National Underage Drinking Findings Carded

A major substance abuse think tank acknowledged that its alarming claim -- that youths ages 12 to 20 consume 25 percent of all alcohol in the United States -- was based on a flawed analysis, but said the figure would hold up if other factors are added. In a page-one article, The New York Times reports that former Carter Administration HEW Secretary Joseph Califano and his group, Columbia University's Center for Alcohol and Substance Abuse (CASA) now admit that they distorted data to make unsupportable claims. The alcohol industry challenged the survey's conclusion calling their consumption estimate "a flawed interpretation of the data and a massive error in fact."

The federal agency whose survey was used for the think tank's report studied the data at MSNBC.com's request and agreed the consumption figure was actually 11.4 percent. The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse acknowledged late Tuesday that due to an oversight it had not made a necessary adjustment when analyzing data from the 1998 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. The report is online at www.casacolumbia.org.

Moderator Comment: Did the follow-up reporting on the mistakes made by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse in reporting the study's finding match the high profile of the original reports?

See the RetailWire news report and discussion Underage College Drinking Lessens as Kids Start Younger for further context on this subject. [George Anderson - Moderator]

• Teen Drinking Report Flawed
• Federal Agency Says Califano's Columbia University Study Is Wrong, Reports Distilled Spirits Council of U.S.
• Beer Institute Says Study Ignores Positive Tends in Reducing Underage Drinking