Teen drinking — a survey

The Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse conducts a Texas School Survey every two years that examines alcohol and drug use among students.

The following are highlights from the 2003 survey:

• In 2002, alcohol was blamed in the deaths of 614 Texans under the age of 21, almost five times the number of youth deaths due to all other illicit drugs combined.
• The average age for first use of beer is 12.4 years in Texas.
• Alcohol is the most widely used substance among Texas students in grades 7-12 with 71 percent reporting they had used alcohol at some point in their lives and 35 percent in the month before the survey.
• More than 165,000 Texas teens (more than 9 percent of all students) say they have gone to school drunk.
• 25 percent of Texas high school seniors say they have driven a car while drunk. That represents 80,000 underage impaired drivers on Texas roads at least once during the past year.
• Texas led the nation in alcohol-related deaths in 2002 with 1,745. That was 47 percent of the traffic fatalities in the state. The national average was 41 percent. (National Highway Transportation Safety Administration 2003)
• In 2002, there were 65 alcohol-related traffic fatalities 14 and under in Texas. The number of alcohol-related deaths among those 15-20 was 261, which was 44 percent of all traffic deaths among the age group of 15-20. (National Highway Transportation Safety Administration 2003)
• The latest statistics show a minor drop in total deaths in the percentage of alcohol related deaths among youth age 15-20. However, Texas still leads the nation in alcohol related deaths among young people.
• It is estimated that another 10 percent decrease in alcohol-related crashes would save the state of Texas $220 million in claims payments and loss adjustment expenses.
• Almost 17 percent of all secondary students classified themselves as “binge drinkers,” meaning they had five or more drinks at one sitting when they drank (for girls it is four or more drinks at one sitting).
• The easier it is to obtain a substance, the higher the rate of use by students. About 71 percent of the students believe that alcohol was very or somewhat easy to obtain compared to 66 percent for tobacco.
• The TCADA survey shows that girls (71 percent) are now reporting a slightly higher rate of lifetime alcohol use than boys (70 percent).
• The number of binge drinkers almost doubles between the 7th and the 8th grades. In the 7th grade, 5.1 percent admit to binge drinking, while the number jumps to 9.3 percent in the 8th grade, and 16.3 percent in the 9th grade.
• More Texas 7th and 8th graders believe it is more dangerous to smoke than to drink. 64.5 percent of 7th graders believe it is dangerous to smoke or use smokeless tobacco, while 57.4 percent believe in is dangerous to drink alcohol. Among 8th graders, 54.5 percent believe tobacco is dangerous, while 47.6 percent see danger in drinking alcohol.

Source: IIAT/Texas PTA