The release of the wine, called Winezero, follows Italian Agricultural Minister Luca Zaia’s praise of non-alcoholic wine in curbing alcohol abuse.

Winezero is being made in made in Valladolid, Spain, from grapes from the Duero, Rueda, and Cigales and the range includes a red, white, rosé, and an American oak-aged red.

The wine was created by Italian entrepreneurs Massimiliano Bertolini and Manuel Zanella, who are targeting young people and those who don’t want to, or can’t, drink alcohol.

“We’re not in competition with traditional wine. It’s a new drink, equal to decaffeinated coffee or non-alcoholic beer,” Bertolini said.

“De-alcoholized wine is already trendy in Spain, France, and Germany. There was a gap in the Italian market and it was the right time to fill it,’” Bertolini said.

Eve Bender of Psychiatric News writes that in the “Too Smart to Start” program, SAMHSA is partnering with organizations such as the AMA, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence to distribute materials that aim to enhance communication between parents and children about underage alcohol use, including facts on alcohol use patterns of 9- to 13-year-olds.

The program’s website also includes information for adolescents and parents about the effects of alcohol on the brain. For instance, alcohol damage to the hippocampus can be responsible for “impairing memory, altering perception of spatial relationships, causing dependence, and causing depression.”

Data from SAMHSA’s 2002 National Survey on Drug Use and Health revealed that more than 11 percent of 12-year-olds reported using alcohol at least once in their lives, and twice as many reported using alcohol by the age of 15.

“We have to reach out to 9- to 13-year-olds now, before they drink, and provide health messages that will resonate with them and their parents,” SAMHSA Administrator Charles Curie said in a press release last month.

Program materials have already been field tested in a number of cities, including Pittsburgh, Miami, and Portland, where a pizza parlor placed local youths’ messages and illustrations about the dangers of underage drinking on the inside of its pizza boxes as a creative way to reach community members.

Also, last month SAMHSA launched its third annual “Reach Out Now” program, which features “teach-ins” or lectures by public figures such as governors’ wives speaking to fifth graders in every state on the dangers of underage drinking.

Each year, SAMHSA collaborates with Scholastic Inc. to reach 100,000 classrooms and around 3 million students in the United State. Scholastic is a company that produces educational products and provides services to schools around the country.

As part of “Reach Out Now,” schools provide materials that educate teachers, students, and their families about the dangers of underage alcohol use and help children develop skills they need to reject alcohol when it is offered to them.

The event, held at Showcase Live at Patriot Place, was organized by Comcast, A&E, and the Tri Town Drug and Alcohol Awareness Partnership, an organization of Mansfield, Foxboro, and Norton officials, parents, and students uniting to fight drug and alcohol abuse in the area.

Matt Kakley of the Sun Chronicle writes that Isha Raval, a junior at Foxboro High, said she got involved with the partnership through her work with her school’s chapter of Students Against Destructive Decisions, and to show other students that alcohol isn’t needed for a good time.

"I don’t have to drink to have fun," she said. "There’s better ways to have fun."

The program kicked off with a screening of an episode of "Intervention," a series that deals with families and friends confronting their drug- and alcohol-addicted loved ones. The episode shown Thursday featured Jill, who began drinking in high school and became increasingly dependent on alcohol, causing her life to spiral out of control.

Kathi Meyer, whose 17-year-old daughter, Taylor, a King Philip Regional High School senior from Plainville, drowned last October in an alcohol-related incident, was featured in a town hall-style meeting after the screening, sharing her tragedy in the hopes that other parents do not have to experience what she has.

"She drowned because of the alcohol in her system, she got lost because of the alcohol in her system," Meyer said of her daughter.

Meyer told parents in the audience that the biggest regrets she had were not having access to her daughter’s Facebook.com account, the cell phone numbers of Taylor’s friends, and a better dialogue with fellow parents.

Meyer was joined on the panel by Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter and Jeff Van Vonderen, one of the three interventionists on the A&E program, and Cameron Clapp, a California native who, in 2001 at the age of 15, lost his right arm and both of his legs when he was struck by a speeding train after a night of drinking.

"I was in no conscious state to see or hear the train coming," he told the audience. "I should have been dead."

Thursday’s event drew so many attendees that only 400 could fit inside Showcase Live, with approximately 100 more watching a simulcast of the program in a nearby movie theater.
 

The UK’s Times Online reports that the research will also claim that it will reduce crime and days lost from work, thus helping to strengthen the economy.

The greatest impact will be among heavy drinkers of strong cider and lager as well as own-brand supermarket spirits rather than those who drink a glass of wine at home.

The research by a team from the University of Sheffield comes ahead of the publication later this year of a Scottish draft bill which will set out the planned level for minimum pricing on alcohol sold in shops—reportedly 40 pence per 10ml unit.

If this were adopted by the Scottish Parliament, Scotland would be the first country in Europe to pursue such a policy. The bill is thought to include a ban on promoting cheap drinks.

The stated aim of the legislation, which is struggling to win sufficient support among opposition parties at Holyrood, is to challenge Scotland’s drink culture, a problem which costs the Scottish economy £2.25 billion a year in health, social services, crime, and lost days from work.

The bill’s supporters claim that the price of alcohol has fallen by almost 70 percent relative to disposable income while consumption has risen by more than a fifth, leaving Scotland with one of the worst alcohol-related death and illness rates in the world.

Alcohol is also a cause of around 3,000 murders, serious assaults, and attempted murders a year in Scotland, as well as hundreds of rapes and attempted rapes.

The study indicates that minimum pricing and a promotions ban would save 70 lives in the first year after implementation, rising to 370 lives a year after a decade. That would mean deaths from drinking in Scotland would fall by five percent in the first year and more than 25 percent by the tenth year.

In terms of price, it has been estimated that the cost of a bottle of own-label supermarket vodka would rise from the present £7 to around £10.50, while the price of strong supermarket cider would rise from below £3 for three liters to more than £6.50. An average bottle of wine would cost at least £3.60 and a six-pack of lager £4.80.

However, the Scotch Whisky Association cautions that it would also affect Scotland’s internationally recognized drink, with the price of a bottle of whisky rising to £11.20. Other critics say evidence from abroad suggests the policy would not work and that it would not address the problems that lead people to drink too much.

Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish Health Secretary, said: “It’s now widely recognized that excessive alcohol consumption across society, fanned by rock-bottom pricing, is one of the biggest threats to Scottish public health.”

She added: “But it’s clear that to bring about a real, lasting culture change we’ve got to be bolder. That’s why the Scottish government is bringing forward a radical package of measures in the Alcohol Bill.”