Are you Old Enough? How do you Know??

<editor's note>
Two different approaches to keeping alcohol out of the hands of minors. 
First from the Dayton Daily News: 12.07.2002
Second from Reuters Health
</editor's note>

Buying alcohol may require knowledge of the '80s 
Associated Press 
COLUMBUS | The state's newest effort to curb underage drinking is an 
advertising campaign using 1980s pop-culture references. 

Signs posted at places where liquor is sold will say, for instance, ''If you 
don't know who shot J.R., prepare to be carded.'' 

Other variations include, ''If you've never done the moonwalk ...'' or ''If 
you think a turntable is a piece of furniture ...'' 

Officials hope the signs will cause minors to think twice before trying to buy alcohol. 

The Ohio Department of Public Safety says one of every four Ohio liquor stores 
or bars that state agents visited this year was cited for alcohol sale to minors. 

The campaign is sponsored by the Century Council, a national not-for-profit 
organization funded by distillers and based in Washington, D.C. 

Jay Hibbard, the council's regional director, said part of the challenge in 
curbing underage drinking is convincing minors that trying to buy alcohol is 
not worth the risk of being arrested. 

''For a lot of them, they believe they won't be the one caught,'' Hibbard said. 
[From the Dayton Daily News: 12.07.2002] 

******************************************************************************
AMA Goes After Beer Ads Aimed at Underage Drinkers

By Peggy Peck 
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters Health) - The American Medical Association (AMA) wants to 
ban beer and wine ads from prime-time television and is asking both network and 
cable TV to veto all ads that feature "mascots, celebrities or sports figures 
promoting alcohol products." 
	
Dr. J. Edward Hill, chairman of the AMA's board of trustees, said the AMA is 
asking both networks and cable outlets to sign onto a voluntary agreement to 
hold off beer and wine ads until after 10 PM or initiate a total ban during 
programs that are aimed at youth--defined as a viewing audience that is at 
least 15% adolescents. He announced the new initiative at a press conference 
held in conjunction with the AMA's office of alcohol and other drug abuse. 

Hill said the AMA has a long-standing policy opposing alcohol advertising 
aimed at children but is acting now because of "recent evidence that alcohol 
damages the brains of young people and that damage may be irreversible." The 
AMA also released a new report titled "Harmful Consequences of Alcohol Use on 
the Brains of Children, Adolescents and College Students." 

The report, authored by Drs. Donald W. Zeigler, Claire Wang and Richard Yoast, 
concludes that no "pattern of drinking is without special risks to the 
developing brain from its fetal stage until early adulthood." 

Dr. Sandra Brown, an alcohol researcher from the University of California, San 
Diego, who joined the press conference by telephone, said researchers have long 
known that alcohol "has a detrimental effect on adult brains. The frightening 
new news is that it has the same effect on young brains." 

Brown said published studies using functional MRI to compare adolescents who 
are regular alcohol users to abstinent teens demonstrate decreased function in 
brain areas that affect memory as well as spatial visual function. 
Additionally, she said that even after abstaining from drinking for 3 weeks, 
teens who are regular binge drinkers show deficits in retention of both verbal 
and non-verbal information, suggesting a defect in short-term memory. 

Dr. David Jernigan, a researcher at Georgetown's Center on Alcohol Marketing to 
Youth, said his research suggests that both the beer and hard liquor industry 
specifically target underage drinkers. "Underage drinkers account for 12% of 
all alcohol sales," Jernigan said. He noted that two trade associations, the 
Beer Institute and the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, have 
policies that prohibit ads targeting teens or ads that feature sexually 
suggestive behavior. 

But Jernigan then illustrated several examples of television, print and 
Web-based advertising that appear to violate those standards. He said that 
his group will release another study on December 17 that will look at 
youth-targeted TV advertising. He said his center is petitioning the Federal 
Trade Commission to once again investigate advertising practices of the liquor 
industry. 

Hill said the AMA is seeking voluntary cooperation from television outlets, but 
said that the organization will not back off this new campaign. Noting that in 
New Orleans it's less expensive to buy beer than milk or juice, he added, "we 
can't let our children drown in a river of cheap beer."

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