One Less for the Road?

By John Leo

Gary Kamiya, 31, a San Francisco cabby with a master's degree in English, remains cheerfully unaffected by the trend to lighter drinking. He may have a beer at lunch, perhaps a Manhattan cocktail or wine at dinner during the week, and he drinks every weekend as well. "I've continued to slam down the hard stuff with as much alacrity as ever," he says. Indeed, for every yuppie who has traded in vodka for mineral water, there seems to be a social drinker like Kamiya clinging to the old ways--or a teenager taking up a habit he may not be able to handle. The result: although drinking is definitely down nationwide, many Americans still drink as lustily as ever and alcohol abuse remains a major social problem.

Owing to pressure from Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and other groups, laws and attitudes on intoxicated drivers have changed rapidly. The good news is that deaths of drunk drivers are down 32% since 1980, and deaths from cirrhosis of the liver, whose principal cause is heavy consumption of alcohol, declined steadily over the same period. The bad news is that vast ! numbers of Americans are still willing to drive drunk. Ralph Milstead, director of Arizona's department of public safety, estimates that one of every 100 drivers on the road on Saturday and Sunday nights is "absolutely blitzed, on the verge of comatose." Drunkenness is involved in 30% to 50% of traffic deaths, 45% of all fatal falls, and 50% to 70% of homicides. "Alcohol is a factor in the ten leading causes of premature death," says Nancy Thompson of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. "It cuts across a lot of diseases."

The U.S. has an estimated 10 million alcoholics, and a growing number of them belong to the younger age brackets. West Paces Ferry Hospital in Atlanta reports that the average age of people coming in for treatment dropped from 49 to 39 in the past decade. A study showed that 70% of Georgia's eighth- graders had used alcohol, and one expert estimates that the state had 45,000 teen alcoholics. One of every five freshmen at the University of Minnesota admits to being a heavy drinker, which is twice the rate found in 1975. A survey of 1,200 students in fraternities and sororities on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign sketched a portrait of young people heavily dependent on booze to handle stress. More than half said they drink when angry or upset, three-quarters said they drink to get drunk, and 42% admitted they have trouble putting down the bottle once they start. Almost 30% had at least one accident or injury while drunk.

At many high schools, some students manage to sneak away for a few beers during lunch period. "Teenage drinking is definitely the biggest problem we now have in our schools," says Peggy Sapp, executive director of Informed Families of Dade County, Fla. "It's not just the idea of going out to have a drink. Now they are going out to get drunk." Linda Baron, a Miami drug-abuse specialist, says, "Sometimes we wonder which comes first: poor grades, poor relationships with families and low self-esteem, or teenage drinking problems."

Some youngsters mix large amounts of alcohol with other drugs. "They may go up all night on cocaine and get racing, then later on use alcohol to come down and get to sleep," says Kevin McEneaney of Phoenix House, a Manhattan drug- free center. "They may also use alcohol to mask other drugs. Drinking is more respectable than putting powder in your nose." Illinois State Trooper Bob Campbell says teenagers often cover drugs by having a drink before driving. If they are stopped by police, the blood alcohol level will be too low to result in arrest.

In the minds of many youngsters, bars are still where the action is. "For the unattached, the singles who are still looking, there are few viable alternatives to pubs," says Roger Dunham, a sociologist at the University of Miami, Fla. "Even though there is a general trend toward temperance, there is something about a pub--the drinking, the relaxation."

Heavy drinking is now a serious problem at stadiums and sports arenas. Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, who has been searching for a way to crack down on drug use by players, has talked of refurbishing baseball's "family image," a polite way of saying that something must be done about a new type of fan turning up at ball parks: the loutish young male who sloshes beer on other fans, starts fistfights at random and hurls objects from the stands. The Pittsburgh Pirates have set aside "family sections," where no beer is allowed. The Seattle Mariners have 3,500 family seats at the Kingdome.

Stadium owners, reluctant to lose money by banning beer, have responded with an assortment of other palliative efforts. Veterans' Stadium in Philadelphia hires off-duty police to roam the stands and see that drunks are cut off. The Capital Centre in Landover, Md., provides free rides home for the inebriated, sometimes for those unwilling to go. Boston's Fenway Park no longer allows vendors to hawk beer in the stands, and set a two-beer limit at concession counters. Many parks, like Shea and Yankee stadiums in New York, stop selling beer after the seventh inning to let woozy fans sober up for the trip home.

In response to public pressure, police are taking a tougher stance. The Los Angeles police department has a driving under-the-influence task force, and Florida's Dade County has a 22-officer police squad assigned to patrol solely for drunk drivers. In New Mexico, police are authorized to confiscate driving licenses on the spot if the driver is under 18 and measures .05% blood alcohol content on a breath test. Adults must have twice that score to qualify as drunk, but, says a state spokesman, "the idea is that a juvenile is more impaired at .05 than an adult is at .10." In some states, police routinely set up "sobriety checkpoints," stopping cars to check for drunk drivers. Maryland has a program encouraging CB operators to call in reports on drunk drivers. Since July 1982, more than 20,000 such reports have yielded almost ( 3,000 drunk-driving arrests. Says Kent Milton of the California highway patrol: "The problem is still enormous. It's a gigantic ocean with a lot of fish and very few fishermen."

MADD was founded in 1980 by Candy Lightner, 38, after one of her three children was struck and killed by a drunk driver while walking in a bicycle lane. A year later she said, "We've kicked a few pebbles, we'll turn a few stones, and eventually we'll start an avalanche." In these postavalanche days, MADD is getting just about all the laws it wants. A total of 37 states have "dram shop" laws or legal precedents holding servers of alcohol responsible for the acts of drunks. Happy hours, banned or restricted in 15 states so far, seem to be on the way out everywhere. And all states must raise their minimum drinking age to 21 by 1987 or risk losing federal highway funds. Even the insurance industry is now effectively part of the lobby against drinking and driving. Like many other groups, the Chicano Humanities and Arts Council in Denver had to cancel a party this year because no insurance was available if beer was sold to raise funds. "High court awards have scared underwriters to death," says Gene Glascock of the Colorado state division of insurance. One Denver eatery had its rates raised from $18,000 to $58,000 a year, a strong incentive not to serve drunks. In New Jersey, homeowners are worrying about suits from drunk-driving accidents. The state supreme court ruled last year that social hosts can be held liable for damage done by their drunken guests.

The Army has eliminated happy hours at its clubs and waggishly installed an "attitude-adjustment hour," an alcohol-free time when snacks and soft drinks are served at cut-rate prices. Says a Defense Department spokesman: "The Army is trying to disencourage drinking." A Pentagon directive says that starting June 1, all branches of the military must bring their policies on serving minors in line with local age restrictions. This means that with a few exceptions, younger G.I.s cannot be served alcohol on bases in states where the minimum drinking age is 21.

The liquor industry has kept a low profile, though there is some concern over "neo-prohibitionism" and the return of the old image of demon rum. "For most people, alcohol is something that makes life a little bit more pleasant," says Robert Beleson, president of Remy Martin Amerique. The distillers and brewers have taken no position at all on the raising of the minimum drinking age or attempts to limit hours of taverns and liquor stores. The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States has stepped up its ads counseling moderation, and still voluntarily keeps liquor commercials off television. Says Duncan H. Cameron, director of communications for DISCUS: "We have spent more than $10 million since 1972 getting across the message that drunk driving is an irresponsible abuse of both the privilege to drink and the privilege to drive."

Distillers, however, are bitter that federal and state taxes are skewed to hit liquor harder than beer and wine, and they feel the liquor industry is taking the rap for teenage drunk drivers, most of whom, they believe, are blitzed on beer, not hard liquor. The industry is currently challenging the three TV networks, charging that they are violating the fairness doctrine. The networks said no to Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, which wanted to buy 30-second spots pointing out that 1 1/4 oz. of hard liquor contains no more alcohol than a 5-oz. glass of wine or a can of beer. The industry believes, probably correctly, that much of the public thinks liquor is unusually potent, while beer and wine, particularly white wine, are harmless. Says Cameron: "This ignorance has hurt the liquor industry in today's health- and diet- conscious society."

The industry points to recent research linking moderate drinking to reduced rates of heart trouble. A California study, conducted with funds supplied by the alcohol industry, found that moderate drinkers have 40% less chance of hospitalization for coronary problems than nondrinkers. Proof may be years away, but one theory is that alcohol helps raise the level of certain cholesterols in the blood that act as cleaning agents for the cardiovascular system. DISCUS, says Cameron, is stepping up efforts to show that "moderate consumption of liquor by normal adults is just as safe as beer and wine, and may even be beneficial."

MADD and other groups are promoting nonalcoholic postprom parties for high schoolers. To prevent youngsters from slipping away for a furtive belt, the usual rule is that people who leave the party are not allowed back in. Many of the parties are planned around a feverish array of activities, all designed to keep the mind off booze. At Cherry Creek High School outside Denver, the postprom bash this year featured volleyball in the gym, water games in the pool, disco dancing, a magic show, ten video games and a makeshift casino. Free hot dogs, nachos and soft drinks were served, and as the party broke up at 6 a.m., there were doughnuts and juice.

In Farmington, N. Mex., a city of 35,626, MADD, SADD (for Students Against Drunk Driving), parents and local businessmen are trying to replace the "kegger," the traditional graduation-night beer party held in the hills outside town. A local bank donated use of a health spa, and TV and radio stations are contributing free airtime for SADD pleas asking students to sign lifetime "contracts" with parents promising to avoid drunk driving. In Houston, a cab company is offering free rides to inebriated promgoers, and tuxedos rented from Al's Formal Wear will come with a printed warning about drinking and driving. Students in several Boston suburbs who promise not to use alcohol or drugs on prom night get a discounted limousine and cut-rate tuxedo rentals. There are no pledges to sign, but if the limo driver thinks the verbal promise has been broken, he can stop the car and evict all occupants in midride.

"Project Graduation" helps turn student parties into giant rallies for the cause, involving parents, businessmen and local leaders. Jerry Sachs, president of the Capital Centre in Landover, Md., has signed on as chairman of Washington Regional Alcohol Program. WRAP has got disk jockeys to broadcast antidrinking messages on prom nights, cabbies to donate free rides, local sports stars to do commercials against drunk driving. Sachs seems awed to be enveloped by the grass-roots movement. "One day, it dawned on me that I could get involved with this issue and have an effect on society," he says. "There are so few issues where you can have an impact." More and more citizens are finding, as Sachs did, that the impact can be dramatic.

With reporting by Martin Casey/Miami and Robert C. Wurmstedt/Denver