Notes on Underage Drinking: Are Your Children Sober?

Did you know...?

• Mixing alcohol and energy drinks causes increased injuries.
  
• College students often mix alcohol with energy drinks so that they can drink more and longer, a strategy can lead to more alcohol-related injuries.
  
• Wake Forest University School of Medicine researchers found that students who mixed alcohol and energy drinks likely had double the risk of being hurt or injured, requiring medical attention, driving with an intoxicated driver, being taken advantage of sexually, or taking advantage of another sexually.
  

Did You Know...?

• Some of the most popular gifts for holiday exchange between youth this season may be drinking games aimed at college-age drinkers?
  
• Teens that drink alcohol tend to have opposite-sex friends who do the same, and girls may be particularly vulnerable to the influence of their friends, states a recent report in Science Daily.
  
• Alcohol is a drug. Alcohol is also the number one drug of choice for teens.
  

Did You Know...?

• Parents often underage drinking is discounted as a "right of passage".
  
• Parents can be effective in reducing the use of alcohol by youth under 21 by using a number of environmental strategies, such as preventing access of alcohol to youth, creating clear, and consistent no-use messages.

You Should Know that...

• Dram shop or dramshop is a legal term in the United States referring to a bar, tavern or the like where alcoholic beverages are sold. Traditionally, it referred to a shop where spirits were sold by the dram, a small unit of liquid.
  
• Dram shop liability refers to the body of law governing the liability of taverns, liquor stores and other commercial establishments that serve alcoholic beverages. Generally, dram shop laws establish the liability of establishments arising out of the sale of alcohol to visibly intoxicated persons or minors who subsequently cause death or injury to third-parties-those not having a relationship to the bar, as a result of alcohol-related car crashes and other accidents.
  
• The laws are intended to protect the general public from the hazards of irresponsibly serving alcohol to minors and intoxicated patrons.
  
• Serving alcohol to minors is illegal in all 50 states. Many states impose liability on bars for serving minors who subsequently injure themselves or others in order to deter the illegal practice of serving minors alcohol.