April is Alcohol Awareness Month. The Century Council, a national non-profit organization, designed a campaign to prevent underage drinking and discourage persons from providing alcohol to minors.
The Council, which launched in 1991, is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and chaired by Susan Molinari.
“Century Council promotes responsible decision making regarding drinking of beverage alcohol,” Molinari said.
The campaign highlights the point-of-access to alcohol by underage youth. It also encourages parents to play a more active role in keeping alcohol out of the hands of their youth.
In a recent survey conducted by the Council, teens were asked ‘where do you get the alcohol that you drink?’
Sixty-five percent of the teens surveyed said that they got their alcohol from parents, the parents of friends, older siblings or older friends, with or without permission.
Chad Woods, 16, a junior at Grand Prairie High School in Grand Prairie, Tx., said he has seen many incidents of under raged drinking go unchecked.
“A lot of my classmates talk about how they drink at family functions while their parents are around.”
Vicki Bell, of New Orleans, was involved in a traffic crash with an underage drinker in November.
“I was on my way to work at 7 a.m. on a Friday and a teenage drunk driver rear-ended my car. He was 16 years old and did not have a driver’s license. He was charged with driving without a license and a D.W.I.”
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in 2000 there were 5,702 youths between the ages of 16-20 that were killed in alcohol-related crashes.
Teens are involved in 15 percent of all fatal crashes, but make up less than 7 percent of the country’s licensed drivers. Forty one percent of fatal crashes involving teens occur between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Bell, a mother of two teenagers, said, “I was so frightened at the fact that a 16-year-old was driving drunk so early in the morning. I have a 16-year-old son and a 19-year-old daughter, it could have been them instead of me driving. Both my family and his we blessed that we came out this accident OK.”
All states have a zero tolerance policy for underage drinking. However, 21 percent of 19-20 year old drivers involved in fatal crashes had a blood alcohol concentration level of .10 or higher.
According to www.myflorida.com’s traffic crash report, Florida placed third for total alcohol-related fatalities in the U.S. in 2001. There were 1,276 traffic fatalities of all ages and 171 traffic fatalities of youth under 21.
California was second with 1,612 traffic fatalities of all ages and 289 traffic of youths under 21, and Texas preceded with the highest rate of alcohol related fatalities; 1,745 traffic fatalities of all ages and 327 traffic fatalities of youths under 21.
The NIDA conducted a research study that confirmed that teenagers would be more apprehensive to drink and drive if they heard directly from their parents how important they are to them.
The NIDA conducted a research study that confirmed that teenagers would be more apprehensive to drink and drive if they heard directly from their parents how important they are to them.
Contact Ariell Martn at famuannews@hotmail.com