AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION HOUSE OF DELEGATES

Resolution: __(A-05)

Title:                    Eliminate Underage, Destructive, and High Risk Alcohol Consumption

Introduced By:     American College of Preventive Medicine

Referred to:         Reference Committee ____

Whereas, approximately 11 million American youth under the age of 21 drink alcohol and 7 million of them are binge drinkers, and

Whereas, underage drinking is a factor in nearly half of all teen automobile crashes which is the leading cause of death among teenagers, and linked to two-thirds of all sexual assaults and date rapes; and

Whereas, alcohol consumption contributes to youth suicides, homicides and fatal injuries, and

Whereas, on average, a child takes their first drink before age 12 and youth who use alcohol before age 15 are four times more likely to become alcoholics than adults whose first drink is at the legal age of 21, and

Whereas, the brain goes through dynamic change during adolescence, and alcohol can seriously damage long- and short-term growth and cognitive and intellectual and social development processes, and

Whereas, the AMA and the AMA Alliance, collaborating with the AMA Office of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse, have created an Action Team on Alcohol and Health: An Initiative to Eliminate Underage Drinking, with the intent of involving practicing physicians from around the nation, be it therefore

RESOLVED that the AMA actively opposes underage drinking by working toward a comprehensive community-based environmental approach that includes local and state policies and medical services (Directive to Take Action); and be it further

RESOLVED that the AMA supports evidence-based public health/environmental policies to curtail destructive and high-risk drinking (New HOD Policy). 

Fiscal Note: 

Relevant AMA Policy

H-30.943 Alcoholism And Alcohol Abuse Among Women

H-30.945 Drivers Impaired by Alcohol

H-30.951 Boating Under the Influence

H-30.955 Sequelae of Alcohol Intake

H-30.959 Mandatory Loss of Driver's License for Drivers Under Age 21 with Any Blood Alcohol Level

H-30.961 Student Life Styles

H-30.972 Alcohol Abuse and the War on Drugs

H-30.998 Recommendations for AMA Involvement in Alcoholism Activities

H-60.941 Effects of Alcohol on the Brains of Underage Drinkers

H-170.970 Teenage Drinking and Driving