Local leaders talk about underage drinking woes

A Wednesday evening town hall event at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell filled Wagner Chapel with students eager to hear community leaders speak on the dangers of underage drinking.

Panelists were program emcee Jen Ross, a community prevention networker with Dakota Counseling Institute; Davison County State’s Attorney Pat Smith; Highway Patrol Trooper John Lord; Shane Thill, Mitchell High School assistant principal and director of Second Chance High School; and Vicki Wiese, vice president for academic affairs at Mitchell Technical Institute.

Underage consumption arrests are an epidemic in the Mitchell area, said Ross, who ticked off 2009 statistics that included 179 underage consumption arrests by Mitchell police, 37 on-campus alcohol violations at DWU, 20 adults charged with furnishing alcohol to underage drinkers, 28 violations of providing a place for underage drinking, and 35 emergency-room admissions for substance abuse.

Families often don’t know how to communicate with their children about alcohol abuse, Ross said, and abuse problems become multi-generational.

Smith said driving under the influence and other alcoholrelated criminal cases make up the bulk of his office’s caseload.

“I can tell you with great confidence that at least 80 percent of the cases involve some degree of alcohol or substance abuse,” he said.

Smith said awareness is also rising that adults are legally responsible for supplying alcohol to underage youth.

Lord said that the Highway Patrol is still highly involved in DUI enforcement, but 90 percent of his task force’s focus is on narcotics violations, which often involve the abuse of opiate painkillers such as oxycontin or hydrocodone.

“There’s a lot of people out there driving drunk in the middle of the afternoon,” Lord said.

Testing for drugs has improved, and drug-recognition experts are now readily available to aid troopers with field evaluations of drivers suspected to be driving under the influence of narcotics.

Thill told students that drugs and alcohol “are the fastest way to destroy your education.”

He said he finds it disturbing that in many communities, alcohol abuse continues to be seen as a rite of passage.

Community-provided activities are important, he said, but they do not ensure that students will make the correct choices.

Thill said good parenting helps.

“I tell my children that they are still going to have to make choices, and it comes down to making the right one,” Thill said.

Wiese said that MTI students are subject to random drug testing, and a positive test will result in expulsion.

She believes the testing program is an accurate reflection of the scrutiny students will receive from employers when they enter the working world.

Ross said alcohol abuse has a high personal cost, “but it also takes a lot out of our communities.”

Smith said that setting a legal drinking age legislatively is often an arbitrary action, “But we still have to educate kids about the dangers of drinking, no matter when they choose to do it.’

Early in his career, Smith said, he was ambivalent about running sting operations on businesses that could potentially sell alcohol to minors.

He’s now a believer.

“Now the program will hit 14 businesses in one night and only two will fail, instead of nine. It’s working,” he said.

Tags: jen ross, pat smith, john lord, shane thill, vicki wiese, underage drinking, news, local