“Undoubtedly, alcohol is the principal drug use problem in America today,” said drug czar Barry McCaffrey, the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), in 1997. Most public health advocates agree. “Alcohol is the drug most frequently used by American teenagers,” writes Surgeon General David Satcher. “Parents don’t realize that alcohol—not illicit drugs—is the No. 1 drug killing our children,” says Karolyn Nunnallee, president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). “They think, ‘Thank God my child is only drinking beer and not using drugs.’ We’ve got to change that mindset.”

The costs of teen alcohol abuse are staggeringly high. According to Satcher, alcohol “is consumed more frequently than all other illicit drugs combined and is the drug most likely to be associated with injury or death. Alcohol is...