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Teenagers drinking a lot more

Officials say binge drinking is more intense, with some males consuming 10-15 alcoholic beverages.

By RITA FARLOW
Published April 8, 2007

As they do every year, seniors at Palm Harbor University High School will celebrate their May 21 graduation at Storm Surge, an all-night graduation party.

The event - paid for by parents, community members and local businesses - is scheduled for 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Clearwater and is, as always, alcohol- and drug-free.

And Storm Surge 2007 is just one of several events that some Pinellas County high schools hold for students at graduation.

Operation PAR, the nonprofit drug abuse prevention and treatment agency, is making $1,000 grants to five local schools to host alcohol-free graduation events: Palm Harbor University High, East Lake High, Countryside High, Tarpon Springs High and St. Petersburg High.

The support comes as school district officials prepare to distribute a study that shows that underage binge drinking is a major concern for local teens in Pinellas County.

"It's a huge issue," said Kay Doughty, vice president of family and community relations for Operation PAR, which serves Pinellas, Pasco, Manatee and Lee counties.

The problem isn't that the number of binge drinkers is growing, Doughty said. It's that binge drinking episodes these days are more intense.

"It used to be five drinks for a male; now it's 10 to 15, and the effect on the brain is so incredible," Doughty said. "It's horrible."

Schools in North Pinellas are being targeted because another study, done in 2004 by the school district, Operation PAR and the Juvenile Welfare Board, showed higher rates of alcohol use among students in the northern part of the county.

"North county was significantly worse than south county," she said.

Doughty commended East Lake principal Clayton Snare for his commitment to solving the problem.

"He's been out in front, saying 'This is a problem we're having and we want to do something about it,' " she said.

For instance, Doughty said, Snare invited an attorney to the school to speak to parents about the liability issues of allowing minors to drink alcohol at house parties.

"Anytime I've heard that there was alcohol or drugs at a party, you'd be surprised at the number of times that I've heard that the parents were there also," Snare said. "Parents are participating right along with the students."

Snare said he has shown videos on drunken driving to the entire student body and scheduled speakers to talk to students at assembly about how drinking has negatively affected their lives. In one case, a mother who lost her child to a drunken driving accident took the stage with a young man who had killed someone in a drunken driving accident.

"You could have heard a pin drop," Snare said. "The students were so focused."

East Lake has also started a Live Free club, where teens act as mentors to other teens who are thinking about using alcohol or drugs.

Snare said that the problem isn't just at East Lake or in North Pinellas.

"This is a nationwide problem," he said. "This is a statewide problem."

Binge drinking can lead students to make bad decisions and take unnecessary risks, said Peggy Johns, supervisor of pre-K-12 health education for Pinellas County Schools. Worse, Johns said, it can lead to injury or death. "It's not just intoxication, but you can have alcohol poisoning, where youth just consume too much alcohol and can actually die from it," she said.

The latest report, a study and analysis of risk behavior reported by middle and high school students last spring, shows that Pinellas teens are binge drinking at a higher rate than their national counterparts.

Thirty percent of high school students reported "episodic heavy drinking" within the past month, compared to a national average of 26 percent.

A study by the Harvard School of Public Health on student binge drinking in the 1990s found that college binge drinkers were usually white and male with a history of binge drinking in high school. In the Pinellas study, white binge drinking students outnumbered their non-white peers nearly 2 to 1.

The survey also asked students about riding in cars with people they knew had been drinking. Thirty-one percent of sixth-graders and 46 percent of eighth-graders said they had. Fifteen percent of high school students reported that they had driven while drinking at least once in the past year.

Parents need to start educating their children early about the consequences of binge drinking, said Jan Urbanski, supervisor of Safe and Drug Free Schools.

Urbanski's department is seeking more than $1-million in federal grant money to combat student drinking. She added that all-night graduation or prom parties are positive steps in curbing risky behavior. The bottom line is this, Urbanski said: "Alcohol and growing adolescents don't mix."

alcohol

is the most commonly used drug among Pinellas County students.

binge drinking

is the consumption of five or more drinks in a row within the past two weeks.

More Pinellas youth reported binge drinking than tobacco or marijuana use.

27 percent

of students reported having tried marijuana.

That's down from 34.3 percent in 2000.

Sources: 2006 Pinellas County Schools Youth Risk Behavior Study; 2006 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey - Pinellas County Report.

56 percent of Pinellas eighth-graders reported having a drinking experience.

33 percent of Pinellas County eighth-graders tried alcohol before age 13.

24 percent of Pinellas eighth-graders reported having tried marijuana.

15 percent of Pinellas County eighth-graders reported having tried some inhalant (glue, spray paint).

Thirteen percent of Pinellas County eighth-graders said they had been offered some sort of drug on school grounds.

Seventy-seven percent of Pinellas County high school students (grades 9-12) said they had tried alcohol.

51 percent of Pinellas County high school students who said they drank alcohol within the previous month

42 percent of high school students nationwide who said they drank alcohol within the past month.

5 percent of Pinellas County high school students who reported having drunk alcohol at school.

cigarettes

Far fewer students reported smoking. The rate dropped from 24.3 percent in 2000 to 11 percent in 2006.

[Last modified April 7, 2007, 22:37:10]