Wrong Ideas at House Parties Enable Underage Drinking

By ALCOHOL POLICY PANEL OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY (Open Post)

San Diego County -- Health and safety experts in San Diego County say house parties have become crucial terrain in the battle against underage drinking.

Why?

Drinking in public spaces has proven more difficult for minors in recent years.

Civilian and military officials have made cross border drinking much more challenging for minors and local police agencies have been actively enforcing alcohol bans at public parks and beaches.

So, with many adults, and even parents, turning a blind eye to underage drinking, many teens are finding it easier to drink – and drink heavily – in private homes.

These trends are consistent with recent data collected in other parts of the state.

In results from a statewide survey, 85 percent of teens said most of their drinking occurs in private homes.

Nearly 57 percent of minors interviewed reported having their last drink at a friend’s house, while nearly 16 percent said their last drink occurred at their own home. More than 6 percent admitted having it at a family member’s home, while another 6 percent admitted having it at “someone else’s” home.

In addition – among teens that hosted underage drinking parties – 70 percent of the time at least one parent was aware that there was underage drinking going on.

These statistics were part of a larger briefing given in San Diego on Friday, April 17, by Dr. Bettina Friese – a scientist with the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation.

Friese presented her findings to more than 80 community members, policy makers, police officers, and public health professionals at the quarterly breakfast meeting of the Alcohol Policy Panel of San Diego County.

Her study – funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism -- identifies which minors are more likely to host underage drinking and the characteristics associated with those parties.

Need for solutions

Underage drinking is on the decline in San Diego County but continues to be a problem here, according to health and safety experts.

And while there are many reasons for this decline, local experts agree that reducing alcohol availability and limiting locations where it can be consumed by minors have been significant steps.

Social Host laws are one way authorities are confronting this issue. The laws make it illegal for an adult to provide a private space in which minors can drink – regardless of who brought the alcohol.

They are tailored to address underage drinking in private settings, which has proved to be more a more elusive problem than drinking in public settings.

“Social host laws help get at ‘the final frontier’ of underage drinking,” said Friese. “The laws are part of a larger strategy to change social norms.”

“Private homes are the most common location where underage drinking is tolerated and sometimes actively condoned,” Friese said.

A decade ago, it was easy to cite a teen for underage drinking, but almost impossible to cite party hosts because officers needed to witness them actually giving alcohol to minors. Since then, the laws have been adopted in every jurisdiction throughout the region to give police more flexibility in dealing with party hosts.

Today, when police find evidence of underage drinking, they can easily cite a party host for failing to keep alcohol away from minors. They can also force hosts to pay the cost of dispersing the party through administrative fees that can run thousands of dollars.

Throughout California, the effectiveness of Social Host laws has been hit or miss – with the most positive results reaped by police agencies that actively and visibly utilize the law, according to health and safety experts.

Unacceptable risks

Teens participating in the statewide survey report that they had engaged in a variety of risky behaviors during their last episode of underage drinking.

More than 16 percent reported illegal drug use; nearly 15 percent were hung over; more than 11 percent engaged in sexual activity; 9 percent rode in a car with a driver who had been drinking; 4 percent drove after drinking; nearly 4 percent reported being injured and more than 3 percent reported getting into a fight or “shoving match,” according to the survey.

Police and health professionals in San Diego County say Friese’s research comes at time when many adults still believe underage drinking is not that serious a problem, or that it’s a problem they can minimize by allowing or tolerating underage drinking in their homes.

Last year, researchers analyzed 92 social host cases spanning three years in San Diego County and found both these premises to be wrong.

While many adults think house parties are somewhat innocuous, researchers who analyzed that data found 91 percent of severely intoxicated guests were minors -- with more than one-third of those minors requiring medical attention.

Perhaps most surprising -- parents were present or hosting in 25 percent of cases when minors were severely intoxicated or injured, according to Sheriff’s reports.

“For too long, many people just accepted underage drinking as an unavoidable problem, but now many others realize that these kinds of risks are too serious for us to ignore,” said Beth Sise, Chair of the Alcohol Policy Panel of San Diego County.

“And they are tired of paying the tab for emergency services whenever someone decides that it’s ok for a group of teens to get drunk on their property.”