Adolescent health care providers call for binge drinking prevention activities

The Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM) is hosting their annual meeting in Seattle this week and I was looking at their website and came across their October 2010 press release about binge drinking.  Following are a few excerpts:

In light of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) recently released report on binge drinking among high school students and adults in the United States in 2009, the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM) called today for strong and directed action by health care professionals, community and policy leaders, local officials, schools, religious groups and community members to develop and implement programs and policies to curb the rise in binge drinking among adolescents and young adults in the United States.

“This report reaffirms,” said Dr. William Adelman, Chair of SAHM’s Alcohol and Drug subcommittee, “that binge drinking is a particularly serious problem for adolescents as well as adults in the United States but that the majority of underage drinkers are apparently learning to drink alcohol with the expressed goal of intoxication. It is no surprise then, that binge drinking disproportionately affects those in high school and then through age 25, too often with tragic outcomes.”

. . . community-based interventions such as those recommended in the Guide to Community Preventive Services are recommended resources for broader efforts.

Among the interventions recommended in the guide are:
-- Increasing alcohol taxes
-- Maintaining limits on days of sale
-- Maintaining limits on hours of sale
-- Regulation of alcohol outlet density
-- Enhanced enforcement of laws prohibiting sales to minors