Underage drinkers account for a large part of the alcohol industry according to a study released by Columbia University’s National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse Tuesday. The study said people ages 12 to 21 consume 25 percent of all alcohol in the United States. In 1998, that accounted for $27 billion of the $108 billion spent on alcohol, $15 billion of that on beer.

The study states more than five million high school students admit to binge drinking at least once a month, and on college campuses 44 percent of students binge drink.

Underage drinking receives little coverage in the media unless some sort of organization releases statistics or there is a tragedy involving underage drinking. These instances reiterate the problem of underage drinking.

But there may be hope yet.

While the report today states drinking among underagers is on the rise, many other studies refute that finding, stating drinking is actually decreasing.

The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States disagrees with Columbia University’s findings and said underage drinkers actually only account for 11.4 percent of all the alcohol consumed in the United States. In addition, from 1979 to 1999 there was a 39 percent decline of those 12 to 20 who ever drank alcohol. According to the University of Michigan, daily drinking by college students dropped 44.6 percent, and drinking within a 30-day period dropped nearly 18 percent.

The findings by the University of Michigan also agree with those found at UW-Madison by the Robert Wood Johnson project, a group who works towards combating drinking on campus. According to the preliminary summary of the study, drinking has dropped at UW, with frequent binge drinking dropping from 42.9 percent in 1999 to 29.1 percent in 2000. Likewise, UW students who did not binge drink in high school went up from 27 percent to 33.9 percent.

This is good news for RWJ and the UW administration, who are always working to combat the drinking problem on campus. The RWJ project works to give undergraduates non-alcoholic entertainment options as well as working with the city to abolish drink specials and other alcoholic specials, which encourage drinking.

However, with conflicting studies such as these, it is hard to know if the problem is diminishing or not.

Correctly analyzing these studies is important when weighing whether or not new policies such as keg registration or banning drink specials are good or necessary. According to Columbia’s study, 71.2 percent of adults approve of keg registration. Seventy-three percent also approve of undercover enforcement of existing laws, and 85.2 percent approve of restricting home delivery of alcohol.
However, some in Madison argue banning drink specials is ignoring a larger problem of house parties on campus — a place many underagers do drink. In addition, some oppose the keg registration because it may give police a reason to go looking for trouble.
Regardless, while underage drinking is a problem on campus, the analysis of Columbia’s data can be taken either way. It gives these groups ammunition to push policies through local governments, but it can also mean the policies in place don’t work. Nonetheless, there always seems to be a study to refute the one that just came out — leaving people more perplexed than satisfied.