Town hall meetings refocus issue of teens, alcohol

Amid all of the new youth-related issues of recent years like steroid use and cyber stalking, officials believe they may have taken their eyes off the ball of underage drinking.

But a series of federally initiated town hall meetings in different communities are starting to address the resurgence of an age-old problem.

At the Schaumburg convention center Thursday, such a meeting moderated by state Rep. Paul Froehlich was held by representatives of Motorola, the Schaumburg Police Department, Elk Grove High School, Prevention First and Kenneth Young Center.

"We've seen a startling increase in underage drinking in the last few years, according to a state survey done every two years," Froehlich said.

One of these statistics is a 53.4 percent increase between 2002 and the most recent survey in 2006 of eighth graders who said they'd had alcohol in the last month.

Froehlich suggested that it was satisfaction with previous success in reducing underage drinking that caused the issue to drop in priority. He saw the same thing happen after an earlier campaign to raise awareness among pregnant women of the danger of fetal alcohol syndrome.

"This is human nature," Froehlich said. "You give a lot of attention to one issue and it declines -- for a while."

Karel Ares, executive director of Springfield-based Prevention First, said the time had come to remind communities to create an environment in which underage drinking can't thrive.

She said that youth who use alcohol by age 15 are four times more likely to become alcoholics than those who start at 21. Furthermore, she said alcohol kills six times more young people than all illegal drugs combined.

"I would prefer our future leaders become future leaders with all their brains and body parts intact," Ares said.

But she believes it's the social acceptance of alcohol that makes its use harder to fight among young people than drugs or smoking.

Jim Arey, a social studies teacher at Elk Grove High School, is working on a variety of projects there to encourage peer-to-peer delivery of the anti-alcohol message.

He said kids are more sophisticated than ever before in their ability to access information and whatever they want -- but no better than before in their ability to understand the consequences of their actions.

Not long ago, about 150 photos were found among students' MySpace pages depicting alcohol use.

Arey said there is still a need for teens to be shown the ugly side of this activity, including possibly police ride-alongs on DUI arrests.

Froehlich emphasized that drunk driving isn't the only cost of underage drinking.

Though attendance was sparse at Thursday's meeting due to late publicity, more in the Schaumburg area are being considered.

At 7 p.m. May 6, the Maine Community Youth Assistance Foundation will host another town hall meeting on underage drinking at Des Plaines City Hall, 1420 Miner St. in Des Plaines.