COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – It should come as welcome news to the Branch County Substance Abuse Task Force. Rates of underage drinking and binge drinking are down. A new government report shows nearly 23% of underage Americans drank alcohol in 2013, compared to roughly 29% in 2002. Underage binge drinkers, those teens who had five or more drinks at a sitting, fell from about 19% to nearly 14% in that timeframe.
These declines in underage drinking coincide with federal and local campaigns telling parents to talk to their children early on about the downside of alcohol use. The CDC has warned for years that underage drinking can slow a teenager’s brain development.
The health agency also says alcohol is involved in the deaths of well over 4,000 underage drinkers every year and plays a role in hundreds of thousands of hospital visits.
