Several recent studies are showing new trends in alcohol use among youths that are convincing some officials to consider a wider campaign to stop underage drinking.

Of those youths that already drink, many are drinking greater amounts of alcohol more often, a study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University found. A group of scientists is studying the health consequences of this kind of alcohol use, which, beyond increasing the likelihood of engaging in risky sexual behavior and fighting, can affect memory and learning when students are in their most crucial intellectual development.

The acting surgeon general of America, Kenneth Moritsugu, recently issued a call to action to stop what he said were the 11 million current youths under the age of 21 using alcohol. About 7.2 million of those drinkers binge drink, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Social scientists define binge drinking as consumption of five drinks or more for males and four drinks or more for females in one session, although other academics and practitioners say that body types make a difference and that the definition should be more ambiguous.

At New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, officials have started preliminary work on a comprehensive campaign to reduce underage drinking. They are considering modeling it after their anti-smoking campaign.

“The costs of alcohol are enormous in terms of lost productivity, contributions to violence,” the health commissioner, Thomas Frieden, said.

The department estimates that about 1,500 people citywide die from alcohol-related causes a year, he said.

“It’s an area we probably need to pay more attention to,” an associate commissioner, Jorge Petit, said. “We’re trying to figure out what the components of this plan would look like.” He said there isn’t as much data on alcohol use, especially among youths, as there was about tobacco.

Dr. Frieden said the department has been scaling up its intervention programs in emergency rooms to reduce underage drinking.

About 49% of college students in America binge drink, according to a report from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

The director of the center, Joseph Califano, said that the age at which youths start binge drinking has been inching lower as well.
“The younger you drink the likelier you are to abuse alcohol, to become an abusive alcohol drinker as an adult,” Mr. Califano, who was secretary of health, education, and welfare under President Johnson, said. “The children thing is important. Probably the most important thing we learned here is that if a kid gets through the age of 21 without smoking, drinking, doing drugs or abusing alcohol, that kid is virtually certain to be home-free for the rest of their life.”

Mr. Califano pointed to the introduction in January of “Spykes” by Anheuser-Busch as an example of alcohol companies marketing to youths. The slightly caffeinated, 12% alcohol flavored shot comes in a small container that a consumer can pour into a beer or drink straight. The flavors include Spicy Lime, Hot Chocolate, and Hot Melons.

“What 30-year-old beer drinker is going to put chocolate in his beer to sweeten the taste?” Mr. Califano asked.

The vice president of communications and consumer affairs of Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc., Francine Katz, replied in a statement to The New York Sun that “Adults 21 to 35 have been moving toward sweeter, fruity alcohol beverages for a number of years — witness the popularity of everything from apple martinis to mojitos. At age 76, it’s no wonder Mr. Califano has lost touch with the lifestyles and preferences of today’s young adults.”

She said her company is aware of not a single incident nationally in which a teen has actually obtained Spykes. And she accused Mr. Califano’s organization of “seeking publicity by fostering fear in the minds of parents during prom and graduation season.”

Ms. Katz said her company is “adamantly opposed to underage drinking,” and that the company and its wholesalers have spent more than $500 million since 1982 on programs to prevent alcohol abuse, including underage drinking.

Students are also taking more prescription medication than in the past, a problem that clinicians say is exacerbating the problems of alcohol use.

Alcohol mixed with prescription or illegal drugs, like cocaine, can create compounds in the body that are more addictive and toxic, the director of Bellevue Hospital’s Substance Abuse Division, Dr. Stephen Ross, said. The hospital started a program in January to deal with NYU students with substance abuse problems.

The direct health consequences of binge drinking include liver damage, elevated risk for heart disease, and reduced brain performance, but alcohol intoxication is also a leading cause of car accidents, homicides, suicides, violence, and sexual assault, Dr. Ross said.

According to a study on high school binge drinking by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, those who binge drink — 64% of the 45% who reported alcohol use in the last month are more likely to engage in sexual activity, smoking, and fighting.

The New York Police Department began a crackdown on nightclubs in the Meatpacking District and Chelsea after two highly publicized deaths of young women who had been drinking heavily last year. On February 25th, 2006, a John Jay College of Criminal Justice student, Immette St. Guillen, was abducted, raped, and murdered by a bouncer from a downtown bar, police said. Five months later, an 18-year-old high-school student from New Jersey, Jennifer Moore, was picked up on the West Side Highway by a man who police said raped and murdered her.

The City Council has responded by holding a “nightlife summit” and passing several bills mandating tighter restrictions on bars, clubs, and places that print so-called “novelty IDs” that some underage drinkers use to buy alcohol.

The chairman of the City Council’s public safety committee, Peter Vallone Jr., has submitted a bill that would hold parents liable for allowing underage drinking in their home. The law currently holds parents liable only if they serve alcohol to a minor, he said.

“The blame lies everywhere,” Mr. Vallone said. “It’s not just the bar owners’ fault. We have to work together, from the government to the NYPD, the bar owners to the parents. And underage drinkers themselves — they need to understand that by drinking to excess, they face danger.”

The Columbia study found that from 1993 to 2001 there were significant increases in the frequency that students were binge drinking. The center is now planning to start a study of high school students, who haven’t had their alcohol use scrutinized as much in the past, Mr. Califano said.

“What’s accepted as a rite of passage is really a game of Russian roulette for these students,” Mr. Califano, who recently published his own book on the problem, “High Society: How Substance Abuse Ravages America and What to Do About It,” said. “This is one of the few things that can ruin their lives.”

This is the last story in a four-part series. Three previous installments are available at http://www.nysun.com/specials/drinking.php.