A recent study claims that 25 percent of alcohol sold in theUnited States is consumed by underage drinkers.
Is this number correct? Are minors really consuming a quarter ofall alcohol?
The report, conducted by Columbia’s National Center on Addictionand Substance Abuse, was recently released and provided informationabout the percentage of alcohol consumed by juveniles. The 145-pagereport was the result of two years of research and investigation.
However, this figure has become the center of controversy. Criticsargue that the figure could be as much as 120 percent above theactual number.
Jim Lange, coordinator for alcohol and other drug initiatives atSan Diego State, said from other studies he’s read, the number shouldbe somewhere around 11 percent.
“My understanding from what I’ve read in the news is that 25percent is a miscalculation,” Lange said. “The study simply used badmathematics.”
The problem with CASA’s research was in the weighing of theirsubjects, Lange said. In the survey, people aged 12 to 20 represented40 percent of the results, where in the actual U.S. population, thisage group stands for less than 20 percent.
Aftertheir research came under close observation, CASA quickly released astatement acknowledging the flaw.
They said that the amount of alcohol consumed by this underagecrowd would be 11.4 percent if the over-sampling was adjusted toreflect the population.
However, even after making this statement, CASA still says the11.4 percent is low and the percentage they first reported is moreaccurate.
“Whether children and teens drink 15, 25 or 30 percent of thealcohol consumed, the reality is that America has an underagedrinking epidemic,” CASA said in their released statement.
Robert*, an undeclared sophomore, said the original figure soundsmore correct to him.
“It’s about right — I know how much I drink, and I’m underage,”he said.
When he first started drinking at the age of 15, Robert said thathe only drank alcohol once a month. That number increased near theend of high school to almost every weekend, and now he says that hedrinks three to five days a week.
Graphic design junior Yenesse Garcia also agrees with a figurecloser to 25 percent.
“A lot of people who are underage do drink,” Garcia said. “Theyfind a way to get the alcohol.”
Joseph Califano Jr., chairman and president of The National Centeron Addiction and Substance, said alcohol use is heavy on collegecampuses, where 44 percent of students binge drink. He said that in1998, underage drinkers accounted for up to $27 billion of the $108billion spent on alcohol, including as much as $15 billion on beer.
Without underage drinkers, the alcohol industry, and the beerindustry in particular, would suffer severe economic declines anddramatic loss of profits, he said.
Last fall, The Daily Aztec reported the results of a preliminarystudy conducted by the Community Collegiate Alcohol PreventionPartnership that showed only 25 percent of students on campus bingedrink compared with the national average of 44 percent.
John Clapp, project director and principal investigator for CCAPP,said that the organization conducts a random telephone survey ofstudents each semester. In their most recent survey, which took placein Fall 2001, CCAPP found that more than 66 percent of the studentssurveyed under the age of 21 had at least one alcoholic beverage inthe four-week period prior to being surveyed.
* Last name omitted
The study has been criticized for possible miscalculations
