New Report From SAMHSA

A new report was just published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. It did a study of underage drinking from 2002 to 2006. Much of the press gravitated towards some of the more alarming statistics, like:

• half of the teenagers under the age of 21 had engaged in under aged drinking
• 40% of those underage drinkers (12 to 20) had received the alcohol from an adult
• only 4% took the alcohol from parents homes
  

While this is disturbing news, there was also some good news from the report that many news agencies did not cover: from 2002 to 2006 a downward trend of under aged drinking is apparent. The breakdowns go like this:

• For 12-14 year olds, under age drinking went down from 17.6% to 16.2%
• For 15-17 year olds, under age drinking went down from 52.3% to 48.7%
• For 18- 20 year olds, the trend was slightly up: 71.7 % to 72.2%

Some of these are attributed to campaigns and public outreach programs that teach parents about the dangers of under aged drinking.

We at the Joshua Project believe this is proof that programs like ours can make a difference. Teaching middle school kids about the dangers of under aged drinking as well as informing their parents of such dangers should continue the positive downward trends seen in this report.

If you have a moment, go look at the actual report. It breaks down the drinking by age, by gender, by ethnicity, and others. Much of the data is in graph form to help see trends more clearly. You can see the report here.