The Net and nothing but the Net

THE scourge of alcohol abuse across Australia is far worse than previously thought, with one in five 16- and 17-year-olds now binge-drinking in any given week and nearly 500,000 children living at risk of exposure to an adult drinking at harmful levels.

The figures on cannabis use are equally disturbing, with one in seven secondary school students using the drug within the past 12 months.

The problem has been allowed to reach such plague proportions because most Australians consider drinking and drug use by young people to be a normal activity and “often seen as a rite of passage to adulthood”, Australian National Council on Drugs chairman John Herron warns.

Numbers double

Releasing a paper today entitled Supporting Families of Young People with Problematic Drug Use, the Federal Governments principal advisory body on drugs policy said its estimates last May about the disturbing number of children exposed to adult binge-drinkers and cannabis users had proven to be significantly short of the mark.

That study found one in eight Australian children lived with a problem drinker or drug user, including more than 230,000 children in households at risk of exposure to a binge drinker and more than 40,000 living in a house where an adult uses cannabis daily.

A reassessment of the research finds almost double the numbers, estimating that 451,000 children are exposed to binge drinking and that 70,000 live with a daily cannabis user.

Overall among 12- to 17-year-olds, one in 10 168,000 report binge-drinking defined as seven or more standard drinks in a day for a male and five or more standard drinks for a female, in any given week.

For 16-year-olds, the figure is one in five 54,116, the same as for 17-year-olds 59,176. For young indigenous Australians, 27 per cent use alcohol and 12 per cent drink to excess.

Risky behaviour

“Of particular concern is the finding that approximately 13 per cent of young drinkers report drink-driving and 16 per cent report going to work or school under the influence of alcohol,” the report finds.

The growing army of young problem drinkers is placing enormous personal and financial stress on families, the report finds.

It finds most of the nations drug and alcohol treatment providers dont have the financial or manpower resources to deal with families wanting to be involved in the process when the research shows family members should be part of the solution.

“We are enormously concerned about the high rates of binge-drinking,” Dr Herron said.

“What this report clearly says is that drug and alcohol use by young people has become normalised and is often seen as a rite of passage into adulthood.

“Its clear from the report that parents have an important role in influencing what happens to their children. Adolescents are less likely to drink and engage in binge drinking if parents actively disapprove.”

Epidemic

Last week Kevin Rudd voiced concern about binge-drinking, saying he and Health Minister Nicola Roxon were developing strategies to combat the problem.

“I would describe it as an epidemic of binge-drinking across the country,” he said.

“It is not good for young peoples health and it is certainly not good in terms of coping with addictions in general.”

The report recommends parents keep their children away from alcohol, and says that condoning its use can be dangerous for a childs mental and physical development.

“Parents should delay the onset of alcohol use in young people as long as possible in order to avert the adverse impact of alcohol on adolescent body and brain development as well as to reduce the likelihood of high-risk alcohol use and abuse in adulthood,” it concludes.

If parents did want to take steps to help their child, they should go beyond friends and family and look to professional services, public health expert Margaret Hamilton said.

Source: One in 10 teenagers binge-drinking each week | NEWS.com.au