UNDERAGE DRINKING IN OREGON
Welcome to Oregon. Let's get drunk. Oregon legislature
makes it legal to let your kids drink. The only restriction
seems to be that it needs to be in parents' or guardian's
residence and the parent or guardian needs to be home. They
don't have to be present, however.
Underage Drinking Starts With An Excuse
Underage Drinking
cost Oregonians over $600 million in 2013 Problems and Costs Associated with Underage Drinking in Oregon In 2013, underage drinking cost the citizens of Oregon $0.6 billion. These costs include medical care, work loss, and pain and suffering associated with the multiple problem resulting from the use of alcohol by youth.1 This translates to $1,695 per year for each youth in the state or $3.43 per drink consumed underage. Excluding pain and suffering from these costs, tangible costs of underage drinking including medical care, criminal justice, property damage, and loss of work in Oregon totaled $249.88 million each year or $1.45 per drink. In contrast, a drink in Oregon retails for $0.96.
Youth violence (homicide, suicide, aggravated assault) and traffic crashes attributable to alcohol use by underage youth in Oregon represent the largest costs for the state. However, a host of other problems contribute substantially to the overall cost. Among teen mothers, fetal alcohol syndrome alone costs Oregon $14 million. In 2012, 1,626 youth aged 12 to 20 years were admitted for alcohol treatment in Oregon, accounting for 8% of all treatment admissions for alcohol abuse in the state.2 Young people who begin drinking before age 15 are four times more likely to develop alcohol dependence and are two and a half times more likely to become abusers of alcohol than those who begin drinking at age 21.3 We did not cost these adult problems.
Alcohol Consumption by Youth in Oregon Underage drinking is widespread in Oregon. Approximately 117,000 underage customers drink each year in Oregon. In 2013, Oregon students in grades 9 to 12 reported the following:4
In 2012, underage customers consumed 7.8% of all alcohol sold in Oregon, totaling $166 million in sales (in 2013 dollars). These sales provided profits of $81 million to the alcohol industry.1 Ranking states based on the percentage of alcohol consumed underage, with 1 the highest, Oregon ranked number 37. This percentage is affected by both adult and youth drinking levels. Annual sales of alcohol consumed by youth in Oregon averaged $1,416 per underage customer. Underage customers were heavier consumers than adults. They drank an average of 4.0 drinks per day; in contrast, legal customers consumed only 1.9. Harm Associated with Underage Drinking in Oregon Underage drinking in Oregon leads to substantial harm due to traffic crashes, violent crime, property crime, unintentional injury, and high-risk sex.
For comparison with other states, in U.S. rather than state prices, the harm from underage drinking peryouth in Oregon averages $943. Such comparisons require caution. In part, they may reflect differences in crime and crash rates, problem-reporting to police, and co-occurring drug use. Produced by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) with funding from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), March 2015. 1 Levy, D.T., Miller, T.R., & Cox, K.C. (2003). Underage drinking: societal costs and seller profits. Working Paper. Calverton, MD: PIRE. 2 Office of Applied Studies, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Treatment Episode Data Set. (2013). Substance Abuse Treatment by Primary Substance of Abuse, According to Sex, Age, Race, and Ethnicity, 2011. Available [Online]: www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/SAMHDA/studies/30462 3 Grant, B.F., & Dawson, D.A. (1997). Age at onset of alcohol use and its association with DSM-IV alcohol abuse and dependence: Results from the National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey. Journal of Substance Abuse 9: 103-110. 4 Oregon Public Health
Division (2014). 2013 Oregon Healthy Teens (OHT) Survey.
Available [Online]: public.health.oregon.gov/BirthDeathCertificates/Surveys/OregonHealthyTeens/Documents/2013/2013_OHT_State_Report.pdf Eight
Different Exceptions to the Minimum Legal Drinking Age
(MLDA) of 2
1. on private, non
alcohol-selling premises, with parental consent Liability
Laws Make Parents Responsible for Underage Drinking in Their
Home Parents in some states can be liable even if they were not aware that drinking was going on in their home, according to the Associated Press. One Stanford University professor was arrested in November after his 17-year-old son had a party in the basement. The professor, Bill Burnett, said he had forbidden alcohol at the party and had twice checked on the teens. He spent one night in jail and was booked on 44 counts of suspicion of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Each count carries up to a $2,500 fine and almost a year in jail. Eight states have “social host” laws that make parents liable if underage guests in their home are drinking, even if no harm comes to anyone, the AP reports. In some of the states, parents are allowed to serve alcohol to their own children in certain situations. In 16 other states, laws hold parents responsible for underage drinking in some circumstances, such as if a teenager who drank in their home was in a car accident. Research conducted by
Students Against Destructive Decisions, and co-sponsored by
the insurance company Liberty Mutual, found 41 percent of
teens say their parents allow them to go to parties where
alcohol is being served, compared with 36 percent two years
ago. 
8:11  Should
Parents Let Teens Drink At Home?
As many as 700,000 kids ages 12 to 14 -- or 6 percent of those in that age group -- said they drank in the past month in a recent report conducted by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Of the 45 percent who said they got the alcohol for free at home, 16 percent said it came from a parent or guardian. The poll didn't ask for details about how much alcohol they consumed or in what situation they had a drink. One father, Terry Moran, said he won't let his kids drink alcohol until they're legal, according to the "Today" show. "Because kids start thinking that, 'Hey, if my parents think it's OK, then I can just go experiment, hang out with my friends and drink.' I see it happen all the time," Moran told NBC. One teen who spoke to NBC said his parents sometimes give him small amounts of alcohol at dinner. "They would give me alcohol at home first, small doses -- a glass of wine here, maybe a glass of beer with dinner," he said. "It taught me responsibility, for the most part." Psychologist Elaine Moore says that many teenagers are going to experiment with drinking no matter what, and they're typically not mature enough to handle it well. Mothers and fathers can help, but declined to speculate on whether giving alcohol to teen children at home is the solution. "I don't think there's a right answer," Moore told NBC. "I think it's really, really important for parents to teach their kids to drink responsibly." Peter Delany, the director of SAMHSA's Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, said the earlier that teens start drinking, the more likely they are to become alcoholics. "When kids under age 15 start drinking and drinking heavily, they are about six times more likely to end up with alcohol problems," he told the Wall Street Journal. "This report isn't designed to say, 'Bad parents!' It's designed to say, 'Here's an issue you should pay attention to.'" In fact, according to the 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, about 50 percent of young people in America are binge drinking by they time they're 21 and 86 percent of them have consumed alcohol. "Twenty-five percent of 'Seventeen' readers say their parents let them drink at home," the magazine's editor-in-chief Ann Shoket told "Today." "But what they're learning is not necessarily how to drink. What they're learning is trust." The research to date is inconclusive on the potential perils of letting your kids drink at home. But no matter what, psychiatrist Janet Taylor believes parents should at least be talking to their children about drinking, especially about the hazards of binge drinking. "It gets back to the
quality of the relationship and how much communication is
happening at home," Taylor told the show. How
your state's politicians make underage drinking
legal
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