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Because It Matters > Information
A person must be at least 21 to legally purchase, attempt to purchase, possess, or control an alcoholic beverage. A person under 21 may possess or consume alcohol in a private residence with the knowledge, presence, and consent of the parent or guardian. (Iowa Code 123.47)
Providing alcohol to a person under 21 is a serious misdemeanor punishable by a minimum fine of $500.00. It is an aggravated misdemeanor if that act results in serious injury to any person and a class “D” felony if the act results in the death of any person. (Iowa Code 123.47)
People who knowingly provide alcohol to those under the age of 21 can be held liable for injuries and property damage caused by the underage drinker. (Iowa Code 123.92)
72% of 11th graders in Polk County reported that it would be easy or very easy to get alcohol in their neighborhood or community. (2002 Iowa Youth Survey)
75 Polk County students (age 12-18) participated in focus groups in 2005. When asked where young people get alcohol, they identified:
• Older siblings
• Stealing from parents
• Fake ID’s (in high school)
• Stores that don’t ID
• Parents who provide it
• Garage hopping – stealing alcohol from an open garage.
• “Hey Mister” – asking a stranger outside of a store to purchase for them.
• Stealing from stores where they work.
Strategies That Work
(Excerpt from Keep Kids Alcohol Free: Strategies for Action)
Reduce the Availability of Alcohol:
The most documented principle in alcohol use prevention is this: Make it harder for young people to get alcohol, and they will drink less. Communities can make alcohol less available by promoting responsible adult behavior and holding adults accountable when they provide alcohol to minors; by raising the price of beer, wine, and liquor; or by reducing the number of places where alcohol is sold or served.
Improve the Effectiveness of Law Enforcement:
Communities can better enforce policies designed to stop drinking among children and adolescents. Studies find that existing laws regulating underage drinking are often not enforced. When these laws are ignored, it not only enables young people to drink, but also communicates a general indifference.
Change Social Norms:
Children draw conclusions about alcohol-related social norms from what they see and hear about alcohol in their families and communities. These norms strongly influence their own attitudes and behaviors regarding alcohol. When communities consistently prevent underage access to alcohol, publicize and enforce alcohol-related laws, and limit the promotion of alcohol, they reinforce the message that alcohol use by young people is unacceptable.
To view the entire publication visit: http://www.alcoholfreechildren.org/en/pubs/pdf/prevention.pdf
Alcohol Use Among Polk County Students
As reported in the 2002 Iowa Youth Survey:
By the 11th grade, most students in Polk County (74%) report some alcohol consumption in their lifetime. Nearly half of them (48%) report that they are current drinkers, having consumed alcohol at least once in the past 30 days.
County 6th 8th 11th Male Female Current
(past 30 days)24% 5% 21% 48% 23% 24% Ever 42% 16% 40% 74% 43% 41% Alcohol use among 8th and 11th grade students in Polk County is higher than the state average.
State 6th 8th 11th Male Female Current 23% 6% 18% 44% 22% 22% Ever 42% 17% 38% 71% 44% 40% While 48% of 11th graders report alcohol consumption in the past 30 days, 39% report binge drinking in that same timeframe. Binge drinking was defined as 5 or more drinks of alcohol (glasses, bottles or cans of beer, glasses of wine, liquor, mixed drinks) within a couple of hours.
Alcohol Use and Binge Drinking – Polk County
For additional information from the 2002 Iowa Youth Survey visit
www.state.ia.us/government/dhr/cjjp/iys/YouthSurvey/2002/ythsurvey02.html
Underage Drinking in Iowa The Facts
Prevention Tips for Parents ... Because It Matters
Parents are the most important influence in their children's lives. What you say and do about drugs matters a lot when it comes to the choices your children make. You can:
• set a positive example and get involved in your children's lives;• get involved in their activities, know their friends and know where they're going and what they're doing;
• create clear, consistent expectations and enforce them;
• talk early and often about alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs;
• discuss the consequences of drug use; and
• show you care enormously about what choices your children make about alcohol and other drugs.
It may seem premature to talk about drugs with preschoolers, but the attitudes and habits that they form at this age have an important bearing on the decisions they will make when they are older. At this early age, they are eager to know and memorize rules, and they want your opinion on what's "bad" and what's "good." Although they are old enough to understand that smoking is bad for them, generally they are not ready to take in complex facts about alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. Nevertheless, this is a good time to practice the decision-making and problem-solving skills that they will need later on.
Here are some ways to help your preschool children make good decisions about what should and should not go into their bodies:• Discuss why children need healthy food. Have your child name several favorite good foods and explain how these foods contribute to health and strength.
• Set aside regular times when you can give your son or daughter your full attention. Get on the floor and play with your child; learn about his or her likes and dislikes; let your child know that you love him; say that he or she is too wonderful and unique to take drugs. You'll build strong bonds of trust and affection that will make turning away from drugs easier in the years to come.
• Provide guidelines like playing fair, sharing toys and telling the truth so children know what kind of behavior you expect from them.
• Encourage your child to follow instructions and to ask questions if he does not understand the instructions.
• Strengthen problem-solving skills. For example, if a tower of blocks keeps collapsing, work together to find possible solutions. Turning a bad situation into a success reinforces a child's self-confidence.
• Whenever possible, let your child choose what to wear. Even if the clothes don't quite match, you are reinforcing your child's ability to make decisions.
• Point out poisonous and harmful substances commonly found in homes, such as bleach, kitchen cleanser and furniture polish, and read the products' warning labels out loud. Explain to your children that not all "bad" drugs have warnings on them, so they should only eat or smell food or a prescribed medicine that you, a grandparent or a caregiver provides them.
• Talk to your child about prescription medications. Explain that prescription medications are drugs that can help the person for whom they are meant but that can harm anyone else, especially children, who must stay away from them unless they are prescribed properly for them.
A child this age usually shows increasing interest in the world outside the family and home. Discuss how anything you put in your body that is not food, water or juice can be extremely harmful, and how alcohol and other drugs interfere with the way our bodies work and can make a person very sick or even cause them to die. (Most children of this age have had real-life experiences with the death of a relative or a friend's relative.) Explain the idea of addiction—that drug use can become a very bad habit that is hard to stop. Praise your children for taking good care of their bodies and avoiding things that might harm them.
By the time your children are in third grade, they should understand that:
• foods, poisons, medicines and illegal drugs differ;• medicines prescribed by a doctor and administered by a responsible adult may help during illness but can be harmful if misused, and therefore children need to stay away from any unknown substance or container; and
• adults may drink in moderation but children may not, even in small amounts because it's harmful to children's developing brains and bodies.
Before leaving elementary school, your children should know:
• the immediate effects of alcohol, tobacco and drug use on different parts of the body, including coma and death;
• the long-term consequences of drug use, including addiction and loss of control of one's life;
• the reasons why drugs are especially dangerous for growing bodies; and
• the problems that alcohol and other illegal drugs cause not only to the user, but to the user's family and the world.
Questions elementary school children frequently ask about drugs:
• Why would people want to put bad things in their bodies?
• One answer might be that they might not realize how dangerous the bad things are; another is that they are not taking care of themselves. Sometimes people start using a drug just to see what it feels like, but it can turn into an addiction (like cigarettes) and it's very hard to stop using it.
• Why can't I taste that "grown-up" drink?
• A small amount of alcohol has a much greater negative effect on a child's body than on an adult's; even a small amount can sicken a child.
Tips for Your Middle School or Junior High School Child
The year your child enters middle school or junior high school is both an exciting and a challenging time. They are little fish in a big pond and often want desperately to fit in. Because your children may now see older students using alcohol, tobacco and other drugs and may think they are cool and self-assured; your children may be tempted to try drugs too. Drug use goes up dramatically in the first year of middle school or junior high.
To help your children make good choices during this critical phase, you can:• Make sure they are well-versed in the reasons to avoid alcohol, tobacco and drugs;
• Get to know their friends by taking them to and from after-school activities, games, the library and movies (while being sensitive to their need to feel independent);
• Volunteer for activities where you can observe your child at school; and
• Get acquainted with the parents of your children's friends and learn about their children's interests and habits. If it seems that your child is attracted to those with bad habits, reiterate why drug use is unacceptable.
To make sure that your child's life is structured in such a way that drugs have no place in it, you can:• Arrange to have your children looked after and engaged in the after-school hours if you cannot be with them. Encourage them to get involved with reputable youth groups, arts, music, sports, community service and academic clubs.
• Make sure children who are unattended for periods during the day feel your presence. Give them a schedule and set limits on their behavior. Give them household chores to accomplish. Enforce a strict phone-in-to-you policy. Leave notes for them around the house. Provide easy-to-find snacks.
• Get to know the parents of your child's friends. Exchange phone numbers and addresses. Agree to forbid each others' children from consuming alcohol, tobacco and other drugs in their homes, and pledge that you will inform each other if one of you becomes aware of a child who violates this pact.
• Call parents whose home is to be used for a party. Make sure they can assure you that no alcoholic beverages or illegal substances will be dispensed. Don't be afraid to check out the party yourself to see that adult supervision is in place.
• Make it easy for your child to leave a place where substances are being used. Discuss with your child in advance how to contact you or another designated adult in order to get a ride home. If another adult provides the transportation, be available to talk to your child about the situation when he or she arrives home.
• Set curfews and enforce them. Weekend curfews might range from 9 p.m. for a fifth-grader to 12:30 a.m. for a senior in high school.
• Encourage open dialogue with your children about their experiences. Tell your child, "I love you and trust you, but I worry about world around you, and I need to know what's going on in your life so I can be a good parent to you."
Teens say their #1 reason for avoiding alcohol and drugs is disapproval by their parents. Despite their growing independence, the teenage years are a critical time for parental involvement and connection to other positive adult role models.
Here are some ways to stay involved and keep track of your teen’s activities:
• Set rules. Let your teen know that alcohol and drug use is unacceptable and that these rules are set to keep him or her safe. Set limits with clear consequences for breaking them.
• Praise and reward good behavior for compliance and enforce consequences for non-compliance.
• Know where your teen is and what he or she will be doing during unsupervised time. Research shows that unsupervised teens are more likely to engage in risky behaviors such as underage drinking, drug use, sexual activity, and cigarette smoking than other teens. This is particularly important after school, in the evening hours, and also when school is out during the summer or holidays.
• Talk to your teen. While shopping or riding in the car, casually ask him how things are going at school, about his friends, what his plans are for the weekend, etc.
• Keep them busy — especially between 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and into the evening hours. Engage your teen in after-school activities. Research shows that teens who are involved in constructive, adult-supervised activities are less likely to use drugs than other teens.
• Check on your teenager. Occasionally check in to see that your kids are where they say they’re going to be and that they are spending time with whom they say they are with.
• Spend time together as a family regularly and be involved in your kid's lives. Eat dinner together.
• Get to know your teen’s friends (and their parents) by inviting them over for dinner or talking with them at your teen’s soccer practice, dance rehearsal, or other activities.
• Stay in touch with the adult supervisors of your child (camp counselors, coaches, employers, teachers) and have them inform you of any changes in your teen. Warning signs of drug use include distance from family and existing friends, hanging out with a new circle of friends, lack of interest in personal appearance, or changes in eating or sleeping habits.
• Take time to learn the facts about underage drinking and other drug use and talk to your teen about its harmful health, social, learning, and mental effects on young users.
Visit www.theantidrug.com for more information.
Advice from High Risk Teenagers
(Actual quotes from students at the Family School)
• Don’t fix special meals for us, and don't let us eat at separate times, or in other rooms.
• It’s not a good idea to put our bedroom on the first floor.
• Don’t let us have locks on our bedroom doors.
• Don’t let us have our own telephones or TV’s.
• Don’t clean our room for us-that’s our job.
• Make the rules clearer.
• Don’t discuss the rules with us or ask us if we agree with them or like them-we don’t, but we need them.
• Make reasonable consequences, ones that you can keep, them hold to them no matter what!
• Don’t let us bargain with you; don’t compromise.
• Don’t fall for the line, “But all the other kids’ parents let them…”
• Don’t allow us to control the boundary line, because we’ll keep changing it.
• Stick to the rules.
• Don’t give up on discipline.
• Don’t say we’re going through a “stage.”
• Don’t be intimidated by us, don’t back off, and don’t walk on eggshells around us.
• Don’t be afraid to confront us in public if we’re being outrageous.
• Don’t give us everything we want.
• Don’t do everything for us.
• Don’t fight our battles, smother, or overprotect us.
• Don’t make empty threats.
• Don’t lecture for hours-we’re not listening anyway.
• Don’t send us to our room as punishment-we’ll protest, but we really love it there.
• You’re not obligated to supply us with money when we go out, especially when we’ve been acting out.
• Don’t leave money out-we’ll probably take it.
• Don’t let us talk you into leaving us alone at home when you go away-we’re probably planning a party. By the way, realize that there is no such thing as a 5-person party-“parties” are usually 50 people or one guy (girl).
• Don’t fall for half-truths.
• Don’t let us wear you down.
• Don’t give up on us.
If You Suspect an Alcohol or Drug Problem:
• Don’t look the other way.
• Don’t blame our friends, our school, or society for our trouble.
• Don’t be afraid to invade our privacy. If we’re in trouble, you should read our letters, check our closets, and check our friends.
• You don’t have to prove that we did something wrong. It’s not a court of law. If you suspect us of something, you are allowed to accuse or challenge us, even though you may be wrong.
• Check the window sills for butts.
• Check the direction of the fan in our room-be suspicious if it faces out toward the window.
• If you’re looking for drugs, be sure to check light fixtures, under mattresses (especially your mattress), socks, deodorant containers, etc. - we pride ourselves in clever hiding places.
• Be suspicious when we: wear cologne, use mouthwash, chew gum, wear dark glasses indoors.
• Be suspicious if we sleep a lot, have red eyes, or runny noses.
• Don’t give us random money-it’s too easy to use it for drugs.
• LEARN ABOUT OUR ADDICTIONS! Learn what drugs look like, smell like, what we look like, and how we behave when we’re using them.
• Don’t keep threatening rehab-just do it.
• Believe it or not, we want you to catch us, stop us, and outsmart us.
• Start discipline early on.
• Present a united front.
• Take time with us to just talk.
• Ask for telephone numbers of friends we say we’re going to stay with-then call the number to make sure we’re really there.
• Always check that we’re really attending intramural sports, getting extra help, or attending that “chess club meeting” when we tell you that we have to stay after school.
• Practice what you teach-if you get drunk or high, we’ll use it as an excuse to get high ourselves.
Role of Parents in Preventing and Addressing Underage Drinking
http://www.drugfreeinfo.org/PDFs/roleofparents.PDF
Underage Drinking has Serious Consequences
• Underage alcohol use is more likely to kill young people than all illegal drugs combined. (Grunbaum et al, 2002) (Young et al, 2002)
• Over 6000 people died in 2002 from underage-drinking-related causes (alcohol-related traffic fatalities, homicides, suicides, and other unintentional injuries). (Hingson and Kenkel, 2004)
According to the American Medical Association underage drinking:
• Is a factor in nearly half of all teen automobile crashes - a leading cause of death.
• Contributes to youth suicides, fatal injuries and homicides - the next three leading causes of death after auto accidents.
• Linked to two-thirds of all sexual assaults and date rapes of teens and college students.
• Is a major factor in unprotected sex among adolescents. (American Medical Association, 2001)
Early Alcohol Use = Greater Risk• The average age of first alcohol use is 13.1. (American Academy of Pediatrics,2001)
Compared with those who wait until they are 21, young people who drink before the age of 14 are:
• 3x more likely to report driving after drinking too much. (Hingson, et al, 2001)
• 7x more likely to report being in a motor vehicle crash because of their drinking. (Hingson, et al, 2001)
• Significantly more likely to experience unintentional injuries and physical fights. (Hingson, et al, 2000)
• Significantly more likely to be involved in physical fights after drinking. (Hingson, et al, 2001)
• More than 40% of individuals who start drinking before the age of 15 will develop alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence at some point in their lives. (Grant, BF et al, 1997)
• 46% of 11th graders in Polk County were under the age of 15 when they had their first drink (more than a few sips) of alcohol.
Helping Adolescents Make the Most of Their Changing Brains
How Does Alcohol Affect the World of a Child?
http://www.alcoholfreechildren.org/en/pubs/pdf/statbooklet.pdf
contact us at: info@becauseitmatters.org
