Governor's Office Grant Helps Prevent Underage Drinking

/PRNewswire/ -- The Georgia Governor's Office for Children and Families (GOCF) awarded a $60,000 grant to The Council on Alcohol and Drugs to prevent and reduce underage drinking through a statewide website, stopalcoholunder21.org. The grant also provides for radio PSAs and newspaper print ads in ten counties in Georgia determined to be most at risk via a 2010 Underage Drinking Needs Reassessment conducted by Georgia State University and The Council on Alcohol and Drugs.

Underage drinking and the consequences of juvenile alcohol use are serious issues in the state of Georgia. The Georgia Governor's Office for Children and Families (GOCF) has awarded a $60,000 grant to The Council on Alcohol and Drugs to prevent and reduce underage drinking by providing a statewide website, stopalcoholunder21.org.

The website includes features designed to help parents, youth, educators, alcohol retailers and others. Those features include downloadable:

* Public Service Announcements for Radio Broadcast
* Newspaper Print Ads
* Parenting Manuals for Parents of Children Ages 6-11 / 12-14 / 15-18/ and 19-20
* 1/2 Hour Video: "The Worst Drug of All"
* Video Vignettes on various topics related to Underage Drinking
* Resource Links to Other Web Sites related to Preventing Underage Drinking
* Additional Print Resources


The grant also provides for radio PSAs and newspaper print ads in ten counties in Georgia determined to be most at risk for underage drinking via a 2010 Underage Drinking Needs Reassessment conducted by Georgia State University and The Council on Alcohol and Drugs. The counties being served by the grant's Media Campaign are Ben Hill, Bulloch, Candler, Catoosa, Fannin, Lanier, Lowndes, Walker, Wilcox and Worth Counties.

This program is made possible with funding from the Governor's Office for Children and Families under a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Enforcing the Underage Drinking Laws Block Grant Program, CFDA 16.727.

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Justice Department Announces More Than $20 Million in Awards to States to Enforce Underage Drinking Laws

/PRNewswire/ -- The Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs (OJP) today announced more than $20 million in awards to enforce state and local underage drinking laws nationwide. The grant awards, made through the Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws (EUDL) program, support law enforcement, public education, and coalition building activities to address underage access to and consumption of alcohol.

"Alcohol is a serious and ongoing threat to the safety of our youth, their families and our communities," said Jeff Slowikowski, Acting Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). "OJP's commitment includes providing training programs that build on best practices and strong partnerships to prevent underage drinking."

The EUDL program, administered by OJJDP, is the only federal initiative directed exclusively toward preventing underage drinking. The program consists of block grants and discretionary awards, research, and training and technical assistance.

Each state, territory, and the District of Columbia received a block grant of $356,400. The awards support a wide range of activities and emphasize the responsibility of adults to not provide alcohol to minors. OJJDP also awarded more than $2 million in discretionary grants to Maine, Nevada and Washington to assess both state and local underage drinking issues in the first year of the program and to develop and implement a strategic plan to address problems identified by the assessments. An OJJDP sponsored independent assessment team will support the states. After the initial planning period, the grantees will participate in an OJJDP sponsored evaluation of their activities.

More than 2,000 participants--including youth--are expected to attend OJJDP's 12th annual National EUDL Leadership conference, "Building Community Futures with Blueprints for Success," in Anaheim, Calif. today through Friday, August 20. The conference highlights communities, programs and other initiatives that have successfully implemented evidence-based strategies to reduce youth access to alcohol.

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"OperationDry Water" Takes Aim at Impaired Boat Operators

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife Resources Division is teaming with the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators (NASBLA) and other partner agencies for “Operation Dry Water” the weekend of June 26-28. Operation Dry Water, a coordinated national weekend of BUI detection and enforcement, is aimed at reducing the number of alcohol related accidents and fatalities and fostering a stronger and more visible deterrent to alcohol use on the water.

Georgia DNR Conservation Rangers will be concentrating patrols in high traffic areas on reservoirs across the state. Along with the use of life jackets and other safety practices, officers want boaters to be aware of the effects and ramifications of alcohol use.

“Statistics show that more than 20 percent of boating-related fatalities are a result of alcohol use, says Colonel Terry West, DNR Chief of Law Enforcement. “This continues an upward trend in the percentage of fatalities where alcohol was the primary cause of the accident.

As part of “Operation Dry Water,” the Georgia DNR will be intensifying efforts to detect and apprehend boat operators who are operating under the influence of alcohol or dangerous drugs. Alcohol can impair a boater’s judgment, balance, vision, and reaction time.

Alcohol, mixed with boating activities, creates dangerous conditions that can lead to tragedy. Last year, Conservation Rangers made 215 boating under the influence arrests on Georgia waterways and responded to 18 alcohol-related boating accidents.

“It is not illegal to have alcohol in an open container on a boat, nor is it illegal for a person operating a boat to drink, provided they are no less safe,” says West. “However, if a person is over the age of 21 and has a blood alcohol content of .10 or higher, they are presumed to be less safe and may be charged with boating under the influence.”

People arrested for BUI may lose their privilege to operate a boat. These privileges are not reinstated until the successful completion of an approved Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol or Drug Use Risk Reduction Program. The offender will be charged with a misdemeanor, punishable with up to a $1,000 fine and/or up to 12 months in prison.

The BUI law establishes a “zero tolerance” blood alcohol level of .02 for people under age 21 who are operating a boat. Minors who are arrested for BUI will face misdemeanor charges. The law also creates misdemeanor offenses for “endangering a child” if a boat operator transports a child under age 14 while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Furthermore, this law also allows for the revocation of boat operator privileges for people who refuse a sobriety test and/or people who have a blood, breath or urine test that shows the presence of illegal drugs or an alcohol level of .10 or higher.

The marine environment, consisting of waves, engine noise, sun and wind, accelerates impairment and fatigue in recreational boaters. This can quickly become a hazardous situation when combined with the effects of alcohol.

Alcohol affects a boat operator’s coordination skills, judgment and reaction time. The consumption of alcohol causes inner ear disturbances, affecting the balance and ability of an intoxicated person who falls overboard to determine the correct route to the water’s surface.

The National Association of State Boating Law Administrators is a national nonprofit organization that works to develop public policy for recreational boating safety. NASBLA represents the recreational boating authorities of all 50 states and the U.S. territories.

The U.S. Coast Guard’s Boating Safety Division is dedicated to reducing loss of life and injury on U.S. waterways by improving the knowledge, skills and abilities of recreational boaters.

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Study: Lower legal drinking age increases poor birth outcomes

Amid renewed calls to consider reducing the legal drinking age, a new University of Georgia study finds that lower drinking ages increase unplanned pregnancies and pre-term births among young people.

“Our findings suggest that a lower drinking age increases risky sexual behavior among young people, and that leads to more unplanned pregnancies that result in premature birth and low birth weight,” said study author Angela Fertig, assistant professor in the UGA College of Public Health. “The take-home message is that when it’s easier for young people to get alcohol, birth outcomes are worse.”

Fertig, who is also a public service assistant in the university’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government, co-authored the study with Tara Watson, assistant professor of economics at Williams College in Massachusetts. Their results appear in the May issue of the Journal of Health Economics.

The team examined birth records and survey data on alcohol use for the years 1978 to 1988, a period when state minimum drinking age laws were in flux. Fertig said the consensus among researchers is that a higher minimum drinking age reduces fatal car crashes and alcohol consumption among young adults, but there is little data on how drinking age laws influence infant health. The researchers found that a drinking age of 18:

Increases prenatal alcohol consumption among 18- to 20-year-old women by 21 percent;
Increases the number of births to 18- to 20-year-olds by 4.6 percent in white women and 3.9 percent in 18- to 20-year-old African-American women;
Increases the likelihood of women under age 21 having a low-birth weight baby by 6 percent (4 percent for white women and 8 percent for African-American women); and
Increases the likelihood of premature birth by 5 percent in white women under age 18 and by 7 percent in African-American women under age 18.

Fertig noted that in many cases the impact of a reduced drinking age disproportionately falls on African-Americans. The researchers found that a drinking age of 18 increases the probability of an unplanned pregnancy by 25 percent for African-American women, for example.

The team’s analysis revealed that the negative birth outcomes associated with a lower drinking age aren’t the direct result of prenatal alcohol consumption on fetal health. Instead, a lower minimum drinking age results in more unplanned pregnancies, which are known to be associated with poorer infant health outcomes.

“Teenagers who get pregnant unexpectedly are less likely to receive good prenatal care and may not take as much interest in the child as someone who tried to get pregnant,” Fertig said. “As a result of these behaviors on the mom’s part, the child ends up with worse outcomes.”

Last year, a group known as the Amethyst Initiative comprised of more than 100 college and university presidents and chancellors signed a statement encouraging discussion about lowering the legal drinking age. Fertig said her study broadens the debate by adding a new dimension that until now has not been considered.

“There are consequences to lowering the drinking age beside traffic fatalities,” Fertig said. “There’s this potentially big effect on birth outcomes, and to me that argues that we should leave the minimum drinking age where it is.”

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UGA Program to Deter Youth Alcohol Use Also Reduces Conduct Problems, Study Finds

A University of Georgia program designed to reduce alcohol use, drug use and risky sexual behavior in African-American youth also reduces the likelihood of engaging in conduct problems by up to 74 percent two years later, according to a new study.

The finding, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, is the latest in a series of studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of the Strong African-American Families (SAAF, pronounced “safe”) Program, which is increasingly being adopted across Georgia and nationwide.

“A lot of programs show benefits in close proximity to the intervention, but many fewer—and none with African-American populations—show benefits one, two or more years after the intervention,” said study co-author Gene Brody, director of the UGA Center for Family Research, part of the UGA Institute for Behavioral Research, and Regents Professor in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences. “Previous research has shown benefits of SAAF up to six years later.”

Developed by Brody and Professor Velma McBride Murry, SAAF is based on more than 20 years of research that has identified parenting and care-giving practices that allow low-income, African-American families living in rural areas to raise children who are successful despite the challenges that stem from poverty, racism and a lack of social services. The program consists of seven weekly meetings that include concurrent, hour-long, sessions for pre-adolescent youth and their parents followed by a joint session in which the families practice the skills they’ve learned.

Rather than lecturing to participants, SAAF facilitators engage them with specially designed videos, activities and games. Parents learn how to actively monitor, communicate and emotionally support their children and adolescents. Youth learn to set goals, manage peer pressure and appreciate their parents and other adults in their lives. In the joint sessions, the parents and youth participate in activities that help strengthen their relationships and instill pride in being African American.

The average age of youth in the program is 11, Brody said, and this pre-adolescent period is a critical point in development when youth start thinking about experimenting with alcohol and other substances and become more susceptible to peer pressure.

First implemented in 2001, the SAAF program is expanding to eight Georgia counties and is being adopted by the city of Denver. Brody and his colleagues have conducted several studies that compare the outcomes of hundreds of program participants with members of a control group. The researchers have found that among program participants:

Alcohol use was reduced by 28 percent two years following the intervention and 25 percent six years later;
Sexual behavior and marijuana use decreased;
Caregiver depression was reduced;
The likelihood of youth with low self control engaging in conduct problems decreased by 74 percent two years later.

Brody points out that the SAAF program is grounded in intensive research on successful parenting, but also benefits from the input of African Americans living in the communities that the program is designed to serve.

“In every step of the development of SAAF, a focus group of African-American parents and youth was convened,” Brody said. “We would develop intervention targets with community members and, after the curriculum was written, would get additional feedback to make sure we were on the right track. It really was a partnership between the rural African-American community and our research center.”

The research was supported by grants from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute of Mental Health.

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Statement from Morehouse College President Regarding the Amethyst Initiative

Morehouse College President Makes Statement on Amethyst Initiative
President re-considers his support of the initiative

"After careful re-consideration of the Amethyst Initiative, I am withdrawing my support to lower the drinking age from 21 to 18. Morehouse does not condone the misuse or abuse of alcohol or illegal substances. While we welcome and encourage spirited public debate about appropriate standards of behavior, we do not support policies that would have the effect of encouraging or making it more likely that younger citizens would use alcohol or drugs.”

-Robert M. Franklin
President, Morehouse College

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DHR Supports New Law Requiring All DUI Offenders to be Assessed for Treatment

Effective July 1, the Multiple Offender Program of the Addictive Disease Section of the Department of Human Resources has been renamed the DUI Intervention Program. This change reflects HB 336 recently signed into law by Governor Sonny Perdue. Under the new DUI law, all DUI offenders are required to have a clinical evaluation and, if recommended, complete treatment. Previously, only multiple offenders had to have clinical evaluations.

"We see this as an opportunity to do earlier intervention with Georgia drivers who have significant alcohol problems," states Gwen Skinner, Director for the Georgia Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Addictive Diseases. "As with all chronic diseases, the earlier the diagnosis and treatment, the better."

There are over 200,000 DUI arrests in Georgia each year. Research has estimated that the average driver arrested for a DUI has driven drunk between 400 and 700 times before. Additionally, 50% of first-time DUI offenders have alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence. Therefore, doing clinical evaluations after a first DUI will detect alcohol abuse and dependence for thousands of Georgians years earlier.