Forum discusses youth drinking behavior
Mar 21st, 2008

Underage drinking, binge drinking and drunk driving are major concerns throughout the country, the state and, as dozens of Goshen County residents learned at a meeting Wednesday, in Goshen County . The Policy Makers Forum, sponsored by the Torrington Police Department, brought together law enforcement, attorneys, judges, school representatives, liquor establishment owners, youth representatives and others to discuss the problems with underage drinking in Goshen County.

The forum, headed by Torrington Police Chief Billy Janes and guest speaker Ernie Johnson, former Casper police officer and lecturer in criminal justice at the University of Wyoming, presented statistics about alcohol use and abuse in the state, in Goshen County and in Torrington.

According to Johnson, 27 percent of youth in Wyoming have their first drink of alcohol (defined as more than just a few sips) before age 13, the 11th-highest percentage in the nation. Johnson also noted that 40 percent of children who drink alcohol before age 15 will have alcohol abuse and dependency problems later in life.

“A quarter of our kids start drinking before 15, and research shows we’ll have problems with those kids down the line,” he said.

Thirty-two percent of Wyoming teens report binge drinking in the past 30 days – the fourth highest percentage in the country. Johnson said that, according to one British study, teens who binge drink are 60 percent more likely to be alcoholics, have mental health problems or be homeless later in life. Those same teens are also 40 percent more likely to use illicit drugs and commit crimes.

In an effort to begin to understand the scope of alcohol abuse in Wyoming communities, the Department of Transportation provided funding to state police and sheriff’s departments to research the problem. From April 1, 2007 to September 2007, police and sheriff’s departments kept records of alcohol’s involvement in arrests. Sixty percent of arrests in Wyoming during that time involved alcohol. In Goshen County the figure was the same, but in Torrington , the number of arrests involving alcohol was nearly 71 percent.

Nine percent of arrests statewide during that time were for public intoxication; in Torrington , the figure was just over 16 percent. Thirty-one percent of arrests in Wyoming were for DUI (driving under the influence); in Goshen County that figure is at 39 percent and in Torrington, over 44 percent of arrests are made for DUI.

“Don’t these figures concern you?” Johnson asked the audience.

Johnson speculated that alcohol abuse and risky behavior are related to social norms in communities, over-service problems in liquor establishments and server training issues.

“What’s the environment around our kids? They know right from wrong, they know what they’re supposed to do, but they also know the environment around them,” Johnson said. “We’ve minimized the concerns for way too long.”

Johnson said the environment youth are in plays a vital role in shaping their attitudes and behaviors toward alcohol, but that legislators and city councils have “a lot to do with kids’ environments.” Although many people at the local level do not think they have much say in crafting or implementing policy, Johnson said policy toward youth alcohol abuse can be made by almost any concerned member or members of a community.

“Policy can be created by people in the right place making good decisions,” he said. “It’s not just what’s on paper or in the Legislature.”

Johnson said policy could be implemented by owners of liquor establishments who firmly and explicitly tell their employees not to serve underage patrons. He also noted that prevention of underage drinking and driving may require a “significant emotional experience” – something that affects youth deeply and causes them to review and revise their behavior - for some youth.

“In order for us to show that our community doesn’t want (underage) drinking or DUIs, we have to demonstrate that we don’t want that attitude,” Johnson said. “We need people to know that the system isn’t a joke – the system works.”

The Torrington Police Department has been involved in underage drinking prevention for several years, but Janes said he believes the town has reached a “plateau” in regards to the problem. According to Janes, there are three primary reasons youth choose to abuse alcohol: affordability, availability and acceptability. Although illicit drugs, particularly meth, have received most of the attention and state prevention efforts the past few years, alcohol is the number one substance teens choose to abuse. Janes said the reason for that is likely because it is more socially acceptable for youth to drink and because alcohol is much more readily available than illicit drugs.

The other challenge in preventing underage alcohol use, Johnson said, is that oftentimes youth consumption is seen as a right of passage. He noted that in Wyoming , alcohol consumption is part of the culture and the “cowboy” image the state projects, and therefore teens may think it is the norm in the state, in their community or among their friends. Both Johnson and Janes said that making teens aware that they are not in the minority when they choose not to drink is an important step in prevention.

“Sometimes we forget to recognize the good kids,” Janes said. “We have 80 percent not doing it (drinking) – we have some really good kids making really good decisions.”

Johnson said the state currently has a $10 million grant to establish a prevention framework, which he said has so far included examining statistics and determining which factors have the biggest impact on underage drinking. In a poll of Wyoming ’s 23 counties, environment and social availability have been named as the biggest contributors to youth alcohol abuse.

Johnson praised the Torrington City Council for attempting to implement stricter requirements for TIPS training, which helps teach servers how to spot underage patrons and refuse service, and Janes and the police department for their prevention efforts.

“There’s a lot of stuff going on – a lot of good stuff,” he said. “We’re not there yet, but we’re taking some positive steps.”

Johnson said there are two primary challenges for communities committed to ending underage drinking: when do those communities draw the line, and when and where do they draw it.

“What is Torrington ’s tolerance for the abuse of alcohol and DUI, and what are you going to do about it?” Johnson asked.

One of the most important things Johnson said he hoped the assembled policy makers would take away from the meeting was that community needed to be engaged in prevention efforts. Although there have been prevention efforts in the past, some successful and some not, Johnson said for future efforts to succeed communities would have to focus on adult behavior and work to alter the social norms.

“We’ve found the problem, and we know we can’t preach to kids,” he said. “We need to focus on adult behavior, engage society and change the norms.”