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Quarterly Meeting Summary
October 11,
2000
Office of Justice Programs
810 Seventh Street NW.
Main Conference Room
Washington, DC
Meeting Overview
- In Attendance
- Welcome
and Opening Remarks
The Honorable Janet Reno,
Attorney General, and Chair, Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice
and Delinquency Prevention
- John Wilson,
Vice Chair, Acting Administrator, OJJDP
- Youth, Alcohol,
and Juvenile Justice
Dr. Sue Bailey, Administrator, NHTSA, DOT
- Developing
Promising and Effective Programs To Address Underage
Drinking
First Lady of Pennsylvania Michele Ridge, National Co-Chair,
Leadership To Keep Children Alcohol Free, Governors' Spouses Initiative
- Enoch Gordis,
MD, Director, NIAAA
- Joel Grube,
Ph.D., Director, Center for Adolescent and Child Health
Research, PIRE
- Kathryn
Stewart, Deputy Director, Underage Drinking Enforcement
Training Center, PIRE
- Kelly Standiford,
1999-2000 National Student of the Year, Students Against
Destructive Decisions (SADD)
- Closing Remarks
John J. Wilson, Vice Chair, Acting Administrator,
OJJDP
In
attendance
- The Honorable Janet Reno,
Chair, Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
- Mary Lou Leary, Acting Assistant
Attorney General, DOJ.
- John J. Wilson, Vice Chair,
Acting Administrator, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention (OJJDP), DOJ.
- Dr. Sue Bailey, Administrator,
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA),
U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).
- Larry Brendtro, President,
Reclaiming Youth.
- Barbara Broman, Deputy to
the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Service Policy,
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
- Kimberly J. Budnick, Director,
Concentration of Federal Efforts Program, OJJDP.
- Jack Calhoun, President, National
Crime Prevention Council.
- Darlind Davis, Chief, Prevention
Branch, Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).
- Enoch Gordis, MD, Director,
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).
- Joel Grube, Ph.D., Director,
Center for Adolescent and Child Health Research, Pacific
Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE).
- Bertha Jones, Program Analyst,
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
- Gordon Martin, Associate Justice,
Massachusetts Trial Court, District Court.
- Bill Modzeleski, Director,
Safe and Drug Free Schools, U.S. Department of Education.
- Richard Morris, Youth Specialist,
U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).
- John Pogash, National Juvenile
Coordinator and Juvenile Program Director, Immigration
and Naturalization Service (INS).
- First Lady of Pennsylvania
Michele Ridge, National Co-Chair, Leadership to Keep Children
Alcohol Free, Governors' Spouses Initiative.
- Kelly Standiford, 1999-2000
National Student of the Year, Students Against Destructive
Decisions (SADD).
- Kathryn Stewart, Deputy Director,
Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center, PIRE.
- Ernie Thomas, Management Analyst,
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF).
- Jim Wright, Coordinator, Youth
Alcohol Programs, NHTSA.
Welcome
and Opening Remarks
The Honorable Janet Reno, Chair, Attorney General
The Honorable Janet Reno welcomed
the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention to its quarterly meeting, focused on youth and
alcohol.
In 1994, the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) released figures on the common
denominators of youth violence. These figures indicated that
violent confrontations are more likely to occur between friends
and acquaintances than between strangers and that alcohol-not
illegal drugs-is more likely to fuel the violence.
Alcohol is the drug of choice
for most youth, and youth are experimenting with alcohol
at very young ages. More than half of all eighth graders
and 80 percent of all high school seniors have reported alcohol
use. Individuals who begin drinking before the age of 15
are four times as likely to develop alcohol dependence. Heavy
users of alcohol are four times more likely to steal, three
times more likely to hurt or kill themselves or get into
a fight, and more than seven times more likely to have been
arrested. Alcoholism can develop in adolescents much more
quickly than it does in adults. Traffic fatalities are one
of the most serious and devastating consequences of alcohol
use by youth. Drunk driving remains one of the leading causes
of teen injuries and death.
John
Wilson, Vice Chair, Acting Administrator, OJJDP
Mr. Wilson also welcomed the Coordinating
Council and spoke on behalf of the Council when he sincerely
thanked the Attorney General for her commitment to and support
of the Council. Jack Calhoun, President, National Crime Prevention
Council, spoke on behalf of the practitioner members of the
Council when he applauded Ms. Reno as a "listening woman" who
is "groundedin her passionate belief in the next generation." Larry
Brendtro, President, Reclaiming Youth, described Ms. Reno
as a different kind of Attorney General, who makes it a point
to quietly visit youth programs wherever she travels. On
behalf of the Council, Gordon Martin, Associate Justice,
Massachusetts Trial Court, District Court, read a resolution
and, with Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Brendtro, presented a plaque
to the Attorney General honoring her service and commitment.
Ms. Reno thanked the Coordinating
Council, saying that it is easy to be Attorney General compared
to the "hard work of the people who work to unravel
the hurt of troubled children and give them futures."
Youth,
Alcohol, and Juvenile Justice
Dr. Sue Bailey, Administrator, NHTSA, DOT
In 1984, Congress passed and the
President signed the Mandatory Minimum Drinking Age Act,
which required all States to set the drinking age at 21 years
or lose Federal funding for highways. By 1988, all States
had complied. NHTSA estimates that 19,000 lives have been
saved because of mandatory drinking age laws. After enacting
minimum drinking age laws, Congress passed zero tolerance
laws that set the legal blood alcohol limit for drivers under
the age of 21 at no higher than .02. All 50 States have adopted
this law.
According to the CDC, vehicle
crashes are the leading cause of death for those between
15 and 20 years of age and more than one third of motor vehicle
fatalities in this age group are alcohol related. In 1999,
2,238 youths died in alcohol-related crashes. Because it
is illegal for juveniles to purchase alcohol under the age
of 21, these were preventable deaths.
The language in both the mandatory
drinking age laws and the zero tolerance laws does not require
proof of compliance. NHTSA provides materials, training,
and technical assistance to help States increase and measure
compliance. NHTSA and OJJDP are developing "How To" guides
for enforcement agencies on implementing alcohol compliance
checks and sobriety checkpoints. NHTSA, in partnership with
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), has developed model
techniques to enforce zero tolerance laws and has worked
with State and national alcohol beverage control agencies
to promote best practices in the retail sale of alcohol.
Law enforcement officers are often
reluctant to take action against a juvenile when the officers
may have to spend a lot of time locating the parents. To
address this problem, NHTSA and OJJDP are developing resources
to encourage juvenile holdover programs, which provide temporary,
safe shelter for those juveniles, thereby enabling the officers
to get back to work. NHTSA and OJJDP have also collaborated
on teen courts, creating hundreds of new courts. With the
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA),
NHTSA published sentencing and disposition guides for judges
and prosecutors to use in handling alcohol-related offenses.
With NHTSA and OJJDP support, the Police Executive Research
Forum (PERF) published a guide on how to coordinate a systems
response to the youth alcohol problem.
The youth population continues
to grow. Unfortunately, the reduction in alcohol-related
fatalities is slowing and, in some cases, reversing. Dr.
Bailey urged Council members to support NHTSA's national
mobilization campaign to enforce impaired driving laws. The
campaign-You Drink and Drive, You Lose-will call for increased
visible enforcement in December and over theFourth of July
holidays. The youth component of the campaign will take place
in the spring and will feature the message "Zero tolerance
means zero chances for underage drinking."
Developing
Promising and Effective Programs To Address Underage Drinking
First Lady of Pennsylvania Michele Ridge, National Co-Chair,
Leadership To Keep Children Alcohol Free, Governors' Spouses Initiative
Leadership To Keep Children Alcohol
Free is a bipartisan, multiyear national initiative to educate
America about the incidence and impact of early alcohol use
by children between the ages of 9 and 15. Twenty-eight Governors'
spouses have taken roles as spokespersons to educate and
energize the public on this issue and to make prevention
of alcohol use by children a national priority.
Three million children ages 14-17
are regular drinkers with confirmed alcohol problems. One
in four eighth graders has used alcohol in the last month,
and 100,000 children ages 12-13 binge drink once every month.
Parents need to know that alcohol is the number one drug
of choice among children, with much higher usage than tobacco
or drugs. The onset of alcoholism can occur in just 6 months
to 2 years in adolescents, compared with 12 to 25 years for
adults. Alcohol affects the physiology and neurology of developing
teens and has practical academic consequences.
The message is simple: Talk to
children about alcohol and drugs today. In Pennsylvania,
the statewide initiative has created a task force made up
of law enforcement, health and welfare agencies, the liquor
control board, and the Governor's policy office. In Erie,
PA, youth are creating labels for their Project Sticker Shock
campaign that read "It is illegal to buy or providealcohol
for anyone under 21. It's not your call; it's the law." Doylestown,
PA is focusing on parent education with the slogan "Model
what you expect and expect what you model."
Major partners in this initiative
are NIAAA and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Other Federal
and private supporters include the National Institutes of
Health's Office of Research on Women's Health and Research
on Minority Health, OJJDP, the Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration (SAMSHA), the American Medical
Association, the National Medical Association, the American
Bar Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and
Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Enoch
Gordis, MD, Director, NIAAA
Although the problem
of youth and alcohol is important and serious, public attention
focused on the problem is still lacking, for several reasons.
Alcohol is a legal substance and its use is perceived as
less dangerous than use of illegal drugs and is even portrayed
as funny at times. The public focus on drug abuse eclipses
the problem of alcohol.
Science has made it possible to
understand the effects alcohol has on adolescents and is
the only hope for developing new prevention and treatment
methods. Recent findings show that the earlier a young person
begins to drink, the greater the danger of alcoholism as
an adult. If drinking begins before the age of 13, there
is a 40-percent likelihood that the person will become an
adult alcoholic, whereas if drinking is delayed until ages18-20,
the risk is only 10 percent.
Prevention initiatives can be
researched as thoroughly as new treatments or medications
by using comparison trials and historical controls. Major
research demonstrates the feasibility of delaying the initiation
of drinking, but it is not yet known how easily these research
results can be generalized from community to community.
Because the brain is not fully
developed until ages 18-20, alcohol causes major problems
in adolescents' cognition, visual perception, abstract reasoning,
and memory. The developing brain has the quality known as
neuromal plasticity, which means that young persons are particularly
vulnerable to alcohol. Alcohol also damages functions related
to the ability to plan and to learn from past experience.
The extent of drinking on college
campuses varies. On some campuses, drinking is very extensive
and is associated with date rape, vandalism, violence, and
car accidents. Because of liability insurance costs, drinking
has a tremendous impact on the cost of running colleges and
universities.
NIAAA is disseminating information
and research to the general public. The agency is working
with a college panel to publish handbooks on what is known
about college drinking and what remains to be done. NIAAA
has distributed 250,000 Make a Difference, Talk to Your
Child About Alcohol pamphlets, with plans to distribute
1 million. A Spanish-language version of this pamphlet will
soon be available.
Joel
Grube, Ph.D., Director, Center for Adolescent and Child
Health Research, PIRE
Data from the Monitoring the Future
Survey, an annual survey of approximately 16,000 students
conducted since 1975, indicate that a majority of students
are drinkers by their senior year. A substantial proportion
are monthly drinkers-about half of the students reported
having a drink within the last 30 days. However, as programs
are designed, it is important to keep in mind that these
data also show that half the students are not current
drinkers. Binge drinking, defined as consuming five or more
drinks in a row on at least one occasion in the past 2 weeks,
was reported by one-third of high school seniors. All these
indicators of underage drinking have declined somewhat from
the 1970's and 1980's in response to laws.
Analysis of 30-day drinking patterns
by grade level indicates that abstinence declined as grade
level rose. Young people generally don't drink like most
adults drink; that is, young people usually drink to get
drunk. The accuracy of this generalization is reflected in
the fact that the majority of students who did drink in the
last 30 days were binge drinkers.
Data from the 1997 National Household
Survey demonstrate that more than half of students are moderate
drinkers, a substantial proportion binge drink, and a smaller
proportion are frequent bingers (defined as drinking five
or more drinks at least five times in the past 30 days).
Although frequent bingers represent only 4 percent of young drinkers, they
consume 67 percent of the alcohol.
Patterns of heavy episodic drinking
have serious implications for other problems. Bingers are
at greater risk for reporting alcohol problems, including
drinking and driving, drinking more often than they intend,
and being unable to limit alcohol use when they would like
to be able to do so. Bingers are also at greater risk for
reporting other social problems, including gang fighting,arguing
at home, skipping school, and being arrested. The many problems
associated with underage drinking have high economic and
social costs. The use of alcohol by youth in 1996 (in 1998
dollars) was $53 billion or about $200 for every man, woman,
and child in the United States.
Kathryn
Stewart, Deputy Director, Underage Drinking Enforcement
Training Center, PIRE
The good news is that minimum
drinking age laws have saved 19,000 lives and have reduced
homicide, suicide, and accident rates. There is no evidence
that young people are substituting drugs for alcohol. The
bad news-alcohol is cheaper than ever. Federal excise taxes
have not kept pace with inflation, alcoholic beverage choices
are greater, and alcohol is more available. Alcohol marketers
have developed high-alcohol-content lemonade and cola drinks
to appeal to young taste buds that don't like the taste of
alcohol. Manufacturers market alcohol by using promotional
giveaways with youth appeal as come-ons.
Current strategies to solve these
problems are not efficient and not enough. Underage drinking
is a problem of the adults who produce, sell, and serve alcohol.
Environmental strategies limit availability and establish
social norms against underage drinking. Limitations on availability
start by enforcing existing minimum-age purchase laws for
retailers. Strategies to reduce the social availability of
alcohol include enforcing laws against buying alcohol for
minors, enacting laws to prevent youth attendance at parties
where alcohol is served; enacting keg registration laws;
and controlling on availability in general, including outlet
location and density and hours of sale. Strategies that enhance
the expression of social norms against use include controlling
promotions for alcohol, prohibiting use of alcohol at community
events or in public areas, and conductingmedia campaigns.
Strategies to reduce underage drinking require a lot of coordination
of agencies, with one exception-increasing the price of alcohol
by increasing excise taxes.
What can be done to move forward
on this issue? Increase the number of epidemiological studies
to answer questions such as whether binge drinking is still
defined as five or more drinks. Do more evaluations of specific
interventions such as keg registration laws or prohibitions
on consumption of alcohol in public areas. Support more research
on alcohol advertising and promotion. Implement known and
effective strategies more vigorously.
For more information, visit PIRE
at www.pire.org.
Kelly
Standiford, 1999-2000 National Student of the Year, Students
Against Destructive Decisions (SADD)
Ms. Standiford started the first
middle school chapter of SADD when she was in the seventh
grade. SADD is a peer-to-peer student organization, for youth
and by youth, that had its beginnings in 1981 when two high
school students in Massachusetts died within a week of each
other in alcohol-related crashes. A coach at a local high
school developed a program for students to work together
to prevent drinking and driving. From its first iteration,
Students Against Driving Drunk, the name and the movement
grew to include additional issues such as drinking in general,
drug use, seat belt use, and, eventually, an even greater
array of teen problems such as suicide, teen pregnancy, and
gangs.
SADD now has more than 25,000
chapters with 6 million members. The program sponsors a SADD
national office, State coordinators, teachers, and advisors
who work with the students.The advisor is a facilitator and
liaison with the school, but the students run the organization.
Student officers plan meeting agendas, advertising the meetings
and facilitating group discussion. They are role models and
actively reach out to encourage other students to join.
SADD's message is no alcohol use.
In 1982, more than 8,500 young people between the ages of
15 and 20 died; 5,380 were alcohol-related deaths. By 1995,
the number of deaths had decreased to 6,226, and alcohol
accounted for 2,212 of these deaths. In October, SADD is
kicking off its 2000 by 2000 Campaign, which seeks to reduce
the number of alcohol-related traffic deaths to 2000 in the
year 2000. For more information, contact SADD at 1-877-SADD
INC or e-mail marylou@nat-sadd.org.
Mr. Wilson suggested that revenue
collected from the alcohol excise tax proposed by PIRE could
be earmarked to support youth alcohol programs. Darlind Davis,
Chief, Prevention Branch, ONDCP, said that the antidrug campaign
has generated $18 million of matched funds from the televison
networks that will be spent solely on alcohol problems. Ms.
Davis also asked the Coordinating Council to participate
in providing alcohol focused advertisements and public service
announcements for the campaign.
Closing
Remarks
John J. Wilson, Vice Chair, Acting Administrator,
OJJDP
Mr. Wilson thanked the Council
members and presenters for their participation and input
and adjourned the meeting. The next meeting of the Council
will be held at the National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children and will focus on protecting children.
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