In the News

There are two local news items we’d like to bring to your attention today.

The first is this week’s sentencing of former Deering High School coach Frank Watson and his wife Kimberly. The two were convicted on Monday of furnishing a place for minors to consume liquor, and Watson was additionally charged with furnishing liquor to minors. The sentences include jail time for Mr. Watson, community service for Mrs. Watson, and fines for them both.

This story has helped to highlight the important part that adults play in preventing underage drinking--particularly adults who serve as role models to youth. The story has also highlighted some deeply entrenched cultural values that are harming today’s youth—for example, that teen drinking is a harmless and inevitable “rite of passage.”

Thankfully, we know today that early drinking can have long term effects on youths’ brains, as well as increase the risk of alcohol dependency later in life). We also know that underage drinking is completely preventable.

Adult role modeling is an important part of the community prevention effort, and we encourage all adults to think about the effect that their implied consent can have on young people.


The second item was covered by WCSH6 yesterday: a new bill introduced to Congress to support the 21 Minimum Legal Drinking Age.

The Support 21 Act of 2009 (HR 1028) authorizes a new highly visible media campaign to educate the public about underage drinking laws and build support for their enforcement. It asks the National Academy of Sciences to provide a report to Congress about the influence of drinking alcohol on the development of the adolescent brain.

This seems especially timely in light of the recent news piece on 60 Minutes about the MLDA. You can track the status of the bill here or check back with us, as we’ll keep you posted on its status and let you know when offering support to your representative will be most helpful.

60 Minutes on the MLDA

Sunday night's coverage on 60 Minutes (you can watch it here ) of the conversation about the Minimum Legal Drinking Age (MLDA) was disappointing, to say the least. The piece unfortunately framed the discussion as a debate between John McCardell, former president of Middlebury College, and Chuck Hurley, Executive Director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). While the news program accurately represented McCardell's view as an unpopular and unlikely one, it also showed some disturbing support for his ideas.

Their biggest mistake was the repeated footage showing young people--some as young as 15--drinking, interacting with police and EMTs, and involved in alcohol-related car crashes. It the show's producers were trying to demonstrate consequences to watching youth, they were misguided: these tactics are proven to have no impact on youth drinking rates, and in some cases may actually increase them.

The arguments were presented lopsidedly as well, allowing McCardell and other supporters of an 18 MLDA, to repeatedly call the current law "unenforceable," an "abysmal failure," and linking the law to the extreme drinking that goes on at college.

While Hurley was allowed some rebuttal, arguing that changing the law would push the problem down to high school students, and demonstrating support by an influential list of specialists and officials, it seems that an opportunity was missed to talk about how alcohol affects the development of young adult brains, how early drinking leads to greater risk of alcoholism, and looking at our social culture that allows and encourages unhealthy drinking.

Click here for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism's recommendation for changing the culture of drinking at US colleges and universities.

What did you think of the 60 Minutes piece? Post your thoughts in the comments below, or email them to 21reasons@mcd.org and we will continue the conversation online.

60 Minutes takes on the drinking age

According to their website, this Sunday on 60 Minutes,

Lesley Stahl examines the debate over lowering the drinking age to 18, a controversial idea embraced by some people and roundly criticized by groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Ruth Streeter is the producer.

The show airs at 7pm EST on CBS.

We'll be watching with interest to see how 60 Minutes portrays this very important countrywide conversation—and check back with us Monday for our response!

Learn more about the Amethyst Initiative and why it's critical that the drinking age remain at 21 at our website: www.21reasons.org/mlda21.html

Alcohol use among teens decreasing

Monitoring the Future is an ongoing national study of the "behaviors, attitudes, and values" of American youth. The organization has been collecting data since 1975.

The 2008 Monitoring the Future study shows that alcohol use among teens has decreased 40% since it peaked in the 1990's.

According to the Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center,

The study indicates that the decline in use among 8th graders may well be linked to a decline in reported availability. The report stated that in 1996, 8th graders reported that 75 percent could find alcohol if they wanted to, but the 2008 numbers show just 64 percent could gain access to alcohol. The report further stated that declines are smaller for older students. (link)

The full study is available here.

If you'd like to keep these numbers going down, or are concerned about underage drinking, find out about your local prevention coalition, or contact 21 Reasons in Portland, ME.

Casco Bay Community Survey

Are you part of the Casco Bay community? This includes the Maine towns of Cumberland, Falmouth, Freeport, Gray, New Gloucester, North Yarmouth, and Yarmouth.

If so, we want to hear from YOU! Please click here to take an important Casco Bay community opinion survey

February Tip of the Month

Tween Store Selling Flasks

WCSH6 is reporting this morning that the tween- and teen-oriented accessories store, Icing by Claire's, is selling flasks.

View the news report here.

Liz Blackwell-Moore, substance abuse prevention program manager at PROP, is putting together a letter to send to the management of Claire's to protest the sales.

You can send your own letter to:
Manager
Icing by Claire's
318 Maine Mall #A
South Portland, ME 04106

or to:
Claire's Stores Inc.
3 S.W. 129th Avenue
Pembroke Pines, FL 33027

(EDIT 2/13: The video was originally embedded in the post, but the WCSH site has it set to autoplay, so the embedded video was replaced by a link.)

Free the Bowl Winners!

The winners of this year's Free the Bowl Contest have been announced!

In response to an avalanche of alcohol ads that appear during the Superbowl, the Marin Institute sponsored a contest in which youth produced ads promoting a "free the bowl from alcohol advertising" message.

This contest is timely: the 2009 Superbowl advertising lineup included beer ads that featured talking horses, a circus and clowns, summer parties, and slapstick comedy. These alcohol advertisements were intermingled with ads for PG-rated movies, theme parks, sugared breakfast cereal, and soft drinks.

The three winners' ads are below:

First prize winner Jeremiah Golden of New Hampshire, video:


The submission from second prize winner Jonathan Reed of California:


And from third prize winner Eric Shaughnessy, from Maryland: