Research suggests that an effective way to prevent pathological drinking is to delay the onset of regular drinking.  Individuals who begin drinking before age 15 years are 4 times likelier to become alcohol dependent than those who do not drink before age 21 years.   Despite knowledge of this relationship between early onset of drinking with later abuse and dependence, 47% of 12- to 20-year-olds report that they are current drinkers and 30% of them admit to binge drinking in the preceding month.

This study’s purpose was to document the magnitude of the following problems:  underage drinking among children, quantity of alcohol consumed by those with diagnosed abusive and dependent drinking habits, and the cash value of these drinking populations to the alcohol industry.  To get the prevalence of underage and abusive drinking, 4 national data bases were used (household surveys, Youth Risk Behavior Survey, and others). 

This project’s investigators’ calculated that the short-term cash value of underage drinking to the alcohol industry was $22.5 billion in 2001.  Income from underage drinking was 17.5% of the total consumer expenditure for alcohol.  Long-term commercial value of underage drinking in 2001 (defined here as the contribution of underage drinking to maintaining consumption among adult drinkers with alcohol abuse and dependence) was calculated to be $25.8 billion.  

(Foster SE, et al. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2006;160:473-478.)

Comment:  A cynic would certainly claim that this is proof enough that the alcoholic beverage industry is courting underage drinking and promoting later adult alcohol dependence as a way to keep their profits high.  I am not quite sure whether or not I am one of those cynics.  – H.T.