[Vision2020] Illegal underage alcohol, anyone?

[Phil Nisbet]

Ted

You are coming on like Ms Nation's at a temperence party.  Please, put the 
hatchet down.

Sips of wine are not binge drinking.

Europe has less of a problem than we do with wine and beer and other alcohol 
related problems.  They have less of a problem because they do not deal with 
it as we do.  The culture teaches children to deal with drink from an early 
age with things like a small amount of beer or wine in soda water to form a 
spritizer.

We bar kids from trying or having any liqour.  As a consequence its a 
substance that having been denied by authority, kids tend to binge on when 
they can snag some.  Those same kids then get free of mom and dad and head 
off to the nearest kegger where the try to drink the whole thing.  Thats 
because we have made booze a right of passage.

If it did not have that right of passage standard, it would not be treated 
as it is in our society.  If it does not prove your adulthood, why get bent 
beyond recognition every other night?

As for drugs, are you preaching toleration or total removal of all mind 
altering substances?  Is this an arguement against booze or one for other 
controled materials?

Phil Nisbet

>From: Tbertruss at aol.com
>To: pcnisbet1 at hotmail.com, vision2020 at moscow.com
>Subject: [Vision2020] Illegal underage alcohol, anyone?
>Date: Sat, 23 Jul 2005 20:15:29 EDT
>
>
>Phil et. al.
>
>In 1998, "5.1 million youth" (age 12-20) "were binge drinkers."
>
>Fact from this link:
>
>http://www.health.org/govpubs/rpo990/
>
>It is astonishing to observe the "pass" that alcohol use receives in our
>culture in regard to its use or promotion in cases where it is illegal.
>
>In terms of advertising alcohol use to youth, overlooking or excusing 
>parents
>who have alcohol in their homes that is easily accessed by youth, or the
>legal system offering penalties for those who supply alcohol to minors that 
>make a
>mockery of the so called "War On Drugs," alcohol is tolerated and even
>promoted when the facts are indisputable that it damages the lives of youth 
>more
>than all other drug use combined!
>
>It is well known that underage alcohol abuse kills more youth in vehicular
>crashes than are killed in any circumstance by all other drugs combined, 
>but
>consider the impact of alcohol abuse among underage drinkers for other 
>types of
>violent crime:
>
>http://camy.org/factsheets/index.php?FactsheetID=13
>
>Quote below from link above:
>
>"[I]ndividuals under the age of 21 commit 45 percent of rapes, 44 percent 
>of
>robberies, and 37 percent of other assaults,7 and it is estimated that 50
>percent of violent crime is alcohol-related8 (Reducing Underage Drinking, 
>61)."
>
>Consider the NBA's family friendly message that they oppose drug use/abuse.
>Really?  Then why do NBA games watched by millions of underage viewers 
>feature
>advertising worth millions of dollars aimed at youth to promote alcohol 
>use?
>
>http://camy.org/factsheets/index.php?FactsheetID=1
>
>Quote below from link above:
>
>"The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth found that, from 2001 though 
>2003,
>youth in the United States were 96 times more likely per capita to see an 
>ad
>promoting alcohol than an industry ad discouraging underage drinking.9 In
>fact, compared to underage youth, adults age 21 and over were nearly twice 
>as
>likely per capita to see advertising discouraging underage drinking.10"
>
>I don't care what group, religious or not, is sponsoring an event that is
>offering alcohol to minors, or whether the event is on private property, or 
>how
>little alcohol is being offered.  Are we to excuse the offering of a drug 
>to
>youth, by adults who supposedly have the best interests of the youth in 
>mind,
>that is the most likely drug by a wide margin to be the drug that youth 
>abuse
>leading to death, injury, sexual assault, assault and battery, and violent 
>crime
>in general?  Isn't it credible to assume that offering alcohol in a 
>religious
>service to minors sends a signal that minors drinking alcohol is excusable 
>on
>religious grounds?  And how might this "endorsement" impact a youth offered
>alcohol in other contexts, at a party by their peers, or sneaking some 
>liquor
>from their parents stock, or driving on the back roads of Latah County with 
>a
>six pack or two?
>
>What if a religious group offered a harmless amount of methamphetamine to
>minors in a religious service?  Very few would excuse this conduct, if 
>anyone,
>correct?  And how many youth are involved in methamphetamine related abuse
>incidents, relative to alcohol abuse related incidents?  Do the facts of 
>the
>consequences of drug abuse of various kinds motivate our approach to 
>mitigating the
>harm from drug abuse across all segments of society, or do the biases of 
>those
>who wish to keep their pet drug of choice (alcohol, in this case) 
>acceptable,
>or economically profitable, prejudicially influence social/legal/economic
>policy?
>
>"Alcohol is by far the most used and abused drug among America’s 
>teenagers.
>Â According to a national survey, nearly one third (31.5%) of all high 
>school
>students reported hazardous drinking (5+ drinks in one setting) during the 
>30
>days preceding the survey.3"
>
>Above quote from this source:
>
>http://www.marininstitute.org/Youth/alcohol_youth.htm#_edn6
>
>Source for info below:
>
>http://www.health.org/govpubs/rpo990/
>
>** Peer pressure begins early. One-third of 4th graders and more than half 
>of
>6th graders say they have been pressured by friends to drink alcohol.1
>
>** On average, young people begin drinking at about age 13,2 but some start
>even younger. By the time they are high school seniors, more than 80 
>percent
>have used alcohol and approximately 64 percent have been drunk. 3 When
>adolescents move on to college, they bring their drinking habits with them: 
>more than
>40 percent of college students are binge drinkers.4
>
>** In 1998, 10.4 million current drinkers were under legal age (age 12-20).
>Of these, 5.1 million were binge drinkers, including 2.3 million heavy
>drinkers.5
>----------------------------
>
>Vision2020 Post by Ted Moffett

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