Juvenile Court: Why Monitoring Youth Alcohol Use Matters

It's quite common for youth who are put on probation in juvenile court to switch from their drug of choice to alcohol because it's much harder to catch on drug tests.
Why does this matter? Drunk driving, of course. But there's another reason: the younger kids start using alcohol, the more likely they are to develop alcohol dependence as adults. New data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and presented by the Center for Substance Abuse Research (CESAR) shows that youth who begin drinking at 14 or younger are nearly twice as likely to be dependent on alcohol as adults than youth who begin drinking between 15 and 17, almost four times as likely as youth who begin between 18 and 20, and over six times as likely as young adults who begin drinking past 21. 
There's no question many youth on probation have already been exposed to alcohol by the time they get to court. But this data is all the more reason that it's imperative to help them get treatment.