Wednesday, January 29, 2014

The European myth of attitudes and alcohol use

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   The resignation of Blaine County School Board Chairman Paul Bates after allegations that underage drinking occurred at his home has again brought attention to local alcohol consumption, a subject that should concern every resident and business.
    The incident in question was a party that Bates said was organized by a college-age daughter, attended by uninvited guests, which occurred while he was asleep. It’s a common story, though details raised eyebrows. His swift resignation was welcome in a district that’s suffered more than its share of controversy recently.
    The pitfalls of drinking alcohol at any age, and the influence of living and growing up in a place where the entire economy relies on visitors who come to have fun, have long been a thorny local issue.
    The local adage, “You can’t keep up with the tourists,” generally informs alcohol use by the majority of valley residents. That said, a recent St. Luke’s Wood River hospital health report released just before the end of 2013 showed that 23 percent of Blaine County residents surveyed said they had drunk excessively or engaged in binge drinking at least once in the previous month.
    This rate is much higher than the national rate of 15 percent. It means that local families and businesses are more likely to suffer the negative effects of overindulgence or alcoholism in the form of illness, absenteeism and family disruption.
    Local health professionals inferred from the survey results that the rate of heavy drinking among county youth is also higher than the national average.
    If that’s correct, it may be a product of more than growing up in a place that relies on tourism where adults drink more heavily and more often than other Americans. It also may be the product of a belief that’s often repeated locally and nationally and has been shown to be wrong.
    The belief is that European kids have fewer problems with alcohol abuse because they are allowed to begin to drink at a younger age and learn to handle alcohol within the fold of the family. On the contrary, a report by the U.S. Department of Justice that compared drinking among American and European teens concluded, “A majority of the European countries included in this study have higher intoxication rates among young people than the United States and about one-third of the countries have equal or lower rates to the United States.”
    Studies by the World Health Organization also show that alcoholism in all age groups in European countries equals or exceeds that in the United States.
    Parents and adults who buy into the European myth need to look at the data and align their attitudes with fact instead of myth to protect Blaine County’s youth from the harm that comes with too much to drink.
    

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