Study: Teens and binge drinking

Binge drinking -- defined as five or more drinks in a session -- is a serious problem in the nation's high schools, says a survey report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Based on questionnaires filled out by more than 15,000 teens, the study found that

Binge drinkers were more than five times as likely as non-drinkers to be sexually active; more than 18 times as likely to smoke cigarettes; and more than four times as likely to have been in a physical fight. The likelihood of engaging in these and other risky behaviors, including marijuana use and suicide attempts, increased with the frequency of binge drinking. Binge drinking was also strongly associated with poor school performance.

The study estimated the percentage of teens who binge drink at about 29 per cent. Forty-five per cent of teens said they had used alcohol in the past month, and nearly two thirds (64 per cent) of these reported at least one episode of binge drinking. Source. CBS News story.