Time for intervention.

Byline: The Register-Guard

It would have been hard to plan a better pairing of a column and a news story, but the presentation in last Thursday's Register-Guard was unintentional. Nonetheless, it stood as a powerful illustration of how pervasive the problem of alcohol abuse has become in Oregon.

On the cover of the City/Region section, Bob Welch wrote poignantly about the pending dedication of a memorial to the 40 local people who have been killed by drunken drivers. The Mothers Against Drunk Driving Memorial Garden was created, as a plaque on the site says, to "honor those killed in drunk driving crashes ... give solace to victims' families and friends (and) keep alive in spirit those that brought sweetness and reason to us on earth."

Coincidentally, right next to Welch's column, the dominant news story on the page reported on a high-speed car chase and wreck that nearly struck a Eugene woman and her 4-year-old son. The driver - 26-year-old Gregory Bride of Portland - lost control of his red Saturn while fleeing police and crashed into a tree in front of an apartment complex off South Garden Way.

Thankfully, no one was injured. Bride was arrested at the crash scene for suspicion of driving under the influence, felony eluding of a police officer and reckless driving.

As if that weren't enough to underscore the disheartening frequency with which Oregonians operate motor vehicles when they've had too much to drink, a brief item on page 3 of the same section reported that a 34-year-old woman was critically injured in a single-car crash outside of Oakridge. The driver was not wearing her safety belt, and alcohol was a factor, the sheriff's office said.

There's a reason alcohol seems to be a frequent component of Register-Guard news stories that involve unhappy endings. Alcohol is the most widely used addictive substance in Oregon. Oregonians consume more alcohol per capita than the national average and have higher rates of death from alcohol-related disease, according to a comprehensive survey of alcohol use by the state Department of Human Services.

Based on age-adjusted death rates, Oregon ranks fourth in the nation for alcohol-induced deaths. Oregonians tend to be heavy drinkers, and they start young.

Twenty percent of adult males reported binge drinking at least once a month, and the rate of heavy drinking among 30- to 34-year-olds increased 63 percent from 2001 to 2005.

Though the trend nationally has recorded a decrease in drinking by 11th-grade and eighth-grade students, Oregon's teenagers are headed in the wrong direction. In 2005, the rate of past-month alcohol use by Oregon's eighth-graders was 76 percent higher than the national average - 30.1 percent vs. 17.1 percent. The 2006 survey shows the increase continuing, with 31.9 percent reporting drinking alcohol on one or more occasion in the past month.

It's clear more needs to be done to support alcohol abuse prevention and treatment efforts. A logical place to raise money for increased support is beer and wine sales. Oregon has some of the lowest beer and wine taxes in the nation, and beer taxes haven't increased in 30 years.

Meanwhile, Sen. Bill Morrisette of Springfield keeps introducing bills to raise the beer tax to support alcohol education, enforcement and treatment programs, but every session the industry lobby is able to kill the bills in committee.

Maybe by the time this year's eighth-graders - one-third of whom are already drinking - get their driver's licenses, Morrisette's efforts will have more support. If not, be prepared to just keep adding names to the MADD memorial.