EXPERTS: SHUT OFF TEEN DRINKERS

Experts say alcohol kills more teenagers than all other drugs combined, yet
one of the biggest obstacles in the fight against teenage drinking is
keeping adults from giving alcohol to teens.

More than two dozen athletes at Hopkinton High School face sanctions
because they drank beer at a keg party last month, a party allegedly hosted
by parents who are also teachers. Two 14-year-old Newmarket girls barely
escaped serious injury over the weekend after allegedly taking a short joy
ride in a stolen car after they had been drinking booze and taking drugs.

In September, nine teenagers in Conway were charged with illegal possession
of drugs or alcohol after police broke up a party in a private home.
Today's headlines continue to reflect what has become a constant problem
and concern: the consumption of alcohol by minors.

How they come to get that alcohol - whether it is beer or hard liquor - is
one issue officials believe needs to be addressed. "It's parents, it's
grocers, it's restaurants, it's the big brother who's 21," said John
Bunker, executive director of New Futures, a nonprofit organization devoted
to the issue of substance abuse. "Instead of asking, 'How do we stop young
people from drinking alcohol?'" he said, "we need to ask, 'How do we stop
adults from providing alcohol to young people?'" One of the biggest
obstacles, said Bunker and Aidan J. Moore, chief of enforcement for the
State Liquor Commission, is that many teens - and adults - see drinking as
a rite of passage for young people. That rite of passage, however, can take
on deadly tones. "Alcohol kills more teenagers than all other drugs
combined," Bunker said. "It also has implications for suicide risk."
Alcohol consumption by young people creates significant social and health
risks. "It places your son or daughter at a very high risk of consequences
. . . crime, both as a perpetrator or a victim, drinking and driving,
unplanned sexual activity," Bunker said.

The numbers are not small, either.

According to a Youth Risk Behavior Survey, conducted every other year since
1991 by the state Department of Education, one in two high school students
surveyed reported drinking alcohol in the month before the survey.

The same study showed that one in three reported binge drinking one or more
times in the month before the survey.

Binge drinking is described as having five or more drinks of alcohol in one
day. "It's important to distinguish that while we consider alcohol a
beverage, we're really talking about a very powerful drug," Bunker said.
Studies show that for every year a youngster goes beyond the age of 14
without trying alcohol, it adds a 14 percent chance each year up to the age
of 18 that he or she will not become a substance abuser as an adult, Bunker
said. "Many people think that it's all right; kids are going to drink and
they'll survive," he said. "But the data shows when you drink under the age
of 15, you increase your chance of addiction even if you do survive to
adulthood." The numbers aren't so good for those who manage to make it to
adulthood, either.

Another survey shows that adults in New Hampshire exceed the national
median of those who have reported binge drinking at least once in the
previous month.

In 1997, the median nationally was 14.5 percent.

In New Hampshire it was 16.1 percent, making the Granite State the 13th
highest of the 50 states surveyed. Moore, who has headed up the Liquor
Commission's compliance checks for the nearly three years that statistics
have been kept, said it will take changes in the way society thinks to stem
the flow of alcohol toward teenagers. "A vast majority of the people
probably feel that underage drinking is wrong," he said, "but a really
surprising number don't see it as wrong if it's their child." The
compliance checks, conducted in communities across the state at the request
of the local police department, involve a young-looking, underage person
attempting to buy beer or liquor in groceries, small markets and even state
liquor stores. "We want them to be questionable," he said, "so the clerk
will ask for an ID." The young person then says he or she isn't carrying an
ID, and the clerk should refuse to make the sale, or the person will
present a driver's license, and the clerk will realize he or she is under
age. "There's a red stripe on the top of the driver's license that shows
this person is underage," Moore said. "So we are extremely surprised when
we find someone make that sale." But there are clerks out there who do make
the sales. "From a statewide standpoint, we have a 30 percent failure
rate," Moore said. Clerks and stores are fined, and now stores that allow
sales to someone underage are required to send clerks to training sessions,
which must be paid for by the store. "As part of the training, we encourage
them to purchase an ID checking guide," he said. "We also say, if they are
not certain, just don't sell it." In Conway, the arrest of the nine teens
in September, and the fact that 43 were bused to the police station that
night, served as a wake-up call to parents, according to Theresa Kennett,
prevention coordinator for School Administrative Unit 9, which oversees
Kennett High School. "It was a terribly unfortunate incident," she said.
"It moved a lot of community members to call me." The result was a
parent-community forum that led to the re-forming of the Mount Washington
Valley Parents Safe Home Project. The project, Kennett explained, provides
drug and alcohol awareness for parents and the opportunity to sign a pledge
saying they will not allow alcohol or illegal drugs at parties in their
home or allow parties without proper supervision. The names of those who
sign the pledge will be available at the Conway Police Department and at
local schools, so other parents can check the list. "It gives a person a
feeling of comfort before making a call about whether their child should go
to a party," Kennett said. "And it sends a very strong message to young
people.

The parents and the community are telling me they don't want me to drink,"
she said. "I don't think kids have heard that a lot lately." Hopkinton
Police Chief David Wheeler said parents in his central New Hampshire
community are also considering initiating the Safe Home Project, especially
in light of last month's keg party, where about 40 youngsters, including
student athletes, gathered.

"Parents have been calling in here left and right," he said last week.
"They want to know what type of good can come out of this, as a community
what can we do." Wheeler, who was a founder of an alcohol awareness
committee when he was a trooper with the New Hampshire State Police, is
pleased with the parents' reaction. "I find it absolutely ludicrous that
parents are condoning the behavior and in a sense, giving them permission
to drink," he said. "I have been involved in reconstructing fatal accidents
where alcohol was involved," Wheeler said. "It's nice to see parents
working to do preventive measures." Still, there are parents and other
adults who don't see teen drinking as a problem.

Bunker has a threefold message for them: "Number one, your sons and
daughters are breaking the law, and that could have implications for them
in terms of their lives and careers," he said. Possession of an alcoholic
beverage by a person younger than 21 is a violation, punishable by a
minimum $50 fine. But the next time that teen fills out an employment
application, the answer will be "yes" when the question is, "Have you ever
been arrested?" "Number two," Bunker said, "we know that underage alcohol
drinking, particularly binge drinking, places your sons or daughters are a
very high risk of consequences. There are some immediate health
consequences and social consequences." And finally, Bunker would remind
parents, "Underage alcohol consumption places your child at a greater risk
for developing an alcohol problem later on."

Communitywide effort is urged in fight against underage drinking It will
take a communitywide effort to address the issues surrounding the problems
of underage drinking, according to John Bunker, executive director of New
Futures, a nonprofit group that focuses on reducing substance abuse.

Bunker, who has spent 27 years in the health-risk field, said there are
five components that need to be embraced to make the effort successful.
"The first component is the schools," he said. "Do the schools have in
place alcohol, tobacco and other drug-health curriculums that are
effective?" People need to ask, "Is my school doing a good job?" Schools
also need to have a clear and consistent policy concerning alcohol, tobacco
and drugs, he said. "It should be written, uniformly and fairly enforced,
whether it's the star quarterback or a member of the drama club, and the
policies should be reviewed on a regular basis," Bunker said. The next
piece of the puzzle is the parents, he said. "We have to have parental
involvement if we are going to reduce underage alcohol problems.

Parents need to set an appropriate model for their own children and the
children in the community as well," he said. "The third component is
getting youngsters and students involved in the issue through such
activities as peer leadership programs, getting them active in creating
alcohol-free events," Bunker said. Then, the media needs to get involved,
he said. "We need to have the media in local communities become involved,
identifying this as a key issue, highlighting the positive as well as the
negative," he said. "The fifth component and probably the most important,"
Bunker said, " is that members of the community need to recognize alcohol
and other drugs are a community problem." Those in the community need to
take a comprehensive approach, he suggested, by creating an alcohol task
force, made up of groups in churches, businesses and schools. "The
compliance checks are part of that, with the community getting involved and
saying, 'We know each merchant is a player in this,'" he said. Merchants
and clerks need to take responsibility for identifying underage youth and
refusing to sell to them, he said, citing the owner of Durham Marketplace,
Chuck Cressy, as one merchant who has initiated a zero-tolerance policy in
his store.

The community also needs to make important alcohol-free events available,
not just for teens but for everyone, he said. "We need to send the message
that you can have a good time without alcohol," Bunker said. Additional
information about New Futures and its mission is available by calling
862-0710 or logging on to the group's Web site at www.newfutures.unh.edu.