Health : Alcohol--The Gateway Drug for Teens

Alcohol is the drug of first choice of American teen-agers.

Considered a “gateway drug”--one that leads to abuse of other substances--it is largely responsible for the fact that the teen death rate is the only mortality rate that has been dramatically increasing since 1970; experts blame that increase on escalating numbers of teen traffic fatalities, suicides and homicides.

Statistics provided by the National Council on Alcoholism of the San Fernando Valley show:

- 93% of all high school seniors have used alcohol, the most of any drug; 66% say they drink at least once a month and 5% admit to being daily drinkers.

- 55% of high school seniors who drink started drinking before ninth grade.

- 10%-15% of all 13-year-olds have tried alcohol.

And experts note that drinking generally increases in amount and frequency in the following few years.

Although drivers under 21 make up only 10% of the motoring population, and 21 is now the legal drinking age in all 50 states, youthful drivers account for more than 25% of alcohol-involved highway fatalities, the national council reports. Alcohol-related traffic accidents are the No. 1 killer of those aged 15-24.

In the adult population, alcohol is involved in 64% of all murders, 56% of all arrests, 41% of all assaults and 30% of all suicides. And “those percentages are much higher for teens,” said Julie Klussman, community relations coordinator of the council’s San Fernando Valley office. “Alcohol and drugs are present in a lot more arrests of teen-agers.”

According to data provided by the Los Angeles Chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving:

- About 3,250 young people 15-19 died in alcohol-related crashes nationwide in 1987--almost half of all teen-age motor vehicle deaths. Nearly 30% of the fatally injured 15- to 19-year-old drivers were intoxicated. (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration).

- Almost 11% of those arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in 1987 were under 21. (FBI).

- One in three teen-agers say they have been in a car with a driver their age who was intoxicated. (Gallup Poll).

- 25% of boys ages 15-18 and 11% of girls in this age group regularly drink and drive. Of these, 33% of the boys and 14% of the girls regularly drive more than 70 miles per hour. (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety).

- 80% of seventh- through 12th-graders, most of whom cite peer pressure, say they have tried alcoholic beverages including wine coolers, which they do not identify as alcoholic. (1987 survey by the Weekly Reader, a newspaper distributed in U.S. schools.)

- Teen-agers identify drug and alcohol abuse as the biggest problem facing their generation (Gallup Poll, 1985).