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American Morning
'The Big Question': Is Underage Drinking an Epidemic in U.S.?
Aired February 26, 2002 - 08:42 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: "The Big Question" this hour, is underage drinking an epidemic in the U.S.? Well, a new study out just this morning claims kids under the age of 21 consume 25 percent of all the alcohol in the U.S. The study was done at Colombia University's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse. Among the other findings, 31 percent of the nation's high school students, more than five million teenagers, say they've binge drink at least once a month.
Dr. Daniel Reardon knows where that can lead. His son died just two weeks ago in an alcohol-related accident. He joins us this morning from Washington, along with Joseph Califano, head of the Columbia Study Group.
Welcome to both of you. Thanks for being with us.
JOSEPH CALIFANO, NATL. CENTER ON ADDICTION AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE: Nice to be with you, Paula.
ZAHN: Thank you.
CALIFANO : Well, we think this is very important. We're delighted to host both of you.
Dr. Reardon, tell us a little bit about your son and what went wrong two weeks ago.
DR. DANIEL REARDON, FATHER OF ALCOHOL VICTIM: My son was just an extraordinary young man. And he was gifted, and he was talented. He was very much looking forward to his academic career. He was thinking of possibly a career in diplomacy, and I really don't know the events of what happened that evening. But I do know that I was called at 5:00 in the morning by the police of the Maryland University, and I was greeted in the emergency room by a homicide detective from Prince George's County.
ZAHN: Oh, my God. At that point, did anybody have any information about this apparent rushing incident at his university? He was trying to get into a fraternity, right?
REARDON: Yes. As far as I know, no, and my son told me five days before his death, that during the initiation, that there would be no alcohol on the premises.
ZAHN: And what have university officials told you? have they confirmed that, indeed, obviously, that's what happened?
REARDON: There has been absolutely no communication between the university and myself.
ZAHN: And what is your reaction to that? That must leave you quite bitter.
REARDON: I have to say that I really haven't thought about it. It's been two weeks since my son died. Because it was investigated as a homicide, is that we had a service for him, and then we had to wait another week before we could inter him, and that was just last Thursday. So the family has just really been wracked with dealing with his loss, and the grief of losing a teenage son.
ZAHN: And, doctor, you were close to your son, and as I understand it, you had very open communication about alcohol in the past. And, in fact, you had actually encouraged other parents to come to your church at one point to talk about what is an epidemic in this country. What kind of a response did you get to that plea?
REARDON: This is really extraordinary. This is probably 1996. The principal of their grammar school. The kids were already out of the grammar school, Ann Gay (ph), told me that she was dealing with alcohol, drugs, and sex in sixth grade. That absolutley terrified me that summer. And so that fall, I invited 10 or 12 of the parents th atall the kids associated with, and who we've had long contacts with in the raising of our children, to meet us in the church library on a Tuesday or Thursday evening.
Out of that group of 12 parents, maybe 10 families, something like that, is that two of them showed up, and of those two, they say they really weren't interested in coming together and just establishing some kind of common ground rules as to how we're going to work with our teenagers?
ZAHN: Mr. Califano, as you listen to this, I know it must all seem very disappointing to you, especially in light of these statistics you've just put together, and I'd like to share with our audience some of what you have found. Among the most alarming findings in the study is that you note that almost 62 percent of 12 graders currently use alcohol, 41 percent of 9th graders, 49.7 percent of 10 graders, 50.9 percent of 11th graders. We ultimately will have a graphic to denote this. And 61.7 percent of 12th graders. What is going on?
CALIFANO: Paula, we have, by any public health standard, an epidemic in underage drinking in this country, and it is devastating to our kids. You know, the heroin and the cocaine kind of get the media headlines, but that's the tail, the dog, the pit bull that is really biting America's teenagers in substance is alcohol. It's beer particularly, but it's also liquor and wine. We have -- and girls are drinking as much as boys. The gender gap that existed for many years in this country is gone. We find that 9th grade girls drink and binge drink as much as boys do. This problem's got to be dealt with, as Dr. Reardon indicated, in elementary school and in high school. That's where you're going to have to deal with the binge drinking problem on America's campuses.
And alcohol is a fatal attraction for teens. It is implicated in the three major causes of death of children and teens in this country, which are homicide, suicide, and accidents, like alcohol poisoning. So we must deal with it. And, you know, the problem with the industry is, they have an enormous economic interest in underage drinking. Kids are drinking 25 percent of the alcohol that's drunk in this country. That's part of it. That's $27 billion in the year 1998, in which we did -- for which we did the study.
But also, heavy adult drinkers come from kids who are drinking and kids who are drinking a lot, and heavy adult drinkers account for another big proportion of the alcohol sold. Together, kids and heavy drinkers among adults account for 61 percent of the alcohol drunk in this country.
We need a major, national effort that not only mobilizes parents, but schools, elementary schools. The police have got to get out, and enforce these underage drinking laws. The industry has got to show some self-restraint and stop advertising beer all over television, at events that kids are watching all the time, like football games and baseball games.
ZAHN: Of course.
CALIFANO: And NBC and General Electric has got to stop pressing NBC to run liquor ads. We have got to do something major in this country to deal with this problem. It is the greatest threat in substances our kid have by light years.
ZAHN: Dr. Reardon, I know you've heard some of the recommendations, Mr. Califano has just mentioned. But I imagine you hope that if your son's death represents anything, it's a very powerful reminder to kids and parents across the country of what can happen when kids consume too much alcohol.
Do you have a final thought for us this morning?
REARDON: I think parents really have to be aware that this really does happen and they have to open their eyes. And it isn't just the other kid. It is absolutely an epidemic in proportions with all kids, and it starts unbelievably early.
And now my ex-wife and I, we worked very hard with our children that this would not happen to them, and it has. It isn't that we weren't aware that our children were in an environment to where there's just an epidemic of the use of alcohol. We were very aware of it.
CALIFANO: And I think colleges and universities have got to take a much greater involvement in this than they have in the past. They've got to recognize that they have a responsibility to have campuses that are not riddled with alcohol, to not bless fraternities where alcohol is served in incredible amounts.
ZAHN: We unfortutely got to leave it there. We're up against a computer break here. Thank you both for calling our attention to this epidemic, and our heart goes out to you, Dr. Reardon and your family.
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