Alcohol News: June 2005

We are not OK
The Village Voice, NY, June 17, 2005
. . . Staley correctly identifies changing "community norms" as a first step in dealing with the immediate problem of crystal use . . . This type of campaign is called "environmental prevention" and has been pioneered in the fight against alcoholism by organizations such as the Marin Institute in California. The organization's brochure explains: "Remember when smoking was allowed on airplanes? Today, the airline smoking ban not only reduces exposure to second-hand smoke but also promotes nonsmoking as a social norm. This is an example of environmental prevention-change policies, settings, and community conditions to support healthy behavior and discourage high-risk, unhealthy behavior."

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More on alcohol-related issues in the GLBT community
More on gays and alcohol

Booze at grad parties: yes or no?
Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, MA, June 17, 2005
The rules were clear. The teens had to bring their own booze. . . . With graduation season in full swing, a debate is reviving about whether parents should host underage drinking parties.
. . . Officials in Brighton, Fairport, Penfield, Perinton, Pittsford and Webster are planning a unified launch this fall of the national "Parents Who Host Lose the Most" campaign. Detailing legal ramifications for lawbreakers, the campaign has spread to 38 states and Canada since its inception in Ohio in 2000.

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More on parents and underage drinking parties
America's Underage Drinking Problem

Retailer recognition campaign officially launches in Alabama: unique approach to retailer compliance focuses on positive recognition to help prevent tobacco, alcohol sales to minors in Alabama
Business Wire, AL, June 16, 2005
Alabama's retailers, wholesalers and grocers, representing thousands of businesses in the state, have joined forces with the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, the national We Card program and the Alabama chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, to launch the Retailer Recognition Campaign: a statewide initiative aimed at reinforcing responsible retailing sales practices. . . . "The unique aspect of the Retailer Recognition Campaign is its positive focus on the retailers and employees responsible for enforcing minimum age laws for purchase of tobacco products and alcoholic beverages," said Jan Byrne, education coordinator for the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.

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More on collective organizing

Bill puts bite on providing booze
The Grand Junction Sentinel, CO, June 18, 2005
Beer kegs that find their way into Colorado teenagers’ hands this summer won’t identify the buyer, but any adult who provides that alcohol still stands to lose his or her driver’s license and spend a few months in jail . . . “We have to start holding adults accountable,” said Christy Le Lait, executive director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Colorado. “That’s where the kids are getting the alcohol.” The measure, which takes effect July 1, is aimed at twenty-somethings who buy alcohol for their teenage friends. But it doesn’t ignore older buyers. Parents who throw drinking parties for their children’s friends, for example, face the same penalties under the new law.

Group seeks removal of alcohol ads from Boston subway
Join Together Online, June 17, 2005
Last November, in rejecting the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority's (MBTA's) bid to ban pro-marijuana legalization ads from trains and train stations, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit noted that not only would the move violate free-speech rights, but said that alcohol ads previously approved by MBTA were "clearly more appealing to juveniles" than the proposed pro-pot ads . . . A group of Boston-area advocates known as Massachusetts Banding Together Against Alcohol Advertising (MBTAA) is urging the MBTA and its ad agency, Viacom Outdoor, to ban alcohol advertising on bus and train lines, arguing that alcohol ads promote underage drinking and binge drinking . . .

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