ILCAAAP News, September 2005, Volume 68, No. 3

Heavy Use of Alcohol Dulls Brain

by Tina Hesman

Heavy drinking, even for short periods of time, can mean long-lasting brain damage.

Scientists at St. Louis University put mice on a two-month bender and found that the rodents had learning memory problems long after they stopped drinking.

The finding, published in the journal "Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research," could mean that people who party too hard are in for a lifetime of brain problems.

Researchers led by Dr. Susan A. Farr at St. Louis University and the VA Medical Center in St. Louis fed young adult mice a 20 percent alcohol solution for four weeks or eight weeks.

Compared to mice that drank only tap water or sugar water, both sets of boozing mice fared worse in multiple tests of learning and memory. The mice that drank for only four weeks recovered after only a few days, but the ones who drank for eight weeks still had trouble learning and remembering three months after the scientists withdrew the alcohol.

Scientists have known that long-term alcohol abuse can hurt the brain, but few studies have examined whether short bursts of heavy drinking also can have persistent effects, said Dr Leslie Morrow, associate director of the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill.

The new study has a message for heavy drinkers, Morrow said. "The longer you drink, the harder it is to come back," she said.

The mice drank the equivalent of a six-pack of beer or a bottle of wine every day for six years if scaled directly to human terms, Farr said.

"While that's a lot to drink, we all know someone who drinks that much," she said. "And it's probably someone who holds down a job."

The memory problems lasted at least the equivalent of nine human years after the mice stopped drinking but probably represents permanent brain damage, she said.

The researchers did not study the effects of binge drinking-drinking large amounts of alcohol during a few days or weeks, Farr said. And no one knows how many years of alcohol abuse the human brain can handle.

"What we know is that when you get to the five or six-year mark, the damage is starting to become permanent," Farr said.

Mice and humans are different, and so direct comparisons are probably not fair, Morrow said. Suffice it to say that over-using alcohol for even a short time can damage the brain, she said.

Farr and her colleagues ruled out other factors, such as nutrient deficiencies or calorie intake that could have influenced the rodents' performances in the tests. The mice showed no outward signs of withdrawal symptoms, but their brains might have had a hard time adjusting to the absence of alcohol, she said.

Previous studies have shown that withdrawal after a life-time of alcohol abuse can worsen brain damage from drinking, Farr said.

The researchers plan to investigate which areas of the brain suffer the most alcohol damage and whether getting on the wagon after short-term heavy drinking also hurts the brain.

"I think this is groundbreaking work," said D. Allan Butterfield, a biological chemist at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. The study suggests that even several days or weeks of heavy drinking could do some brain damage, he said.

"We have to think a lot more closely about the short-term effects of alcohol consumption," he said.

Alcohol Legislation

The Governor signed the following alcohol bills into law. ILCAAAP supported:

HB 27 County Board can license and regulate any business operating in an unincorporated area as a public accommodation or adult entertainment facility that permits consumption of alcohol on the premises.

HB 48 Repeals law to allow the sale of beer in "dry" townships during an agricultural event.

HB 657 Increases penalties for driver over 21 driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and transporting children under 16.

HB 1471 Aggravated DUI for drivers driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs who don't have a valid driver's licenses or insurance, with the vehicle subject to seizure or forfeiture.

ILCAAAP opposed the following bills, which were also signed into law.

HB 1285 Allows public office holders to distribute, manufacture, and sell alcohol.

HB 3022 Exemption to the IL Liquor Control Act to allow the sale of alcohol in a Fire Protection District (fire station in Apple River)

SB 327 Exemption to the IL Liquor Control Act to allow a restaurant located in a parking garage on the campus of the U of I in Champaign to sell alcohol.

SB 478 Exemption to the IL Liquor Control Act to allow the sale of alcohol at the U of I Chicago sports pavilion during professional sports games-Chicago Storm and WNBA.

SB 945 Exemption to the IL Liquor Control Act to allow public office holders (aldermen, county board members, and village trustees) to have a direct interest in the distribution, manufacture, or sale of alcohol.

Sobriety Checkpoints

It's essential to convince impaired people not to drive in the first place. This is where sobriety checkpoints can make a difference.

"They're probably the most effective deterrence strategy we can apply," says James Fell of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. Where checkpoints are conducted routinely in a community - that is, on a weekly basis - they can result in a 20 percent reduction in alcohol-related fatal crashes. The trouble is, checkpoints aren't being conducted often enough. Sobriety checkpoints can be conducted by as few as three police officers.

Researchers at the Pacific Institute of Research and Evaluation tested the idea of conducting checkpoints with fewer officers. In two rural counties in West Virginia, three or four officers ran checkpoints every week for a year, while in two other counties checkpoints were sporadic.

The study showed a reduction in the percentage of nighttime drinking drivers in the counties with the weekly checkpoints. Compared with the other counties, 70 percent fewer drivers had blood alcohol concentration at or about 0.05 percent.

Besides deterring impaired people from driving, checkpoints can yield bonuses. They net drug offenders and car thieves.

Status Report, Vol 30, No 4, April 2, 2005

'Pot Sucker' Sales Halted

The maker of a controversial candy flavored to taste like marijuana has agreed to stop marketing and distributing the product, the Associated Press reported July 8.

The International Company of Unique Products (ICUP), a maker of novelty products, posted a notice on its website saying that it had voluntarily halted sales of its 'Pot Sucker' candy. The candy has faced a hail of criticism from lawmakers and anti-drug advocates in recent weeks.

The Chicago City Council voted last week to ban sales of the candy, and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan recently subpoenaed the company as part of an investigation. "These products--easily accessible to children in stores and malls--clearly promote the use of marijuana," Madigan said. "I am pleased that ICUP made the decision to stop selling Pot Suckers and encourage other companies to follow ICUP's lead. Candy should not glorify drug use."

Madigan also has subpoenaed Chronic Candy, another manufacturer of marijuana-flavored products.

Reprinted from Join Together Online, July 8, 2005

Morton Grove Law Bans Off-Track Better Parlors

Unless there is a local ordinance in place prohibiting off-track betting parlors, Illinois racetracks can place an OTB in your community. State law allows 37 off-track betting parlors-6 for each racetrack except Fairmont, which can have 7 OTB parlors. Currently there are 26 OTB parlors operating in Illinois communities.

Grassroots activists in Morton Grove worked to stop an OTB parlor from coming into their community last spring. Then they worked with city officials on an ordinance to ban off track betting parlors in their community. In June the Village Board voted 4-3 to adopt the ordinance. The ban is among the first in the state, and the Morton Grove law is a model for other towns that don't want gambling, according to the Chicago Tribune.

New Booze Gets Youth Buzzed

An increasing number of alcohol producers are making it easier for young people to get drunk and wired at the same time. In October 2004, Anheuser-Busch rolled out Be ("B-to-the E")-caffeinated beer infused with ginseng and guarana extract. This year, Jim Beam and youth-friendly Starbucks partnered to produce a Starbucks Coffee Liqueur. Now, Patron Spirits Company has caffeinated Coffee Liqueur Tequila, and Wingard recently released Everglo-a lime-green blend of vodka and tequila infused with caffeine.

Mixing two drugs like caffeine and alcohol makes for a scary connection - especially when underage drinking accounts for approximately 10 percent of the alcohol market, or $10 billion annually. According to the University of California, Davis, Cowell Student Health Center, "caffeine is the most widely consumed, mood-altering drug in the world and consumption is on the rise among American youth." The Center found that, "nearly 80 percent of adults begin their caffeine consumption patterns when they are teens and young adults." Likewise, the average age at which American children first consume alcohol is 12. Youth consumption is critical to the alcohol market because it sets the stage for long-term adult drinking habits. Offering alcoholic beverages with caffeine is a sure way for the industry to get young people hooked fast.

Reprinted from The Marin Institute, Summer 2005

Law Enforcement has Impact on Youth Alcohol Sales

Year-round compliance check on alcohol sellers can help cut sales to minors, according to a new study.

HealthDay News reported March 17 that the study led by University of Florida College of Medicine professor Alexander Wagenaar looked at 942 alcohol-sales outlets in 20 Midwestern cities. The study found that law-enforcement compliance checks at liquor, grocery, and convenience stores led to an immediate 17-percent decline in sales to minors, but that reductions fell to 11 percent within two weeks of the check and to 3 percent after three months. Similar patterns were found at bars and restaurants.

"We found that enforcement has significant effects, but just like enforcement against any offense, you can't just do it once and think it solves everything," says Wagenaar. "We have to create an ongoing perception on the part of the managers and owners of these establishments that they have a decent chance of getting caught if they sell to teenagers."

The five-year study said continuous enforcement was much more effective in preventing underage sales than server training.

The study "underscores the potential for enforcement of underage alcohol sales laws to reduce underage access to alcohol," said Ralph Hingson, director of the division of epidemiology and prevention at the National Institute on Alcohol and Alcoholism.

The study was published in the March 2005 issue of the journal Addiction.

Reprinted from Join Together Online, March 29, 2005.