Since Kavanaugh's youth, drinking among teens has plummeted
by Kimberly Leonard
| October 05, 2018 05:20 PM
The confirmation battle over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has sparked a public conversation about drinking and its effects, particularly among and for teens.
But the portrait drawn during the confirmation process of the drinking that Kavanaugh and his friends did in high school and college in the 1980s stands in stark contrast to teen drinking habits today. Decades-worth of studies have shown that when it comes to alcohol, teens today are much less likely to imbibe than their parents were.
They are not only less likely to try or even regularly use alcohol, but less likely to binge drink, too. The prevalence of drinking in high school declined from 50.8 percent in 1991 to 32.8 percent by 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"I'm encouraged by the continuous drop in underage drinking ... I think it's a success and I think sometimes we don't talk enough about the successes," said Dr. George Koob, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
Alcohol features prominently in the allegations by three women who accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault. Kavanaugh admitted during a testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee that when he was younger, he was a drinker.
"Sometimes I had too many beers," he acknowledged, though he stressed that he never blacked out or got so drunk that he didn't remember what he did. He denied ever being a perpetrator of sexual assault.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/healthcare/since-kavanaughs-youth-drinking-among-teens-has-plummeted
