A CAMY status report on underage drinking -- drawn from current epidemiological data and research -- noted that beer consumption is on the rise among 8th- and 10th-graders, and estimates that 7,000 kids under age 16 start drinking every day. Meanwhile, CAMY said, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has not acted on a September 2003 recommendation from the National Research Council (NRC) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) that the agency publish an annual report on underage drinking.

"We have a huge public-health crisis in this country with our kids drinking, and as a nation we are in denial," said David Jernigan, CAMY's research director. "The NRC/IOM made a simple recommendation: Reach out to parents. Tell them we have a problem and need to act. Instead, we take this information and bury it in a footnote here and there."

Leah Young, a spokesperson for HHS' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, told Join Together that the agency has submitted an interim report on underage drinking and is now reviewing comments on the document.

The STOP Underage Drinking Act, introduced in Congress last month, mandates the HHS annual report as well as a number of action steps recommended by the NRC and IOM. CAMY touted its research as a model for the kind of annual report that HHS should issue.

"Under the new leadership of Secretary Leavitt, the Department of Health and Human Services has a historic opportunity to help protect children and adolescents from the dangers of underage drinking," said Jim O'Hara, CAMY executive director. "Public health is all about leadership, as we have seen time and again in the case of the Surgeons General and tobacco. We hope Secretary Leavitt will join the members of Congress who have already stepped up to the plate to help prevent underage drinking."

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