The nature and extent of alcohol use by Australian adolescents is described and discussed through the results from a survey of drug use by New South Wales secondary school students conducted in late 1983. In this survey, alcohol was the most commonly reported drug and a significant minority of students were using alcohol in a way considered potentially hazardous. The proportion of students regularly drinking has apparently doubled in the past decade, from 24% in 1971 to 50% in 1983. Rates of daily drinking were higher than those reported in the U.S. student survey of Bachman, Johnston & O'Malley (1982). Various ways of controlling or preventing misuse of alcohol by adolescents are discussed.
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