Coalition works to keep youth from alcohol, drugs

Jessica Smith, a sophomore at Purdue University, got her first taste of an alcoholic beverage at 13, when an older cousin offered a sip of champagne at a family party.

Though young, Smith admits she has friends who admitted trying a parent's beer or raiding liquor cabinets at even younger ages.

"It's just not really seen as a big deal," the 20-year-old said Monday. "I think by college ... most kids drank in high school."

Smith's viewpoint is a common one and backed by statistics in Tippecanoe County and nationwide. According to the Drug-Free Coalition of Tippecanoe County's Alcohol and Other Drugs in Tippecanoe County report for 2011, alcohol is the most frequently used drug locally, in Indiana and in the United States.

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Source: Journal & Courier

Alcohol use has decreased and marijuana use has increased among Indiana youth, according to the 2011 annual Indiana Youth Survey conducted by the Indiana Prevention Resource Center.

The 21st report, titled "Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Use by Indiana Children and Adolescents," allowed schools across the state to participate if they chose.

The IPRC surveyed minors in grades six through 12 about drug use, gambling habits and risk and protective factors - such as supportive families - in their lives, said Courtney Stewart, coordinator of research translation at the IPRC.

"It kind of gives us a really nice snapshot of what's going on in the state," she said.
Between February and March 2011, the surveys were administered in 478 schools in Indiana, with a total of 168,801 public and non-public school students completing them, according to the report.
 

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Source: Indiana Daily Student

In a stunning victory for Costco and other big retailers, Washington State voters overwhelmingly approved Initiative 1183 on November 8, ending the state's 78-year monopoly on liquor sales. Early returns showed the measure winning with some 60% of the vote. The most expensive initiative campaign in state history, the battle involved donations of $22.7 million from Costco alone, of which $18.5 million has been spent, mostly on TV advertising. Opponents, including wholesalers Southern Wine & Spirits and Young's Market, spent some $12.5 million of their own to defeat the measure.

Now the state must sell off its Seattle-area central warehouse and inventory and auction off its 328 stores, about half of which are state-run. Contractors who operate the other stores must buy back the inventory in order to continue their business. The state's plan to sell off its liquor distribution rights to a single wholesaler is also now forfeit. Private sales of liquor are set to begin on June 1, 2012.

With the victory, the state's retailers also won the right to seek volume discounts from beer, wine and spirits suppliers and to warehouse their products themselves, both of which Costco had sought as early as their first lawsuit against Washington State in 2005.

Source: Shanken News Daily

A leading academic on the alcohol industry and the chief executive of a brewery have backed the Scottish Government's plans to introduce minimum pricing.

Professor Tim Stockwell, director of the Centre for Addictions Research of British Columbia, said there is clear evidence that minimum pricing in Canada has significantly reduced alcohol consumption.

Meanwhile, Rooney Anand, chief executive of brewer Greene King, which runs more than 2,000 pubs, restaurants and hotels in the UK, believes minimum pricing would "go to the very heart" of the problems associated with excessive drinking.

Minimum unit pricing is one of the SNP's flagship policies but it failed to win over the opposition when the legislation was introduced by the minority administration at Holyrood last year.

The majority SNP Government said it is committed to bringing back an Alcohol Minimum Pricing Bill within the next month.

Prof Stockwell said: "There is overwhelming evidence that cheap alcohol is linked to high levels of hazardous use and related harms.

"The Scottish Parliament should be applauded if they approve the Bill to introduce a minimum price on alcoholic drinks."

Mr Anand said: "We have consistently argued that the solution must be proportionate to the problem and should not penalise the majority of responsible drinkers.

"That is why we believe a minimum price for alcohol would go to the very heart of the problem."

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon welcomed their backing. She said: "The support in favour of minimum pricing is overwhelming, particularly among health professionals who recognise the harm that alcohol is doing to our communities and the benefit minimum pricing will bring, saving lives and reducing crime."

Source: UKPA

Binge drinking results in a majority of the costs related to excessive alcohol consumption in the U.S., according to a new study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"This research captures the reality that binge drinking means binge spending and, left unchecked, the burdensome cost of excessive drinking will only go up," said CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. "Unfortunately the hangover is being passed on to all of us in the workplace and the health and criminal justice systems. The cure is responsible individual behavior combined with the successful policies we used to decrease smoking in the United States."

The cost of excessive alcohol consumption in the United States in 2006 reached $223.5 billion or about $1.90 per drink, the study says, with almost 75 percent of these costs due to binge drinking.

"It is striking that over three-quarters of the cost of excessive alcohol consumption is due to binge drinking, which is reported by about 15 percent of U.S. adults," said Robert Brewer, M.D., M.P.H., alcohol program leader at CDC and one of the authors of the report. "Fortunately, there are a number of effective public health strategies that communities can use to reduce binge drinking and related harms, such as increasing the price of alcohol and reducing the number of places that sell and serve it."

To view the full story, click on this link: http://ashlandcurrent.com/article/11/10/22/binge-drinking-costs-us-billions 

Source: Ashland Current

Dr. Morris E. Chafetz, who played an important role in changing the public perception of alcoholism from social crime or personal failing to a disease requiring treatment, died on Oct. 14 at his home in Washington. He was 87.

The cause was suicide, his son Marc said. Dr. Chafetz's wife of more than 60 years, the former Marion Donovan, died the previous day at an assisted-living facility in Bethesda She was 86.

Dr. Chafetz (pronounced CHAFE-etz), the first director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, became a leading spokesman for the problems of alcoholism and its treatment purely by accident. After he finished his training as a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in 1954, there was only one job available: starting an alcohol treatment center that the state had just provided money to create.

No other psychiatrist would take the job. Dr. Chafetz did so only reluctantly.

"I did not think much of alcoholic people," he told the journal Alcohol Health and Research World in 1995. "I did not like them; I just was not the least bit interested in them."

He quickly changed his opinion.

"It only took me a few months of listening to these patients to recognize my prejudices and the prejudices of others," he said. "I realized that this issue reflected every social health policy problem being faced by the country."

In 1970 Dr. Chafetz was invited by Elliot L. Richardson, the secretary of health, education and welfare under President Richard M. Nixon, to work on alcoholism issues at the National Institute of Mental Health.

To view the full story, click on this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/us/morris-chafetz-87-dies-altered-view-of-alcoholism.html?_r=1 

Source: The New York Times

INDIANAPOLIS - The number of Indiana businesses willing to sell alcohol to minors continued to drop in the latest round of inspections by Indiana State Excise Police.

Through September of this year, excise officers working with underage youth in the Survey for Alcohol Compliance conducted 8,220 inspections, with 454 failures - a 5.5 percent failure rate.

The compliance survey uses underage youth participants, who attempt to purchase alcohol under the supervision of a plainclothes excise officer.

Since the excise police launched its initiative in April 2007, the number of Indiana businesses willing to sell alcoholic beverages to minors has fallen every year.

When the survey began, 33.1 percent of all businesses that were inspected were willing to sell alcohol to minors without checking identification. Rates have steadily declined since that time.

Among the businesses most willing to sell to minors this year were economic redevelopment projects, with a 40.0 percent failure rate. These projects are restaurants, usually in railway stations that are nationally registered historic places.

Civic centers had a failure rate of 36.4 percent; farm wineries, 28.6 percent; hotels, 20 percent; horse track, satellite facilities and gaming sites, 15.4 percent; and historical river vessels, 11.9 percent.

Least likely to sell alcohol to minors were drug stores, with a 1 percent failure rate; private clubs, 2 percent; grocery stores, 2.1 percent; and liquor stores, 5.1 percent. Restaurants and bars were willing to sell to minors in 8.2 percent of the inspections.

To view the full story, click on this link: http://www.jgmobile.net/article/20111029/LOCAL/310299976/-1/mobile&template=mobileart

Source: The Journal Gazette

EVANSVILLE - Excise police released new survey numbers today, showing that they are a nightmare for underage drinkers. But a four year long initiative has curtailed underage sales.

Since Indiana excise started its Survey for Alcohol Compliance initiative in 2007, the number of Indiana businesses cited for selling alcohol to minors has fallen every year.

However, Tuesday, Angelo's Italian Restaurant, located in downtown Evansville, was cited in the survey for one count of sale of alcohol to a minor. According to the survey report this is a somewhat rare occurrence as restaurants accounted for just 8.2% of the citations.

Economic redevelopment projects and civic centers came in as the most likely to sell to minors. While drug stores, private clubs and grocery stores were among the least likely. Indiana excise officer Scott Bedwell explained the undercover process.

"An undercover excise officer, along with a minor, 18, 19 or 20, they go into an establishment that sells alcohol," Bedwell said. "The minor then attempts to purchase alcohol. If there's a sale made, then that location that sells alcohol is cited."

The survey's report also mentions that the over 8,000 inspections were conducted state-wide with just a 5.5% failure rate among all establishments.

Source: WEHT-TV/Evansville, IN