David J. Hanson

Young drivers are over-represented in alcohol related driving accidents. Although drinking, binge drinking, and alcohol related crashes are dropping among young people, specific actions are recommended to further reduce traffic accidents involving alcohol.

Research has firmly established that U.S. teens and young adults have a greatly exaggerated view of how many of their peers engage in heavy drinking. This misperception exists as a false norm that produces greater pressure toward high-risk drinking than when the norm is accurately perceived.

Alcohol abuse is a significant problem among young people and a solution needs to be found. This page evaluates prevention programs and identifies effective and ineffective ways to reduce drinking problems among young people, especially high school, college, and university students.

Recent research strongly suggests that early onset of drinking may result from pre-existing emotional, behavioral, medical or other problems. For example, new research confirms that children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at increased risk of heavy drinking and alcohol-related problems diagnosable as alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence.

The idea that alcohol kills brain cells has long been promoted. The early temperance writers made this assertion and also insisted that the alcohol in their blood could cause “drunkards” to catch fire and burn alive. This combustion argument against drinking was dropped long ago but many anti-alcohol writers continue to promote the idea that even moderate drinking causes brain cells to die.

Anne M. Fletcher approached the question of how to help those who drink too much in a very logical way. She asked hundreds of people who had successfully dealt with their drinking problems how other people had helped them either moderate or eliminate their drinking.

Here are practical suggestions for either cutting down or abstaining from alcohol along with tips for helping loved ones who have a drinking problem.

Teenagers who drink alcohol with their parents are less likely to drink heavily, according to research among 10,000 students aged 15 and 16 in 130 schools in England.

"Preventing Alcohol Abuse is must reading for anyone concerned with preventing alcohol problems, and curious about how hundreds of generations of humans managed to survive thousands of years of interaction with alcohol without benefit of government management of consumption and long before the invention of alcoholism." - Harold A. Mulford, Ph.D. Psychiatry Professor, Emeritus Psychiatry Research, MEB

"David Hanson's book, Alcohol Education: What We Must Do, provides for the first time a sensible path for Americans to teach their young about drinking." - Stanton Peele, Ph.D.

"This book neatly chronicles how Americans got into their present absurd position that equates any drinking with alcohol abuse or illegal drug-taking--and shows clearly and practically how to get out of it. This book, together with Hanson's recent Preventing Alcohol Abuse, explains both our peculiar attitudes and our counterproductive laws, while offering constructive alternatives." - Dr. Dwight B. Heath Professor of Anthropology (Research) Brown University