Underage drinking
Published September 26, 2014
Editorial by Jacksonville Daily News, September 25, 2014.
Alcohol abuse takes a huge toll on our state and often it starts at a very young age. Most campaigns against underage drinking focus on high school or college students, but that’s too late, according to the chairman of the N.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission.
Jim Gardner, a former lieutenant governor and current chairman of the commission that regulates alcohol sales in North Carolina, is heading up a new effort that will target middle-schoolers and their parents.
Modeled in part on a similar campaign to discourage smoking by teens, it will combine hard-hitting elements with education. Subtlety often is lost on teens, who operate as if there were no tomorrow. But the campaign also will target parents, store clerks and private club operators.
The $1.5-million campaign won’t launch until late October, so many of the details haven’t been revealed. Suffice it to say that such efforts require more than a few TV spots or billboards. This will be a long-term attempt to change the “culture,” says Luther Snyder, an ABC spokesman who also is co-chairman of the Initiative to Reduce Underage Drinking.
The average underage drinker has had his or her first drink by age 13, Snyder says. Often it comes right out of the refrigerator or liquor cabinet at home. That’s why it is important that prevention begin at home. “A little sip” on New Year’s Eve may seem innocent enough, but it also sends the message that the drinking age of 21 is negotiable.
Adolescents are at a difficult age — too old to be babied, too young to be left to their own devices. They want to feel grown up, and they want to fit in. Often they interpret that as taking risks, breaking rules and challenging authority. They’re not yet mature enough to appreciate long-term consequences.
Most public school students take part in a drug prevention program known as DARE in elementary school, in which they are instructed in how to resist peer pressure to partake in risky behavior. That is an admirable foundation, but it may wear off in the early teen years when defiance sets in.
Credit Gardner for leading the charge. The ABC Commission took up the cause late last year and pledged to continue pushing the message; this is the first attempt to target children so young. He was “staggered” by research that shows how young children are when they take their first drink. He compares the attitude around underage drinking as similar to the tolerance of underage smoking that prevailed for many years. It took a long time to convince teens that smoking wasn’t cool, but the campaign was responsible for a significant reduction in tobacco use by teens.
Underage drinking is not harmless. Impaired judgment leads to poor decisions. Binge drinking can kill. So does impaired driving. The commission that issues permits to serve and sell alcohol has an obligation to help ensure that adult beverages are kept out of the hands of children.
This editorial first appeared in the Wilmington Star-News, a Halifax Media Group newspaper.
