The Tucson Citizen reported on September 8 that alcohol is the most commonly abused substance by Pima County youths in grades 8 and 12, with 41 percent in grade 8 and 59 percent in grade 12 having used alcohol in 2002. It was used more than 10 times as often as cocaine, twice as often as marijuana. Eighth graders used alcohol seven times as often as cigarettes; 12th-graders used alcohol twice as often as cigarettes.

Teenagers in Pima County also start drinking at a younger age and at higher rates than their counterparts in the rest of the country, the Arizona Daily Star reported on September 8. On average, Pima County kids start drinking just after turning 12, about a year before children nationally and 10 months before those throughout Arizona

"We have children coming in (ages) 13, 14, 15 with blood-alcohol levels beyond toxic, near lethal," said Dr. Richard Wahl, a pediatrician specializing in adolescent medicine who advised the panel, in the Tucson Citizen. "We have children admitted with blood-alcohol levels that would put me into a coma."

"Access to alcohol in this community is extraordinarily easy," he said.

Dr. Wahl also warned about modeling drinking behaviors around children.

"Children who have a 'model' of alcoholism, who are given a bottle of beer at age 7 and are told, 'Go drink it,' are more likely to have problems with alcohol than children whose parents don't provide a home where it's OK to drink if you're underage. Irresponsible drinking at home will bring irresponsible drinking in their children," Wahl said.

"What is really important here is that there is a real attitude that drinking is a rite of passage," said Chuck Palm, a policy analyst for Pima Prevention Partnership, the Tucson Demand Treatment! lead agency. "It's not that things are different in nature here, compared to other parts of the country and the state, but that things are worse here."

The commission's key recommendations include tougher enforcement of businesses that sell liquor, youths who drink it and adults who help them obtain it. The report also calls for increased fines and the use of diversion programs for minors who use false identification to buy liquor. It encourages enforcement agencies on weekend patrols to aggressively check open areas where underage drinking parties are known to occur. The commission wants to cut underage drinking in Pima County by 50 percent in two years.

Palm said researchers could find no explanation for Pima County's high teen drinking rate. "All we can tell is that there needs to be better and more accurate data collection so we can answer those questions," he said.

For information on the commission's recommendations, contact Chuck Palm at: cpalm@thepartnership.us. For a copy of the report and all its recommendations, go to www.thepartnership.us or e-mail Palm.