About the Alliance

Leaders from 44 public and private organizations, including 15 state agencies and the Governor's Office Criminal Justice Division, signed a pact June 1, 2000 creating a new state initiative to prevent underage drinking.

The Alliance Against Underage Drinking represents a comprehensive, coordinated response to one of the most serious health threats young Texans face. Alcohol is often a factor in teen automobile crashes, homicides and suicides - the three leading causes of teen deaths. In 1998, alcohol was blamed in the deaths of 640 Texans under the age of 21, almost five times the number of young deaths due to all illicit drugs combined.

The June 1 ceremony also included representatives from Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Texas DARE Institute, the Texas Medical Association, the Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research, several industry organizations and numerous law enforcement associations. Young people, who will play an important role in the Alliance's activities and development, signed along with state leaders.

"Almost 700,000 Texas school children use alcohol, and more than half a million of them are heavy drinkers," says Jay Kimbrough, executive director of the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, one of the partners in the new Alliance Against Underage Drinking. "It is time to coordinate our efforts to prevent underage drinking and raise public awareness of this serious problem."

According to state and national statistics:

• In 1998, alcohol was responsible for the deaths of 640 Texans under the age of 21 - almost five times the number of deaths due to illicit drugs.
• The economic impact of underage drinking was more than $4 billion in Texas in 1998, according to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
• In 1998, almost 15,000 Texas youth under age 18 were arrested for driving while intoxicated, underage drinking or public drunkenness.
• One in four Texas seniors admitted they have driven after having a good bit to drink. That represents almost 80,000 impaired kids on Texas roads each year.
• More than 10 percent of secondary students said they had attended class at least once while drunk during the past year.
• In Texas, average age for first use of beer is 12 years, and average age for first use of liquor is 13 years.
• Children who begin drinking alcohol before the age of 15 are four times more likely to develop alcoholism in adulthood than children who do not drink until the legal age of 21.