Cops, businesses cracking down on underage drinkers
LAKE COUNTY – Lake County businesses are serious about stopping sales to underage drinkers.
“Underage drinking is an ongoing problem,” said Lake County Undersheriff Dan Yonkin.
It’s a problem Lake County law enforcement officials are working hard to stop. In the past, Yonkin said the Sheriff’s Department worked with undercover agents to test local establishments as well as random community members on whether they would sell alcohol to minors.
Their efforts were rewarded, Yonkin said, but could not say if undercover, anti-underage drinking programs would be addressed this year.
A whopping 18.8 percent of Montana eighth graders, 36.9 percent of tenth graders, and 49.5 percent of high school seniors consumed alcohol within the past 30 days of taking a 2012 Prevention Needs Assessment Survey. In all, 14,575 students participated.
“Alcohol remains the number one drug of abuse for Montana’s youth,” said Jackie Jandt of the Department of Public Health and Human Services Addictive and Mental Disorders Division.
Montana Governor Steve Bullock knows the importance of fighting for youth sobriety.
“Underage drinking is a serious issue and I want to thank Montana businesses for being our partner in prevention when it comes to kids and alcohol,” said Bullock.
The state is introducing a new grant-based program to address youth drinking this November and focuses on selling alcohol to Montana minors.
“This program is designed to keep alcohol out of the hands of our youth and serve as positive reinforcement to local businesses for doing the right thing.”
The Alcohol Reward and Reminder Program is an evidenced-based program developed to educate and/or reward local businesses. It’s part of a 5-year grant recently awarded to DPHHS called the Partnership for Success Grant, according to Chuck Council, Communications Specialist, DPHHS.
The grant’s first phase includes the launch of the Alcohol Reward and Reminder Program.
Here’s how the program works:
• Local retailers will be visited at least once a year by a team made up of a trained adult surveyor and a trained 21-year-old who looks underage.
• The 21-year-old will attempt to purchase alcohol without any proof of age while the surveyor observes.
• If the clerk refuses the sale for not having any proof of age or any reason, the 21-year-old will leave the store and the surveyor will thank the clerk for checking IDs and give the clerck a Reward Card to fill out and mail in for a chance to win a $100 gift card.
• If the clerk does not ask for proper ID and appears willing to make a sale, the 21-year-old will not purchase alcohol. The surveyor will then hand the clerk a Reminder Card that explains the legal consequences.
of selling to someone underage.
This program is similar to the already-existing Reward and Reminder Program that focuses on the prevention of the sale of tobacco products to those under 18.
The trained survey teams will be community and prevention-minded adults who will be employed by the HELP Committee, which is contracting with DPHHS to implement the program. The teams are trained by HELP Committee personnel to follow a standard protocol approved by DPHHS. The HELP Committee, based in Havre, is a community-based prevention organization.
Jackie Jandt said there will be 4,050 surveys completed every year during the five year grant period. The surveys are starting in November.
The Alcohol Reward & Reminder is just one piece of the $11 million Partnership for Success Grant and will cost approximately $95,000 per year to implement.