In the Auckland University Youth 2000 Survey 38% of CBHS students reported binge drinking in the preceding four weeks and 33% reported having been driven by someone who had been drinking.

The permanent damage from alcohol use occurs before age 18. If New Zealand were to follow neuro-science instead of cultural norms we would eliminate alcohol use by those under 18. Among other things alcohol use by teenagers stunts the growth of the hippocampus. The hippocampus is the “search engine” of the brain. The earlier in your life you drink alcohol the smaller your hippocampus will be. For the teenage brain more than one unit of alcohol per hour will cause permanent damage and while for an adult it takes 24 hours for our frontal cortex to recover from a drinking session for a teenager it can take two to four weeks. 

There is great information on the Cheers website about talking to teenagers about alcohol.