ALCOHOL IS A DRUG. As such, it has the power to alter both the mind and body, and it is also potentially addictive. While most adults know the basic facts about alcohol and some of the inherent dangers of drinking, many of America's teens do not.

A 1996 report released by the Department of Health and Human Services suggests that most teens, for example, do not understand the concept of alcohol content and do not know the relative strengths of different alcoholic beverages. Fully 80 percent of teens do not know that a twelveounce can of beer has the same amount of alcohol as a shot of whiskey. A third of the teens surveyed also do not understand the intoxicating effects of alcohol.

Estimates show that at least 8 million American teenagers consume alcohol every week and that almost half a million go on weekly drinking binges, drinking for the sole...