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Source: ANI

Date: September 30, 2010

A new study has found that due to various factors, including social, economic and ethnic influences and pressures, more people are drinking than 20 years ago. A UT Southwestern Medical Center analysis of national alcohol consumption patterns gathered the data from more than 85,000 respondents.

The findings, Dr. Raul Caetano said, suggest that continuous monitoring of alcohol consumption levels is needed to understand better the factors that affect consumption. “Changes in the population due to aging, the influx of immigrant groups, and a decline in mean income level because of economic recessions can all impact trends in drinking and problems associated with drinking,” he said.

While more Caucasians, Hispanics and African-Americans reported drinking between 1992 and 2002, only Caucasian women consumed more drinks per person. The number of drinks that African-Americans and Hispanics consumed leveled out over the 10-year time period. Dr. Caetano said the team also identified several sociodemographic predictors for whether someone was more likely to drink to intoxication. They found that males younger than 60 who did not have a college degree were likely to consume more drinks per month. Being unemployed or unmarried also were identified as risk factors for males getting intoxicated more than once a month, he said.

For the study, the researchers culled data from the 1991-92 National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey and the 2001-02 National Epidemiologic Study on Alcohol and Related Conditions. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism conducted both surveys, in which trained interviewers spoke with individuals 18 or older in the respondents’ homes. The interviewers used a standardized questionnaire, so both surveys used the same overall methodology. Each study included about 43,000 participants.

The study has been published in the October issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. (ANI)

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Source: Record Searchlight

By: Scott Mobley

Date: September 29, 2010

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed legislation championed by a Redding family whose daughter died from alcohol poisoning.

Assembly Bill 1999 would grant limited immunity from prosecution to underage drinkers seeking medical help for themselves or their peers.

Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada/Flintridge) introduced the bill in February, noting several underage drinkers have recently died of alcohol poisoning. They might have survived had their friends not been afraid to call an ambulance, he said.

Debbie Allen, whose 17-year-old daughter Shelby Lyn Allen died of alcohol poisoning just before Christmas 2008, has supported and publicized the bill.

“Not everyone will need this,” Allen said. “But some underage drinkers are afraid to get help because they don’t want to get into trouble, and this takes the trouble out of the picture. Whatever it takes to save a life.”

An underage drinker who calls 911 to report possible alcohol poisoning and cooperates with paramedics and law enforcement once they arrive will be immune from prosecution, under the law. Underage drinking is otherwise a misdemeanor.

AB 1999 is a companion to another bill Schwarzenegger signed in August that eliminates immunity for adults who knowingly supply alcohol to minors.

Allen and her husband, Steve, had also sought the “social host” law, written by Los Angeles Democrat Mike Feuer.

Shelby Allen, a popular Foothill High School junior, was found dead on a bathroom floor at the home of Wallace and Debby Liberman east of Redding.

Shelby Allen died after a bout of intense drinking with the Libermans’ now 18-year-old daughter and another teen. The rest of the Liberman family slept upstairs while the teens drank, sheriff’s deputies said.

Shasta County prosecutors had charged the Liberman teen with involuntary manslaughter in Allen’s death, but a juvenile court judge dismissed the case in November.

The Record Searchlight has not identified the teen because she was a minor when her friend died.

Shelby Allen became ill after drinking 15 shots of vodka in about an hour, according to a court document.

Allen’s two friends took her into the bathroom where she vomited into the toilet. Allen eventually passed out on her knees with her head resting on the toilet seat.

The girls put a towel under her so she could lie on it, the document said.

The Liberman teen stayed with Allen until she believed her friend was fine and checked on her two times before morning. Allen had not moved, according to the court document.

The third girl, who had also become ill, checked Allen later in the morning and thought she wasn’t breathing, according to the court document.

An older sister of the Liberman teen alerted her father, who called 911 and began CPR.

Learn how to how to prevent underage drinking in an alcohol establishment.

Source: Freep.com

By: Christ Christoff and Kathleen Gray

September 30, 2010

For drinkers, it was Christmas in September when Legislature voted to allow liquor sales Sunday mornings and Christmas Day.

Now, the question is: Will Gov. Jennifer Granholm be the Scrooge? Her spokeswoman Liz Boyd said the governor has concerns to resolve before she would sign the bill. It would also allow wine and beer tasting at grocery and party stores and others with package liquor sales licenses.

The changes had been sought for years by owners of bars and liquor retailers. Alcohol could be sold from 7 a.m. Sundays to 2 a.m. Monday mornings with a special $160 permit. Currently, liquor sales are banned Sundays until noon.

The bill also would allow beer, wine and liquor sales up to midnight Christmas Eve and after noon on Christmas Day. Liquor sales are now prohibited after 9 p.m. Christmas Eve and all day on Christmas.

Ellen Belanger, manager of the Park Bar near Comerica Park and Ford Field in Detroit, said the new law could be a boon for business on game days. “They’d be in here early for their Bloody Marys and mimosas,” she said.

Learn more about your state’s alcohol laws here.