Should we be rethinking underage drinking?
That's the question experts around Australia are asking as new evidence mounts of the long term damage to vulnerable brains and lives.
In this must see episode of Catalyst, we take you through the latest research on alcohol's impact on the still developing adolescent brain, the alarming trends in underage alcohol consumption, and new evidence of a link between the age you starting drinking and later alcohol dependence.
The results will lead you to a confronting question - have parents, inadvertently, been making things much worse?
Australia's culture of heavy drinking is often made light of, but it comes at a heavy cost.
Dr. Jonica Newby provides this sobering report.
Narration: Many of us had our first sip of alcohol courtesy of a parent.But could this ... be causing this.
Georgina: I'd black out and I'd wake up in the middle of guys taking advantage of me.
Dr Gordian Fulde: The figures show there's been a definite increase in underage drinkers coming into emergency departments.
Narration: As the age of drinking in Australia creeps downward ...and new evidence emerges of damage to teenage brains ...the experts are asking - should we be rethinking underage drinking?
It was the spectre of possible brain damage that first sounded the alarm ... when scientists uncovered what was really happening inside the adolescent brain.
Dr Dan Lubman: What we now know is during the adolescent period it's a key time of rewiring, resculpting of the brain.
Narration: But it raised a disturbing question - how would taking a substance - like alcohol - affect this vital period of teen brain development?
That's what neuroscientists like Dr Dan Lubman have since been trying to find out, and there's a message he's keen to share with families.
Dr Dan Lubman: Now animal studies have quite consistently shown that alcohol taken during adolescence can actually affect the key parts of the brain involved in memory and learning, particularly this structure here which is the hippocampus which has been heavily implicated in memory.
Now very few human studies have been done but this study here looked at adolescents who had problem drinking. The key message is that those with problem drinking had a much smaller hippocampus. So the younger they started drinking the smaller the hippocampus
Dr Jonica Newby: What level of drinking would cause this damage?
Dr Dan Lubman: About drinking 50 drinks a month would affect memory processes.
Narration: It's a level up to one in twenty Australian school age teenagers reach... by binge drinking every weekend. Georgina was one.
Georgina: My parents have always let me have sips of alcohol. I had my first full drink at around 13, and after that it escalated quite quickly. I would probably start off with breezers and cruisers which tastes very nice and you can drink a lot of them. I'd say around 12 of them, then I'd move onto the spirits say bourbon and vodka. I could go through a bottle of each.
Narration: For Georgina, the memory effects are all too familiar ... especially the alcohol induced memory wipe known as a blackout.
Georgina: I've had numerous blackouts, basically where I would maybe be talking to friends the next day and they'd say I can't believe you did that last night and I'd say what are you talking about.
Narration: Teenagers seem unusually vulnerable to blackouts. To find out why, let's meet some adolescents of another kind.
Dr Jonica Newby: These are teenage rats and they're remarkably similar to human teenagers - they're risk takers, impulsive, they're highly social, and they really like to drink beer.
Narration: It's been discovered teen rats can tolerate more alcohol than adults ... these kids are still up and drinking at blood alcohol levels that see most adults passed out in the corner. Their brains are too drunk to make memories ... which explains the blackouts.It also helps explain many of the short term harms that face binge drinking teens.
Georgina: There's been a lot of times when guys have taken advantage of me and it was scary because sometimes I would wake up in the middle of it. I'd kind of come to and realise what was happening. And that was really upsetting and very scary. Sometimes I knew who they were and sometimes I didn't.
Narration: Georgina doesn't have the background you'd expect of a young alcoholic. She's from a happy, relatively tea totling home in an affluent suburb. But statistics show a quarter of all 12 - 15 year olds are current drinkers, and while that proportion hasn't changed much in 20 years, the sheer amount they're drinking has steadily increased. So what's causing this escalation?
Geoff Munro: Jonica what do you make of this refrigerator.
Dr Jonica Newby: Well they're amazingly colourful aren't they, I mean they look like soft drinks
Narration: Many public health experts point the finger squarely here - to a growth in the availability and kinds of drinks on offer. Geoff Munro is from the Australian Drug Foundation.
Geoff Munro: They look like soft drinks, they taste like soft drinks, the ready to drinks make alcohol very palatable to young palates
Narration: A groundbreaking study published last year found the amount of money the alcohol industry makes from underage drinkers is an astonishing 200 million dollars a year. And the drinks are getting stronger.
Geoff Munro: This is a bourbon and cola that has a 9% alcohol content and that means in this small can there is 2.7 standard drinks.
Dr Jonica Newby: 2.7 standard drinks - that sounds lethal.
Geoff Munro: And we know from school surveys that this particular type of drink is favoured by young boys adolescents - Jonica" from school surveys - Geoff: from school surveys. This essentially is commercially produced rocket fuel.
Narration: There is another possible culprit. Professor John Toumbourou is one of Australia's leading adolescent health researchers.
Here at a special education night, we've gathered to hear where he thinks parents have been going wrong."
Professor John Toumbourou: What I'd like to hear is how are people trying to manage the issue of alcohol.
At the moment parents are for the very best motives introducing alcohol to their children at a young age in the hope it will encourage moderation. But its not having that effect. I think that young people take the message that they're allowed to drink and then enter a peer culture that encourages irresponsible use.
Narration: In the last few years, a series of large international studies have uncovered a clear link - the earlier you start drinking, the greater the chance of problem drinking later in life.
Professor John Toumbourou: If you start drinking before 14 years of age, you double the risk of alcohol dependence at age 21.
Narration: Along with the brain evidence, the trends in hospitalisation, this finding has compelled the Australian Drug Foundation to change its advice to parents. They now say delay alcohol introduction as long as possible, preferably until 16.
Geoff Munro: Now that advice has caused a good deal of concern in some people and we do get some flak. Some people think we're being wowsers.
Narration: But if that sounds tough, John Toumboreaus views are uncompromising.
Professor John Toumbourou: Set a rule that says 18 is the legal drinking age in Australia and lets try not to drink until age 18. If they start to drink then change pace and try to discourage frequent use. But really it would be better if the drinking age was 21.
Narration: While many public health experts think Dr Toumbourou's stance is too extreme, most now believe parents should delay alcohol initiation. And on one point, they all agree.
Professor John Toumbourou: We need to make alcohol less available, there needs to be more regulation of licensing, and we need to make sure its not possible to buy cheap drinks or drinks that are targeting children.
Narration: As for Georgina, thanks to the intervention of a youth mentoring program, she stopped drinking 3 months ago. Now aged 17, she's re-entered high school and her life's back on track. But her short term memory has suffered - all that binge drinking has left its mark.
Georgina: I knew that it wasn't necessarily good for you but I didn't realise it was going to affect my memory like this. I didn't realise that at all. If I did that would have made quite a difference. I mean, memory is an important thing to have. It's your memories.