Here in Hawaii, a recent report shows that 20 percent of sixth through twelfth graders are alcohol users. Nine percent of intermediate and high school student users drink on a daily basis, and almost 40 percent of these students reported being drunk or high at least once in the past year.1

And a recent survey in Hawaii indicated that 40 percent of adults in the City and County of Honolulu and more than 50 percent of adults in Hawaii, Kauai, and Maui counties believe it is not at all difficult for children to obtain alcohol. And a substantial percentage of students reported it is very easy or fairly easy to get alcohol.2

This needs to stop.

Underage drinking is everybody's problem - and its solution is everyone's responsibility.

Unfortunately, too many Americans see underage drinking as a rite of passage … kids just being kids.

The reality is our young people are being harmed by underage drinking. That's why this Call to Action is attempting to change the culture and attitudes toward underage drinking in America.

We can no longer ignore what alcohol is doing to our children. The adverse consequences of underage drinking are wide-ranging, and include academic failure, risky sexual behavior, injuries, and even death.

In fact, each year, more than 5,000 deaths of people under age 21 are linked to underage drinking.

As with every Surgeon General's publication, this Call to Action is grounded in science. The science indicates that underage drinking is putting our children at risk.

Recent research shows that the brain continues to develop well beyond childhood - and throughout adolescence.

This research raises concerns that underage drinking may affect short-term and long-term cognitive functioning, and may change the brain in ways that can lead to future alcohol dependence.

Research also 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.

The bottom line is that research provides more reasons than ever before for parents and other adults to be concerned about the effects of underage drinking on our nation's children, and to take steps to prevent and reduce underage drinking.

This Call to Action is a call to every American to join with the Surgeon General in a national effort to address underage drinking early, continuously, and in context of human development.

Acknowledgments

I want to thank some of the people here today who led the way in developing The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking.

• Lt. Gov Aiona for his commitment to this important issue. As all of you know, he has played a key role here in Hawaii but I want to be sure that all of you know that he also is playing a key role at the national level as a co-chair of the Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol-Free.

• Mrs. Hope Taft, the former first lady of Ohio who is a past co-chair of the Leadership and currently a Board member of the Leadership Foundation and who has helped arrange my visit to Hawaii. Like Lt. Gov Aiona, Mrs. Taft has exercised national leadership on this issue for many years, building on her many years of experience as a prevention professional.

• The Hawaii Partnership to Prevent Underage Drinking for your efforts to prevent underage drinking. As U.S. Surgeon General, I am working to engage communities across the nation to work on this issue, and as a native of Hawaii I have a particular interest in your success here at home.

• Our partners at The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

• The staff at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, both Mark Weber and Steve Wing are with me on this trip.

  And finally ….

• The Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking,

Goals of the Call to Action

This Call to Action identifies six goals that we will be joining with all sectors of society to address:

1. Foster changes in society that facilitate healthy adolescent development and that help prevent and reduce underage drinking.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Conduct additional research on adolescent alcohol use and its relationship to development.
5. Work to improve public health surveillance on underage drinking and on population-based risk factors for this behavior.

   And finally:

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

Guides to Action

As many of you know, the Office of the Surgeon General is committed to providing the best scientific information in a way that people can use and understand.

By making health information easier to understand, we allow people to actively take steps to increase their health and wellness and to actually prevent disease as a result of healthy choices.

In addition to this Call to Action, I am happy to announce that today I am releasing several "Guides to Action" with the science presented in a way that Americans can understand and apply to their individual and family circumstances. (HOLD UP THE GUIDES TO ACTION)

I am confident that the information in this Call to Action, when broadly disseminated and discussed among parents, teachers, community leaders, and young people themselves will literally save lives.

Before moving to the next part of our program, I want to specifically recognize the millions of parents who have worked to prevent their children from drinking.

You may have often felt that you were fighting this battle alone.

With this Call to Action, I am asking every American to join in a national effort to change attitudes and behaviors regarding underage drinking. Our children deserve nothing less.

During the remainder of this year, I will be visiting other states across the country to talk about this Call to Action and I'd like to conclude by thanking Lt Gov Aiona for joining us in making this the first of what we hope will be many successful partnerships to address this serious public health and safety issue.

Introduction

In closing, thank you all very much for being here today. As you are probably aware, copies of the Call to Action are available on my website: www.surgeongeneral.gov.

1 Hawaii Student Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug Use Study (2003)
2Center on the Family, University of Hawaii (2007)

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Last revised: September 28, 2007