Those who host lose the most
A coalition of organizations and agencies gathered at Alliance Skate Park Monday to kick-off the Third Annual Those Who Host Lose the Most campaign that educates adults on the legal and health consequences of underage drinking during the up coming prom and graduation season.
Erin Grant, Assistant Coach for UT Arlington’s women’s basketball team, served as emcee and area youth, Nelson Oribhabor of Grand Prairie, Haley Marshall of Denton, and Silvia Castro of Kennedale, gave statistics and spoke on the dangers youthful drinking. It was pointed out that today in North Texas seventy-six percent of the high school seniors have tried alcohol, more than forty percent consume it regularly, and seventy-five percent say alcohol is easy to get.
“These numbers are a call to action for the adults in our community,” said Haley Marshall, Denton Calvary Academy senior. “Adults must do their part to protect our youth from the fatal consequences of underage drinking.”
Agent Jeff Farmer, Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC), Dallas office, warned adults, “Underage drinking is a crime. Those parents who provide alcohol to minors are guilty of a Class a misdemeanor, punishable by up a year in jail and a $4,000 fine, as well as a six month driver license suspension.” He said the TABC targets events that attract minors to check for underage drinking and conducts sting operations a various retail stores to catch clerks that sell alcohol to minors and adults that buy for minors.
“In addition with our public education and prevention that we do, we have a safe prom and safe graduation where agents go around to various proms and see if there are any issues,” Agent Farmer said.
Becky Purvis, Program Director, Drug Prevention Resources, Inc. said that along with the state laws, the City of Grand Prairie has a city ordinance where a parent can be fined up to $500 if minors are caught consuming alcohol on their property.
The following is a list of organization and agencies with resources to help adults and minors with the problem of underage drinking:
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission has setup a hotline were underage alcohol violation in Texas can be report anonymously. The hotline number is 888-THE-TABC.
