<p>“its the government thats killing those kids. you don’t see this ridiculous behavior happening in europe do you?”</p>
<p>You do. There are MUCH higher rates of binge drinking among 15-16 year olds in every single northern European country. (Not Italy or Greece, however - genetics are different). There are also more alcohol-related deaths, more cirrhosis deaths, more liver disease, more alcohol-related cancers, and more alcoholism in EVERY Northern European country with a lower drinking age.</p>
<p>"Recent surveys of binge drinking patterns among youth are “sobering”:</p>
<p>• In Ontario, 83 percent of Grade 12 students drink, and 45 percent have had at least one episode of binge drinking in the previous four weeks, according to the 2003 Ontario Student Drug Use Survey. While the percentage of students binge drinking increases with each grade, the biggest single increase —from eight to 24 percent—occurs between Grades 8 and 9. “That jump tells us that a significant number of kids are starting really young,” says Edward Adlaf, coauthor of the study. </p>
<p>• A 2003 survey of British Columbia high-school students conducted by the McCreary Centre Society found that 46 percent of males and 43 percent of females in high school who admitted to drinking had engaged in binge drinking in the previous month, a rate that is among the highest in Canada and unchanged since 1998.</p>
<p>• Binge drinking is particularly worrisome on university and college campuses in Canada and the United States. Four surveys of 120 U.S. campuses over the last decade found that 44 percent of students admitted to an episode of binge drinking in the two weeks prior to the survey, a rate that has remained unchanged for a decade. The 2000 Canadian Campus Survey found similar results, with 63 percent of students reporting consuming five or more drinks in a single sitting in the previous year. The Canadian study concluded that campuses are a “risky milieu for hazardous drinking.”</p>
<p>“In Canada, alcohol is the largest contributor to deaths among Canadians 18 and 19 years old, said Robert Mann, associate professor of public health at the University of Toronto and senior scientist at the university-affiliated Center for Addiction and Mental Health.”</p>