News Release: First Lady Urges Action to Stop Underage Drinking

FIRST LADY MARY EASLEY URGES ACTION TO STOP UNDERAGE DRINKING
Joins Acting Surgeon General to Announce Nationwide “Call to Action” on Teen Alcohol Consumption

RALEIGH – First Lady Mary Easley today joined Acting U.S. Surgeon General Kenneth P. Moritsugu to announce a “Call to Action to Reduce and Prevent Underage Drinking” and encouraged all North Carolinians to answer this call. As a national co-chair for the Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free, Easley met in Washington D.C. with Moritsugu, to bring the problem of underage drinking to the top of the nation’s health agenda. This is the first time that a surgeon general has specifically taken steps to raise awareness about underage drinking as a major health issue.

“Over the years, there has been a significant decline in smoking and drug use among teens, but alcohol use has remained a serious problem. We lose 5,000 young people every year in alcohol-related accidents and each death is preventable,” said asley. “The Call to Action is an important tool to educate our nation, change the statistics and help us win the battle against underage drinking.”

Developed in collaboration with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Call to Action identifies six goals to address underage drinking:

• Foster changes in society to facilitate healthy adolescent development and help prevent underage drinking.
• Engage parents, schools, communities and all levels of government in a coordinated national effort to prevent and reduce underage drinking and its consequences.
• Encourage others to learn how environmental, ethnic, cultural, and gender differences relate to underage alcohol consumption.
• Conduct additional research on adolescent alcohol use and its relationship to development.
• Improve public health survey methods for underage drinking.
• Work to ensure that policies at all levels are consistent with the national goal of preventing and reducing underage alcohol consumption.

“With every sip, children who consume alcohol boost chances for substance abuse or dependency later in life, damage developing brains and increase risk of injury or death due to alcohol-related accidents,” Easley said. “By learning the facts, talking to your children, reaching out to community groups and becoming involved, every person in North Carolina can be a part of the solution to a problem that is costing our state more than a billion dollars in medical care, work loss, and pain and suffering each year.”

Results from the 2005 Youth Risk Behavior Survey administered to North Carolina high school students by the Centers for Disease Control found that:

• 69% had at least one alcoholic drink on one or more days during their life.
• 21% had their first drink of alcohol, other than a few sips, before age 13.
• 42% had at least one drink of alcohol on one or more occasion in the past 30 days.
• 23% had five or more drinks of alcohol in a row (considered binge drinking) in the past 30 days.
• 5% had at least one drink of alcohol on school property in the past 30 days.

The 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimates there are 11 million underage drinkers in the United States. Nearly 7.2 million are considered binge drinkers.

Copies of “The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking” and other related materials are available at www.surgeongeneral.gov or by calling the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information at 1-800-729-6686.

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