A Substance Abuse Collection
I get a weekly email from our state with information and stories relating to substance abuse. This past week there were some really good stories that I thought might be interesting to share. So, here they are:

*******************************
One-Sixth of Alcohol Sales Go to Minors, Study Says
By Joyce Howard Price The Washington Times May 2, 2006

Underage drinkers account for 17 percent of annual alcohol sales and are far more likely than adults to be problem drinkers, a Columbia University study says.

Researchers, using data from several surveys, determined that 47 percent of people 12 to 20 years old drank alcohol in 2001 and that nearly 26 percent drank to excess or met the American Psychiatric Association's "clinical criteria" for dependency.

See the full article at: http://vps.policyimpact.com/dailydigestpdfs/IIAA/April2006/IIAA5may2.pdf

*******************************
Underage drinkers, alcoholics. and alcohol abusers consume between 37.5 and 48.8 percent of alcohol sold.
Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine and the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse New York, NY, May 1, 2006

Underage drinkers and adult pathological drinkers (those that meet the clinical DSM-IV criteria for alcohol abuse or addiction) consume between 37.5 percent and 48.8 percent of the value of all alcohol sold in the United States, according to an article in the May 1 issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine (APAM). This groundbreaking study, The Commercial Value of Underage Drinking and Adult Abusive and Dependent Drinking to the Alcohol Industry, conducted by researchers at The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, finds that underage drinkers and adult pathological drinkers account for at least $48.3 billion and as much as $62.9 billion in alcohol sales in 2001, the last year for which the necessary data were available. CASA's related White Paper, The Commercial Value of Underage and Pathological Drinking to the Alcohol Industry, reveals that in 2001 at least $22.5 billion of consumer spending on alcohol came from underage drinking and $25.8 billion came from adult pathological drinking.

To read The Commercial Value of Underage Drinking and Adult Abusive and Dependent Drinking to the Alcohol Industry in The Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, use the following link: http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/160/5/473

*******************************
'Thoughtful' Beer Ads from Miller?
Join Together Online www.jointogether.org May 1, 2006

News Summary
A new series of beer ads from Miller depict men talking about manhood rather than featuring comely blonds or party-hearty young men, the New York Times reported May 1.

Miller says the ads, featuring celebrities like football player Jerome Bettis, wrestler Triple H, and actor Burt Reynolds, will focus on men who "have defined in their own way what manhood is all about."

"They are true men," said Miller marketing head Erv Frederick. "They all have a lot of substance, and they have their own unique personal style." The ads are staged like a roundtable discussion on topics like how to clink a beer glass and how long a man should wait before dating a friend's ex-girlfriend. Frederick said Miller "wanted to move beyond that stereotype of men as sophomoric." "We're trying to position it as a smarter, more intelligent light beer,"
he said.

The ads represent a real departure for Miller, which in 2003 produced an ad showing two busty women fighting and tearing off each other's clothes over whether Miller Light "tastes great" or is "less filling." "Beer is so tied in to male culture, and I think the tradition of sort of settling things over a beer and figuring out the world over beer is a strong one," said Alex Bogusky, CEO of Crispin Porter & Bogusky, the ad agency that created thenew ads. "It's one of the nicer aspects of beer, and it's one of the reasons that it's a powerful cultural beverage."

Alcohol industry critics were skeptical that Miller would truly change its ways.