Parents worry over teen drinking

<p>They are among the best and brightest teens, many with involved and caring parents and on a path directed toward success.</p><p>They also are the marginal teens, young people without much support, carving their own way through difficult years.</p><p>These youth have at least one thing in common: With bodies and minds still under development, they are at the greatest risk of dying from drinking too much alcohol.</p><p>Health professionals call them the "alcohol-naive," adolescents who have not learned to moderate their intake and have little tolerance for it. The term includes parents who may not have a clear view of just how dangerous alcohol can be to an underage drinker.</p><p>"I think the bottom line is that it's everybody's responsibility to keep kids safe, and we have to do everything we can to educate our children about the dangers that are out there," interim Sonoma County Public Health Director Mark Netherda said.</p><p>"And one of those dangers is alcohol, which is common in many households in Sonoma County, and we just need to make sure we talk with our kids appropriately and try to keep them as safe as we can," he said.</p><p>After the tragic death last week of Takeimi Rao, a bright and promising 14-year-old Santa Rosa student, parents across Sonoma County are asking themselves what they can do to keep their kids safe from alcohol and if they are they doing enough.</p><p>Rao, who just completed eighth grade, hosted a sleepover with three friends and died after mixing vodka with soda and later throwing up, according to authorities.</p><p>The actual cause of her death is pending toxicology results. But the loss already is deeply felt as both adults and teens seek answers about a pervasive problem.</p><p>"Their antennas are up and they want information. Parents out there are searching their souls and saying, have I done anything different?" said Matt Marshall, principal at Rincon Valley Middle School, where Rao was a student.</p><p>"A lot of families are feeling vulnerable right now," Marshall said.</p><p>There are good reasons to worry:</p><p>• Alcohol is used more than any other drug by Sonoma County children and teens, according to the county Department of Health Services.</p><p>• Nearly a quarter of all seventh-graders and nearly half of all ninth-graders in Sonoma County reported being under the age of 14 when they had their first drink, according to the 2008 biennial California Healthy Kids Survey.</p><p>• Forty-four percent of county 11th-graders reported having at least one full drink of alcohol in the previous 30 days, according to the 2008 survey. That is well above the state rate of 36 percent. Survey results from 2010 are not yet available, Netherda said.</p><p>"We do have high rates of drinking," said Diane Davis, coordinator of the West County Coalition for Alcohol Awareness and Drug-Free Youth.</p><p>Attitudes toward drinking are influenced by Sonoma County's reputation as the heart of Wine Country, Davis said.</p><p>"It's a pretty common thought or response, 'We are in Wine Country, what do you expect?' " she said. "Parents would say that or kids would say the same thing. It just feeds to the social norm."</p><p>Rao died last Sunday after she and her friends consumed vodka and vomited during the night. The other three girls were checked at an area hospital following Rao's death, but were not hospitalized.</p><p>At both a memorial for Rao last Thursday and the funeral that followed Friday, pleas arose for parents to talk to their children about the dangers of drinking alcohol.</p><p>Local medical professionals and drug abuse experts say that vulnerability is rooted in a lack of knowledge about what happens to kids when they drink and what they should do when they drink too much.</p><p>In the emergency department of Petaluma Valley Hospital, Wendi Thomas, nurse manager of emergency services, sees first-hand what alcohol can do to a child.</p><p>Thomas said that in the past 18 months, 33 young people between 13 and 18 years old have been brought into the emergency room of the Petaluma hospital for alcohol intoxication.</p><p>Their blood-alcohol levels ranged from a low of 0.06 percent to a high of 0.32 percent, four times the legal limit for an adult. The average, she said, was 0.21 percent.</p><p>These figures are not usually logged by emergency staff. But Thomas, who is part of the Petaluma Coalition to Prevent Alcohol, Tobacco and other Drug Problems, is passionate about educating people about teen drinking.</p><p>In Sonoma County, binge drinking in the past 30 days was reported by 5 percent of seventh-graders; 16 percent of ninth-graders and 32 percent of 11th-graders, according to the California Healthy Kids Survey.</p><p>Binge drinking is defined as five or more drinks during "one sitting" for a male, and four or more for a female. Perhaps more startling, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 11 percent of all the alcohol consumed in Sonoma County is consumed by people between ages 12 and 20.</p><p>What's more, 90 percent of that consumption is binge drinking.</p><p>"I'm horrified that this is going on, and to the most important people in our world, our children," said Debbie Allen, a Redding mother who lost her daughter, Shelby, 17, to binge drinking in 2008.</p><p>Allen, who has since become a staunch advocate of educating both parents and teens about the dangers of drinking, was in Sonoma County the day before Rao died, giving a presentation to young people in Sonoma County's juvenile hall.</p><p>She learned about Rao's death a few days later.</p><p>"It was like reading about my daughter all over again," Allen said. "These beautiful high-achieving kids ... These are our athletes and in many ways these are our parents doing everything right."</p><p>Allen said her daughter — whose blood-alcohol level was 0.33 percent after drinking 15 shots of vodka during a sleepover with friends — was a bright and articulate teen who knew about making smart choices.</p><p>But neither Allen nor Shelby knew that simply being a youth is a critical risk factor.</p><p>"Their bodies are at a higher risk of alcohol poisoning after drinking just a few swallows in less than two hours' time," she said. "The younger they are, the more they are at risk because their bodies are not fully developed."</p><p>That incomplete development includes the brain, which enables adults to negotiate drinking too much alcohol, and the liver, which helps combat its effects.</p><p>"That's one of the reasons why 21 is the drinking age," Allen said.</p><p>Dr. Anthony Boyce, a family doctor and addiction specialist at Kaiser Permanente's Santa Rosa Medical Center, said that while the abuse of prescription opiates is on the rise among young people, alcohol remains one of the most abused drugs.</p><p>It's easily accessible and socially accepted, he said, adding that there has also been a trend toward marketing higher-content alcohol drinks toward younger adults, such as the controversial Four Loko beverage.</p><p>Alcohol affects the body in a number of ways, depending on the amount being consumed, a person's tolerance, and, in the case of teens, the degree of a person's physical development.</p><p>At very high alcohol levels, "when you start to get comatose, you also lose your protective reflexes," he said. "You are at higher risk of aspiration, which is your stomach contents going into your lungs."</p><p>Vomiting occurs for a couple of reasons, he said. The alcohol actually irritates the stomach, and high levels of alcohol trigger the "vomiting center of the brain."</p><p>The reflexes that keep us alive — such as the opening and closing of the epiglottis (the soft tissue flap at the base of the throat that keeps food from going down the windpipe) begin to malfunction.</p><p>"So the vomit goes into your lungs. Essentially you choke to death on your own vomit," he said, adding that drinking too much also can result in the failure of the respiratory centers of the brain, which "tell you to breathe."</p><p>Boyce said that many alcohol overdoses involve younger people who haven't learned to moderate their intake.</p><p>"They are not resistant to the effects of alcohol, and their bodies will get hit full-force, essentially," he said.</p><p>During an online chat about teenagers and drinking, hosted by The Press Democrat on Thursday, participants described how teens are particularly vulnerable to binge drinking because their brains have not fully developed.</p><p>Boyce said the prefrontal cortex is the last part of the brain to fully develop.</p><p>"This is the part of the brain that really makes humans special and allows us to think about consequences of actions, long-term risks and benefits, and thinking about the future," he said.</p><p>"This is significant because an adolescent's brain may have great reflexes, can be intelligent, but the part of the brain that really thinks about the pros and cons, especially when it comes to substance abuse, is not fully developed."</p><p>That's why adolescents are at higher risk of abuse disorders, he said.</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com.</p>