July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.

Dangers of teen alcohol abuse

Letters to the Editor

To the editor:
Spring has arrived and the prom will soon be here. This can be a time of joy and fun for our teenagers. Let’s do everything we can to keep it that way.
But this is also a time when teens may think about consuming alcoholic beverages. On average when young people drink they often binge, consuming five or more drinks, leading to many serious problems. A parent’s worst fear is learning that his or her child has been involved in a serious or fatal accident caused by underage drinking.
Underage drinking can present other serious risks:
•Carrying out, or being a victim of, physical or sexual assault.
•Hangovers or death from alcohol poisoning.
•Driving or riding with someone who has consumed alchol.
•Teen pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
•Harm to the brain, which continues to develop into a person’s 20s.
Older teens aren’t the only ones at risk. Drawing on data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), conducted annually from 2006-2009, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) estimated 709,000 adolescents age 12-14 drink alcohol.
Nearly half of the youth surveyed either got their alcohol from a parent or guardian or from home.
Others acquired it from an unrelated adult or from other underage youth.
According to SAMHSA these are the estimates of underage drinkers: 10 percent of 12-year-olds; 20 percent of 13-year-olds; 33 percent of 14-year-olds; 50 percent of 15-year-olds; 60 percent of 16-year-olds; 67 percent of 17-year-olds; 74 percent of 18-year-olds; 80 percent of 19-year-olds; and 83 percent of 20-year-olds.
Of adults who started drinking before age 15, around 40 percent say they have signs of alcohol dependence. That rate is four times higher than for adults who didn’t drink until they were age 21.
Frances Austin,
Jay County Drug
Prevention Coalition

Confused
To the editor:
I am confused. In today’s (4/4/11) Commercial Review on the front page the headline reads: “GOP proposing dramatic budget cuts.”
The story says they want to trim $4 trillion over the next decade. Didn’t they just vote to add almost $4 trillion over the next decade by extending the Bush tax cuts? Someone out there in Jay land help me understand what’s going on.
Wandering aimlessly in a fog,
Michael S. Kinser
Portland[[In-content Ad]]
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