Teen binge drinking at all time low in US

Binge and underage drinking among American teens is the lowest it’s ever been, the National Institute on Drug Abuse revealed yesterday, writes Luke Terry.

American teens are binge drinking less than ever before, new research has shown

Only 17.2% of senior students binge drink, down from 19.4% in 2014.

Alcohol use has been steadily declining among teenagers since 1998, with lack of available alcohol being given as a key reason.

“In recent years, there has been a fair decline in all three grades in the proportion saying that alcohol is easy for them to get,” said Professor Lloyd Johnston, the study’s principal investigator.

“This suggests that state, community and parental efforts have been successful in reducing underage access to alcohol.”

The proportion of American teens binge drinking in 2015 is the lowest since records began in 1975.

Teen binge drinking peaked in 1998, with 31.5% of teens drinking excessively, but has gradually declined ever since.

Peter Cressy, president of trade body the Distilled Spirits council of the US (Discus) said: “The key to this success is educating parents and other adults about the seriousness of providing alcohol to teens.

“While there is more work to do, these continued declines in teen drinking underscore the effectiveness of public-private partnerships. This has resulted in significant and historic results.”

The Monitoring the Future survey is conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the University of Michigan, and tracks substance abuse among American youths.

This year, it involved over 40,000 students from 400 public and private schools throughout the United States.