By: David Wallace
Traffic Safety Training Attorney
"What's the big deal? It's only beer, it's not
like it was pot."
"What, I can vote; I can join the army; why can't I
drink booze?"
"It's okay; they're only drinking at home."
How many times do we hear statements like this when a minor
is charged with underage drinking? The kids pretend it is
not a crime and the parents at times are horrified that
their baby might have a criminal record. After all, it's
no big deal; everyone did it when they were young, right?
Wrong, whether or not it was done by the parents or other
adults when they were young, it is a big deal and it should
be thought about in that way.
So why enforce underage drinking laws? The easy answer
is because it is the law, and our job as prosecutors is
to enforce the law. But for many people, that is a simplistic
answer. We hear just because it's against the law doesn't
mean the law is right. However, all of the facts show that
the law is right.
In 1984 Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age
Act. Now every state in the country has 21 as the minimum
age to drink alcohol. The reason congress passed that law
was to save lives, and it has worked. Laws that put the
drinking age at 21 have saved thousands of lives. Since
1975, these laws have saved more than 23,000 lives of our
youth (1). But these laws are important for other reasons
as well.
The Past vs. Now
Some people consider it hypocritical to say our children
shouldn't be drinking since as adults they did it when they
were young. However, as Bob Dylan said in 1964, "The
times they are a-changing." That statement is still
true today. Consider the changes in our society over the
past couple of decades. Twenty and thirty years ago when
today's adults were underage, things were different. When
kids of that day got together, they would pool their money.
When all the money was put together, there was enough for
a case of beer. The fake licenses used at the time were
either someone else's license or a modified paper license.
Then after getting the beer, all the kids pile into a car,
because there was only one car available, and go to a field
or the back of the school yard and drink.
Today, many children have at least $20, they meet at the
store with a computerized fake ID, purchase any kind of
alcohol they can get, and then drive their individual cars
to a private home for a party (2). After drinking at the
party, they get back into their cars and try to drive home.
Maybe, if they're lucky, they make it. "In 2004, 24
percent of the young drivers age 15 to 20 who were killed
in crashes had BAC levels of .08 or higher" (3).
Or maybe while at the party, after everyone is intoxicated,
a fight breaks out. In the past, it was a fist fight. Today,
if a fight breaks out, weapons are more easily pulled. Finally,
as we all know, alcohol is the most common date rape drug
used, and now with HIV/AIDS, the consequences for unprotected
sex can be deadly. So it is clear that today's underage
drinking parties now have more alcohol and higher consequences
than in the past. It is not being hypocritical to stop these
parties. It is doing our job as adults protecting our youth
from harm and from themselves.
Internal Harms of Underage Drinking
However, it is not just the visible consequences, that of
drinking and driving, we must keep in mind, it is also the
unseen damage done to our youth when they drink. Numerous
studies have shown the brain of a person under 21 is still
developing. There are important changes occurring in our
brains while we are adolescents. Alcohol retards those changes,
and has both short term and long term effects. Recently,
the American Medical Association (AMA) examined two decades
of scientific studies on the adverse effects of teenage
drinking and found that there is no question it is more
harmful to our teens than we thought. It released that examination
in a report called: Harmful Consequences of Alcohol Use
on the Brains of Children, Adolescents, and College Students
in December 2002. It found that because of the significant
changes occurring in a brain, alcohol takes a greater toll
on its development of those individuals under 21 than on
any other age group (4).
A Significant Problem
In 2004, Monitoring the Future, an ongoing study
of the behaviors, attitudes, and values of American secondary
school students, college students, and young adults, found
that nearly one out of five eighth graders, more than one
in three 10th-graders, and nearly one out of two 12th-graders
had had an alcoholic drink within the past month (5). According
to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration,
more than 7 million underage youth, ages 12 to 20, reported
binge drinking (6) in the past 30 days in 2003 (7). More
youth in the United States drink alcohol than smoke tobacco
or marijuana, making it the drug most used by American young
people (8). Remember, alcohol is a drug. In our colleges,
it is reported that 2 out of 5 college students are binge
drinkers (9). In September 2004, the Centers for Disease
Controls and Prevention reported that 4,554 people under
age 21 died from excessive drinking in 2001 (10). As we
can see, the problem is significant. Our children are dying.
However, while it can be discouraging to many to recognize
how severe the problem is, we should also recognize that
our communities have the power to reduce this problem.
Enforcement
Of course as prosecutors we commonly come in after the fact.
The party has already happened, and now there's a case,
or cases, before us. A minor stands before us and we have
to decide what to do with this person. Naturally how to
resolve the case varies from case to case and from state
to state. But our objective is similar everywhere. How do
we ensure that this person will not do this again until
they become of legal age? We need to be willing to use all
the tools that we have available: fines, jail, probation,
community service, treatment, and even parental involvement.
Consistent, vigorous enforcement reinforces the message
that adults and youth must be responsible for their actions
and that violating the law is unacceptable. Enforcement
also helps to validate the activities of prevention specialists
and can help treatment specialists identify youth in need
of help.
A Leadership Role
However, just as important as enforcement, is our leadership
on this issue. As prosecutors we are leaders in our communities
and we are able to speak with a variety of groups and individuals.
Underage Drinking is a crime. This crime can kill. This
crime can destroy lives. We need to lead and make sure that
everyone in the community knows it is a crime and why it
is important to enforce these laws. Explain that our youth
are dying on our highways; our youth are committing crimes;
our youth are harming themselves when they start to drink
before age 21.
Leadership also means bringing everyone together in different
ways. Sometimes teens don't need more lectures; they need
fun, non-drinking, party alternatives. When there is a community
sponsored event, consider being a co-sponsor or endorsing
the event if it is something you can support as a prosecutor.
Consider doing peer to peer teaching partnered with a local
MADD or SADD chapter representative when talking to teens.
You can be there to help adults and teenagers learn the
facts and think of safe and fun alternatives. Then, if appropriate,
you can remind them that if they do make a mistake and get
in trouble, there are consequences.
It is only through a consistent message, with everyone
speaking as one, that we can change attitudes and behaviors.
It is through a consistent message, saying underage drinking
is disapproved in all of our communities, and if it is done
then there will be consequences for everyone involved, that
we will save lives and protect our youth.
Editor's Note: This article was first published
in "Between the Lines," a publication of the National
Traffic Law Center.
End Notes
(1) NHTSA, Traffic Safety Facts 2004 Data, Young
Drivers.
(2) However, stores are not the only place teens get alcohol.
A study done for the Century Council by Teenage Research
Unlimited found that 65 percent of individuals between the
ages of 10 and 18 who had consumed alcohol reported they
got the alcohol from friends and family members. Underage
Drinking: A Resource Guide to State Laws, The Century
Council.
(3) NHTSA Traffic Safety Facts 2004 Data, Young Drivers.
(4) AMA Study, Harmful Consequences of Alcohol Use on
the Brains of Children, Adolescents, and College Students,
Report released December 9, 2002.
(5) L.D. Johnston, P.M. O'Malley, J.G. Bachman, and J.E.
Schulenberg, Overall teen use continues gradual decline;
but use of inhalants rises (Ann Arbor, Mich: University
of Michigan News and Information Services, December 21,
2004).
(6) Binge drinking is defined as 5 or more drinks on a single
occasion.
(7) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration,
Overview of Findings from the 2003 National Survey on
Drug Use and Health (Rockville, MD: Office of Applied
Studies, 2004).
(8) National Research Council and Institute of Medicine,
Reducing Underage Drinking: A Collective Responsibility,
R.J. Bonnie and M.E. O'Connell, eds. (Washington, DC: National
Academies Press, 2004).
(9) H. Wechsler et al., "Trends in College Binge Drinking
During a Period of Increased Prevention Efforts: Findings
From 4 Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study
Surveys: 1993–2001, Journal of American College Health
50, no. 5 (March 2002): 203-217.
(10) L.T. Midanik et al., "Alcohol-Attributable
Deaths and Years of Potential Life Lost—United States,
2001," MMWR Weekly 53, no. 37 (24 Sept 2004): 866-870.
