Legislation a good start to curb teens' alcohol useMercury News Editorial
Most Californians know alcohol abuse by teenagers is a problem. But they don't understand its scope.
Underage drinking remains -- by far -- the No. 1 health and safety risk for young people, greater than drug abuse and teen pregnancy combined. Underage drinking is not only the top contributor to teen deaths, but studies show that it also costs Californians an estimated $7.3 billion a year, or roughly $2,000 for every youth in the state.
Newly elected San Jose Assemblyman Jim Beall, who worked on the issue as a Santa Clara County supervisor, is advocating for the state to implement a comprehensive, coordinated plan to attack teen drinking. But it will take years to develop. So the Democrat is starting the effort in a small way, by introducing legislation to restrict the sale and marketing of so-called fruit-flavored ``alcopops'' that are popular with teenagers, especially girls.
The Legislature should pass Beall's bill. It would ensure that businesses separate alcopops from non-alcoholic beverages on their store shelves and make it clear that these products -- which carry cutesy names such as Hooper's Hooch and Mike's Hard Lemonade -- have labels that clearly identify their contents, including the amount of alcohol. And the Legislature should also pass Assemblywoman Lori Saldana's companion bill that would tax these drinks at the same level as distilled spirits, which would further discourage sales to teens and provide about $50 million a year to launch an expanded campaign to discourage underage drinking. Currently they are taxed like beer, which drops the price for a six pack by about $1.50.
The beverages are not taxed as distilled spirits because they are brewed like beer. Then manufacturers add distilled alcohol, sweeteners and food coloring to make them appeal to new, younger drinkers. Regardless of the formula, they should be taxed at the higher rate to help discourage use by raising the price.
The alcohol industry is fighting the legislation, arguing that overall teen drinking numbers are in decline, as are overall sales of what it prefers to call flavored malt beverages.
But even in ``decline,'' the American Medical Association reports in a 2004 study that one out of every three young girls has tried alcopops, and that one out of every six teen girls had been sexually active after drinking.
And, even if teen girls exaggerated the level of their experimentation in the survey, the impact of teen drinking on California and Santa Clara County is indisputable.
The county can afford to treat only one out of every 14 youths with an alcohol abuse problem. Yet teen drinkers are more than twice as likely to abuse alcohol than those who begin drinking at age 21, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in social costs. Babies with fetal alcohol syndrome born to teen mothers, for example, cost California more than $150 million every year.
Robert Garner, director of the Santa Clara County Department of Alcohol and Drug Services, calls the level of teen drinking one of the greatest outrages in the state. If the non-treatment level was for any other disease, the outcry would be enormous.
Beall and Saldana's bills won't solve the larger problem, but they're a good first step toward keeping alcohol out of the hands of underage drinkers.
Contributor: Peggy Seo Oba
