Increase Funds For Treatment The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence-New Jersey fully supports Parent to Parent's "Just A Nickel a Gallon" campaign to dedicate $10 million from Gov. Corzine's expected $15 million increase in alcohol tax revenue to the Alcohol Education Rehabilitation and Enforcement Fund. This fund disburses $11 million annually to counties for addiction prevention and treatment and drunken driving enforcement efforts. This amount has not changed since 1992. Addiction treatment expansion is critically needed in New Jersey. One in two adults and two in three adolescents who seek treatment here are unable to access it due to limited capacity. [continues 223 words]
As alarming as this news is, we wonder whether most of your readers realize the severity of the alcohol problem among young people today or recognize its seriousness. New Jersey's most recent surveys on substance abuse by middle and high school students show that alcohol remains the number-one drug of choice among youth: 30 percent of middle school students and 47 percent of high school students reported having used alcohol in the month before the survey. It's common practice among young people, at increasingly earlier ages, to binge drink -- consume large amounts of alcohol in a short period of time. Yet there seems to be a much laxer attitude toward alcohol use by youth than to the use of tobacco and illicit drugs. [continues 85 words]
