Mass. underage drinking down, but officials not satisfied

4/11/08Massachusetts is making headway in the fight against underage drinking with a 20 percent decrease among high school students from 2004, according to an April 4 press release from the Patrick-Murray Administration.

But Quincy High School principal Frank Santoro said "you can never do enough."

Quincy Public Schools, the Quincy Police Deptartment, and District Attorney William Keating are coordinating their attack on all fronts to educate teens and prevent alcohol abuse.

State Bureau of Substance Abuse Services Director Michael Botticelli describes underage drinking prevention as "daunting because alcohol is legal and readily available for adults, and because the entertainment industry continues to glamorize underage drinking."

Quincy schools begin alcohol education in its ninth grade health curriculum, Santoro said. They also have guest speakers that come in from time to time, sponsored by the district attorney's office, he said.

"We target certain grades to be part of those presentations from year to year. We try to get each of the grades to at least have something before they leave Quincy High School," he said.

Last year the school also staged a car accident by the front steps to show one of the more serious consequences of alcohol abuse, he said. "We left the totaled vehicles in front of the school as a reminder."

On the streets, the QPD takes a more direct approach. A state sponsored program called "Cops in Shops" sends undercover officers into liquor stores to make sure store clerks are checking for valid ID, Liquor Inspector Lt. Turowski said. Officers in the program also stake out the parking lots to catch adults buying alcohol for illegal imbibers, he said.

The Quincy Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program encourages teenagers to combat underage drinking on their own. The curriculum presents hypothetical situations in which they have to confront alcohol abuse so that they are equipped with the decision-making skills necessary in a real life situation, Officer John Grazioso said.

"First we ask them to figure out the problem. In this case, someone is asking you to drink. We ask them to come up with responses that are realistic, responsible, and respectful to others. Then we tell them to act on those decisions," he said.

The DARE program does not try to teach young people that alcohol is evil. "It's abuse that's the problem," he said.

But despite all outside efforts, the front line remains in the home, according to the Norfolk District Attorney William Keating.

"Although parents sometimes underestimate their impact and influence, survey after survey shows that young people rank parents among the top reasons for not using alcohol," Keating wrote in a letter to Mass. parents. "In fact, parents rank above friends or peer pressure."

A Massachusetts tenth grader said in an underage drinking guide for parents, released by Keating's office, "There are two things we depend upon. Parents not paying attention and parents not wanting to believe their middle school child knows anything about alcohol and other drugs older kids use."

And yet with all these programs working in concert, Santoro said, "There's also a trade-off. You have to try to do these assemblies as we get ready for MCAS and cover our curriculum. It's always a battle as to how we fit it in so that kids are exposed to alcohol education.