Prom Photo Contest, $500 Grand Prize

21 Reasons, with the help of Tim and Eva in the Morning on Maine’s Coast, 93.1, is announcing a “best” prom photo contest—with a cash prize of $500 to the most awkward, uh, winner!

Wow, Times Have Changed, and for the better. Thank goodness underage drinking is going the way of big hair, ruffled shirts, and bad fashion!

To celebrate the fact that underage drinking rates in Portland have been declining since 1995, 21 Reasons, an underage drinking prevention coalition, is sponsoring a Prom Photo Contest. Why? Since underage drinking can harm the developing brain (which actually stops developing at the ripe old age of 25!), this decline in drinking rates is cause for celebration!

Who can enter? Anyone over 29 can enter, because anyone 29 and older was in high school before 1995.

How do I enter? Go into the attic and find your most awesome prom photo, then go to www.21reasons.org and follow the simple directions. It’s so easy even a baby boomer can do it.

What can I win? There are two ways to win! The first 21 photo entries will receive a $10 music download card. The photo with the most votes will receive $500!

HOW do I win? When your photo is posted online, 21 Reasons will send you a link to it. You send the link to ALL your friends and family, and then they can vote for your photo as the best! On-line voting opens up April 12th. Photos posted as they come in until then.

Why should I participate? Not only is this a fun contest with amazing prizes, but spreading the word about how “times have changed” will help parents, and everyone else, realize when it comes to underage drinking we’re headed in the right direction. There are more statistics and information below.

Overview:
• Accepting photos for two weeks between March 29th and April 11th.
• On-line Voting begins April 12th and lasts one week until April 19th.
• Winner Announced Tuesday, April 20th. LIVE Tim and Eva in the Morning on Maine’s Coast, 93.1- WMGX.
• Winning photo to be used in a Prom and Graduation season reminder card to be distributed through area participating tux, florists and limousine companies. The cards will be distributed with each boutonniere, corsage, or limousine contract. Messages on the card will remind parents that most youth don’t drink and that parents can and do have the power to enforce underage drinking rules.



Additional Information:

According the Maine Youth Drug and Alcohol Use Survey, most youth don’t drink. In fact, only 28% say they have had a drink in the past 30 days. That’s down from almost 40% in 1995. In addition, a recent Parent Phone Survey sponsored by 21 Reasons revealed more Portland parents are concerned about underage drinking and taking concrete steps to prevent it. This includes:
• talking with their teens about alcohol
• asking if alcohol will be at parties
• calling party hosts to make sure alcohol will not be provided

Due to modern brain scanning technology, we know more now than ever before about the harm underage drinking can cause the developing brain.

Together, we are making underage drinking a thing of the past…just like those tacky prom dresses.

For more tips and information, visit: http://www.21reasons.org

Canadian drinking

Often in our work to prevent underage drinking, we hear the argument that countries with a lower minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) have fewer problems with alcohol. And since Canada is our nearest neighbor—and the Canadian MLDA is 19 in most provinces (18 in Alberta, Manitoba, and Quebec)—we thought we’d share recent research results about teen drinking in Canada—and compare them with stats from Portland, Maine.

	Manitoba 2009	Portland 2008
% of 9th graders who drank in the past month	39%	32%
% of 12th graders who drank in the past month	69%	52%
% of 9th graders who binge drank recently	19% (within 30 days)	18% (within 2 weeks)
% of 12th graders who binge drank recently	51% (within 30 days)	31% (within 2 weeks)

These statistics demonstrate that a lower drinking age doesn’t improve alcohol-related problems for youth—in fact it increases the likelihood that younger teens will drink and drink more heavily.

The Manitoban government is addressing these issues “by boosting fines, cranking up public-awareness campaigns and convening a summit on the issue. [They] also vowed [March 4] to beef up enforcement of laws preventing the sale of tobacco to minors, while boosting fines for offending clerks and retailers”(source)—exactly the kind of environmental prevention efforts** that can help lower those rates.

**”Prevention aimed at the environment is based on the community systems perspective that views a community as a set of persons engaged in shared social, cultural, political, and economic processes.” [http://wch.uhs.wisc.edu/docs/SIG/fisher-EnvironmentalPreventionStrategies.pdf] Environmental prevention basically looks to change the context that youth live in to support their healthy choices.

Superbowl XLIV

Well, Superbowl 44—along with all of its hype and overconsumption—is finally over. What do the numbers bring us on this Tuesday after the Big Game?

325,500,000: Gallons of beer drank by Americans on Superbowl Sunday (source).

100,000,000: The number of estimated viewers of Super Bowl XLIV (source).

80: The percentage of the general public that believes that alcohol advertising influences youth to drink alcoholic beverages (Source: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Executive Summary of Findings of Research Study of the Public Opinion Concerning Warning Labels on Containers of Alcoholic Beverages (Washington, DC: BATF, 1988))

60: The percentage of US households that tuned into the game (source).

43: The percentage of 18-24 year olds who watch the Super Bowl (source)

10: The number of times an alcohol ad has won the USA Today Superbowl Ad Meter contest. For the past two years, however, the winners have been snack foods instead of alcohol!

10: The number of alcohol commercials that aired during the game (source: staff count)

3: The age of a local dj’s child who announced, after watching a commercial, “I love beer!” (source: 2/8/10 WJBQ97.9 morning show)

2: The number of winners of the 2nd Annual Free the Bowl Contest. See winners here.

1: Anheuser Busch InBev was once again the biggest advertiser during this year’s Superbowl. They purchased five minutes of advertising time (source), at an estimated cost of $27 million (source).

For more information about alcohol marketing and youth, check out CAMY and the Marin Institute.

Prevent Underage Drinking

It’s hard to know just what to do about underage drinking.

The environment around a young person is a powerful influence in whether they choose to drink—or not.

And youth are less likely to drink if…

· Alcohol is really hard to get.

· They feel like adults in their community would disapprove.

· They believe their parents would disapprove.

· They feel like their friends and peers would think it’s uncool.

· They believe they’d get caught, either by their parents or by the police.

What is Straight Up?

Straight Up is a youth activity guide to prevent underage drinking. The activities in the guide aim to engage youth in creating permanent community change, rather than focusing on youth behavior.

How does it work?

Straight Up is organized like a textbook, with short activities and worksheets.

If you're in Portland, Maine: 21 Reasons staff can come do an activity with your class or youth group. Or you can implement activities on your own and apply for a minigrant from 21 Reasons.

If you're outside of Portland, Maine: Keep checking the 21 Reasons website. Straight Up will likely be available statewide soon.

FMI: Jen Hodsdon 21reasons@mcd.org or 207-773-7737

Teen Drinking and Brain Damage

If you knew that you could prevent brain damage and school problems for your kid, would you act? A new study out says that there might be something pretty simple you can do: don’t let your underage kids drink.

There’s a common myth among parents that letting your kids drink under your supervision is better than not knowing where they are, if they’ll be driving, and so on. But a new study conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, found a difference between the brains of teens who drank and those who didn’t.

The study started when none of the teen subjects had ever had alcohol. Over the next few years, however, some of the teens began to drink. Those that did drink were often bingeing (4-5 drinks a night) two or three nights a month.

The binge drinkers did worse on memory tests; binge-drinking boys also did worse on tests of attention, while the binge-drinking girls were worse when their spatial reasoning was tested.

What’s especially surprising is that the damage shows up so quickly. Just two of those “supervised” parties a month – approximately the same rate that the teens in the study were drinking – could potentially lead to brain damage. The study says that the performance of the non-drinkers to the binge drinkers can be compared to a whole grade point: like “the difference between

an A and a B”.

While the study does note that more research needs to be done to find out if the damage is reversible, it’s hard to imagine that it’s a risk a parent would be willing to take. And why make the complicated and difficult teen years harder?

So what can you do? Share this information with other parents. We know that it can be hard to talk about underage drinking with the parents of your child’s friends—but we think that preventing brain damage and school trouble is great motivation. Talk to other parents about the rules you set in your home, and find out their rules as well.

The story was featured on NPR on January 25^th.

For more information, visit us at www.21reasons.org. We even have a resource section just for parents.

Positive Messaging for Prevention

How do you get kids to behave in a certain way while keeping them feeling good about themselves? It’s a tricky situation for parents and mentors. Always correcting a child’s behavior by telling them that they’re wrong may not be very helpful. A recent post to the Portland Public Schools’ Listserv reminded us of this excellent advice:

If the coach says "Don't miss," the kicker hears two negatives, "don't" and "miss." Thinking about avoiding the negatives, the kicker sees the goal posts or the edges of failure. Instead, suggests Jimmie, the coach should say, "Make the kick." Now the kicker looks right down the middle and the goal posts seem to get wider. Odds are now better the kicker will indeed make the kick to win the game….Parents to toddlers walking near puddles, instead of "Don't get your feet wet," how about "Keep your feet dry." Source

But research shows that youth are far less likely to drink alcohol if they believe their parents think it would be “very wrong.”

So how can parents get this message across in a positive way?

Maybe the solution is to put the primary emphasis on the things that ARE expected: do your best in school, protect your brain and your body, be kind and considerate of others, be truthful about what you’re doing and who you’re doing it with, go to parties where parents are present and no alcohol is available to youth, be home by curfew. Then, within that context, list some of the things that would interfere—such as drinking alcohol before age 21.

Enforcement works

According to WGME13, Portland Police handed out citations to two bars this week--both involving visibly intoxicated persons.

Mathews Pub was cited for serving a visibly intoxicated patron, and Downtown Lounge was cited for letting visibly intoxicated people into the bar.

We would like to commend Portland PD for continuing to enforce liquor laws, especially those regarding intoxicated people and, of course, underage drinking (see our recent blog post).

It’s good to see publicity about this kind of enforcement, especially since teens are four times more likely to drink if they don’t think they will be caught by police (2008 MYDAUS).

And we hope that bars are learning more about not serving to already intoxicated people – especially since, under the Maine Liquor Liability Act, bartenders can be sued if a visibly intoxicated person (or minor) hurts someone else. A bartender or owner can be held liable for $350,000 in damages and UNLIMITED medical expenses.

It’s pretty clear to us that it’s not worth the risk to provide alcohol for a minor, or serve someone who’s already drunk.