Rural or urban, rich or poor; in communities throughout the country, you can find underage drinking parties going on every weekend. The party might start innocently, with a few friends getting together, and then a few others showing up with a keg. Or, word might get around school that a student’s parents will be out of town, and he’s planning a party. Or, parents might have the attitude that “if my child’s going to drink, it might as well be in my home” so they host the party themselves. Maybe this weekend a group is planning to party under the stars at a friend’s ranch.
Access to alcohol for teenage parties is easier than you might think. A 2005 study of teenagers between 13 and 18 conducted by the American Medical Association showed that:
- Nearly half of the teenagers surveyed reported having obtained alcohol.
- Two out of three teenagers said it was easy to get alcohol from their homes without their parents knowing about it.
- One-third of teens reported it was easy to obtain alcohol from their own consenting parents.
- For teens who obtained alcohol in the past six months, parents were the supplier an average of three times in a six-month period.
Spiraling Out of Control
Underage drinking parties are the primary setting for underage drinking for high school and college students – and for high consumption of alcohol and binge drinking. The most common setting for drinking among high school seniors is a private home. On the college level, parties are among the most common occasions for socializing and drinking heavily.
Once the revelers start drinking and the party begins to grow in size, it can quickly spiral out of control and lead to devastating consequences:
- In 2006 in Missouri, a 17-year-old was found dead inside his car in a lake following an underage drinking party. Investigators said he was last seen by party-goers as he crawled into his car in the early morning hours.
- A 17-year-old in Pennsylvania in 2003 died at a party hosted by a 23-year-old from a mixture of alcohol and the painkiller methadone.
- After a late-night drinking party, two underage college students in New York drowned when the canoes they were riding in overturned.
- In California, a 19-year-old suffered broken vertebrae in his neck while wrestling at a teenage drinking party at a home where the homeowner claimed to be asleep in 2006. The young man is now paralyzed from the neck down.
- In 2007, a 16-year-old died in a field from hypothermia after fleeing a teenage drinking party when someone yelled “cops” in Illinois.
What can be done?
Research shows that interventions that modify the environments in which underage youth find themselves have an impact on alcohol consumption levels. Policies aimed at increasing the liability of adults who provide alcohol to youth under 21 may help reduce underage drinking.1
- Work with community partnerships and coalitions to educate them on the benefits of social host ordinances.
The Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation states that enforcement activities that limit youth access to alcohol are critical for reducing underage drinking and its often tragic consequences.