FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? OJJDP
DATE:
July 19, 2001????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 202/307-0703
?JUSTICE DEPARTMENT RELEASES FIRST-TIME
COMPARISON DATA ON EUROPEAN AND U.S. YOUTH DRINKING RATES AND PROBLEMS
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Young people from Europe do not drink more
responsibly than young people from the United States, according to comparison
data released today by the Justice Department?s Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP).
In comparison with young people in the United States:
n
A greater
percentage of young people from nearly all European countries report drinking
in the past 30 days.
n
A greater
percentage of young people report having five or more drinks in a row.?
n
About half of
the European countries have intoxication rates among young people that are
higher than the intoxication rates in the United States.
Commonly, Europe is held up as an example where there are more liberal
drinking age laws and attitudes that, in turn, foster more responsible styles
of drinking by young people.? It is
often asserted that young Europeans learn to drink more responsibly than young
people from the United States.?
In 1995, the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs
was conducted with 15- to 16-year-old students in 26 European countries.? The questionnaire was modeled closely after
the U.S. Monitoring the Future Survey, conducted for the National Institute on
Drug Abuse since 1975.? According to the
research, there is no evidence that the stricter laws and policies regarding
drinking by young people in the United States are associated with higher rates
of intoxication.? Equally, there is no
evidence that the more liberal policies and drinking socialization practices in
Europe are associated with lower levels of intoxication.
The analysis of the European and United States data was prepared by the
Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE), as part of PIRE?s ongoing
support of OJJDP?s Enforcing the Underage Drinking Laws Program (EUDL).?? Under the EUDL program, OJJDP provides
funds to each state and the District of Columbia to implement programs to
enforce laws relating to selling alcohol to underage drinkers.? Discretionary grants are also awarded to
help communities develop comprehensive approaches to the problem of underage
drinking, with an emphasis on increasing law enforcement activity. In addition,
as a member of ?Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free,? OJJDP works with the
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and other public and private
sector partners in disseminating information on the negative health
consequences associated with children?s use of alcohol.
A bulletin highlighting the comparison data is available on-line
through OJJDP?s Web site at http://www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org/
??Click on the EUDL Compendium scrolling message featured under ?The
Latest from OJJDP,? and the document can be found under ?Publications of the
Enforcing the Underage Drinking Laws Program.?
For more information about the data analysis or to obtain hard copies of
the bulletin, contact the EUDL Center for Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws at
1-877-335-1287.?
For more information concerning OJJDP and the EUDL program, contact the
Office of Justice Programs? Office of Congressional and Public Affairs at
202/307-0703.
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