Pubdate: Fri, 07 Jul 2006
Source: Wausau Daily Herald (WI)
Copyright: 2006 Wausau Daily Herald
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POLICE WORK TO KEEP DRUG OUT OF HANDS OF YOUR KIDS

Metro-area police chiefs have taken a fair amount of heat over their 
recent efforts to enforce underage alcohol sales laws.

If you're one of the people upset that they're targeting those who 
sell beer to minors, ask yourself this: If they were using the same 
tactics to go after drug dealers, would you still be angry?

There's a reason we pose that question -- and that we keep returning 
to this topic.

A study published last week in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol 
found that four times as many minors die of alcohol abuse every year 
as die from all illegal drugs combined.

Heroin. Cocaine. Crack. Meth. Add them all up and they don't come 
close to doing the harm alcohol does.

Yet public policy and financial resources are aimed overwhelmingly at 
fighting drug use by kids. For every dollar spent preventing underage 
drinking, $25 in public funds are devoted to keeping kids off drugs, 
the study found.

And on top of the human devestation represented in all those 
premature deaths, underage drinking costs the United States $62 
billion every year.

"Alcohol-related traffic crashes, violence, teen pregnancies, STDs, 
burns, drownings, alcohol poisoning, property damage and other risks 
take a human and economic toll that's much greater than illegal 
drugs. Yet, we spend so much more on youth drug abuse," study author 
Ted Miller, director of the Pacific Institute for Research and 
Evaluation, said in a prepared statement.

The study even broke the problem down into real-world costs. Every 
time a kid buys a beer in a bar or sneaks some vodka from the family 
liquor cabinet, it costs America $3.

Finally, the study analyzed why underage drinking is such a problem 
and how it best can be addressed. And that brings us back to the 
recent bar checks in Wausau.

According to Miller, poor enforcement of drinking laws is the primary 
culprit. The study called for more regulations and inspections of 
taverns and other places alcohol is sold, as well as steps to make it 
easier to verify a customer's age.

It went on to recommend zero-tolerance regulations and laws that make 
parents liable for the aftermath when they allow underage drinking in 
their homes.

Wisconsin already has addressed some of these concerns. New driver's 
licenses make it impossible to mistake a minor for an adult -- adult 
information is in the old horizontal format, but those under 21 get 
vertically-printed licenses.

And the state has a zero-tolerance law that says drivers under age 21 
can't have a drop of alcohol in their blood.

As for some of the study's other recommendations, politicians are 
loathe even to contemplate laws that would rankle Wisconsin's 
powerful alcohol lobby. It's far easier -- and politically risk-free 
- -- to go after drug dealers.

But here's a jug of truth that lawmakers and the public need to take 
a deep draught from:

Alcohol is a drug.

It's the most widely used and abused drug in our society. Yet some 
among us are willing to turn a blind eye to those who sell it to youngpeople.

We're not. And we're grateful for local police who aren't willing to 
look the other way, either.

Wednesday's edition of the Wausau Daily Herald contained a brief item 
about a man who was out on bond after his arrest on a fifth-offense 
drunken driving charge.

He blew past a police officer at 93 mph near Merrill before being 
stopped and charged with his sixth offense.

He was 29 years old.

We don't know him or anything else about him. But odds are, he 
started drinking young. Now he's in jail, and a lot of people in 
Lincoln County who were on the road when he was might be darned lucky 
to be alive.

That's why police are vigilant. And that's why responsible adults 
should support their efforts to crack down on underage sales.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman