“Don’t drink, blah.” Don’t drink and drive, blah, blah, responsible, blah. No, blah, blah, drugs, blah, blah, blah …” By now, this must be what my teens hear when I talk about substance abuse, as I’ve talked to them about it since I thought they were old enough to understand, which is, for my daughter, since she was 4 when she asked me if she would die early. Jumping on the opportunity, I said “Don’t drink alcohol and do drugs, choose friends who stay away from drinking and drugging, and you should live a long time,” I told her.
“What makes drugs and drinking bad?” she wondered another time. I told her, back when she hung on every word, “Drinking too much or taking drugs make your behavior unpredictable and undependable. Sometimes even good people make bad decisions when they’ve been drinking or taking drugs, and they hurt themselves or others, sometimes very badly.”
Later when she was still listening, we talked about approaching drugs and alcohol like a responsible consumer. Forget about the fact that drugs and drinking do untold damage to families and children. Would she support a business where the operators of the business would shoot you as soon as look at you if they thought you were threatening their business and profits? What kind of lifestyle are you supporting with your dollars?
(I’m not exaggerating the danger. An affable, enjoyable college-educated man was recruited by his lifelong and beloved friend to cultivate pot in his home for some extra money while he pondered his future and looked for a “meaningful” career. One night, the police were searching for a suspect, and they claimed they saw him go into his home. They entered the home, found the pot, and arrested him. Cultivation for distribution carries hefty penalties. He couldn’t mitigate the charges by informing authorities that he was part of a larger operation because those higher up the “business” would certainly kill him. His friend called him to check on him, not to see that he was OK, but to ensure that he would not inform on the others. It was eye-opening for many of us, who didn’t know about his activities, were disappointed, but cared about him very much. Fortunately for him, as he prepared to face the music alone, the charges were dropped, and the incident scared him so much, he doesn’t go near the stuff ever).
We don’t have unsavory types running distribution of alcohol because it’s legal. Still, the alcohol industry is not interested in our health and well being either.
A recent study in the May issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine found that underage drinkers and adult alcoholics consume between 37.5 percent and 48.8 percent of the value of all alcohol sold in the U.S. This is one of the reasons why any attempt by advocacy groups to further restrict distribution of alcohol to minors is thwarted by this powerful industry. The value of the spending through underage drinking is $22.5 billion alone!
A recent inventory of liquor in our local stores reflects that young people are being targeted with hard lemonade and punch, fruity-flavored vodka, alcohol-laden candy and ice pops, as well as alcoholic beverages packaged like the popular energy drinks. A recent Dispatch article reported that while no outlets sell liquor to minors, teens report that it is easy for them to obtain because they can get adults to buy alcohol for them.
The disturbing fact that adults facilitate underage drinking aside, the problems associated with underage drinking as documented in the study are something we need to pay attention to. I’m not opposed to drinking per se. It’s just that developmentally, kids should wait. Children and teens that begin drinking before age 15 are four times likelier to become alcohol dependent than those who do not drink before age 21.
The cost of illegal immigration, an estimated $10 billion a year, is peanuts compared to the costs of alcohol abuse and addiction, which cost the nation an estimated $220 billion in 2005 alone.
Each day, more than 13,000 children and teens take their first drink. Talk to your kids. They may be only hearing “don’t drink, blah, blah, blah, be safe.” But, some words are still getting through. I’ll say again – and again – the costs emotionally and financially are too great for our community to bear. Stand up and stand firm to your kids about substance abuse. They may still try it, but they need to be reminded often of where you stand.
Columnist Dina Campeau is a wife, mother of two teens and a resident of Morgan Hill. Her work for the last seven years has focused on affordable housing and homeless issues in Santa Clara County. Her column will be published each Saturday. Reach her at
dc******@ch*****.net
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