Tricky balance

We all know the legal drinking age in Ontario is 19. Everyone also knows, unless you have your head buried in the sand, that many teens consume alcohol on a regular basis.
It’s a situation that certainly isn’t new—nor is it one likely to change anytime soon.
The prevalence of teen drinking can’t be denied. The 2007 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey, a province-wide survey of 6,323 students in Grades 7-12, found just over 61 percent had used alcohol in the past year. And just over one-quarter had participated in binge drinking.
The numbers for Northern Ontario are even worse.
Fortunately, three local programs—D.A.R.E., P.A.R.T.Y., and the Rainy River District Substance Abuse Prevention Team—are working to turn things around. While acknowledging reality (that teens are going to experiment with drinking, smoking, and other drugs), they’re hoping to change the mindset that consuming alcohol is somehow normal, or something you need to do to fit in with the “cool” crowd.
D.A.R.E., for instance, starts right in elementary school, teaching students the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse—as well as how to handle the inevitable peer pressure when they get older. P.A.R.T.Y. takes the message a step further, bringing Grade 10 students to La Verendrye Hospital to see for themselves the grim and possible life-changing consequences of irresponsible decision-making when their judgement is impaired.
For its part, the local SAPT is out to promote responsible partying and friends looking out for each other, not by lecturing but by bringing in former addicts to talk to the students directly.
The bottom line is that a balanced strategy is needed to tackle teen drinking, from police targeting those who supply minors with booze to programs that promote harm reduction efforts (including the dangers of drinking and driving, how to avoid being a victim of the “date rape” drug, and even the proper position to sleep in after consuming alcohol) to the simple message that it’s okay not to drink.
Parents, who themselves have been known to provide alcohol for their teens on occasions like Homecoming, prom, and graduation, also have an important role to play in both reinforcing the message of responsible partying as well as setting an example of moderation at home to combat what local paramedic and P.A.R.T.Y. co-ordinator John Beaton aptly termed a “monkey see, monkey do” situation.
We’ll never stop teens from partying. What we can do, however, is teach them—and help them—do so safely now and into adulthood.