[Vision2020] Illegal underage alcohol, anyone?

[Tbertruss at aol.com]

Phil et. al.

If you really want to dialog on this subject, please quote a statement I made 
word for word, then present your argument against or agreeing with the 
statement.

I will not answer your fantasy assumptions about what you think I might have 
been saying.

However, I will comment on some statements of yours, quoted word for word:

Phil wrote:

"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." 

In fact, as I indicated with references, we do not "bar kids from trying or 
having any liquor" in the real world of how we treat alcohol in our society.  
We spend millions on advertising clearly aimed at the youth market to encourage 
alcohol use.  Alcohol use is glamorized and popularized in film and media 
left and right.  The penalties for supplying alcohol to minors are not enforced 
consistently and are not very severe to being with.  And many underage drinkers 
do not drink "free of mom and dad" in the full sense of this phrase, but 
sometimes drink alcohol sourced from their parents alcohol stocks in their own 
homes, though often not with their parents consent.  Parents, however, often set 
an example of alcohol use as "acceptable."

Far from a state of affairs where we truly "bar kids from trying or having 
any liquor," alcohol is easily acquired from a variety of sources by any 
underage person who wishes to use it, without having to "head off to the nearest 
kegger."

As far as a rational social/political/legal approach to lessening the high 
rate of alcohol abuse among youth in the USA, I question your statements:

"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?"

And:

"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."

This is a complex issue, and you present no data to support your claims that 
if we adopted this "European" approach, and rejected the "right of passage" 
psychology in regard to alcohol, that here in the USA, with our differing 
economic and social conditions, the high rates of alcohol abuse among youth would be 
radically impacted.

One factor that some think contributes to alcohol abuse in the USA is the 
high pressure lifestyle of "fighting your way to the top" which is more 
characteristic of the USA than it is in certain European societies.  Alcohol is an 
accepted "medication" to unwind from the hard working stress filled lives many in 
the USA face.  Of course it is hard to gather conclusive data on this theory, 
just as you would be hard pressed to find hard data to support your theories 
on why alcohol abuse among youth is so high in the USA.

There are numerous factors influencing youth alcohol abuse.  Certainly, the 
millions spent on advertising alcohol to youth is considered by many who study 
this subject to be a contributing factor to abuse.  To ban this advertising 
raises difficult economic and constitutional issues that are hard to surmount, 
yet who really doubts that if youth saw no alcohol advertising in televised 
media once in their entire life, that this might reduce alcohol abuse among 
youth?

The alcohol companies, just as the tobacco companies, know that if someone 
does not develop the habits of using their drugs before they are in their 20s, 
that the adult use of these drugs drops off dramatically.  In other words, the 
customers must be snagged when they are young, or many will not become heavy 
users in adulthood who would have otherwise.

Who can doubt that this fact based logic of the marketplace influences 
corporate promotion of alcohol use among youth?  If the advertising to promote 
alcohol use among youth did not result in increased consumption, would the 
corporations who have the best data gathering and advertising wonks in the business 
continue with these sorts of ads?

No.

Ted Moffett


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