Moses Lake cracks down on underage drinking

MOSES LAKE - Grant County teens continue to get access to and consume alcohol, according to the most recent Washington Healthy Youth Study, which is a trend members of the Moses Lake Community Prevention Coalition are working to reverse.

Nineteen percent of eighth graders and 40 percent of twelfth graders in Grant County reported drinking alcohol the month they took the statewide study in 2010. And 27 percent of the area's high school seniors who were surveyed reported drinking heavily at some point in the two weeks prior to answering.

"Heavy drinking is five or more drinks in a row, and if you're 17 or 18 that's a lot," said Carolyn Pence, a prevention specialist for Grant County. "It is an issue in this community."

Moses Lake recently received a $115,000 grant to enforce underage drinking laws in the community, said Pence. The city is one of four communities in the state, and one of eight in the country, selected to participate in the pilot project.

One enforcement activity will be to increase compliance checks to make sure store employees are checking identification and not selling alcohol to anyone underage.

"Youth will go into the store and attempt to buy alcohol," she said. "Hopefully the clerk won't sell without an ID, but there are some who will."

The Moses Lake Police Department and the Washington State Liquor Control Board will work together on the compliance checks, said Pence.

The coalition will also work with the school district to identify youth who are under the influence, and how to best refer those youth for help, The project will seek the help of the city council, which will work on underage drinking prevention as well.

Pence said the survey also indicated that most students get alcohol at parties, from friends or give money to someone to purchase it for them.

"It's not okay to buy beer for people under 21, and it's not okay to have them in your home and provide them that alcohol," said Pence. "We want to get the message out to adults that it's not okay to provide alcohol and it will not be tolerated."

Pence also said that it is against the law to purchase alcohol for youth. Any adult who does can spend up to one year in jail, and receive a $5,000 fine.

"We want to make underage drinking not acceptable in the community," she said. "And youth think it's fun and that it's okay, but it's not good for them."

Funding for the project is provided by the state Department of Social Health and Health Services' Division of Behavioral Health and Recovery.