, http://monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/monographs/mtf-vol1_2010.pdf.The reports offer results of two decades’ worth of annualsurveys of high school- and college-age youths and tabulateuse of alcohol and many drugs. The 2011 publication ad-dresses only eighth- through 12th-graders.


Binge Drinking

Finley, Don, “Americans Belly Up to the Bar for BingeDrinking,” San Antonio Express-News, Jan. 11, 2012, p. A1,www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Americans-belly-up-to-the-bar-for-binge-drinking-2457521.php.Many Americans feel encouraged to engage in binge drink-ing during special occasions and holidays.

Healey, Katy, “Not Exactly the Toast of the Nation,”Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald, Jan. 11, 2012, p. A1, www.omaha.com/article/20120111/LIVEWELL01/701119872.Nebraska and Iowa have among the highest binge drink-ing rates in the United States.

Hogstrom, Erik, “Study: Older Drinkers Binge More,”Telegraph Herald (Dubuque, Iowa), Jan. 15, 2012, p. A13,www.thonline.com/news/tri-state/article_07cadbab-4954-5a1f-840c-1f193a581d1d.html.Scientists have found that older binge drinkers get drunkmore frequently than younger bingers.

Colleges

Harriman, Peter, “Colleges Rethink Booze,”Argus Leader(Sioux Falls, S.D.), Feb. 13, 2012, p. A1.The University of South Dakota has allowed students 21and older to drink in two residence halls.

Kim, Jim Yong, “Targeting Campus Drinking,” The Wash-ington Post, Sept. 17, 2011, p. A15.Administrators from different colleges should work togeth-er to address campus drinking instead of trying to solve theproblems alone, says the president of Dartmouth College.

Simon, Anne, “Colleges Try to Break Grip of Alcohol CultureAmong Students,” Greenville (S.C.) News, March 19, 2012.Many college administrators advocate a zero tolerance ap-proach to underage drinking and urge those of legal age todrink responsibly.

Drinking Age

Eagen, Margery, “Youths Will Drink Despite All Our Bans,”The Boston Herald, March 22, 2012, p. 8, bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view/20220322youths_will_drink_despite_all_our_bans.Many young people say strict rules against under-age drink-ing are not effective.

Foltz, Madysan, “Lower America’s Drinking Age,” Intelli-gencer Journal (Lancaster, Pa.), March 31, 2012, p. A6,lancasteronline.com/article/local/615707_TEEN-EDITORIAL--Lower-America-s-drinking-age.html.

Proponents of a lower drinking age say setting it at 21 isinconsistent with the rights already given to 18-year-olds.

Ogilvie, Jessica Pauline, “Is Lowering the Drinking AgeReally a Good Idea?” Los Angeles Times, May 30, 2011,articles.latimes.com/2011/may/30/health/la-he-drinking-age-20110530.Opponents of a lower drinking age say roads have becomesafer since the 1980s, when states raised the threshold to 21.

Health Issues

“Report Urges Review of Safe-Drinking Guide,” UnitedPress International, Jan. 9, 2012, www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2012/01/09/Report-urges-review-of-safe-drinking-guide/UPI-69871326116319/.The British House of Commons has expressed skepticismabout the health benefits of alcohol.

Graedon, Joe, and Teresa Graedon, “Drinks, Drugs a LethalMix,” Buffalo (N.Y.) News, Dec. 19, 2011, p. C5, www.buffalonews.com/life/health-parenting/peoples-pharmacy/article678468.ece.Even modest alcohol intake can damage the liver for thosewho are regularly taking painkillers or have chronic healthconditions.

Retelny, Victoria Shanta, “A Toast to Your Health,” ChicagoTribune, Dec. 21, 2011, p. A8, articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-12-21/features/ct-food-1221-drinking-20111221_1_moderate-alcohol-intake-moderate-drinking-alcohol-and-health.Long-standing studies have shown that moderate alcoholintake can fit into a healthy lifestyle.

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CQR Alcohol Abuse · 2020-03-05 · 504 CQ Researcher having consumed alcohol in the pre-vious 30...

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Transcript of CQR Alcohol Abuse · 2020-03-05 · 504 CQ Researcher having consumed alcohol in the pre-vious 30...