Attorney Eddie Farah Highlights Information from Disturbing Studies on Underage Alcohol Use and the Internet
The days of underage drinkers waiting outside in dimly lit liquor store parking lots and asking complete strangers to buy them alcohol is so 20th Century.
Apart from our facetious tone, according to two recently released studies, not only are alcohol companies targeting underage drinkers online, but it is increasingly easy for young people to buy alcohol on the Internet. This is a major problem.
A commentary from the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, says that alcohol marketers are increasingly pushing their product through social media outlets such as Facebook and other online venues. The commentary went on to cite at least 14 other studies that have found that young people who are exposed to alcohol marketing are more likely to drink — or to drink even more.
Another study published online by the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine revealed an even more disturbing finding. Researchers at the University of North Carolina who were studying how Internet alcohol vendors verified the age of people buying online, found that nearly half of underage buyers were successfully able to purchase alcohol online.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), regardless of alcohol blood levels, teens were more likely to get in car crashes than older drivers who had consumed alcohol. Twenty-six percent of fatalities in motor vehicles among male drivers between 15-20 were alcohol-related. In 2007, three out of ten teens admitted they had ridden with a teen driver who had been drinking.
Alcohol-abuse already contributes more than its fair share of property damage, injuries, and fatalities on Florida’s roads and highways. Florida personal injury attorney Eddie Farah thinks that online alcohol vendors that sell to underage youth are not only acting illegally, but are also negligent and should be held accountable if a young person they have sold to, or any other person for that matter, is injured in a DUI car crash.
By Eddie Farah
