The younger an individual starts drinking, and the greater the intensity and frequency of alcohol consumption, the greater the risk of using other drugs. Youth who drink alcohol are 7.5 times more likely to use any illicit drug, and 50 times more likely to use cocaine than young people who never drink alcohol. During a typical weekend, an average of one teenager dies each hour in a car crash. Nearly fifty percent of those crashes involved alcohol. White males drink far more than any other group, averaging more than 9 drinks per week.
Black females average only one drink per week.
Poor grades are correlated with increased use of alcohol. College students who reported D and F grade point averages consumed an average of 10 alcoholic drinks per week, while those who earned mostly A's consumed slightly more than three drinks per week. Sixty percent of college women diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease were drunk at the time of infection. It is estimated based upon 1992 data that one out of every 280 babies born today will die in a crash with an intoxicated driver. Traffic crashes are the major cause of death for children in the age group 0-14.