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Underage
drinking is associated with academic decline, auto accidents and fatalities,
suicide, transmission of diseases through unprotected sex, unplanned
pregnancies, use of other drugs, criminal behavior, violence and gang activity.
Such a state diminishes the quality of life now and in the future — our
children’s future.
The Policy Panel organizing committee met in the spring of 2001 to discuss our
concerns regarding underage drinking and the ease of access to alcohol available
to the youth of our community. While we found many existing programs and
projects in the schools and community-at-large focusing on substance abuse
prevention, little had been done to address the growing issue of abuse of
alcohol by our youth. The organizing committee concluded that an environmental
approach must be taken if our community truly wishes to reduce the
life-threatening effects of easy access to alcohol for our youth.
An environmental approach considers all community factors and activities that
can play an integral part in providing, even encouraging, youth access to
alcohol; lax enforcement of laws related to sales and provision of alcohol to
youth, community attitudes towards underage drinking, and the ignoring of a
growing problem. This approach was used with tobacco use and resulted in
California becoming second in the nation to have the lowest percentage of
cigarette smokers. In our current era of national reform, surely we can make
progress in reducing underage drinking as well. Using the environmental model
can affect local policy that will guide our community towards a reduction of
youth access to alcohol and set a new attitudinal tone of cooperation and
awareness regarding this growing issue.
The Policy Panel first convened in April of 2001. All those attending came
with their individual perception of the problem and demonstrated a desire to
make a positive impact upon the issues revolving around youth access to alcohol.
Our membership is growing and has included testimony from Panel members, parents
and youth in our community. We are a coalition of community leaders and have
quickly developed a unified vision of a successful move toward greatly reducing
youth access to alcohol.
The Policy Panel proposes an environmental approach that includes twenty-eight
Recommendations that address the community, schools, law enforcement/criminal
justice, merchant practices and land use/zoning.
These Recommendations are
evidence of commitment to community well-being shared by local agency leaders
and many others who are working diligently for a safe and optimal future for our
children. These Recommendations are a blueprint for a community-wide effort to
address the serious problem of youth access to alcohol.
It is with this commitment to the youth of our community, to a better future,
that we submit our Recommendations. Our expectation is that all those
individuals responsible for implementation of local codes, laws and regulations
also share the vision of the benefits that reduction of youth access to alcohol
can bring to our community. It is our intent that these Recommendations be
incorporated into legal practices that can ensure the brightest of futures for
us all.
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