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American Morning

Gallup Poll: Many Teenagers Drink Alcohol

Aired May 31, 2001 - 09:34   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: A Gallup survey looks at the issue of alcohol use among teens and young adults.

Joining us now from Princeton, New Jersey, with details, Gallup Poll editor-in-chief Frank Newport.

Frank, good morning.

FRANK NEWPORT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GALLUP POLL: Good morning, Daryn. It's a little like Prohibition. Remember that it is a 21- year-old drinking minimum age across the entire United States, all 50 states, and yet we've got an enormous number of teens drinking. That's what we're going to put in context for you here.

A lot of people are just ignoring that law, obviously. Our Gallup Poll youth survey has 22 percent of younger teens saying that they drink at least regularly. We're using some government statistics here and showing that the numbers that they come up with are actually quite a bit higher.

Look at this: "Have you had one drink in the last 30 days?" Of high school seniors, 51 percent said yes -- totally illegal; none of those were over 21 -- of college students, that's two-third of college students, most of whom are under that age, said they've had a drink in the last 30 days.

Binge drinking, more serious of course, just by way of context -- 31 percent, 35 percent of high school seniors and college students say they've had 5 or more drinks at one sitting within the last 30 days, a serious problem there, as you can see. Again, most of this is illegal under the law, just to put in context.

We do see a drop, based on government statistics, in high school seniors who have had at least one drink in the last 30 days. It used to be up at two-thirds; now it's down to about 51 percent. Note in here, in 1984, the uniform drinking law was passed by Congress. Probably that's why we've have some drop-off. But still, 51 percent of high school seniors are engaging in illegal activities, so what we've seen alleged with the Bush daughters is certainly not out of context at all.

Look at this: high school seniors we interviewed in our Gallup Poll youth survey -- excuse me, not even high school seniors, these are actually teens, from ages 13 to 17: "If you want to get booze, can you?" Fifty-four percent of 13- to 17-year-olds say it's easy to get alcohol if they want to do it. It shows why we see such a high prevalence of drinking.

The bottom line is no great shock to any of that are parents -- despite an age-21 limit across the country, drinking is very, very common among teenagers today.

Daryn, back to you.

KAGAN: Frank, thank you.

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