The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) presents the full text of the fact sheet entitled "Enforcing Underage-Drinking Laws," published in April 2001. The fact sheet discusses the costs of problems associated with underage drinking in the United States, including violent crime, traffic accidents, treatment, fetal alcohol syndrome, and alcohol poisonings. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention of the U.S. Department of Justice received $50 million for the Enforcing the Underage Drinking Laws Program.

Alcohol use by young people is extremely dangerous - both to themselves and society at large. Underage alcohol use is associated with traffic fatalities, violence, unsafe sex, suicide, educational failure, and other problem behaviors that diminish the prospects of future success, as well as health risks â€" and the earlier teens start drinking, the greater the danger. Despite these serious concerns, the media continues to make drinking look attractive to youth, and it remains possible and even easy for teenagers to get access to alcohol. Why is this dangerous behavior so pervasive? What can be done to prevent it? What will work and who is responsible for making sure it happens? Reducing Underage Drinking addresses these questions and proposes a new way to combat underage alcohol use. It explores the ways in which may different individuals and groups contribute to the problem and how they can be enlisted to prevent it. Reducing Underage Drinking will serve as both a game plan and a call to arms for anyone with an investment in youth health and safety.

This document presents the testimony of Surgeon General Antonia Novello of the U.S. Public Health Service, and related materials from a congressional hearing examining underage drinking. In her opening statement, Chairwoman Patricia Schroeder reviews the incidence of underage drinking and notes the role of the advertising industry in promoting drinking. Surgeon General Novello's testimony notes the pervasiveness of underage drinking and discusses the problems created by exposing adolescents to mixed messages on drinking. Novello contrasts the health message that the use of alcohol by young people can lead to serious health consequences with the advertising messages that promote drinking. She examines the problem of labeling that makes it difficult to distinguish alcoholic from nonalcoholic beverages on store shelves; designated drivers, and teenagers who ride with drinking drivers; and adolescents' lack of knowledge about alcohol. Actions taken by the Surgeon General to combat the problem of underage drinking are reviewed, and the problems encountered in enforcing the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 are discussed. Novello describes actions taken by individual states to prevent underage drinking. The role of advertising in promoting underage drinking is emphasized throughout the document. Included in the document are a fact sheet on preventing underage drinking; the prepared statement of Michael Kavanaugh, sheriff of Roanoke County, Virginia; comments by John Calfee, associate professor of Marketing, School of Management, Boston University; and a report from the Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (NB)

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.