Extra Mile applauds surgeon general’s actions

Officials from a Nebraska anti-underage drinking group praised a call to action issued by U.S. Surgeon General Kenneth Moritsugu.

He said Americans need to take a more environmental approach to stop the country’s 11 million underage drinkers.

“Many people don’t want to look at the environment, they just want to look at the individual (who’s drinking),” said Chassity Bassett, Project Extra Mile project coordinator for Dodge, Saunders and Washington counties. “Him bringing this to light is great.”

In a written statement, Moritsugu laid out his recommendations for government and school officials, parents, other adults and young people.

“Too many Americans consider underage drinking a rite of passage to adulthood,” he said in the statement. “Research shows that young people who start drinking before the age of 15 are five times more likely to have alcohol-related problems later in life. New research also indicates that alcohol may harm the developing adolescent brain. The availability of this research provides more reasons than ever before for parents and other adults to protect the health and safety of our nation’s children.”

The 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimated that of the 11 million underage drinkers in the country, nearly 7.2 million are considered binge drinkers and 2 million classified as heavy drinkers. Binge drinking means a person drinks more than five drinks each time.

The surgeon general’s call to action identified six goals:

* Foster changes in society that facilitate healthy adolescent development and that help prevent and reduce underage drinking.

* Engage parents, schools, communities, all levels of government, all social systems that interface with youth and youth themselves in a coordinated national effort to prevent and reduce underage drinking and its consequences.

* Promote an understanding of underage alcohol consumption in the context of human development and maturation that takes into account individual adolescent characteristics as well as environmental, ethnic, cultural and gender differences.

* Conduct additional research on adolescent alcohol use and its relationship to development.

* Work to improve public health surveillance on underage drinking and on population-based risk factors for this behavior.

* Work to ensure that policies at all levels are consistent with the national goal of preventing and reducing underage alcohol consumption.

“It echoes everything Project Extra Mile is already doing, which is great for Nebraska,” said Cassandra Greisen, program specialist with Project Extra Mile. “It’s the first call to action. Changing the environment that kids grow up in is important.”

Moritsugu said in the release that alcohol remains the most heavily abused substance by American youth and said the country can no longer ignore what alcohol is doing the nation’s youth.

“All sectors of society need to pull together if change is going to happen,” Greisen said. “Adults create the community our kids live in and grow up in. It’s up to us to provide a good example and a safe place to grow to become productive individuals.”