Alcohol is the greatest threat to your teen's life, health, and future...

• The leading causes of death among U.S. adolescents are motor vehicle crashes, other unintentional injuries, homicides, and suicides.
• Together these account for more than 70% of all teen deaths, and they are preventable.
• All of these causes are linked to teen drinking and drug use.
• However, alcohol is responsible for more teen deaths than all other drugs combined

• Over 35% of motor vehicle crash deaths result from teens who drank before they drove.
• Another 20-25% of crash deaths were estimated to result from drug use, or riding in a car with a drunk driver.
• All together, substance use accounts for almost 60% of accidental deaths among teens.

Research shows that teen alcohol and drug use are associated with serious risks to health and future.

• Physical Health: injuries, overdose, vomiting and choking injuries, liver damage, kidney damage, acute and chronic brain damage
• Mental Health: addiction, depression, anxiety, psychoses, ADHD, learning disabilities, PTSD
• Reproductive: sexual assaults, unprotected intercourse, unintended pregnancy, having babies with fetal alcohol syndrome or other disability, sexually transmitted infections , HIV/AIDS.
• Educational: poor grades, disciplinary actions, less achievement in sports and performing arts, lower chance of college admission

Current rates of alcohol and drugs use by high school seniors are shown on the left.

• Only 1/4 are getting drunk, less than 1/5 are smoking marijuana, and less than 1/10 are using any other drug.

Lifetime rates, shown on the right, are higher, but these rates include students who may have tried drinking only once.

• The botton line: Substance use is not the norm in high school.