Underage Drinking: A Rite or Wrong?
By Isabella Volmert, Intern Staff Writer
June 6, 2019
MISSOURI – As summer begins, so does an increase time of danger for teens on the roads. The period between Memorial Day and Labor Day is known as the “100 Deadliest Days.”
According to Triple AAA Northeast, in 2016, 14 percent more people were killed in vehicle accidents involving a teen driver during this period than the rest of the year.
The decrease in structured living provided by school, the opportunities allowed by summer weather and the celebrations from the end of the school year into the summer lead to increased incidents of underage drinking, says Julie Hook of the HOPE for Franklin County Coalition.
The coalition will host an informational session on the topic Wednesday, June 19, at 5:30 p.m. at the Foundations for Franklin County, 3033 Highway A, Suite 103, Washington. The building is just north of the YY/A intersection and is right next to the Krakow Vet.
HOPE, which stands for Healthy Outcomes through Prevention Education, is an organization based out of Krakow that specifically serves the Franklin County community. Its focus, as stated in its mission statement, is to empower youth to make positive decisions and lead healthy, drug-free lives.
Hook and others with the coalition provide preventive information and resources to both adults and teens regarding underage substance abuse in order to educate the public and lead to increased knowledge about the subject.
The coalition decided this year to quarterly replace its monthly meetings with an informational session about teen substance abuse. In March 2019, HOPE hosted a meeting for parents and teens about e-cigarettes and vaping.
The group’s next event on June 19 is titled “Underage Drinking: Rite of Passage? Or Wrong for Kids?” and will be similar to the session hosted on vaping.
The event is free, but has limited space. Anyone wishing to attend should email Julie Hook at HOPECoalitionFC@gmail.com.
“They Just Don’t Know”
Hook says there is a lot of misinformation and ignorance both on the part of parents and teens in regard to underage drinking.
In addition to providing preventive services, the HOPE Coalition conducts numerous surveys throughout the year to research problems facing young people and substance abuse in the county and in turn aid the local community.
Data from the Missouri Student Survey shows that the average percentage of teens from sixth to 12th grade in Franklin County who responded “yes” to having a drink in the past 30 days in 2018 was 18.6 percent, up 2.6 percent from 2016’s 17 percent. The percentage per grade level increases with each passing year.
Hook said teens obtain alcohol most commonly through adults they know, often older family members.
In the same Missouri Student Survey, of those 12th-graders from Franklin County who responded “yes” to drinking in the last 30 days, nearly 50 percent said a family member gave or sold them the alcohol.
In fact, 55.4 percent of all grade levels in Franklin County said it is “very” or “sort of easy” to get alcohol.
“Parents don’t understand it’s not their kids stealing from their liquor cabinet,” said Hook. “We have identified that young people get alcohol from adults.”
Parents Allow It
Hook remarked multiple times that many teens and parents are indifferent toward underage drinking, and many parents allow drinking in their homes.
“There’s a misconception it’s safer in the house or that it’s OK because the parents drank when they were that age,” she said.
Hook also spoke of the consequences of underage drinking that many teens and adults either don’t know or don’t understand. Underage drinking leads to an increased risk of health and developmental problems in the liver, heart, and especially, the brain.
“When we ask parents ‘Would you give your child a toxin?’ they say ‘Of course not!’ but that’s what alcohol is,” she said.
Introduction to drinking at an earlier age also leads to an increased chance of substance abuse later in a child’s life, according to the Center for Disease Control.
“Alcohol is almost always the first drug substance abusers experiment with,” said Hook, adding underage drinking is not a “gateway drug,” however, it’s almost always where different addictions that develop later in life begin.
The upcoming informational session aims to educate local parents about situations that occur in houses besides their own and to attempt to disprove the myth of “harmless” underage drinking.
Prevention Education
The hour-long meeting June 19 will feature a panel of experts with four mini information presentations.
First, statistical information about the numbers of teens abusing alcohol and their methods of access will be discussed.
Information regarding the legal consequences of underage drinking will next be provided.
Hook said many parents especially do not know about the legal ramifications about underage drinking, drinking on their property, and how adults can be responsible.
The meeting will provide information concerning social hosting laws, minors in possession and drinking while driving in addition to discussing legal consequences and ramifications on future opportunities, such as college and careers.
Additional permanent ramifications will be discussed concerning the physical consequences alcohol has on the body. Since teens have not fully developed physically, underage drinking can lead to an increased risk of impaired brain development, memory problems and at the extreme, death from alcohol poisoning.
The meeting will then cover what happens when alcohol becomes an addiction and how long-term recovery is possible, but difficult.
Finally, a representative from Mothers Against Drunk Driving or MADD will offer tips and tools to prevent and discourage underage drinking. This will include methods for teens but also for parents, who as Hook said, often also feel peer pressure from other parents to be “OK” with their teenage children drinking.
Following the presenters, there will be time for Q&A.
The HOPE Coalition’s goal is to provide the audience information about the social, legal and physical problems that accompany underage drinking so teens and parents can make informed, healthy decisions.
Hook said the coalition would love to have some students attend the event, in addition to the parents and other adults who are invited.
“Young people are smart,” she said. “They have some facts, but not all of the information.”