EDITORIAL: Teen binge drinking needs community response

Last week, an 18-year-old girl was taken to Barrow Regional Medical Center in serious condition after drinking too much booze at a house party in Bethlehem. Two adults were charged in the incident, which reportedly involved a large number of teens.

In early December, seven youths were charged with underage drinking at a party involving 17 total local teens.

And two years ago this month, an 18-year-old Winder-Barrow High School senior died when he become intoxicated at an after-prom party in Auburn.

All of these incidents paint a portrait of rampant teen binge drinking in the community. Hard data on the problem is scant, but a 2007 substance abuse survey in the county indicates that seven to eight percent of Barrow 10th and 12th graders had participated in binge drinking, with slightly more girls involved than boys. An older study from 2000 indicated that 20-24 percent of those between 15-18 years old had done binge drinking; 41 percent of 12th graders said they had used alcohol in that study. Around one-third also said they had been in a car either as a driver or passenger with someone who had been drinking or using drugs.

A 2008-2009 survey of Barrow 10th and 12th graders indicated that around 28 percent had used alcohol in the past 30 days.

The problem isn’t new, either. In 1997, a survey of adults rated alcohol abuse among the top three health problems of Barrow teenagers.

All of this is troubling. Is it the result of adults setting a poor example for teens, or is it being driven by peer pressure?

An even bigger question is: What can the community do about it?

There are no easy answers to this problem. Putting a damper on teen binge drinking will take the combined efforts of law enforcement, public health agencies, schools and most importantly, parents.

The first step in addressing the problem is admitting that it does indeed exist. Let’s hope it doesn’t take any more teen drinking tragedies to spark a coordinated response to this issue.