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Greetings!
Happy Fall! MYAA is approaching exciting times. The coalition met in
August for a training on sustainability. This provided us the opportunity
to identify new funding sources for MYAA. This training will be on- going
for the coalition. If you are interested in getting involved with this
process, please contact Sherry Neal- Horsey for more information at
573.635.6669, ext. 12, or shorsey@actmissouri.org.
IOM Releases Underage Drinking Report 
Earlier in September, the Institute of Medicine released the highly
anticipated report on underage drinking. Below is a summary of the report.
To view the full report, click on link below.
Summary of recommendations: Federal and state governments should help
forge the commitment to curtail alcohol consumption by minors. For
example, the federal government should do more to educate adults about
existing laws and the consequences of underage drinking. Federal and state
governments also should provide additional financial assistance and other
support to reinforce community-based initiatives, and to research the
effectiveness of the proposed strategy itself and related policies.
To fund the proposed activities and to help reduce underage
consumption, Congress and state legislatures should raise excise tax rates
on alcohol - particularly on beer, which studies show is the alcoholic
beverage that most young people prefer. Alcohol is much cheaper today,
after adjusting for inflation, than it was 30 to 40 years ago. Higher tax
rates should be tied to the Consumer Price Index to keep pace with
inflation. Increasing the cost of alcohol has well-documented deterrent
effects on underage drinkers, the report points out.
Among the recommended steps are increasing the frequency of compliance
checks, in which authorities monitor whether businesses are obeying
minimum- drinking-age laws and levy fines when necessary, and requiring
all sellers and servers of alcohol to complete state-approved training as
a condition of employment. Likewise, the federal government should require
states to achieve specified rates of retailer compliance with youth-access
laws as a condition of receiving federal funds. And states should enhance
efforts to prevent and detect the use of false identification by minors
who want to purchase alcohol - for example, by issuing driver's licenses
and state ID cards that can be electronically scanned. The committee
recommended that trade associations in the alcohol industry and individual
companies strengthen their advertising codes to prohibit placement of
commercial messages in venues where a large portion of the audience is
underage. These groups also should establish independent, external review
boards to investigate complaints about ads and enforce codes.
For the full report...
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MYAA Responds to IOM Underage Drinking Report |
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 MYAA APPLAUDS NATIONAL REPORT ON
UNDERAGE DRINKING; ENCOURAGES IMMEDIATE RESPONSE TO RECOMMENDATIONS
(Jefferson City, MO)-As the only statewide organization whose
sole mission is to reduce underage drinking, Missouri's Youth/Adult
Alliance (MYAA) announced resounding support for the unprecedented,
congressionally-mandated report Reducing Underage Drinking-A
Collective Responsibility released yesterday by the National Academy
of Sciences and Institute of Medicine. "The national spotlight is
focused squarely on underage drinking, and a wake up call has been
issued for perhaps the first time in history," says Sherry Neal-
Horsey, MYAA project director.
Read
on... »
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FTC Report-OverExposed: Youth a Target of Alcohol Advertising
in Magazines |
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 America's youth saw far more alcoholic
beverage ads in magazines in 2001 than did people of legal drinking
age. This pattern of the alcohol industry exposing youth to more
advertising than adults cut across beverage types and brands, with
the notable exception of wine. In effect, young people under the
legal drinking age of 21 were a major target audience for the
industry's magazine advertising in 2001, despite the industry's
claims to the contrary. The following analysis shows where and how
the alcohol industry exposed youth to its products.
Our key findings are:
More beer and distilled spirits ads: Marketers of beer and
distilled spirits brands delivered more advertising to youth than to
adults in magazines in 2001 - 45% more for beer brands and 27% more
for distilled spirits brands. More "malternative" ads: Marketers of
low-alcohol refreshers, the so-called "malternatives" such as
Smirnoff Ice, delivered 60% more advertising to youth than to
adults. Fewer wine ads: For wine, the second leading alcohol
advertising category in magazines, youth saw 58% less advertising
than adults. The ability of most wine advertisers to reach an adult
audience while minimizing reach to the underage audience shows how
advertisers can reach an adult target audience without overexposing
youth. Only young adults see more ads than underage youth: Underage
youth saw nearly as much advertising as young adults ages 21-34.
Adults ages 35+ were a distant third audience. For example, those
ages 21-34 saw 16% more beer advertising than youth 12-20, while
underage youth saw 95% more beer advertising than adults 35+. 
Alcohol ad dollars follow youth audiences: Ten magazines with
underage audience compositions at or above 25% accounted for nearly
one-third of all alcohol advertising expenditures in measured
magazines. (In 1999 the Federal Trade Commission pointed to a 25%
underage audience as an effort by some companies to limit underage
youth exposure.) In addition, more than half of the money spent on
alcohol magazine advertising was in 24 magazines with youth
audiences that exceeded 15.8%, the percentage of youth 12-20 in the
U.S. population age 12 and over. In fact, twenty- five brands placed
all of their magazine advertising in youth-oriented magazines.
Full
report... »
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Survey Shows Parents Troubled by Underage
Drinking |
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 Poll finds that parents of teens
think alcohol ads have a serious effect on teen drinking habits
Washington, DC - Two-thirds of parents say that seeing and
hearing alcohol ads make teens more likely to drink alcohol, and
almost three-quarters of parents say that alcohol companies are not
doing enough to limit the amount of alcohol advertising that teens
see, according to a survey conducted by Peter D. Hart Research
Associates and American Viewpoint for the Center on Alcohol
Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University. "Parents get it that
alcohol companies' ads are not helping them teach their children
about the risks of alcohol use," said Jim O'Hara, executive director
of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown
University. "Parents want accountability and responsibility from the
beer and liquor companies."
The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth 2233 Wisconsin Avenue,
NW, Suite 525 Washington, DC 20007 www.camy.org
See key
findings of survey »
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Carmona, Governors' Spouses Collaborate To Prevent Underage
Drinking |
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 Preventing underage drinking is a
national priority, one that Surgeon General Richard Carmona will
include as part of his message concerning healthy choices for
America's children. He discussed this priority recently with NIAAA
director Dr. T.K. Li and the Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol
Free, a coalition of governors' spouses, federal agencies, and
public and private organizations. The group's co-chairs, Columba
Bush (Fla.), Lori Hauser Holden (Mo.), Mary Easley (N.C.), and Hope
Taft (Ohio), and emeritus members Sharon Kitzhaber (Ore.) and
Theresa Racicot (Mont.) took part in the meeting, along with Charles
Curie, administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration, and Dr. Howard Zucker, deputy assistant
secretary for health.
Carmona invited the Leadership Initiative to join his "50 Schools
in 50 States" campaign launched this spring to talk directly with
students about the importance of making healthy choices. Other
collaborations will include public service announcements and the
release of a surgeon general's report on underage drinking. Racicot,
past first lady of Montana and emeritus group co-chair, will serve
as a liaison between the leadership initiative and the surgeon
general's office.
Tommy Thompson and Elias Zerhouni also greeted the governors'
spouses at the meeting. Thompson emphasized his support for the
leadership initiative and the important contribution of the
governors' spouses in working to prevent underage drinking.
See
Mrs. Holden in action with the group... »
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