Graduation Parties with Good Intentions

Parents around the country have celebrated their son or daughter's graduations by giving money, clothes, watches and parties. Now, at the parties, in between streamers and gold balloons are toasts to determination and success and then the music starts. Has the party begun yet, or is it only when the underage guests arrive half blitzed or with six pack in hand? These parents learned the hard way that despite a zero tolerance message and trusting their child, things got out of hand. Somehow, someway teens get alcohol and then everyone gets either slammed or put in the slammer. Not a good outcome.

R-Rated May Equal U-Drinking

This study shows there really could be more of a problem with youth watching R-rated movies than just the usual suspects. Now, it may make middle schoolers more apt to drink underage. Another good case for being a parent first versus a friend, and protecting versus going along with the crowd.

Waaaa, Waaaa, Waaaa

Babies cry and so does society when t-shirts on little babes shout inappropriate. Check out the latest t-shirt for little junior and princess pea. This is no laughing matter. Underage drinking is insidious and rampant and somehow little babies need to make light of it or aspire to it? If you have concerns like we do, let 'em know.

Drinking age debate on tap again in Vermont

Vermont lawmakers are considering a pair of bills - one to push the drinking age to 18, the other to ask the state's congressional delegation to urge Congress to authorize waivers to states and not punish them by withholding funding.

Is 18 old enough to drink?

The issue is a key part of a national discussion on whether the minimum drinking age should be lowered from 21 to 18 years old. Organizations such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) say absolutely not.

Teen Sensation Raises Valid Points

According to this online report, Miley Cyrus is concerned about increasing underage drinking. The 16-year-old Disney star tells Glamour magazine, "At one of my very first awards shows I ever did, there was a bottle of vodka in my gift bag." She goes on recalling, "No one cared that they were giving this to a 12-year-old."

Some young girls, as young as five, follow Cyrus' every move, memorizing lyrics to her songs and hanging posters in their rooms. She has a huge following of young girls and it is good to see she has concerns about the nation's number one youth drug problem--underage drinking.

The earlier youth drink, the more likely they will become dependent and drive drunk later in life according to research. Interestingly, women are catching up to men in drunk driving and New Mexico's Department of Transportation has a new ad campaign reminding women, that they too, need to never drive drunk. Check out this website.

New Mexico takes the issue of drunk driving very serious being the poster-state for anti-drunk driving efforts nationwide and leading the charge with interlocks for all convicted drunk drivers. New Mexico's alcohol-involved crash deaths decreased 19 percent from 2007-2008; and 35 percent from 2004-2008 because of its commitment to eliminate drunk driving.

If more young women and men stood up against underage drinking, and their parents too, the whole nation would see less deaths and injuries on and off the roadways. And, all of those 16 year olds would become more responsible adult drivers and be able to live a long, full life filled with graduations, new jobs, new marriages, and new babies. Now, that is the best of both worlds, as Miley says in her hit song.

Stay tuned to 2009 summer launch of MADD's parents' initiative aimed at preventing underage drinking by creating a clearinghouse of knowledge and a contract for parents and their teens to sign.

Parents Jailed for Hosting Underage Drinking Party, Son Kills Two

WTEN in Albany, New York is reporting that the parents of a boy who killed two teens while driving drunk are now behind bars.

They were convicted of serving beer to underaged kids partying at their home last April. Folowing the party, their son was driving while intoxicated when his car crashed, killing two passengers.

Parents take note. Letting your kid drink at home isn't the answer. Be a parent and take alcohol out of the equation.

New Jersey Lawmakers Tell College Officials They Will Not Lower the Drinking Age

Members of the New Jersey Senate Education Committee reinforced their support for the 21 Minimum Legal Drinking Age during a hearing where college leaders and law enforcement officials discussed how to tackle underage drinking and binge drinking on college campuses. Read the complete article from NJ.com.

Leading Health and Safety Experts Agree: The 21 Law Saves Lives

Learn more about MADD’s response to the Amethyst Initiative and the call by some university presidents to lower the drinking age.

Sign MADD's pledge and join a broad coalition of congressional and public health leaders and citizens to stand strongly united in support of the 21 minimum drinking age.

Colleges and Binge Drinking

An editorial in The New York Times dismisses the call by some college professors to lower the drinking age as “on the wrong track with its suggestion that the nation reconsider the legal drinking age of 21.”

MADD, along with leading health and safety experts, agree that the 21 minimum legal drinking age save lives – nearly 25,000 since the law went into effect in 1984.

MADD acknowledges that underage drinking and binge drinking on college campuses is a serious problem, but lowering the drinking age is not the answer. Solutions to the problem can include:

• Changing the drinking culture on college campuses and within communities
• Enforcement of the 21 drinking age law-Upholding responsible alcohol policies
• Holding those over 21 accountable for providing alcohol to minors
• Working with high school and middle school parents and leaders to reach their youth well before college on the drinking age so this problem is corrected early versus once students are in college

Learn more about underage drinking.

Nationwide Insurance Survey Finds that Americans Overwhelmingly Reject an Ongoing Push to Lower the Legal Drinking Age from 21 to 18

A Nationwide Insurance survey released this week finds parents are fed up with “party schools” and politicians who support lowering drinking age.

According to the Nationwide Insurance survey:

• 78 percent of adults support 21 as the minimum drinking age
• 72 percent of adults think lowering the drinking age will make alcohol more accessible to kids
• Only 14 percent of Americans believe a lower drinking age will curb teen binge drinking
• Nearly half believe lowering the drinking age would increase binge drinking among teens
• More than half of the adults surveyed say would not send their children to colleges or universities with “party school” reputations
• More than half say they are unlikely to vote for a state representative who supports lowering the legal limit.

For two decades the legal drinking age in the U.S. has been 21. But during the last 18 months, nine states have entertained the idea of lowering the drinking age minimum and three states have live legislation. And more than 100 college and university presidents have signed on to a misguided initiative that uses deliberately misleading information to confuse the public on the effectiveness of 21 law. The public strongly disagrees with efforts to lower the drinking age.

Make your voice heard! Sign MADD's pledge to stand strongly united in support of the 21 minimum drinking age.

She's Come a Long, Long Way: Drunk Driving Crash Survivor Mary Ann McCunn's Story

With the Olympics just around the corner, consider how a 17-year-old drunk driver changed the entire life of one active, 21-year-old gymnast, springboard diver and former cheerleader when he hit her and her fiancé on August 16, 1980.

Orlando resident Mary Ann McCunn is permanently disabled, despite 34 surgeries and endless failed bone grafts. Paralyzed from her left knee down, she must wear a leg brace or use a cane to support her left leg. She even had to endure antibiotic nails inserted into her bone for months at a time. A chronic bone infection, osteomyelitis, has killed her bone, tissue and everything in its path. She says the worst injury was being unable to bear children. “It really is a life sentence,” Mary Ann says.

Read Mary Ann's story.

London Suburb Proposes Voluntary Ban to Stop Selling Alcohol to Those Under 21

Young adults under 21 in the London Borough of Croydon could be banned from buying alcohol in shops in an attempt to reduce binge drinking and underage drinking. Read the complete story in the Daily Mail.

Learn more about the lifesaving 21 Minimum Legal Drinking Age in the United States at Why21.org.

Study: Minimum Drinking Age of 21 Saves Lives

The number of U.S. teenagers involved in fatal drunk-driving accidents has declined because of laws that raised the legal drinking age to 21, according to a new study.

Researchers found that two "core" drinking-age laws passed in all U.S. states in the 1980s were responsible for an 11 percent decrease in the number of drunk teenage drivers involved in fatal crashes. The two laws made it illegal for anyone younger than 21 to buy or possess alcohol. Read the complete story from Yahoo! News.

Visit Why21.org to arm yourself with more facts about the 21 minimum drinking age. Sign the petition in support of the 21 drinking age.

40 Percent of Underage Drinkers Get Free Alcohol from Adults Over 21

A nationwide report from SAMHSA reveals that 650,000 underage drinkers in the past month were given alcohol by their parents or guardians.

Underage drinking is not just a youth problem but an adult problem. MADD believes adults should be held accountable for providing alcohol to those under 21 for the very reasons mentioned in this report. Read MADD's statement on the report and on underage drinking.

Sign the pledge to show your support for the 21 minimum drinking age law.

Anheuser-Busch Cans Alcoholic Energy Drinks

Anheuser-Busch will quit selling caffeinated alcoholic drinks as part of a legal settlement with several states. Read the complete story from CNN Money.

Miller Brewing Co. says it will keep selling caffeinated alcoholic drinks. Read more in the Chicago Tribune.

Underage Drinking Crash Devastates Community

Underage drinking led a teenager to plow his Jeep Wrangler full of five teenagers into a tree during the 2005 Labor Day Weekend, instantly killing two 16-year-olds seated in the back seat.

One of the teenagers killed was Zachary Ondrish, who had just begun his junior year at Westminster High School the previous week. He was a wrestler on the school’s team and the second oldest of seven children. Loved by young and old alike, kids still gather and leave things for Zach at the crash site on his birthday and the anniversary of the crash.

Read Zach's story.

Fort Bliss Raises Its Drinking Age to 21

Citing too many drunken-driving crashes and arrests and too many fights, the new commanding general has raised the drinking age on the West Texas Army base from 18 to 21, bringing 17,000-soldier Fort Bliss into line with what has been the minimum drinking age law in the rest of Texas since 1986.

Read the complete story from Yahoo! News.

12-Year-Old Arkansas Boy Faces Drunken-Driving Charge

An Arkansas preteen faces a drunken-driving charge after he and a friend drank his parents' beer and crashed his stepfather's pickup truck. The county prosecutor said that he will charge the 12-year-old boy with drunken driving and several other misdemeanor charges.

Read the complete story from the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

Jarrod Knox – "Every Guy’s Best Friend, Every Girl’s Sweetheart”

Kim Knox felt she’d lost everything. Her only child, 18-year-old Jarrod, died in November 2005, following a night of drinking and playing cards with three adults who let him drive away drunk. At the time, Jarrod was a freshman at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales in Curry County, which had the dubious distinction of being the No.1 county for underage drinking in the United States.

Read Jarrod's complete story.