One of the most popular proposals in the State Legislature is a bill that would allow craft breweries to sell 64-ounce growlers.
Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, sponsors a bill that would allow the sale of 64-ounce bottles of any brew. (Breweries already can sell 32- and 128-ounce jugs.)
Critics of proposal say it could be bad news for teenage drinking. In fact, Susan Pitman from the Florida Coalition Alliance claims:
The state of Florida has seen “double-digit drops” in alcohol use among teens.
PolitiFact Florida rated the claim MOSTLY TRUE. Reporter Joshua Gillin says the numbers seem to back her up.
“The rate of alcohol abuse by kids has been decreasing steadily for several years,” Gillin said.
That particular statistic focuses on the number of middle and high school students who report having a drink in the last 30 days. It comes from a survey by the Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey. The survey reports a decline of 10.2 points in middle schoolers and 13.6 points for high schoolers.
But that doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story. National numbers reported by the Centers for Disease Control show a slightly smaller drop of about 8 percent.
Since Pitman’s data is backed by a statewide survey, with only one additional caveat, PolitiFact rated the claim MOSTLY TRUE.
SOURCES: TEEN DRINKING DECLINE
- PolitiFact's rating
- Florida Channel, Senate commerce and tourism committee hearing, March 16, 2015
- University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, "Monitoring the Future National Survey Results for Drug Use," 2014
- Florida Department of Children and Families, "2014 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey," February 2014
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance — United States, 2013," June 13, 2014
- PolitiFact Rhode Island, "Marijuana legalization opponent says alcohol use by young people has been increasing," March 13, 2015
- Florida Department of Children and Families, "2014 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey ATOD Prevalence Tables," accessed March 17, 2015
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, "Underage Drinking," accessed March 17, 2015
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, accessed March 17, 2015
- Interview with Brittany Behm, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokeswoman, March 16-17, 2015
- Interview with Susan Pitman, Florida Coalition Alliance board member, March 17, 2015
- Interview with Sally Finn, Drug Free Duval community and development director, March 17, 2015
- Interview with Katryne Lukens-Bull, University of Florida Center for Health Equity and Quality Research research administrator, March 17, 2015
- Interview with Alexis Lambert, Florida Department of Children and Families communications director, March 17, 2015