Experts: Parents must help stop underage drinking

*published Oct. 11, 2009

Authorities and psychiatrists say letting children and teens drink alcohol only increases long-term risks.
BY VANESSA C. DEGGINS

Homecomings, proms and graduations are annual events often accompanied by parties.

At those times, parents often rationalize allowing their teenagers to consume alcohol.

“Parents have a million reasons,” said Mary Kaye Allemond, program director for the Calcasieu Parish Office of Juvenile Justice Services. “Parents think, ‘they are going to drink anyway, so I might as well let them drink in my house,’ or ‘it’s a rite of passage, everyone drinks in Louisiana.”’

Allemond and health officials said most parents don’t realize the damage that is done when a teenager drinks.

“I always have to explain the medical side to parents who think the legal drinking age should be 18,” said Allemond, who has teenage children.

Psychiatrists at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital said drinking at an early age not only interrupts brain development, but may destroy areas of the brain that, if developed, would prevent a person from becoming addicted later in life.

“Between 14 and 20 years old is when all of the neuron connections are developing very quickly,” said Dr. Sreelatha Pulakhandam, who specialized in pediatric psychiatry.

The hippocampus and prefrontal cortex parts of the brain control memory and behavior.

“If both of those parts of the brain are smaller, it sets the teenager up to be behind on everything for the rest of their lives,” Pulakhandam said.

Pulakhandam laid out an ominous cycle: A weak memory affects learning ability. This would be exasperated by sleep deprivation caused by drinking. Peer pressure pushes the teenagers not only to drink, but drink large amounts.

“The chances of high-risk behavior, like unsafe driving, unprotected sex, are much higher while drinking,” Pulakhandam said.

Pulakhandam said the chances of suicide and depression also increase.

The Louisiana Caring Communities Youth Survey 2008 results show a steady increase in alcohol use by teenagers. The survey, conducted every two years, anonymously polls students in sixth, eighth, 10th and 12th grades about drug and alcohol use.

Calcasieu Parish results

When students were asked if they had an alcoholic beverage in the past 30 days, 9.3 percent of sixth-graders said yes, and the numbers steadily increased with age. For eighth-graders, it was 26.1 percent; for 10th-graders, 41.4 percent; and for 12-graders, 50.7-percent.

“With Louisiana culture, just about everything we do is targeted around alcohol,” said Allemond. “We drink at crawfish boils, barbecues, sporting events. So parents think it’s no big deal if the kids have a sip.”

Allemond said the Office of Juvenile Justice is focusing on changing attitudes by letting people know that what’s considered normal is actually hazardous for teenagers’ health.

When students were asked if they had been binge drinking in the past two weeks, 4.8 percent of sixth-graders said yes. And the answer was yes for 13.1 percent of eighth-graders, 19.9 percent of 10th-graders and 29-percent of 12th-graders.

The survey defines binge drinking as having five or more alcoholic drinks in a row.

Allemond said parents have openly discussed providing alcohol at teenage parties in their homes, saying they feel they are helping keep them safe.

“I tell them all of the time, at these parties teenagers don’t have one beer. They are drinking as much as possible,” Allemond said. “Kids think they’re invisible anyway. What are they going to think when we condone this?”

Focus on parents

Dr. Misty Kelly, director of psychiatric services at Lake Charles Memorial, said along with changing cultural norms, there are a lot of parenting issues to fix.

“In our in-patient program, we see a lot of children who start drinking to cope with family conflict or stresses in the home and at school,” Kelly said.

“A lot of parents are naïve, and they are not actively involved in their children’s lives or who they hang out with,” Kelly said. “The kids are pushed out, independent, and the parents are just busy with their own lives.”

A study by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation estimated that underage drinking cost the residents of Louisiana $1.1 billion in 2005.

Those costs included $312.1 million on youth traffic crashes, $107.7 million on the outcomes of high-risk sex for people ages 14 to 20 and $21.6 million on fetal alcohol syndrome among mothers ages 15 to 20.

The Institute estimated that in 2005, underage drinkers consumed 14.7 percent of all alcohol sold in Louisiana, or about $305 million in sales.

Local law enforcers have said they do not have the manpower for patrols targeting underage drinking, but they encourage students and parents to report parties or places where juveniles are allowed to drink.

The main state criminal charge an adult could face for serving alcohol or drugs to someone under the age of 17 is contributing to the delinquency of juveniles.

The Office of Juvenile Justice is working on a grant that authorities could use to fund law enforcement patrols.

original article: http://bit.ly/86iuLS