1206 – Misguided Solutions to Underage Drinking
According to a 2011 report by The Center for Disease Control (CDC), Michigan high schoolers reported that nearly 19% of them had their first drink before the age of thirteen and 37% had at least one drink in the past thirty days. More than that, 23% reported binge drinking in the previous thirty days. In 2009, Michigan had the honor of sporting 39,500 violent crimes (robbery, assaults, rapes) related to underage drinking, as well as 53,300 property crimes (theft, burglary, etc.). It is estimated that in 2009 as many as 31,688 Michigan teens engaged in risky sex (819 resulting pregnancies) under the influence of alcohol. The Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation states that all this cost Michigan taxpayers over two billion dollars in 2010.
Adults have tried a plethora of ways to meet this challenge. We have tried education. The thinking is that if we make sure kids have all the scary facts, they will run the other way. The problem with the education solution, even though it may help, is that most high school students have strong senses of invincibility and curiosity. Add to that an impulse toward defiance and in too many cases education fails to meet the need of an adolescent at critical decision points.
Intervention is another choice. Again, it definitely is needed. But interventions are, by their nature, after the fact. A young person can be dried out and counseled up, but the adventure has already begun by that time and the high has been found. Parents, guardians or the state can deny them wheels but having to hitch a ride doesn’t stop the drinking or lessen the thrill, the sense of conquest or the conviction that the point is just not getting caught.
This brings us to punishment, or if that term is too harsh, discipline. Believe it or not, most teenagers still respond to steadfast limits and loving enforcement of clear expectations. As adults, through family, society and government, that is what we are supposed to do for them. Underage drinking is no exception.
For some reason however all of our efforts in education, interventions and punishments have had only limited success. The reason is actually fairly obvious. It has to do with what underage drinkers see as adult hypocrisy.
The situation is reminiscent of the old saying “do as I say, not as I do.” Studies show that the children between the ages of nine and thirteen shift naturally from an emphasis on the negative, the bad effects of alcohol, to the positive, the pleasant effects of drinking. The more favorable the use of alcohol by adults and older siblings, the earlier kids experiment and the more they eventually drink. Bottom line, what youth see as they grow up, they will do even more.
So, what have we done in West Michigan? In 2003, we made Red Tulip Ale the official beer of the supposed family-friendly Tulip Time with only one substantive dissenting voice on the City Council. In 2007 Holland allowed its first beer tent at an art festival then followed the next year by allowing festival goers to “stroll down the street with beer and wine in hand”. Again, only one substantive dissenting voice on City Council. Ottawa County also began allowing Sunday alcohol sales for the first time in 32 years.
In 2009, Holland had its first ever Independence Day beer tent so that children could watch the fireworks and watch the adults drink. By the end of 2011, Holland had not only buckled to the county’s Sunday sales, but had also opened up virtually every city property to the flow of booze.
Now, unsurprisingly, in a bid to supposedly ensure “the safety of our youth”, Michigan has made it legal for drunk-out-of-their-minds youth drinkers to get medical treatment with no legal consequences while the more controlled drinkers get slammed with misdemeanor charges.
All of this demonstrates one central fact. The responsibility for underage drinking and the counter measure for it rest, not on the shoulders of our troubled young people, but on the shoulders of the adults around them that continue to make drinking an increasing requirement for a good time while asking children to keep their hands off. “Do as I say, not as I do.”