Last week, the newspaper covered the Santa Clara County Department of Alcohol and Drugs Services (DADS) press conference announcing the lawsuit it filed against the state Board of Equalization (BOE). The BOE, responsible for taxing beverages, classifies “alcopops” as beer, though they are vodkas and whiskeys. The classification of the fruity, sweet-flavored distilled spirits significantly lowers their tax to 20 cents per gallon instead of $3.30 per gallon. This keeps their prices low to consumers makes them widely availability in convenience stores, which have licenses to sell only beer and wine. Recent studies show the low price and increased availability encourage consumption, particularly among young girls ages 13-15.
What didn’t make it into the article was the attendance of 12 Gilroy youth from El Portal Leadership Academy. Minus the media representatives, the DADS staff and the legal folks, the youths made up more than half the audience. When they arrived to provide support to the press conference, they discovered other planned student speakers didn’t make it, so EPLA seniors Alex Maldonado and Josie Aguirre prepared quick but extremely effective statements.
South County should be proud of not just the speakers, but also the other students in the audience. During the press conference, they were attentive and focused; afterward, they were poised and articulate as they spoke with media and legal representatives.
I had written last year on the first senior class of El Portal, a special bunch of kids who took their pioneering status as the first graduating class seriously. They had endured the growing pains as the school worked to find its footing and move beyond its initial reputation of being the “school for gang kids.” I wondered if their experiences going through the school’s trials made their class unique and if subsequent classes would have the same fire.
I should never have doubted. The work of these students, including Jorge, Nancy, Luis and Lizette, just to name a few, has been extremely impressive. They are continuing the fine work of the previous year’s students by adding their voices and energies to important topics in their community.
So, since the last column about the social host ordinances under consideration in Morgan Hill and Gilroy, I’ve received a bit of mail, one from a person who’s so miffed at Mothers Against Drunk Driving that he created his own Stop the MADDness Web site to express his outrage at their focus on underage drinking. Young people have fewer rights than adults as it is, what’s the deal with focusing restrictions on them even more? It’s especially galling to have anti-underage-drinking campaigns focused on youths when adults who drink and drive kill and maim more often than youths, and don’t receive commensurate punishment for it.
For that, he can thank a strong alcohol industry lobby, which monitors every little thing, even the columns of this paper, and mobilizes immediately to render ineffective any movement to restrict the damage caused by the abuse of their product.
I think adult alcohol abuse is a scourge on our community, too. Recent studies show that most crimes, particularly acts of violence, are alcohol-related. Alcohol consumption reduces impulse-control, which makes people lose their sense of what it takes to be a civil human being. There is no question that penalties for adults drinking and driving should be much stiffer. (States that are taking a tougher stand against first-time offenders are seeing a reduction in DUI arrests).
But the fight against alcohol abuse needs to be multi-pronged. The intent of the effort to reduce underage drinking is not to restrict the rights of youth to enjoy their lives, but to prevent the development of adult addicts who harm their families and communities. The involvement of the youth in the fight against the proliferation of “alcopops” shows that they know when they’re being targeted and taken advantage of as “entry-level drinkers.”
I also need to correct some misinformation from last week’s column. It’s not legal to serve alcohol to youths in your home, whether they are your children or not. Proponents of preparing youths to handle drinking situations by serving them in their homes should think of a different way. Giving them strategies to cope with the peer pressure and talking to them – not just once, but often – about how to recognize and avoid the dangers of bingeing is better than getting them to develop a taste and tolerance for alcohol.
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 Friday. Reach her at
dc******@ch*****.net
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