After coming of age, many young people are dying to experience all sorts of things that used to be prohibited for them before. They are proud to present their shiny new ID in every pub and in every liquor store because they can buy booze and cigarettes without having to lie anymore.
It’s not long before they get all liquored up every Friday night. Before they know it, they take up binge drinking. At least that is the usual scenario.
However, you will be surprised to find out that, even if alcohol is still on the younger generation’s list of preference when it comes to any drugs, they are less inclined to become addicted to binge drinking than they used to.
A new study released by the by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has recently revealed that the percentage of young people who are still underage and like to drink alcohol has decreased by 6 points, from 28.8 percent to 22.7 percent, while the rate of youngsters who binge drink lowered from 19.3 percent to 14.2 percent The people involved in the study were between 12 and 20 years old.
30.000 people belonging to that specific age group, from all over the nation, were surveyed. They had to answer questions regarding their preferred substance of abuse.
The results showed that alcohol is still their first number one choice when it comes to drugs. About 17 percent of the people who took the survey said that they preferred smoking tobacco and 13.6 percent were inclined to chose illicit drugs as their favorite substance of abuse.
What is quite surprising is the fact that most deaths linked to alcohol poisoning are likely to occur among adults, more exactly among people belonging to the white male category, whose ages vary from 35 to 64. The mortality rate associated with alcohol abuse is smaller with young teenagers.
Moreover, the study shows that more college students who are engaged in binge drinking have started to disapprove of drinking alcohol in excess at the weekend, according to a study conducted by the University of Michigan in December 2014. The results showed that about 75 percent rejected the idea of drinking in excess.
Nevertheless, even if the numbers are showing a positive change regarding alcohol, the authorities are still worried about the underage people who take up drinking as a habit:
“While we’re always very happy about these declines, we can’t lose sight of the fact that we have approximately 9 million underage drinkers in the country,” said Rich Lucey, a representative of SAMHSA’s Center for Substance Abuse
Thus, the numbers show that norms should continue to be stricter than ever regarding the use of alcohol and other substances among young people.
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