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Underage use
of alcohol is a problem in the Santa Maria Valley. In 1999, 7th, 9th and 11th
grade students took the California Healthy Kids Survey. Among other
things, the survey assessed teen alcohol use. The following data emerged:
• 76% of 9th graders and 86% of 11th graders report that alcohol is very easy to
obtain
• 17% of 7th graders, 50% of 9th graders, and 62% of 11th graders have used
alcohol in the past 30 days
• 34% of 9” graders and 45% of 11th graders have been very drunk or sick
after drinking’;
• 38% of 11th graders drove after drinking
• Only 54% of 9th graders and 11th graders think that daily or frequent use of
alcohol is extremely harmful and
• 46% of 7th graders have been passengers in cars driven by someone who has been
drinking10.
While 33% of students in 7th through 11th
grades report having at least one drink in the past month, 59% of youth in
non-traditional, high-risk school settings drank in the previous 30 days. This
clearly connects underage drinking with high-risk behaviors.
National surveys show that alcohol use puts teens at increased risk of other
problems. Teens who begin drinking by age 15 are four times more likely to
become alcohol dependent than those who wait until age 21.
Alcohol is a factor in the four leading causes of teen deaths: car accidents,
unintentional injuries, homicide, suicide. Alcohol is involved in 90% of all
juvenile crime.
Nearly one out of five teenagers (16%) have experienced blackouts (amnesia).
More than 67% of young people who start drinking before the age of 15 will try
an illegal street drug. Teens under 15 who have ever consumed alcohol are twice
as likely to have sex as those who have not. Accompanying that fact is that
teens engage in unprotected sex, leading to unplanned pregnancies and sexually
transmitted diseases.
Academic
decline, violence and gang activity are also associated with teen alcohol use.
Nationally, more than 6,000 young people die each year in an event linked with
alcohol. Underage drinking costs Americans $53 billion annually; that’s about
$200 for each man, woman and child. Despite a legal drinking age of 21, local
teens report that alcohol is very easy to obtain. Anecdotal information reveals
that local youth have been served at local establishments and have also been
able to purchase alcohol products from 12 years and older. In a recent Decoy
Operation conducted by the Santa Maria Police Department, 33% of our local
merchants sold alcohol to minors, in spite of having received a letter informing
them of the upcoming Decoy and prior news coverage on KCOY-TV.
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