More Teens Are Binge Drinking

CDC Study Says Nearly Half Of Teens Drink, And Of Those, Many Binge

(CBS)  She looked too young. But at 14, Koren Zailckas took her first sip of Southern Comfort. Soon the sips turned to shots.

Was she drinking to get drunk?

"Absolutely," Zailckas told CBS News correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi. "The goal was always to get drunk, to that point of 'past gone.'"

One night she was so "gone," she had to have her stomach pumped. She was 16.

"I was 16, and I woke up the next morning in my parents' house wearing a hospital gown and the ID bracelet from the hospital, with no recollection of what happened," Zailckas said.

Today, her recollections are laid out in her best-selling memoir, "Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood."

Zailckas' book is dramatic, but her stories of binge drinking and blackouts are not unique.

According to a CDC study released today, nearly half of all high school students admit to drinking, and most of them to binge drinkers.

"The real problem with binge drinking is that these kids are likeliest to become alcoholics and abusers," said Joseph Califano, chairman of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

Zailckas said she never thought of alcohol as a drug, but found out it was just as dangerous.

"I woke up from one blackout when I was 19 years old with some boy, and had no idea what happened the night before, and didn't really know what had happened, and didn't want to know at that point," she said.

She later learned she had lost her virginity.

Did she keep drinking after that?

"I did, yeah," she said.

Studies show 13,000 kids will take their first drink today. For a lot of them, it's just the first round.

[orinlouis]

Koren, you are hot!

[orinlouis]

Koren, you are hot!

[lily_ayanami]

I question the intelligence of these children. And the responsibility of the parents.

Really, I just blame society for popularizing binge drinking.

[marcpcbs]

There used to be an old rule.

"Not In Front Of The Kids"

This rule existed because they used to know that the children are watching, listening and learning.

Between the adults and the movies doing any and everything right in front of the kids it's no wonder where they get it.

To prove this out we should start making a couple of dozen movies about 14 year olds using heroin and then robbing banks. Then we could measure the increase in 14-year-old heroin addict bank robbers. But then someone always says, "There's no connection" and someone else always says, "The kids have a god given right to watch movies about 14 year old heroin addicted bank robbers".

And the beat goes on.

[swwils]

I don't understand how the government,and the people in this country countinue to wear blinders.They make such an issue over drinking,and doing drugs hell it pushes kids into experimenting just to see what all the fuss is about.Plus they are bored you can't do anything anymore without being ridiculed for skating on the parking lot or the tennis court or walking in the wrong place.It's only going to get worse we lost the war on alcohol and drugs in the 60'sI never could understand why you can't drink a beer until your 21 but you can go get killed in the military at 17,and if all of capitol hill smoked pot it would be legal and alcohol would be illegal.I have never once seen a man smoke a joint then go crazy on his wife and children.I have seen many drink alcohol and then beat the *** out of his wife and kids so go figure.When Uncle Sam put out "reefer madness" in the 50's America lost all reality with the truth of alcohol and drugs,what a farce that documentary was,is,I just hope my two yougest kids stay clear of both,I lost my two oldest to drugs and alcohol all they want to do is party til they puke totally wasted their lives.I only see this country getting worse before it gets better and it is a crying shame.

[olebd]

The more rules against drinking, the more teens will want to try it.

Is it just me or do teens seem more mentally immature these days? I think it's because we shelter them too much and don't allow them to learn through experiences. We have closed down the school of hard knocks.

Most teens don't even have to experience employment these days, the parents give them everything....money, car, gas, insurance.

[antwonsk8108]

COMON PEOPLE I MEAN THESE KIDS ARE JUST DUMB PARTLEY BECAUSE OF THE PARENTS ME AND MY FRIEND AREE 13 AND ARE PARENTS ARE VERY ALCOHOLIC WE HAVE HAD A SIP OF SOME BEER WE DONT REALLY LIKE IT U GOT TO ADMITT BEER ISINT TO GREAT (ALL U KIDS) ITS THE BURNING DESIER TO TRY SOMTHING THAT OS EILEGAL AND U CAN SAY U DID IT SAME WITH WEED AND OTEER DRUGS