.VIENNA, Austria (AP) – A 13-year-old schoolgirl in southern Austria celebrated the start of her spring break with a bottle of schnapps.
She ended up in intensive care.
In other countries across Europe, adolescents are making similar headlines for drinking themselves into a stupor, often passing out in the process.
And they’re getting younger: A June 2006 European Union-commissioned report says nearly all 15- to 16-year-old European students have had alcohol at some point in their lives and, on average, now start when they’re just 12 1/2 years old.
The data stem from a 2003 survey by the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs.
More than one in six have “binged” – had five or more drinks on a single occasion – three or more times in the last month, said the report by the London-based Institute of Alcohol Studies. It excluded EU newcomers Bulgaria and Romania.
In contrast to the United States, where even adults are often asked to prove their age when buying beer and other alcoholic drinks, laws in Europe are more lax and the drinking age generally hovers around 16 or 18.
Supermarkets sell alcohol and, unlike in the U.S., bottles and cans are seldom stashed away in areas that are off-limits to underage customers. Carding is uncommon.
In Austria – where binge drinking is known as “Komatrinken,” or “coma drinking” – a new law prohibits the sale of alcohol to anyone under either 16 or 18, depending on the region, and requires cashiers and establishments to card customers if they have any doubt about their age. Failure to do so can result in fines of up to $5,610 and loss of a liquor license.
“When it comes to coma drinking among young people, we’re dealing with a phenomenon that needs to be battled to the best of our abilities,” Economics Minister Martin Bartenstein said.
Authorities and experts alike acknowledge the issue isn’t going away.
The WHO estimates there are 76.3 million people with alcohol use disorders worldwide.
The experts warn that some barely pubescent juveniles are starting to reach for the bottle sooner.
“We’ve seen a whole series of new trends over the past five to 10 years,” said Michael Musalek, director of the Anton Proksch Institute, a renowned Austrian detox center that claims to be Europe’s largest.
“For one, the age of alcohol beginners keeps declining. Today, 11-, 12-, 13-year-olds are already drinking – some on a regular basis,” he said.
Hospital officials notice the same trend.
At Vienna’s General Hospital, up to three teens are admitted each weekend after drinking escapades escalate, often leaving them so intoxicated they become unconscious, pediatrician Zsolt Szepfalusi said. More cases are common during special events, such as the city’s annual Danube Island Fest in the summer, he said.
“The numbers aren’t really up – but we’re seeing a decrease in age,” Szepfalusi said. “Some of our patients are as young as 12.”
It’s not just a big-city problem. Robert Birnbacher, head of pediatrics at a public hospital in the southern Austrian town of Villach, said his clinic sees about one to two cases of young “coma drinkers” every weekend.
“The patients are getting younger and there are more girls among them,” he said.
Vladimir Poznyak, coordinator of the team working on the management of substance abuse in the World Health Organization’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, confirmed a general decline in age for initial contact with alcohol worldwide.
“It’s definitely happening and reflects general cultural changes,” Poznyak said.
The risks of starting to drink early include developing a dependence on alcohol and hampering brain development, he said.
In Germany, where beer is a big part of local culture, authorities are calling on adults to counsel their children to put off their first experiences with alcohol.
In October, the government’s “drug czar,” Sabine Baetzing, said every fourth teenager gets drunk off five or more alcoholic drinks at least once a month. The number of teenagers who ended up hospitalized with alcohol poisoning doubled from 9,500 in 2000 to 19,400 in 2005, she said.
But one expert, while welcoming action to fight alcohol abuse among Austria’s young, cautions against blowing the problem out of proportion.
Alfred Uhl, senior scientist at the Vienna-based Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Addiction Research, said alcohol consumption in Austria peaked around 1970 and has declined ever since – despite the fact that prices have nose-dived. He warned that hospital statistics may be misleading because alcohol-related diagnoses were made less frequently in the past than they are now.
But Uhl acknowledged that Europe’s young, in general, are adopting adult behavior earlier than they used to – and that includes drinking.
“Generally speaking, Europe’s youngsters are growing up faster than they used to and in countries such as Austria where alcohol is a part of the going out culture, it would be strange if they didn’t consume alcohol as well,” he said.
On the streets of the Austrian capital, teenagers dispute they drink heavily, but acknowledge alcohol has a presence in their lives.
“I started when I was 15 and like beer and tequila,” said 16-year-old Patrick Settinger, smoking a cigarette on his way home from school.
