New Study Shows a 'Tidal Wave' of Underage Drinking Costs
From Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs News:
With the summer party season in full-swing this long July Fourth weekend, a newly published study shows that underage drinking costs America nearly $62 billion a year.
At thousands of youth parties across the country, the overwhelmingly favored intoxicant will be alcohol.
More young people drink alcohol than use illegal drugs; in fact, alcohol kills 4 times more kids than all illegal drugs combined.
However, federal funding for preventing drug use is about 25 times greater than spending on underage drinking prevention.
"The problems caused by underage drinking are a devastating tidal wave of alcohol harm," said Ted Miller, Ph.D., lead author of the cost study.
When assigning dollar totals to alcohol-related problems among youth, violence and traffic crashes dominate the costs.
"Drinks in bars, drinks in cars, drinks stolen from Mom's liquor cabinet: the average harm from a kid's illegal drink is $3," Miller said.
The study estimates that underage drinking generates $18 billion in sales of beer, wine and liquor for the alcohol industry each year.
Miller, director of the PIRE Public Services Research Institute, has led more than 150 studies, including 50 economic analyses.
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