The phrase "I’m telling your parents" apparently still has a chilling effect on some young people, even if they are over 18 and live away from home. At least that’s what college administrators believe as more implement parental notification policies to combat drinking by underage students. A recent survey of 189 schools found that 44% had written policies to notify parents of drinking violations, 15% had no formal policy but notified parents anyway and another 25% were planning on instituting the policy, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. Only 15% of schools had no policy and were not planning to start one. Prior to October, 1998, when Congress amended the Higher Education Act to allow colleges to notify parents of students under 21 that their child had violated alcohol or drug laws, only 17% of these schools had parental-notification policies in place. Does parental notification work? Of the 63 schools that had policies in place for the entire fall semester of 1999, 52% reported that violations had declined "slightly or significantly"; 29% said notifying parents "had no effect whatsoever," researchers reported. Only one school reported an increase in alcohol-policy violations since they started notifying parents. The program is not without detractors. Yale University decided not to start such a program. "The university continues to believe that the best way to prevent alcohol and drug abuse is through education and counseling," a spokesperson told the Chronicle. How do students feel? One student at the University of New Hampshire was so desperate to keep his parents out of the loop that he hired a lawyer to file a restraining order to stop the police from notifying them. Of course such odd circumstances made the newspapers and he had to fess up anyway.

The US Supreme Court will review a decision by the 1^st Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld severe restrictions on tobacco advertising in Massachusetts. The restrictions are similar to the broad ban of alcohol beverage advertising being challenged by the alcohol beverage industry in Los Angeles. (See August 2000 INSIGHTS.) This case may provide an important indication of the Supreme Court

Though 2001 isn't a month old, 12 of the 31 states that do not currently have .08 BAC limits for driving are already considering .08 legislation, according to Kristen Eastlick of American Beverage Institute (ABI). Many of the other 19 states are expected to take up such bills; some are not in session yet. ABI currently tags at least 10 states "high risk" for .08 passage this year, and pegs Maryland, Missouri and Minnesota as "high-profile" debates. Given the federal mandate to pass .08 or face the loss of highway funds down the road, how can opponents battle these bills? Key arguments: 40 million Americans drink responsibly and then drive, according to ABI; research from several states shows that lowering BAC limits to .08 doesn

This recent research found another benefit of moderate drinking and adds new information about and/or challenges three common beliefs about alcohol and health. First, the federal Dietary Guidelines point out that "moderate consumption provides little, if any, health benefit for younger people," and policy advocates tend to stress that claim. Second, the latest NIAAA report on Alcohol and Health suggested that it "remains uncertain" whether "moderate drinking reduces stroke risk." Third, women tend to be far more concerned about the risk of breast cancer (and the possibility that alcohol increases that risk), than their much-greater risk of cardiovascular disease. This new case-control study of over 600 women aged 15-44 found that "light to moderate drinkers had 40% to 60% lower risk of ischemic stroke than never drinkers." In fact, the authors concluded that their findings indicate that "the National Stroke Association

As more and more colleges increase efforts to reduce alcohol consumption by students, the percentage of incoming college freshmen who say they drink beer continues to decline. When surveyed in the fall of 2000, 48.3% of college freshmen said they drank beer "frequently" or "occasionally," down slightly from 48.6% in 99, and down sharply from a peak of 74% in 1982, according to the latest annual survey from the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA. That

Forty years of studying drinking habits around the world has given Brown University anthropologist Dwight Heath rare insight and authority about alcohol issues. His new book--Drinking Occasions