[sunrico90]

Attorney General Bill McCollum will hold a news conference today with the Century Council and Holly Benson, secretary of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

They will unveil a campaign to fight underage drinking.

The public awareness campaign, “We Don’t Serve Teens,” was developed by The Federal Trade Commission and The Century Council.

The event -- at 11 a.m. at the state Capitol -- is open to the public.
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Is this a problem in your area?

Underage drinking cost the citizens of Florida
$3.7 billion in 2005. These costs include
medical care, work loss, and pain and suffering
associated with the multiple problems resulting
from the use of alcohol by youth.1 This
translates to a cost of $2,383 per year for each
youth in the State. Florida ranks 12th highest
among the 50 states for the cost per youth of
underage drinking. Excluding pain and
suffering from these costs, the direct costs of
underage drinking incurred through medical
care and loss of work cost Florida $1.2 billion
each year.

Youth violence and traffic crashes
attributable to alcohol use by underage
youth in Florida represent the largest
costs for the State. However, a host of
other problems contribute substantially
to the overall cost. Among teen
mothers, fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)
alone costs Florida $51.2 million.

Anyone owning a bar/restaurant/gas store that can tell stories of what kids will do to get a drink? Post your views..... This is one that all must support....

[riveree]

Great, now Florida will be known for it's drunken toddlers! I thought we were keeping that a secret ?!

I wasn't aware that Florida had any greater problem than elsewhere, but I'm all for educating the kids about the problems alcohol can cause. I'd definitely like more drunks off the road.

[sunrico90]

Here you will learn about all of the youth oriented programs that are available through MADD. If you have questions regarding youth programs in Florida, please contact Terri Sue Aldridge-Russell, Florida State Youth Services Coordinator, at terri.aldridge-russell@madd.org or call Terri at (850) 681-0061.

[macguy]

Originally Posted by sunrico90

Attorney General Bill McCollum will hold a news conference today with the Century Council and Holly Benson, secretary of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

They will unveil a campaign to fight underage drinking.

The public awareness campaign, “We Don’t Serve Teens,” was developed by The Federal Trade Commission and The Century Council.

The event -- at 11 a.m. at the state Capitol -- is open to the public.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Is this a problem in your area?

Underage drinking cost the citizens of Florida
$3.7 billion in 2005. These costs include
medical care, work loss, and pain and suffering
associated with the multiple problems resulting
from the use of alcohol by youth.1 This
translates to a cost of $2,383 per year for each
youth in the State. Florida ranks 12th highest
among the 50 states for the cost per youth of
underage drinking. Excluding pain and
suffering from these costs, the direct costs of
underage drinking incurred through medical
care and loss of work cost Florida $1.2 billion
each year.

Youth violence and traffic crashes
attributable to alcohol use by underage
youth in Florida represent the largest
costs for the State. However, a host of
other problems contribute substantially
to the overall cost. Among teen
mothers, fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)
alone costs Florida $51.2 million.

Anyone owning a bar/restaurant/gas store that can tell stories of what kids will do to get a drink? Post your views..... This is one that all must support....

I owned a bar when the age was 18. There is nothing you can do, all it takes is one old enough to buy and they go off to the beach and all get drunk. Sometimes they show up in the bar drunk already and if they get caught leaving your place it is assumed you served them. I had that happen more then once.

I had a funny one happen once, I asked the kid to show me some ID and he puled out a picture of himself at Disney World. He said, "See that is me on the end you can recognize me". I said to him, "Forget checking your ID, we need to check your IQ, get the hell out of here.

One trick they used was fake out of state ID's from states that didn't use pictures. I had a thing I got from the FBI that had all the codes of every different states driver license and how to read them. I would give them the benefit of the doubt and look it up but usually just asking them the capitol of their supposedly home state would expose them. Most could not even make a good guess.

[Chromedome]

kids with something to do with their time will drink less than kids with nothing to do.which is majority of florida kids outside the major cities


but what do i know im only 20....

[BlueWillowPlate]

Originally Posted by Chromedome

kids with something to do with their time will drink less than kids with nothing to do.which is majority of florida kids outside the major cities


but what do i know im only 20....

I am a whole lot older than you but this was the first thing I thought of.

But I don't think the size of the city matters. I came here from Denver and, sadly, there were plenty of alcohol-related problems there, including the loss of several high school kids in a series of traffic accidents around the metro area.

There are a lot of beach bonfires around here and I am sure that alcohol is involved with some of them. However, in the year and a half I've been a part of this small community, it looks like the young people seem to have the sense to *not* drink and drive--or at least to designate a driver.
The only youth programs here are local sports during the school year, which are very popular for both boys and girls, a few school clubs, or church--or drive 45 minutes to Panama City.
But we have had no alcohol-related problems, let alone traffic fatalities.

I am unconvinced that keeping booze a forbidden fruit and then, when the kid is 21, saying "Go for it!" is a sensible way to approach alcohol.
But I realize that Florida is a very large state with minimal public transit, which means people are going to be out there driving no matter what.
Maybe the emphasis should be on drinking and driving, not just underage drinking.

[harry chickpea]

I'm going to buck the concensus and say that part of the problem is not "underage" drinking, but the prohibitionist attitude of MADD and the hype that it is able to generate.

When I grew up, the lessons of prohibition had been learned, and the country was back on a more sane footing. We were full citizens of this great country at age eighteen. We were able to vote, enter into contracts, go off to war, smoke, and (gasp!) drink. The kids today that are over the age of 18 have selectively had one of those rights removed by the manipulations of MADD on federal highway funding, and the chickening out of state governments when faced with a cutoff in highway fund assistance. Those kids are now well on their way to having the right to smoke removed because of the precidents set by MADD.

There will always be underage drinking, and tossing new laws at it is like trying to legislate the migration of birds or the age of puberty. I remember back to my days as a youth in the northeast, and can honestly say that the kids were more mature in their handling of themselves then. Perhaps part of the reason was the smaller communities and more stable population, perhaps education played a factor, and frankly I agree with the idea hinted at in a previous post, that when the "forbidden fruit" factor wasn't there, kids were able to develop a better perspective on alcohol use.

In my opinion, once a person reaches the age of majority, they should have ALL rights extended to them. If the age when young people can enter the armed services needs to be raised to 21, or the age when they can buy a car on time on their own needs to be rasied to 21, then I'll reluctantly agree with MADD that the drinking age should be raised. Until then, a lot of "underage" drinking is only underage in the minds of those who would deny rights to the citizens who bravely go off to fight our wars.

The problem that is far bigger than kids abusing alcohol in this country is the overreaching way that the rights of the citizenry have been eroded and the laws are extending more and more into the reaches that we were calling Communist not all that many years ago.

Parents need to instill a sense of maturity into their kids, and states need to recognize that the best parent is not a group of legislators or lobbyists for a special interest group.

Now, about 15 thru 17 year-olds drinking? Yeah, I agree that there is a problem there.

[tallrick]

Oh great, more tax money is being wasted. Look, minors are the responsibility of their parents, anyone over the age of consent (18) is not. If the parents can't do their job what can Government do? Underage drinking will always continue. Listen legislators, we want the tax situation fixed first, OK! If you guys keep wasting time with nonsense like this we will boot you out!

[TriMT7]

The solution to underage drinking is to lower the age to 18 or 19, and remove the mystique surrounding it.

Prohibition of substances generally only leads to greater problems. I don't know of ANY 18-21 year old who has "waited" until they were 21 to drink alcohol. Seems that everyone thinks that demographic is mature enough to fight wars oversees, piloting jets and tanks for their fat and lazy elders back in the states, but not mature enough to have a drink with friends when they go out.... which leads to binge drinking and a feeling of rebellion when drinking DOES occur before the age of 21. Take away the "specialness" and "taboo" of the act, and do as in Europe or Canada, where teens have wine with dinner and aren't as prone to buying "beer bongs" as Americans!

[121804]

The responsibity lies in parenting. The hardest but best job. Parents need to step up to the plate & be the parent, not the friend. If a parent thinks letting their kids drink at 16 or 18 is ok, they are hopefully also instilling responsibility. If a parent is all for 21 & older, they better be prepared to handle the time when Johnny or Suzy comes home drunk from the high school football game & how they will handle it...and this can happen in Topeka, Kansas and Cape Coral, Florida. Location is not the deciding factor. Having tons of things for kids to do is not going to deter kids away from drugs & alcohol. It takes strong parents willing to stick to their beliefs & follow through with whatever consequences they have set.

Where do you think kids are getting alcohol? Let's see...mom & dad's hide away stash or just out there in the frig [what dad counts his beer?]....paying some homeless guy $20....fake ids...if they want it, they'll figure out how to get it. In college, we just asked the older students to buy it for us & we'd pay em $$ . That simple.

What 16 year old is going to care about legislation or MADD? How many want to test their limits All they know is what they have been taught. So, parents need to get more involved with their kids & take on some of the hard stuff, not just the fun stuff.

My parents did not allow us or promote underage drinking. But they ALWAYS told us that if we were drunk to call them, NO MATTER WHAT, they would come pick us up. To never drive or get in the car with someone. Now, they also told us that there would be consequences for drinking but that would not mean they wouldn't pick us up.

No amount of legislation or laws will stop teenagers from drinking.