SPEAKER: TREAT UNDERAGE DRINKING LIKE THE KILLER IT IS

LAKELAND -- The fact that underage drinking is killing more teens
than all other drugs combined should motivate communities into
action, channeling anger and frustration into new policies and laws.

Such was the message Wednesday at the annual luncheon and meeting of
the Drug Prevention Resource Center in Lakeland, which coincides with
the national Red Ribbon campaign.

About 70 people, including Mayor Buddy Fletcher, Police Chief Roger
Boatner and other community leaders, attended the meeting held at
Highland Park Church of the Nazarene.

Attendance was below expectations, a fact that Angie Ellison,
executive director of the drug resource center, attributed to the
main topic -- drinking.

Society has become so permissive of alcohol that most people refuse
to take the subject of underage drinking seriously, Ellison said.

"We need to educate parents," she said. "Most think: 'Thank God
they're not doing meth.' We can't do it by ourselves. We have to
bring more to the table."

Her agency, which serves Polk, Highlands and Hardee counties with a
variety of drug-prevention resources and programs, is doing just that
- -- bringing business and community representatives together, forming
a coalition.

To date, 209 people have signed on, 22 of whom are wrapping up 12
hours of training to help come up with strategies to engage the
community in ways to reduce teenage alcohol abuse.

Underage drinking is a leading cause of teen homicides, suicides,
sexually transmitted disease, pregnancies and other social ills,
according to a two-year study by the National Academy of Sciences.

The study, released October 2003, should have been a lightning rod
for change, but it barely made headlines, said Penny Norton, a
nationally known drug prevention expert and keynote speaker at
Wednesday's forum.

Among the study's findings, Norton said: "These kids don't drink for
socializing, they drink to get hammered; they drink hard, they drink
fast, and they drink a lot."

Federal spending on the problem of teenage drinking pales compared
with budgets for drug abuse and tobacco prevention, according to the
NAS study. For the fiscal year 2000, $71.1 million was targeted for
underage drinking, compared with $1.8 billion for drug abuse prevention.

America has become inured to trendy, sweet, alcoholic beverages aimed
at a younger market, Norton said, which sends the wrong message, a
message fostered by producers of beer and alcohol, who market through
major sporting events.

It doesn't have to be that way, said Norton, chief executive officer
of FACE, a Michigan-based agency advocating for policy changes
designed to reduce alcohol-related problems at the local and state levels.

"You can put a stake in the ground if you choose to," she said. "And
we've not done a good job in helping you understand the bigger picture."

Ellison said the Coalition for a Drug Free Polk, which her agency is
assembling, is looking for members to begin a grassroots effort to
change the way adults perceive drinking and how that perception affects youth.

The NAS study concluded that adults facilitate most underage
drinking, so adults are key to changing behaviors.

"We'll assess what our needs are," Ellison said, "then go into action."