NM: Alcohol use among NM high-schoolers continues to decline

Albuquerque Journal
By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer
July 20th, 2016
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Alcohol use among New Mexico high school students continued a long-term decline in 2015, putting the state in line with national trends, a state survey found.

Cigarette use also has declined for years among New Mexico youths, but the gain is offset by the popularity of electronic cigarettes and hookahs, the survey found.

The rate of students who reported binge-drinking behavior has declined by more than half since 2003, according to the New Mexico Youth Risk & Resiliency Survey.

Binge drinking, defined as drinking five or more alcoholic drinks on a single occasion within the past 30 days, is responsible for 90 percent of alcohol use among U.S. youths.

About 15 percent of New Mexico high school students, or fewer than one in seven, reported binge drinking, the 2015 survey found. That’s down from 35 percent in 2003.

The survey found similar declines in other alcohol-linked behaviors such as drinking and driving and riding with a drunken driver.

“All these indicators are down for alcohol, and that’s part of a national trend, which is great,” said Dan Green, a New Mexico Department of Health epidemiologist who helped analyze the survey results.

New Mexico’s 15 percent rate for binge drinking was slightly lower than the national rate of 17.7 percent for all U.S. high school students in 2015. The cause of declining rates of alcohol use remain somewhat mysterious, but may relate to changes in laws and societal norms, especially about drinking and driving, Green said.

For example, lawmakers ended drive-up package liquor sales in 1998 and for years have increased penalties for drunken driving.

“It does become part of the community norm to not drink and drive,” he said. “I’m sure reductions in drinking and driving bleed over into reductions in alcohol use in general.”

The state Human Services Department also funds local programs to educate youths about the dangers of alcohol and tobacco use, he said.

Students who reported smoking at least one cigarette in the past 30 days declined to 11.4 percent in 2015, down from about 30 percent in 2003.

But those gains have been offset by increasing use of electronic cigarettes and hookahs, Green said.

In 2015, 24 percent of high school students reported using electronic cigarettes within the past 30 days, and about 12 percent had used hookahs.

“Overall tobacco use, once you include e-cigarette and hookah use, has not actually been coming down,” he said. “I think it will be a long time before we have a handle on the health consequences of e-cigarette use.”