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Overcast and Breezy Underage drinking in Long Beach termed a ‘public health crisis’
Though LBHS survey shows slight dip in use, numbers remain ‘staggering’
“I would say easily that eight out of 10 parties where people are getting alcohol would be at someone’s house — most of the time, parents were not there,” said Russell Stein, 20, a Long Beach High School graduate and a member of Long Beach Medical Center’s Coalition Against Underage Drinking. “It was seen as stupid to go out and get your beer at a bar. The majority [of teenagers] knew that you would get caught.”
The coalition says that most minors who drink do so at friends’ houses or at parties. And in a city with more than 80 establishments within 3.5 miles where people can purchase alcohol — along with marketing of alcoholic beverages such as Joose to minors — many describe underage drinking in Long Beach as a public health crisis.
In an effort to raise awareness of the issue, the coalition held its annual town hall meeting on July 11 at the Long Beach Public Library. The forum featured guest speakers David Jernigan, Ph.D., director of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, who gave a presentation on the link between alcohol advertising and its impact on drinking among young people; LBMC CEO Douglas Melzer, and Police Commissioner Mike Tangney, among others.
Jernigan said that alcohol is the No. 1 drug problem among young people in the U.S., and that each year, more than 4,700 people under age 21 die of alcohol-related causes.
Since 2001, more than 1,500 minors have received summonses for possession of alcohol in Long Beach, and, according to the coalition, there were more than 40 emergency-room admissions for alcohol poisoning in 2010 involving people under 21 at the medical center.
“This is really a public health crisis that we need to band together and solve somehow,” Melzer said. “We have committed a tremendous amount of resources in responding to the issues surrounding alcohol and drug abuse.”
Judi Vining, the coalition’s coordinator, released the results of the group’s 2011 Long Beach student survey on alcohol and drug use, initiated last fall as part of the Prevention First-NY! grant, a behavioral risk study in which the coalition participated.
