Wednesday, May 28, 2003

I learned

it by watching Wolverine!

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Let me start

this column by stating explicitly that I do not condone underage drinking

and I certainly do not condone drunk driving by people of any age.

This column

started last week when I received a piece of e-mail from The Foundation

of Alcohol Awareness. I get tons of e-mail each day from people wanting

to spread their releases and get it into the newspapers. The Foundation

of Alcohol Awareness got lucky because the title of their release, "Movie

Mutants Enjoy MGD ... Do Kids?" caught my attention.

The release

went on to say that Miller Brewing Company launched a grant matching program

to support responsibility efforts in local communities as part of its

"Live Responsibly" campaign. Miller says its commitment includes

initiatives "designed to aid in the prevention of drunk driving,

over-consumption and underage access." The Foundation for Alcohol

Awareness found Miller contradicting themselves because Wolverine in X2:

X-Men United drinks a beer in the film.

I saw X2, I

remember Wolverine drinking a beer and I think it is a pretty big leap

to think that every kid who saw the film is just itching to get their

hands on an MGD, just like the sideburned hero. The reason I think this

is a faulty argument is because of this: E.T. drank a lot of beer in the

film "E.T. the Extra Terrestrial," which is one of the most

popular films of all time and is certainly available to kids much younger

than those who can see X2, which is rated PG-13. Were people freaking

out when E.T. came out or when it was re-released? No. And really, other

than the people who work for The Foundation for Alcohol Awareness, I don't

think people are freaking out now, either.

The release

then brought out a number of facts from a 2003 study from the National

Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. Some examples

of these statistics are: Children under the age of 21 drink 19.7 percent

of the alcohol consumed in the U.S. ($22.5 billion in sales); 80 percent

of high school students have tried alcohol and each year approximately

3.3 million students between the ages of 12 and 17 start drinking. Alcohol

use also increases dramatically with age. Forty-one percent of ninth graders

currently use alcohol, 49.7 percent of tenth graders, 50.9 percent of

eleventh graders, and 61.7 percent of twelfth graders. Some of these numbers

are alarming - until you think