Call 888-647-0579 to speak with an alcohol or drug abuse counselor.

Who Answers?

Help Make It A Safe Summer: Don't Serve Alcohol To Teens

A national campaign to reduce underage drinking is helping the nation understand that serving alcohol to teens is unsafe, illegal and irresponsible. “We Don’t Serve Teens” focuses on the “social sources”–parents of other teens, older siblings and friends–from whom most teens who drink get their alcohol.

To teens, the word “summer” means freedom. School is out and teens have more time with friends, often with reduced adult supervision. Unfortunately, summer is a time when teens are at high risk to start drinking. It also is a time when teen drunk-driving deaths are at their highest.

Limiting youth access to alcohol is a proven way to prevent underage drinking and drinking-related problems. The campaign website–dontserveteens.gov–is sponsored by the Federal Trade Commission, the nation’s consumer protection agency, and supported by public and private sector organizations. The campaign has been recognized by the U.S. Senate and officials from 40 states.

Practical Steps to Take

Underage drinking is not inevitable: “We Don’t Serve Teens” offers these practical tips to help you stop teenage drinking:

• Tell your teen the minimum legal drinking age is 21, and that drinking can cause serious health and safety consequences and legal consequences for the person who provides the alcohol.

• Tell your friends that since the legal drinking age was raised to 21 in the 1980s, teen drinking and binge drinking have decreased substantially.

• Keep track of the alcohol in your home. Make sure teens can’t get into it without your knowledge.

• Be frank about telling other parents that you don’t want them serving alcohol to your teen or condoning teen drinking.

• Talk to adults who host teen parties. Let them know that 86 percent of parents support the legal drinking age and 96 percent of adults agree that it is not okay to serve alcohol to someone else’s teen.

• Talk to managers at restaurants, recreation areas, and other places teen parties are held. Tell them that the parents in your community do not want their teens to have access to alcohol.

• Let local law enforcement know that you support active policing of noisy teen parties. A noisy party may signal alcohol use; tell them you will ask them to check it out.

For more information on stopping teens’ easy access to alcohol, visit dontserveteens.gov.
______________
source: www.HealthNewsDigest.com

More Treatment & Detox Articles

Facts about narcotics anonymous

Narcotic anonymous is a “non profit fellowship”. This organization can be said to be a society of all the men and women who are or were addicted to drugs. These people meet regularly and carry out different programs to help the addicted recover from their addiction. The only criteria for earning the membership of this….

Cirrhosis – The silent killer

This is the stark image of the silent killer everyone who drinks too much should remember. Shrivelled and lumpy, the liver belongs to someone who has developed advanced cirrhosis. The condition can develop without any noticeable symptoms until the damage to the organ becomes so serious that it is far too late to do anything….

Study links violence to take-away alcohol

US scientists have shown what they say is a direct link between the number of shops selling alcohol in an area and the violence occurring there. The study was conducted in Cincinnati and considered all types of outlet, including bars and restaurants. The more shops selling alcohol in an area, the scientists say, the more….

Record 10,000 addicts look for methadone treatment.

A Record 10,000 heroin addicts have sought methadone treatment in HSE centres across the country so far this year. New figures obtained by the Irish Independent reveal an alarming increase in the number of addicts in towns and cities across the country as seizures of heroin by gardai also soar to unprecedented levels. Approximately 2,000….

Paris gets a taste of teen binge drinking

It Tells You something about the novelty of a French debate about “le binge drinking” that an equivalent French term has yet to enter into common usage and that whenever the media broach it, they feel obliged first to explain to people what exactly it is. They’ve been doing a lot of explaining lately. According….