nd most such individuals are males in the 21-34 age group.
While fewer teenagers are consuming alcohol in the mid-1990s than was the case five years earlier, contemporary teenagers are initiating drinking behaviors earlier than past generations (Fertman 42-44; Meilman 389-395). Recent surveys indicate that two-thirds of 13 year olds in the United States have tried alcohol (Fertman 42-44). Various surveys indicate that the proportion of regular users of alcohol among American teenagers is in the range of 24-to-60 percent, while from 12-to-43 percent of teenagers participate in drinking binges ("Tobacco, alcohol, . . ." 1841-1842). According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 20 percent of American teenagers are problem drinkers (Alexander 527-532).
Among teenagers, males drink more per capita than females, and more males than females consume alcohol on a more or less regular basis (O'Hare 536-541). The mean amount of alcohol consumed per drinking occasion is also higher among males than females (Crowley 10-16).
Alcohol is the most widely abuse chemical substance (Sandahl and Ronnberg 453-476). The proportions of a sample of Baltimore youth reporting having ever consumed various controlled substances were as follows (Gross and McCaul 495-511):
5. All other controlled substances: 6.4 percent.
The proportions of the sample of Baltimore youth reporting regular use of controlled substances, however, was much lower than the above data indicate (Gross and McCaul 495-511). The proportions of regular users were as follows:
1. Alcohol: 6.3 percent reported that alcohol was consumed at least once per month.
2. Tobacco: 17.7 percent reported that tobacco was consumed at least three times per week.
Mean age at which substance abuse began also varied by drug (Gross and McCaul 495-511). These means ages were as follows:
Among the members of the sample who admitted to the consumption of cont...