by Rod Hughes

You’ve come a long way, baby, and that ain’t necessarily good.
Studies show that women’s consumption of alcohol is now nearly equal to men’s, reports the leading daily La Nacion. Ten years ago only 3 women admitted regularly drinking for every 10 men.
But, although much of this may be the emancipation women have enjoyed in recent years, not all the news is encouraging. Girls are beginning to drink at age 13 and that is a shock in this Latin culture where the fathers often set a double standard for the children—boys will be boys but you girls better look out!
The latest study by the Alcoholism Institute shows that 21% of girls between 12 and 24 get drunk at least two consecutive days per month. In a study 15 years ago only 4% of women even admitted that they ever got drunk. Are Costa Rican women becoming more frank about things or is a woman getting drunk becoming more socially acceptable?
While it is true that men’s drinking to excess has increased during the same period, it is far from the five times the study shows women’s drinking increased. In fact, the paper points out, men’s alcohol consumption has not even doubled. In 1995, 19% of men admitted to being drunk two consecutive days as opposed to 29% in the most recent survey.
Of school kids in the ninth, tenth and eleventh grades, the study shows an appalling 60% admitted being drunk at least one day each month. Sonia Amador, director of the Alcoholism Institute, points out that this precocious drinking increases the risk of accidents, of transmission of sexual disease and unwanted pregnancy through lack of protected sex besides being just plain bad for the health of growing children.
The carelessness that contributes to accidents and unprotected sex is due to a well known attribute of alcoholic beverages—they lower the inhibitions. But Julio Bejerano, a researcher at the Institute, notes that women are much more susceptible to the effects of liquor than men, since their bodies carry less water in the cells. Thus, their livers are not capable of destroying the alcohol as rapidly as men, he says.
Bejerano points out that those who have more than five drinks—that includes five beers—in a single session can be considered drunk, but this does not necessarily mean they are alcoholics but that it may signal a tendency.
The only really bright spot in this survey is that apparently fewer women drink and drive, according to the Traffic Police. Only one woman tested for driving under the influence is positive for every 10 men.